The Sunday Mail
The role of the chiefs in the socio-economic and political issues in the community cannot be overemphasised in this nation. This week, The Sunday Mail Religion’s Desire Ncube caught up with Zimbabwe Chiefs’ Council president, Chief Fortune Charumbira who spoke on the role of chiefs in appealing for rains.
Read on…
ANY person who assumes or claims that he successfully interceded for the rains is misguided, because it is everyone’s responsibility to pray for the rains.
We need to embrace each other’s efforts and be united in our diversity. We work hand in hand with Christians and people should know that Christianity is just one arm of the faith and we are another.
We are all religions that believe in the same thing but we only use different approaches.
We pray to Musikavanhu via our ancestors and Musikavanhu is God and they (Christians) also believe in God and they go through Jesus but the goal is the same.
It is very natural that even after rain making ceremonies rain can still not fall, there are a lot of factors on it. It is not automatic that soon after praying for the rain it will eventually fall.
We will be asking from the supernatural powers and they can say no or yes.
In traditional customs the answers might be negative due to a number of reasons among them bad moral behaviour from people.
It is not necessarily that the people who would have performed ritual would have done something wrong; it is all about the general society
This might be a punishment to the society and I think it will make us realise that there is something wrong with us and we need to do introspection.
For example traditionally kurima musi weChisi is a punishable offence and we should not undermine that.
Even Biblically there is evidence that God can punish people for wrong doing though we cannot scientifically prove it. But it is happening.
What we know is that God will not punish people for long, He is a merciful God. Without taking anything from anyone, it is well known that our chiefs and our headmen have big tasks within our traditional setup in their respective areas. They are supposed to cater for their people in sickness and in drought.
I must emphasise that chiefs do rain-making ceremonies quietly annually in a bid to achieve this noble goal. They don’t publicise their sacred activities be it in the media, The Herald, The Sunday Mail, Kwayedza or in any other platform.
Usually they select elderly men and women that are eligible to perform these rites; these are not functions for everyone.
There are however stages were everyone participates but there are also times when selected individuals are needed. Mostly when everything has been done, the majority are invited just to celebrate and dine.
There is not much pomp about these ceremonies, that is why most of them remain or go unnoticed in our societies.
And for traditional purposes, it is not important to invite the public to witness them unless you are close to that family which will be at the centre of the ceremony.
So as the president of the Chiefs Council I can confirm that chiefs have been doing and they are still in these ceremonies across the country.
They are those who say dai taita paopen forum, in a big arena. We will never do that we are not there to seek public attention out of this.
On top of asking for the rain, chiefs are also mandated to keep the grain reserve for drought relief purposes, for their people and even for the visitors.
It is not new because relief has been there since time immemorial; chiefs have been taking care of their people. But now I think there is competition between social warfare and chiefs. I think they should complement each other.
It is very true that drought is with us, let us work together, traditional leaders, Christian leaders and the Government.
We should support what the chiefs have been doing, making sure that no one dies because of hunger.
