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Police officers and journalists were severely beaten by rowdy church members of an apostolic sect led by Madzibaba Ishmael in Budiriro

Isdore Guvamombe Reflections
Back in the village, in the land of milk, honey and dust or Guruve, no one gets a mouthful of food by picking from between another person’s teeth. Never, never, ever!
Last weekend’s events in which one not so revered Reverend Johannes Ndanga of the Apostolic Christian Council of Zimbabwe tried to pick his religious food from the teeth of another apostolic sect, gave us another circus, albeit with a deplorable violent dimension.

It made the nation sparkle with jokes – some of them in bad test and taste – but at the end, the matter of religion and religiosity, gospel or gospreneurship, Christianity and churchianity became fodder for the nation.

While violence is deplorable in any form it comes, it is equally critical for Zimbabweans, especially those who claim to be more educated and in the know, to understand that respect is sacrosanct. And, and, and approach should be tactically in sync with unforgiving realities.

Back in the village, elders with cotton tuft hair say despite the beauty of the moon, the sun and the stars, the sky also has a threatening thunder and striking lightning. The apostolic sect members might look calm, composed and ignorant in their white regalia but they certainly can explode when provoked. Do village elders not say every man, even as soft as wool, is like pepper, till you have chewed it you do not know how hot it is. How hot was your last bite Rev Ndanga?

Jesus Christ himself beat up people for abusing his Father’s house and does that not give us a clue of what might have inspired the apostles?
The village soothsayer, the ageless autochthon of wisdom and knowledge, religion and religiosity, the art and the belief, says Rev Ndanga, an allochthon, created a problem by failing to understand that apostolicism is not only a gathering of people in white regalia but a way of life. It is life itself. It is a fabric that holds members together. Surely, a man of Rev Ndanga’s stature should know that although the surface of the water is beautiful, it is no good to sleep on, you sink.

Of course, as a journalist from the old school, it was once taboo to comment about a case when it is before the courts.
We used to call it sub-judice but these days it seems to have become fashionable – all journalists are doing it – so this villager will go for it.

Was it not Okwonko in Chinua Achebe’s famous novel “Things Fall Apart”, who asked: “If a man comes to defecate in your house what do you do? You break his neck!”
While the sect members reacted violently, it is fact not fiction that by visiting their shrine in his immaculate suit and not church regalia, Rev Ndanga soiled the ethics of their sacred shrine. Their life! The harbinger of their Heavenly greatness!

This villager will be forgiven for thinking that the reverend is not so gifted with intelligence, or if he is intelligent, he chose to switch it off on that particular day. President Mugabe himself, a full President of a republic, went to Marange and wore the apostolic garment and one wonders whether Rev Ndanga was in Mars at that time. What the President did was to identify with them, do people not say when you are in Rome do what the Romans do?

How can someone claiming to be leading and championing the cause of the apostolic sects, fail to understand the rules, regulations and morals of the same, unless he is a dim wit or gospreneuer trying to make money out of sects by playing a holier than thou attitude?

It is fact not fiction that by going with policemen Rev Ndanga had foreseen trouble, hence he was able to escape unscathed and in that vein, he knew he was provoking the apostles. The mere arrival of the police, working in cahoots with Reverend Ndanga, was an act of provocation.

It is fact not fiction that Rev Ndanga is the one who visited the shrine, uninvited and that his language and message was outright combative and confrontational. It was wrong and it will remain wrong to approach them that way.

Back in the village, a spider’s cobweb is not only its sleeping spring but also its food trap. Apostolic sects are not mere congregations, Rev Ndanga, they are a way of life.

They need to be approached with great consideration, respect and care. As for our police, do village elders not say a fly without an advisor follows a corpse into the grave and gets buried with it?

After all, could Rev Ndanga not approach the church leadership separately, elsewhere, before going to the congregation?
Probably it is also important to know who elected Rev Ndanga to lead and what mandate he carries. Admittedly, there might have been mishaps in the church, like any other church, that need sorting out, but the approach was out of sync with professional conduct expected of an organisation like ACCZ.

Back in the village, a spider’s cobweb is not only its sleeping spring but also its food trap. Apostolic sects are not mere congregations, Rev Ndanga, they are a way of life.
They need to be approached with great consideration, respect and care. As for our police, do village elders not say a fly without an advisor follows a corpse into the grave and gets buried with it?