Jowani Masowe not a battleground for political wrestling

By Wilfred Kushure

We have once again come to a time which in the recent past has been a very difficult period. The General Elections. We appeal for peace and may every Zimbabwean be of a peace-loving nature at least from now until after the forthcoming elections.

We have in the past been a number 1 victim church all because of our unique religious practices whose background I wish to discuss below.

Jowani Masowe weChishanu means we are a church that observes Friday (Chishanu) as our Sabbath day/Day of Worship/Resting day, which also in our shona culture was referred to as Chisi. Chishanu has always been a sacred day (Chisi) in many parts of Zimbabwe according to the Shona traditional religion.

Coincidentally, and because of our strong links with the African traditional religion, Chishanu happens to be our Sabbath day. On this day we are obligated to observe the Sabbath. Our Sabbath day starts on Thursday from 1500hrs until Friday evening.

We go to Church i.e. outside our homesteads (Masowe). We do not sleep in our homes, We do not go out to do work, meaning we do not engage in any economic activities nor household chores, We observe utmost peace, We spend the day in prayers, worshipping and praising the Lord our God.

We do not go out shopping, we meditate and implore the presence of our God to be with us throughout this day in particular. We are a mainly rural based church with the majority of our membership residing in the rural areas, rural in demeanour and occupying the lower levels of the social ladder.

We look back to the previous General Elections in recent years with much sorrow, tears and spiritual anger. In particular we will not forget 2008 when we lost many relatives, friends and loved ones before, during and after the elections.

We are still grieving the loss of lives and the tears on our members’ cheeks and the wounds still fresh on many and in our hearts. At times you regret to say why did I choose to go out there that particular Friday in 2008? But then we were obliged to go out there because that Friday is our Sabbath, our day of worship.

2008 to us was a very difficult year and one we would want to forget quickly. But the elections are coming and that period again? We were still in a period of rehabilitation and coming back from the horrors, shock and traumatic scenes of the year 2008 in particular.

Since year 2000, as the political parties traded blows, bows and arrows, our Jowani Masowe members received the larger share of the stampede. Some political parties also chose FRIDAY (CHISHANU) as their day. By coincidence or by special design, we do not understand.

Why our Day among all the non-Chisi and non-Sabbath days was singled out for the political outings only God can one day give us an answer.

They chose Chishanu as the Campaign day among all the seven days of the week. Our CHISHANU was picked to be the day for Political gatherings and rallies to which every community person was expected to be present, or else..!

We were caught in between choosing to go to these Political meetings against our will and against the teachings of our church or going to church and get rounded up, beaten, tortured and/or murdered.

You attend the meetings against your will and against your church teachings and the other political parties accuse you of supporting so and so and by them too you get shortlisted and victimised. We witnessed horrific scenes happening against our church and our church members.

Everyone including children and women were forced to go to camping ‘Points’ where torture and rape were the order of the day. Some of our Prophet leaders were accused of keeping away people i.e. our church members from coming to rallies and therefore they were labled traitors and their actions treasonous.

Our members absorbed it all with humble endurance and suffered it with grieving hope like lambs to the slaughter. Are we getting to that same time again?

We are not a political people. Jowani Masowe is a church and not a Political party nor a battleground for political wrestling. We are a Law abiding, God fearing and God serving people. We do not participate in politics and neither is any of our members allowed to aspire for any political stations.

Some individual persons uniformed as of Jowani Masowe weChishanu and attending church with us have chosen to stray and aspire for and hold political positions.

But as a Church we still remain steadfast and untarnished on our Church position that we are not a political people and we do not participate in politics! Individual members may choose to be political and hold offices, just as much as individual members may choose to eat pork and still claim to be of us.

Those ones are not party to the sacred, Holy and Spiritual Jowani Masowe dispensation.

They tarnish us and our name. But that does not make the church be like them and to them also we make the same appeal as this one, to please absolve us from your mess, in the name of our Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. ‘’Jowani Wakaramba Zvenyika’’.

Our National leaders would not want to one day look back after the elections and see a trail of innocent blood all over on their way to Parliament and / or State House. Our leaders should go with no blemish of the blood and / or tears of Vapositori otherwise that would be a great curse.

My appeal as a member of the Jowani Masowe church is that as you prepare for, as you conduct and as you conclude your 2013 elections;

1. May you leave our Chishanu to us the Chishanu believers. We are fully aware that it is a day that belongs to everyone else for purposes of their own choices. My case is for fellow citizens to allow us, in towns and rural areas, enough and free space to practise our religion.

It is ungodly, unethical and morally wrong to take away one’s Sabbath day from them. That is tantamount to banning our religion because by so doing you are forcing us not to attend church and / or force us to worship a different God or to worship our God differently.

If you closely look at it you can see that during that period and especially in the rural areas, our church was banned. We were denied the Right to Practice our religion. That is not right!

2. May the peace loving, law abiding and God fearing members of our church be allowed to attend church freely wherever they are in our country Zimbabwe. Our members are not above the law and anyone who disobeys the laws of our land must be brought to book.

Equally so, may we be treated fairly and according to the Laws of our land. When you see those old poor women clad in white and the white apparelled children, boys and girls men and women streaming on their way to Masowe on FRIDAY, please help them or leave them alone, for they know where they are going and what they are going to do for their God. We want to go to our Church on Friday.

Our founder Jowani was accused of worshiping on Friday/ Chishanu, not building a church and worshiping in the open i.e.Kumasowe. He was incarcerated by the white regime in the early colonial era. He was punished, tortured and sentenced with hard labour.

I remember very well that is one of the reasons why baba Jowani and some of the Great prophets of that time blessed our war of liberation. He encouraged, inspired and blessed that war to be fought for us to be free and to be able to worship our God free from oppression by a people who did not and do not appreciate our God and our religion.

Are we seeing a repeat of the same in our free Zimbabwe? Are we condemned to suffer the same humiliation and torment over and over again from every authority black or white? Are we less citizen just because we choose to serve God the way we know best?.

3. We appeal for peace. We pray for peace and encourage every true Zimbabwean to be overcome by compassion and love for thy neighbours throughout this period.

4. We appeal to all normal minded people of our society not to come to our Masowe shrines and conduct rallies. We do understand that many times these are solicited by bribed members of our church ‘leadership’. We bring it to everyone’s attention that a Masowe shrine (paMasowe) is a sacred place and that is why everyone is asked to take off their shoes and all modern items/gadgets.

We understand that some of our overzealous members bestowing upon themselves leadership roles are gullible and easily bought over or are cowards and easily pushed. We understand that we are generally humble and extremely submissive. May the generality of our Zimbabwean leadership and masses please understand that you do not bring your rallies to our sacred shrines. It is taboo and please stay away.

5. May you please stop coercing our JMC members to join your political parties. We are not allowed to participate in politics. Participating in politics means being active members of the political side of things in our society. As individual members we can choose to be party card holders and that we are free to do. We may vote but that is not expected of us, for ours is the Kingdom of God (Hwedu humambo hurimudenga).

We give you the free reign to do whatever you may with earthly cravings of this world. But even as individual members we are not allowed to be active or be elected into positions of authority or leadership for these earthly things. Hatibvumidzwi kana husabhuku chaihwo. If you demand that of us or if you coerce us to be that active then you are forcing us to do things against the teachings of our Church and therefore against the dictates of our God. That is sacrilegious.

6. We appeal to all the gallant members of the Security forces to protect us from reckless citizens and blood mongers of our time. We are defenceless and very vulnerable. Politically active members of our society have always enjoyed doing whatever they like with our defencelessness. You don’t do whatever you like with a people just because they are poor and vulnerable. It is not right.

7. May our members also shun tokens with some ties (to say it in the politest way possible). We are observing a more accelerated presence of senior members of our society, and / or a more accelerated drive to award, reward and benefit some of our Church members in various ways by some honourable members of our society.

We greatly appreciate these gestures of Good Will. We hope this is genuine and not meant to hoodwink vulnerable poor members of our religion who in turn will be demanded or forcibly expected to reciprocate in ways that betray the ethics and value standards of our beliefs. That’s spiritual murder!

Please, Give us Back our religion, spare our Faith and Give us back our Chishanu!!!

May God Bless Zimbabwe, May God Bless our leaders, May God Bless our march towards Peaceful, Free and Fair Elections!

Wilfred Kushure: Member of the Jowani Masowe weChishanu (JMC) Church