I ONCE wrote an article articulating the fact that Jesus Christ is an African by virtue of the fact that he was born in Africa. 

For most of our childhood, we have known pictorial representations of the nativity (the birth of Jesus Christ), of which the feast of Christmas is a commemoration.

The Nativity is also known as an artistic, pictorial or sculptural representation visualising and capturing the circumstances of the birth of Jesus Christ in Nazareth in Bethlehem, the Middle-East. 

As with most pre-conceived images of Christ, the Nativity depicts a ‘white’ family, surrounded by snow, with the newly born, in a manger, as a blond infant,

The newly-born Nazarene is often depicted surrounded by shepherds, lambs and other domestic animals and three Wise Men or Kings from the East; all of swarthy complexion, who by following the Eastern Star (comet), arrived together bearing gifts for the infant Jesus.   

Singing cherubs makes the picture complete!

These are the images that persist in one’s mind as we grow up – often even into our adulthood.  

We sang Christmas carols and celebrated the birth of a white saviour. 

What have these perennial images of a Western Christmas done to the impressionable minds of young African children?  

Do they not ask who our Saviour is?

Is there only a white saviour?

The whole concept of Christmas has been geographically removed from its origins in Africa.

In some European countries, Christmas is known as Saint Nicholas Day, the legendary saint of children. 

The Western traditional belief in Santa Claus, the white-bearded man commonly identified with Saint Nicholas, who is believed to reward children for good behaviour during the foregoing year by bringing Christmas gifts for them, all the way from the North Pole, riding on a reindeer-drawn sledge in freezing weather, on Christmas Eve.

The visions of snow, tinsel, mistletoe and hollies; Santa Claus and his reindeers flying through the air on a cold, snowy, wintery night, are endearing to the fertile minds of our children until the African sun thaws the snowflakes of our imagination.

From our colonial past, we have inherited, the trappings and traditions of Christmas trees, Christmas carols, Christmas cards, Christmas crackers, Christmas cake, Christmas Turkey and Ham, Christmas pudding, Christmas pantomimes, mince pies, eggnog, tinsel streamers and sparkling stars and baubles as symbols and trappings of the season. 

However, ‘Twelve Days of Christmas’, ‘The First Noel’, ‘I’m dreaming of a White Christmas’, ‘Jingle Bells’, ‘Silent Night’and others, are Christmas carolsthat have no resonance in our memory. 

In fact, they are far removed from the beliefs and environment of Africa. 

The pioneering colonial settlers even left us with the renowned Christmas Pass – the pass which cuts through the Mutarandanda Hills, West of Mutare on the main road to Harare, in the Sekumva Valley. 

It was named Christmas Pass by a small party of settlers who camped at the foot of the Pass on Christmas Day of 1890.

The sending and receiving of Christmas cards was a way of keeping in touch with family and friends living near or in far flung areas of the world.  

This tradition has now been superseded by the electronic cyber world.  

Does a tweet on facebook replace the joy and intimacy of receiving or sending a Christmas card from a friend or loved one? 

Decades after independence, the Christmas festive season has come to mean many different things to many people.  

While the idea of Christmas exists innately in the mind; for some it is the re-bonding of urban dwellers with their rural families back home. 

For as long as memory serves, tilling the land and harvesting the first batch of pumpkins – manhanga/mapudzi, (squash) chibage, maize, (roasted or boiled corn-on-the-cob is a favourite), mbambayira and a variety of wild fruits and mushrooms,is traditional fare for most Zimbabweans who annually flock to their rural homesteads to reconnect and re-bond with families and old friends, and make new acquaintances.

Years ago while I was in Berkley, San Francisco during Christmas time, I learnt that many of the African-Americans celebrate Kwanza – a thanksgiving ceremony which has its roots and cultural associations with the mother continent of Africa.  

I was quite amazed to see how much of our indigenous African culture was still intact in their memories.  

The acculturation of Christmas brought about by colonialism in Zimbabwe is quite astonishing. 

It has become one of the most persistent and permanent socio-cultural features in Christian Anglophone Africa, albeit understood and misconstrued from a purely Western idiom.

However, while we continue to (badly) emulate the Western world’s traditions for Christmas, we should challenge ourselves to promote our own indigenous traditions, ‘kutenda kupera kwegore’ with more than just roasted or boiled corn-on-the-cob, road-runners and rice. 

It is time we developed our own Christmas symbols and traditions, forafter all, it’s a time of goodwill towards all mankind. 

This story was first published in The Patriot (December 2016)