Tuesday, August 01, 2017

Awakening the Spirituality of Our Liberation
JULY 30, 2017
Teddie Bepete
Zimbabwe Sunday Mail

In celebrating the heroic deeds of sons and daughters of this country who pledged their lives towards our liberation, we should bear in mind that the struggle against colonialism was deeply imbued with our cultural and religious beliefs.

It was the spirit mediums, who in 1896 urged the people to take up arms against the coloniser.

They justified the struggle, proclaiming that the natural disasters that struck the land during that period were a result of the wrath of the ancestors who could not countenance the establishment of colonialism.

From this period, the settlers realised the influence and power of African Traditional Religion (ATR) in the political affairs of the land.

The colonisers, from the historical experiences in their own country, also knew about the utility of religion in the life of a people.

A civilisation cannot evolve without a culture and a religion to shape morals and aspirations.

Ancient Egypt introduced spectacular features of science and mathematics during the building of the pyramids, where they buried their kings.

The pyramids were a customary way of burial for Egyptian kings, which was part of their religion and culture.

Without a grasp of our religion and culture, we cannot progress. All such attempts will be anchored in vanity and infidelity can only lead to Sodom and Gomorrah.

The fact that we named our country after the religio-cultural scientific achievements of our ancestors is very important.

Though it was a political capital, Great Zimbabwe had immense religious significance.

The discovery of the enchanted carvings of the bateleur eagle at Great Zimbabwe Monument speaks to this.

The bateleur eagle (chapungu), sometimes called the Bird of God, was sacred from ancient times.

Now officially called the Zimbabwe Bird, the bateleur eagle was a significant feature of the liberation struggle.

Flying above the guerrillas, to warn or to the lead them, the eagle was important to our fighters.

There were times when it physically engaged the enemy on the battlefield.

Sekuru Mutsindikwa WaMasango, a spirit medium and war collaborator, reminisced that in one ferocious battle, he witnessed two bateleur eagles attacking the screen of a Rhodesian helicopter gunship, which, bewildered the pilot and helped our guerrillas.

Who then doubts that this is our God-given land?

Betraying our religion and its mediums is akin to betraying this “House of God”.

Why shouldn’t we accord our religion and its mediums due respect?

“You have forgotten where you came from. Respect the spirits of this land so that you embrace unity and peace,” the medium of the Spirit of Mkwati said in 2013.

“Spirit mediums are crying foul. They want the same respect accorded traditional leaders,” said Cde Evelyn Makwambeni, co-ordinator of the Zimbabwe Fallen Heroes Trust.

As the High Priest of God, I was in charge of installing the chiefs of this land. Zame (Mabweadziva) was the principal overseer of morality and integrity.

“And the white man came to defile everything of our culture that once stood for purity. But I warn you, the spirits of this land are yet to rise once again.

“History is going to repeat itself,” said the medium to this writer.

However, it should be understood that the spiritual scope of our freedom goes beyond Mkwati, Nehanda and Kaguvi.

The origins are as old as the beginning of people.

They are as deep as the tap root of our history. To uproot this is impossible and ignoring it is suicidal.

After the First Chimurenga, apart from ransacking the symbols of our being, the colonial administration put in place the Witchcraft Suppression Act in 1899 in an attempt to put the lid on traditional religious activities.

They even buried Cecil John Rhodes, a homosexual, in the heart of our nation, at Malindidzimu.

They sought to conquer our religion by defiling it with their ingrained unchastity. Rhodes’ burial at Malindidzimu at Mabweadziva was adding insult to injury.

Mabweadziva is the spiritual home of our great ancestor Murenga, whose voice resonates in the caves of Malindidzimu and from whose name the Chimurenga legacy is coined.

Religion and culture are the our lifeblood.

Our indigenous religion always promoted integrity, humility and unity; pillars without which a nation cannot stand.

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