THE late hilarious actor and veteran comedian who kept many glued to their television screens in the 1980s, Safirio Madzikatire aka Mukadota, in one of the episodes of the popular Mukadota Family visited the United States for a few months.
He comes back with an American accent, can no longer speak Shona properly and does not eat traditional foods anymore, preferring the ‘American goulash’.
He dons American clothes, ‘walks’ like an American and does not want to associate with his ‘backward peers’.
Mukadota was living in a world of American fantasies.
Charles Mungoshi’s Waiting for the Rain chronicles how Lucifer, a young man who grew up in the village, felt ‘pity’ for his counterparts upon his return from Europe.
He did not want to be associated with anything Zimbabwean to the extent that he hated everyone including his parents.
Lucifer brought back the European style, values, accent and beliefs to Zimbabwe and got rid of his values that were instilled into him as he grew up.
He even had the audacity to describe his birth in Africa as a ‘geographical error’ and wished he was born in Europe.
Though fictitious, both characters represent and mirror an identity crisis which most people have succumbed to.
In as much as colonisation, globalisation and modernisation have contributed to the assimilation of values, Africans seem to have taken more than what the Europeans took from them.
In Zimbabwe, during the colonial era, people had their own Mwari (God) or Musikavanhu (Creator) who lived in the sky.
They had their own way of worship.
Protection, rain, favour and other good things came from Musikavanhu and he would answer prayers.
They had their own sacrifices and traditional ceremonies. They revered the dead (ancestors) who continued to look after families from the spiritual world.
However, missionaries came and introduced their God as the only valid God.
Anything else apart from that was pagan.
Totems too were diabolic.
So all the Shumbas, Nyathis and Sokos were merged into one — children of God.
Many people were convinced and some left their own way of living and followed this newly introduced God.
Interestingly Christianity is now the most common religion in Zimbabwe.
According to the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe (EFZ), 84 percent of the population is Christian. The EFZ’s 2004 census estimates the Christian population at 33 percent Catholic; 42 percent Evangelical or Pentecostal; 17 percent Anglican, Methodist or Presbyterian and eight percent Apostolic.
If the statistics are anything to go by, then it means that the African Traditional Religion (ATR) which is the foundation of the Zimbabwean God, Musikavanhu, falls in the 16 percent together with other religions such as Islam.
Critics argue that the Bible, which is a Christian handbook of instruction, is a story of the Jewish people just like other books have documented the history of the Bantu people.
So if people are worshipping the God in the Bible it is the Jewish God and not their own Musikavanhu.
This spells an identity crisis and love for things foreign.
However, some people have opted for Christianity because it frees them from the technicalities of tradition such as kuripa ngozi (appeasement) where girls and women are handed over to appease the avenging spirit of a dead person.
And in Christianity, there was only one sacrifice, that is Jesus the Son of God, who was slain once and for all with his blood as permanent sacrifice.
Indians, Jews and the Chinese are some of the races that can easily be identified by their religion.
Most people in those nations believe in one god and there are not many religions in their nations.
If one is not easily convinced in issues to do with religion, he/she cannot be easily moved when it comes to other things such as national pride, values and own identity.
Indians, no matter where they go, observe their religion, dress, food and tradition among other things. They observe their own culture.
However, it is a different case with Zimbabweans who adopt other peoples religions.
Zimbabweans will take the slightest opportunity to renounce their beliefs and national identity for another.
They easily adopt a new language, habit, religion, tradition when the need arises.
Some Zimbabweans will tell you of wonderful places around the world and not mention beautiful tourist destinations such as Great Zimbabwe, Victoria Falls, Kariba Dam and the Matopos, among others.
It is unfortunate that this has cascaded to the young who are only aware of the multi-currency regime and do not know what the local currency looked like.
The local currencies, no longer in use, depicted some of the symbolic and places of interest in Zimbabwe.
Cultural expert, Sekuru Raymond Mazorodze says ATR should be the core of beliefs Zimbabweans have as a nation in order to avoid unnecessary calamities.
“If one goes to church he/she does not have to disregard our values and the sacred places that we have as a nation,” said Sekuru Mazorodze.
“When the colonialists came to this country they made it a point to take over our revered shrines and fenced them. However, they would stealthily engage the spiritualists of the land and do the necessary rituals, that is why things went well.
“Most Christians ignore their roots but when calamity strikes they engage traditional healers in the night to solve their problems.”
Sekuru Mazorodze said ATR had its own commandments because good character is key for spirit mediums and failure to live a clean life would result in ‘kutama kwemweya’ or ‘kubvaruka kwehomwe’.
He further advocated the adoption of a national dress which would bring some sense of identity and oneness among Zimbabweans.
It is sad that we have become a land where Brazilian hair, Peruvian weaves, European clothing, music and food are the in-thing and status symbols.
And failing to use the queen’s language makes a person a laughing-stock.