HomeOld_PostsAfrican spirituality, God and the Constitution

African spirituality, God and the Constitution

Published on

By Charles T.M.J. Dube

“ACKNOWLEDGING the supremacy of Almighty God, in whose hands our future lies, resolve by the tenets of this Constitution to commit ourselves to build a united, just and prosperous nation, founded on values of transparency, equality, freedom, fairness, honesty and the dignity of hard work, And, imploring the guidance and support of Almighty God, hereby make this Constitution and commit ourselves to it as the fundamental law of our beloved land.”
The preamble to our Constitution makes reference to the Almighty God twice.
It acknowledges His supremacy and our dependency on Him in terms of our future.
This is the only constitutionally recognised form of dependency.
Any other form of dependency is unconstitutional or illegitimate, and that includes dependence on donors whether from the East or West.
Other interesting words that come up in this part of the Constitution that makes reference to God are commit; united; build a just and prosperous nation; equality; honesty; and the dignity of hard work.
I have heard some say Zimbabwe is a secular state, but I do not subscribe to that view.
Zimbabwe probably just practises secularism due to its Constitution which, while acknowledging the supremacy of and dependency on God the Almighty, also gives freedom of choice with another hand.
Well, this Sunday, as I was meditating in church, something within me just told me that my article for the week was supposed to be about God.
I will again take my famous Moses’ summary on the history of man and religion.
Deuteronomy 32:8-9 says: “The Most High assigned nations their lands; he determined where peoples should live. He assigned to each nation a heavenly being, but Jacob’s descendants he chose for himself.”
The above Moses narrative implies that all people knew God and that their manner of communicating and relating with Him could therefore most likely have depended on the prescriptions of the heavenly beings assigned to the specific nationalities.
What that means is that we should not rush to dismiss other people’s religions without first attempting to understand them, otherwise we should keep our peace forever.
That is not to say there are no false religions which could have originated from the corruption of man in the first instance.
To Christians like me, Verse 9 of this chapter makes all the difference.
Let the reader now read and understand African spirituality.
In as much as the World Council of Churches and sister organisations such as the Lutheran World Federation heavily complemented our liberation struggle, we must admit that in terms of happenings in the rear and front of the war, African spirituality and not the ‘Holy Spirit’ as described in the book of Acts played a more prominent role.
You can, however, see here how two forms of spirituality converged on a common cause in complementarity.
Those who participated in the war have quite some testimonies surrounded by African spirituality.
This paper, and many other pan-Africanist media, has reproduced King Leopold’s letter in which in a debriefing to missionaries preparing to go to the Congo he gives them many other parallel-assignments as part of the colonial project emphasising that these natives already knew and worshipped the one and true God anyhow.
I have often argued in Christian circles that African Traditional Religion (ATR) is what Judaism is to Christianity.
I have also argued that you will be a Christian built on a sandy foundation if you cannot appreciate the difference between the good and evil variants in African spirituality.
You will also be a weak Christian if you cannot discern between what is cultural and spiritual principles in the Bible and discarding your own culture in preference to European or Hebrew culture.
Being an existentialist, I have always contended that in taking up religious positions, your starting point should be to understand and accept who you are.
I will repeat myself hoarse till you understand what I am trying to drive at.
The move from ATR to Christianity must therefore be dialectical and not sheer emotional conversion or the result of colonial conquest and an inferiority complex.
Remember I once said that, asked for His name by Moses, God said: “I am Who I Am”, and Jesus said we are little gods, and so our starting point should be from who we are and self-acceptance, which can only transform us to, without self-deprecating prejudice, go-getters.
I used to preach during lunch hours at some inter-denominational forum at the Raylton Sports Club, but kissed the podium goodbye indefinitely after I had mentioned that Chaminuka had Christ-like attributes, and the then chairman, who was a war veteran and had probably used African spirituality during the war, was not impressed.
Naturally I had qualified my statement by mentioning that he had died on a peace mission and the Ndebele had failed to kill him until he had to advise them that they could not kill him because he was on a God-sent mission and as such if they wanted to kill him, they had to give the sword to an innocent child without sin, which they did, but not before he had prophesied that they had killed him, but the country was going to be subjected to an oppressive reign by a people without knees, a reference to the white race.
In conclusion, let me perhaps get back to our not so secular Constitution which I believe will make us a cut above the rest, as I have always stated my conviction that Zimbabwe will be a developed and prosperous nation.
The centrality of God in our affairs in accordance with our Constitution is the yeast that will bring us to our goal of prosperity and developed nation status.
In earlier articles, I indicated business was spiritual and so are all our endeavours.
It is a plus that our Constitution recognises that.
I also indicated that God was love and so a nation that makes God central has the potential to eliminate greed and self-centredness which are obstacles to development, substituting them with service and sacrifice.
Besides, sheer belief and acceptance that there is some supernatural oversight in the affairs of man on its own builds character among those who believe in God.
We need energy to achieve and realise all these things intimated at by those key words quoted in the preamble and that energy derives from our spirituality, which is where the Almighty God made central in our Constitution comes in.
This is one clause which raised no debate but unanimity among those who wrote our Constitution.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Latest articles

Kariba Municipality commits to President’s service delivery blueprint

By Kundai Marunya IT is rare to find opposition-controlled urban councils throwing their weight on...

The resurgence of Theileriosis in 2024 

THE issues of global changes, climate change and tick-borne diseases cannot be ignored, given...

Britain haunted by its hostile policy on Zimbabwe

TWO critical lessons drawn from the recent debate on Zimbabwe in the British House...

The contentious issue of race

 By Nthungo YaAfrika AS much as Africans would want to have closure to many of...

More like this

Kariba Municipality commits to President’s service delivery blueprint

By Kundai Marunya IT is rare to find opposition-controlled urban councils throwing their weight on...

The resurgence of Theileriosis in 2024 

THE issues of global changes, climate change and tick-borne diseases cannot be ignored, given...

Britain haunted by its hostile policy on Zimbabwe

TWO critical lessons drawn from the recent debate on Zimbabwe in the British House...

Discover more from Celebrating Being Zimbabwean

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading