The Sunday Mail
Friday Chisanyu
There has never been any genuine dialogue between practitioners of the African religion and those of other beliefs in Zimbabwe.
In fact, for over 100 years attempts have actually been made by Christian missionaries to destroy the African religion.
They viewed it as a childish religion of fear: full of black magic, sorcery and witchcraft, loaded with superstition and senseless taboos. In short, it is a religion which encourages people to worship their ancestors instead of worshipping God, so they say anyway.
It seems, especially to those church leaders during the early part of the last century, the best way forward in their attempt to build the church in Zimbabwe was to destroy not only the childish African religion but their culture as well and transplant a Christian faith with all its European cultural background, imagery and orientation.
They did not see any need to enter dialogue with practitioners of the African religion and other community leaders.
With the assistance of colonial administrators it was decided that African shrines or places of worship should be destroyed; their spirit mediums or religious leaders were to be ignored and where possible they were to be stopped from organising and conducting their religious services.
On the subject of witchcraft the church took the view that witchcraft is a myth; its beliefs based upon an essentially mistaken view of the world and that they did not exist. Fortunately, the authority of the ancestors has survived to this day; mediums are still. still get possessed, roar like lions, heal, bring the rain or attempt to bring the rain in precisely the same way.
The detail of their ritual practice has remained consistent in a most remarkable way and the belief in witchcraft is still very strong. We also know that many Zimbabweans who became Christians did not resign from the African religion nor did they abandon African culture completely, they merely maintain dual membership.
Dual membership is made possible by the nature of the African religion and by the African culture itself. It is a hospitable religion which accepts the fact that other religious system may be equally valid or even more so.
In short, it facilitates inter-religious dialogue. But as in the past many people from other cultures are still being put off, in their attempts to understand the African religion by the central role occupied by the spirits in our religion, by spirit possession and the role of spirit mediums and by the strong belief in witchcraft. It is to these issues that I must now turn. Ancestors occupy a central position in our African religion largely because of their ownership of land and their relationship to God. Ownership of land forms the main link between politics, religion and spirituality in Zimbabwe. Each geographical area or territory belongs to the ancestor and these are the early settlers or founders of the territory.
These ancestors are believed to control rainfall and the fertility of the land.
All ancestors- family, clan, provincial and national- are interested in the welfare of their descendants, good governance, social welfare and stability. Ultimate dominion over the whole world is in the hands of God. God is for everyone. This explains why, when problems arise in social lives many people appeal to ancestors for assistance. Consultation with the ancestral spirits is done through spirit mediums and these are individuals who have the ability to communicate with the dead. Those who have attended our African religious rituals and ceremonies will agree that spirit possession is one of the most fascinating aspects of the African religion; it is certainly an impressive sight to see a person in a state of possession. These tests may take place over number of years. During this period the candidate is considered as on probation.
After completing all the tests successfully a ritual or graduation ceremony is held at which the spirit is accepted and honoured and the possessed individual begins his practice. Spirit mediums do not occur or operate haphazardly, but are organised into a system. At the head of each clan or territory, for example is a senior or national spirit medium- the high priest or Bishop, to use commonly understood terminology.
Below the senior mediums are the provincial and then district mediums and so on. Provincial and district mediums are not equal. They can be ranked according to the positions that the spirit guardians whom they represent occupy on the genealogy of the territory. Senior spirit mediums assist in a crisis such as a war by promoting dialogue, promoting unit, by maintaining morale and so on. We have seen the direct involvement of spirit mediums in active politics during certain periods of our history. The most basic example in recent times was their role during the war with British settlers in 1896/7. Spirit mediums also play an important role in the field of health, and it is in fact difficult to separate African traditional medicine from African religion.
The main link between African religion and medicine are the spirit mediums who are both religious leaders as well health specialists. This link explains why most spirit mediums today are members of ZINPA, that is the Zimbabwe National Practitioners Association. ZINPA is not a medical association like, for example the Zimbabwe Medical Association; it is also a religious body.
This strong connection between healing and religion in our society is due at least in part to the African theory of illness.
