SUPERSTITION IS A BIG PROBLEM IN AFRICA

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 36^th 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.