I also followed the
funeral of Robert Mugabe as it played out. I could not help but
conclude that even with his 7 university degrees, Robert Mugabe was
as superstitious as some of the villagers I met growing up in Murewa.
The guy genuinely believed that his former comrades would use his
body parts for muti. Why didn’t his muti save him from the 2017
coup? Around 1989 my father became seriously ill and he was diagnosed with
AIDS/HIV. My mother had been attending Methodist church. We started
going to an Apostolic church (Madzibaba church) and we would spend
many nights at church and the whole day on Sundays and Fridays during
school holidays. In this church we were not allowed to read the bible
as it was considered stale information and instead we relied on the
prophets to give us real time prophets. White people were not allowed
to become members of that church because it was them who killed
Jesus.
In 1990, my father
was transferred from the town of Kwekwe to the town of Marondera
which is nearer our village in Murewa. The prophets always told my
parents that my father had been bewitched. If one wanted to travel,
write exams or make any decision in your life you were supposed to go
and kneel in front of a prophet for a prophesy or blessings. During
the August 1990 school holiday my father decided to visit his mother
in Murewa without consulting the prophet, I suspect he felt his time
was nearly up and he wanted to go home one last time. When he came
back he was seriously ill and the prophet said it was because he had
gone to the village without the prophet’s anointing. My father died
after his 36th Birthday in November 1990.
We continued going
to the Madzibaba church after my father’s death, I never liked the
church. My mother would only serve you breakfast on Sundays after you
had put on the church garment. I would get to church and run away
soon after and other days after eating breakfast I would remove the
church cloths and tell my mother that I was not going to church. By
the time I got to O’ Level I started questioning a lot of things.
How can a prophet who never passed grade 7 bless me to pass O’
Level? Even after getting blessing from the prophet a number of bad
things were happening to church members and the prophet seemed to
have an answer for everything. By the time I went for A-levels I
stopped completely and went back to Methodist Church. My A-levels
science education helped me to put a lot of things into perspective.
My mother would later on clash with the prophet over an issue
involving my sister and the whole family stopped going to that
church.
When I went back to
the village, I had already started dealing with facts and my cousins
told me that I was brave as I was no longer bothered with things they
believed in e.g. ghosts etc. I was scared of real things like snakes
and not ghosts etc. In the village my cousins believed that dead
people could come up at night and appear as flames and they had tales
to tell. I never saw what they saw. At school I was exposed to people
of different religions for example in 1983 at Amaveni Primary School
my friend Abulu Phiri was a Muslim. Within the majority Christian
communities of Zimbabwe there were people attending different church
organisations from Seventh Day Adventist, Anglican, Dutch Reformed
Church, Apostolic Churches etc. It is surprising in my experience the
most judgemental people I found were Christians. When I joined
Zimbabwe Insurance Brokers as a junior manager in November 2002 all
managers had to go to Kadoma Ranch Motel about 140kms from Harare.
Two of the managers did not attend because as members of SDA church
the strategy session clashed with their Sabbath on a Saturday. Those
two managers were pushed out. With my next employer I saw the same
problem again.
My uncle who died in
February this year was a member of the Marange Apostolic Church. My
uncle would tell us that he believed that only members of his church
were righteous. His church members where his true relatives. When my
mother died in 2002, he and my other cousins only arrived two days
after my mum had been buried. My eldest cousin who is a member of ZCC
church was the one who came to bury my mother. In Zimbabwe I try to
steer clear of any political or religious debates even with fellow
Christians.
I also remember my
other friend in primary school we called him Zed whom everyone knew
was a girl trapped in a boy’s body. Zed did almost everything that
girls did, he stretched his hair, he liked to play netball and we
accepted him as he was. It’s no secret that in Zimbabwe Christians
are at the forefront of homophobia. Even our evil former president
the late Robert Mugabe himself a devout catholic was at the forefront
of heaping insults on the gay community. Many times homosexuality
would become an election issue. I never understood why people worry
too much on what two consenting adults do in their bedroom whether
they are of the same sex or not. In my experience I have been treated
better by gays than some Christians. People believe in what they
believe in depending on their background. Somehow it is lost on a lot
of people that your current religion is a circumstances of your birth
e.g. if one is born in Middle East chances are he or she will be a
Muslim, if one is born in Zimbabwe chances are that you will be
Christian. I have interacted with people practising different
branches of Christianity and also other religions from non-believers,
Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, African religion etc. You will be
surprised that most of these people despite having different
backgrounds they seem to have the same aspirations and similar
values. Many people across different backgrounds value hard work,
fairness, education, opportunity for themselves and their children
and equity.
I have learnt to
give each and every person that I meet the benefit of doubt no matter
their background. You should never judge a person based on what
society tells you. As we grew up we were fed with stereotypes on
different religions, tribes, gender, races, social status etc. I
remember in early 2008 when the first Xenophobic attack happened in
South Africa, a colleague of mine a white Afrikaner begged me to come
and stay with his family in Centurion as he genuinely feared for my
safety. I assured him that I felt safe where I was with my Nigerian,
South African, Zimbabwean, Somali, Pakistani, Congolese and Ethiopian
neighbours.
In an African family
set up anything that happens, people believes there is an explanation
behind it. You might lose your job due to the failing economy or your
employer going out of business and it does not mean someone has
bewitched you. I have worked in the insurance industry since end of
1997, I have seen people of different races, faith, social classes
etc. having to deal with misfortunes. A guy can buy a car today and
tomorrow it is stolen. In my view it is not a question of someone
bewitching you, it is a question of chance. It can happen to anyone
of any race, religions, gender, sexual orientation. You can do so
much to prevent it however what is key is what do you do if it
happens. For example you might be diagnosed with cancer tomorrow,
what you can do is to make sure you can at least afford the
treatment. You might wake up tomorrow and be told that your employer
is closing down or you have been fired, the key is that you are
prepared for that i.e. how much savings do you have to carry you
throw, do you have a plan B?
My issue is that
once you just believe that I have been bewitched, you sort of lose
control of how you respond. Life can kick you in the teeth and for
sure it is going to shake you up, the key is that you stand up and
keep on moving and deal with situation to the best of your knowledge
and don’t just say why me? You should always deal with facts and
always ask for help when you need it.
A lot of people will
not agree with my views and that is okay, at times I don’t agree
with myself.
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