ldol worshipping?

As Christianity continues to spread in society, many African Christians find themselves confused on whether observing their totems and tribes is contradicting their Christian beliefs or not.

According to crystal-cure.com, a totem is any natural or mythical animal to whom one feels a close connection during their life or some particular period of their life.

It is believed that the energy of the totem animal is relevant to one’s personality or circumstances in life as the totem is connected to a person’s spirit.

Research has shown that natives of many countries have animal spirits that play an important part in their lives. For instance, in Chinese and western astrology, most of the signs are animals, hence

Christianity’s discouragement in totems.

Could totems be related to idolatry?

Does acknowledging one’s totem translate to veneration or worship?

While totems, tribes and ancestors are central to the way of life among black Africans, there is a thin line between just believing in them and the African Traditional Religion.

As a result, many African believers remain confused on what to follow.

A religion scholar, Professor Ezra Chitando said totems are a form of identity. He argued that Africans should not lose their identity due to Christianity.

“A totem is more about who I am because at the centre of a totem is identity. Some conservative Christians argue that it keeps us in the African Traditional Religion and dismiss it but some say it is their cultural identity and so they don’t mind observing it alongside their Christian beliefs.

“ldentity is critical and cannot go away because of Christianity, Bahai faith or any other faith. We relate on the basis of totems,” Prof Chitando explained.

“Some say that Africans do not worship but acknowledge through totems but some argue that veneration is an act of worship,” he added.

Prof Chitando drew similarities of this culture with the lineage of Christ, which he said is well traced in the Gospel of Matthew.

“Tribes and different totems come from the background. When you go to Matthew, we have the genealogy of Jesus. He was culturally embedded, but not that He was downgrading his divinity. He was circumcised at the age of 13 and that also proves that He was culturally embedded,” Prof Chitando said.

A young Christian believer who preferred anonymity said, “It is funny how African cultures are questioned but Western cultures like Valentine’s Day are quickly accepted into Christianity.”

University of Zimbabwe lecturer, Professor Claude Mararike who is also chairman in the university’s Department of Sociology said totems and tribes are related.

He said tribes bear the history of the person’s background.

He highlighted that totems show what one identifies with and their lineage.

“Our totems vary; some respect wild animals, some birds, some creatures in the seas like fish, crocodiles, snakes and other creatures on earth.

“The reason being to differentiate people and how their roots relate so that they are able to marry. Totems help us identify where we are similar and where we differ. On the other side, it was a way of safeguarding the animals from being killed.

“When you praise singing using a totem, pastors think that is ancestral spirits worshiping, which is contradictory to worshipping Jesus. That’s why some churches say the issue of tribes is demonic.

“Praise singing is about being grateful, that is our prayer. When a person has done well, we thank them with their totem. But what’s wrong about one’s tribe? It’s good because that’s where I came from, there is nothing bad there. A person didn’t just fall from heaven,” he added.

Prof Mararike said when a woman prepares a meal, people thank her using her totem while clapping hands before and after the meal.

“We also thank the strength that has used because it has come from somewhere. It comes from those who gave birth to you, we also thank them.

“We thank the person who took care of you, those we think they take care of you even today. The ancestral spirits from the mother and father are the ones who gave birth to you so there shouldn’t be any contradictions there. The whites wanted to destroy that part of our culture.”

“It is just like a phone, when you get to some place, there is no network. You can’t get through to that number. Your ancestors and all have been erased, that line isn’t working anymore. But erasing that is equal to erasing the essence of being a black person. How do you know your relative, how do you marry, and how do you relate?

“As black people, blood relations are very important to us. That you are my sister, nephew, sister-in-law and so forth is important. It all comes from our blood relations, tribes and totems.”

Prof Mararike passionately spoke of the double standards that exist in some churches. He said some churches are allowing their members to observe some traditional practices such as bringing the spirit of the dead into the home by rephrasing it to tombstone unveiling.

Prof Mararike added that Christianity is following spiritual relationships but ignoring the importance of blood relations.

“Some churches refer to tribes as demons. That is not true. We are talking of our tribes and they are good. Even Jesus had his tribe written in the Bible, Moses too and all those we read. So tribes only mean that you are from Aaron’s priestly tribe. Where do you come from?

“Those who say its demonic are lost. It’s just like someone who says I don’t eat pork but l can eat the soup,” said Prof Mararike.

Prof Mararike said it is possible to follow both their cultural and Christian beliefs as both seek the moral uprightness of an individual.

“We need to admit that a belief has come among a people who have their own culture. Therefore, they can choose the similarities between their culture and Christianity and follow that. Religions should co-exist, choosing what’s good or bad should be left to God,” Prof Mararike noted.

In one of his articles on totems, Zimbabwe National Practitioners Association president, Sekuru Friday Chisanyu said, “Christians are discouraged from believing in African totems and clans, yet they are African people. Zimbabweans are told that participating in any traditional ritual involving totems, clans and traditional medicine practice is a sin. Belief in witchcraft is meant to destroy the African Traditional Religion, medicines, crops and culture.

An online source states that totems among the Shona people have nothing to do with animal worshipping.

“Shona totems are also not considered to be or associated with anything to do with watching over a person or group thereof. Shona religious practices generally do not involve the totem and where totems are mentioned it is usually only through praise poetry that uses the totem’s praise name (chidawo),” Mutupo.com notes.

Leader of the Pentecostal Assemblies of Zimbabwe, Bishop Trevor Manhanga said there is no biblical contradiction in observing totems.

“I see no biblical contradiction in observing totems whilst maintaining Christianity. Acknowledging one’s totem is not venerating it. It is a simple acknowledgement of who you are and is akin to what the Apostle Paul did when he says in Phillippians 3:5,

‘I was circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee.’

“What Paul does is acknowledge his family and tribal and ancestral lineage. That did not in any way contradict his Christianity,” Bishop Manhanga said.

In the New Testament, 1 John 5:21 says, “Little children, guard yourselves from idols,” and in 1 Thessalonians 1:9-10, the Bible describes a new life in Christ, “You turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God.”

Acts 17 tells the story of Paul in Athens, and how his spirit was “troubled within him when he saw that the city was full of idols,” (Acts 17:16).

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