The Sunday Mail
Veronica Gwaze
THE late Zimbabwe Assemblies of God Africa (ZAOGA) founder Archbishop Ezekiel Guti was simply a larger-than-life character.
Baba Guti, as he was affectionately known, died on Wednesday aged 100.
The man of the cloth had just celebrated his birthday in May, an event that was graced by President Mnangagwa and leaders of other Christian denominations.
Baba Guti was praised for being one of Zimbabwe’s most celebrated pioneers of indigenous Pentecostal evangelism.
His birthday celebrations coincided with the church’s 63rd anniversary and his 75 years in ministry.
To many, the man of the cloth played the role of a hero, father, spiritual leader, pillar of strength and teacher, among others.
One indisputable fact is Baba Guti was universally appreciated. He commanded respect from both churchgoers and non-Christians.
Even in his absence, everyone literally addressed him as Baba Guti or Archbishop Guti — a sign of the reverence they had for him.
Something also stood out about his character.
The preacher was an icon yet he remained a down-to-earth person up to the time he breathed his last.
He oozed the spirit of hunhu/ubuntu. In one of his last interactions with the media in 2019, when he gave The Sunday Mail Society an exclusive interview, he addressed everyone around him with a title.
He went on to offer our crew some tea and snacks, insisting he would not have the interview unless we ate something first. Baba Guti would crack jokes and laugh out loud throughout the session.
That was the other side of the gifted preacher.
The esteemed faith leader would go on to reveal how his background influenced the hunhu/ubuntu in him.
“Growing up in Chipinge, my parents were particular about character because this is what shapes a human being; we cannot be Christians if we do not have hunhu,” he gave a brief lecture.
“View everyone as your family and that way, you become a real Christian . . . make it a norm to offer visitors something to eat and make them feel comfortable.”
However, in the two-hour-interview, what could not be concealed was the fact that the towering figure was indisposed and visibly battling amnesia.
He, however, went on to lead the church for three more years, but had acknowledged during the interview that he had grown old, served the church and wanted to hand over the baton to the next leader.
Meeting Amai Eunor
Archbishop Guti was never shy to publicly express the love he had for his wife Eunor.
Despite forgetting some crucial details about his life, he still managed to recount how he met the love of his life.
During the interview, he went down memory lane, explaining how the two met in 1979, more than a decade after the death of his first wife.
“I was ready to die without a wife but you know societal expectations and, as a man of the cloth, being single was not easy,” narrated Baba Guti.
Those days, he used to preach at Harare Hospital and each time he did so, young ladies (nurses) marvelled at him but he never imagined himself marrying any one of them.
“Whenever I sang, the nurses felt charmed and would say, ‘Iii, mudhara wemagirazi uyo’, but I barely paid attention to them. I just wanted to preach the gospel,” he said with a chuckle.
Amai Eunor was also a nurse at Harare Hospital at that time.
However, unlike the other nurses, she was a youth leader and more spiritually devoted. Around that time, the church executive decided to choose a wife for Baba Guti.
For three days, they had meetings, discussions and prayer sessions as several names of potential wives popped up.
However, none of them pleased the archbishop.
“Later, I told them that since they had failed to get the suitable one, I was ready to go back to America and find a beautiful rich white girl to marry,” he laughed.
“Unfortunately, they would not let me go; they continued with the search. Later, Eunor’ s name came up, and everyone nodded in agreement and because she had just been transferred to Masvingo, they agreed to send an elderly lady (Mrs Nkomo) to talk to her. I knew she loved me as a pastor but we never pictured ourselves being married someday.”
Interestingly, Baba and Amai Guti never went on a date until the day they tied the knot.
Loss
Amai Guti said she has lost a companion and prayer partner, and feels their marriage was spiritual.
She recalls the May 1979 spiritual encounters she went through, which confirmed that she was indeed Baba Guti’s chosen one. While she was praying, she said, a voice revealed to her that it was time for her to get married.
“I went on to respond in agreement while in that prayer, but I thought marriage here meant doing God’s work,” she said.
But the following day, while she was at work, she received a call, asking her to get married to Baba Guti.
“Surprised, I dropped the phone and cried profusely. That same time, I fell into a trance, praying . . . God had cemented the union.
“More than four decades later, I look back and realise that God was our foundation and we should actually be celebrating Baba’s life, not mourning.
“We became inseparable because of the mutual love and respect we had for each other. We listened to each other and it made our love grow stronger,” she said.
The couple was blessed with seven children.
ZAOGA is currently established in more than 144 countries globally.
According to church members who spoke to The Sunday Mail, Baba Guti’s life resonated with the words he preached.
They described him as a morally upright figure, who was also patriotic and always spared time to pray for Zimbabwe.
He was also a healthy lifestyle fanatic; even at 100, he would take morning walks and work out.
