IT is a well known and undisputed fact that the soul of every people or nation which regards itself as truly independent and sovereign is to be found in its own religion, culture and worldview.
A nation without its own spirituality or religion and follows the religions of other nations especially the religions and gods of its former colonisers cannot seriously claim to be truly free and sovereign spiritually, politically, culturally and even economically.
This is the situation Zimbabwe finds itself in today.
Spiritually, it is still following the gods and religions of other nations especially those of its former colonisers.
Politically, it is still using the systems of its former colonisers to govern itself.
These it regards as international best practices.
Economically, it is still using the currencies of other nations particularly those of its former colonisers.
These it regards as more competent and reliable to use for its development programmes than to entertain any debates or calls for plans to come up with its own national currency as a true independent and sovereign state in the immediate or foreseeable future.
The political, economic, cultural and spiritual centres for Zimbabwe are therefore to be found in the political, cultural, economic and religious practices of Europe and America, not in the economic or religious practices of Africa or Zimbabweans themselves.
We enter into spiritual fellowship with our former colonisers as our reliable friends and not among ourselves as Africans or Zimbabweans with a common spiritual kinship and cultural bonds.
We worship the gods of the coloniser in the coloniser’s church together with the coloniser and neglect our own shrines at Njelele as of no spiritual worth for us as an independent and sovereign state.
We sup with our colonisers and join them in calling our own fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters heathens for rejecting the religion of the colonizer and sticking to their own ways of worship as Africans.
It is also a well known and undisputed fact that a people who have no common spiritual centre of their own and enter into fellowship with their former colonisers as their newly found brothers and sisters in matters of spiritual and national salvation are difficult if not impossible to unite.
This is so because some can now leave their own fathers and mothers and brothers and sisters to go and sup together with their colonisers and worship together the gods of the same colonisers who murdered their ancestors and massacred African men, women and children during the liberation war and still embrace the colonisers as their dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
Some are now joining the same colonisers who murdered their ancestors and usurped their heritage in telling Nehanda to rot in hell as a drunken witch and telling the freedom fighters to also go to hell as bloodthirsty terrorists, and get a resounding applause from our courts for freedom of speech.
The Zimbabwean men, women, politicians and courts who do so are not faking.
They wholly and truly despise African culture, religion and spirituality as backward and heathen.
They believe very strongly in their hearts of hearts that the path to our spiritual, economic and political salvation as a nation is to be found from Europe and America.
The coloniser is the image of God on earth for them. God is white in their churches and their colonizers are white. Jesus is white on their crucifixes and the coloniser is white. The pure are white in spirit and the angels are white in their churches. We are captives of Europe in spirit. We are carcasses in Zimbabwe without a soul.
Our spiritual centre as Anglicans in Zimbabwe is in England. Njelele is for infidels. Our spiritual mother is the Queen. Nehanda is a witch. Our spiritual centre as Salvation Army is in England. Our spiritual commander is a white man. Our spiritual centre as Catholics in Zimbabwe is Rome. Our spiritual father is the Pope in the Vatican.
We follow in the footsteps of Kaguvi. We forgive the white man for robbing us of our land but thank him for giving us his god and baptizing us as Dismus, the robber who asked for forgiveness from Jesus on the cross.
We hold the example of Nehanda in vain and disdain for refusing to follow the god of the white man and sticking to her people’s ways of worship right to the end even as she faced the gallows. We invoke her name in vain for political expedience, not that we believe in her god as worthy of Zimbabwe as a modern civilised nation.
Our attitude is the same towards those comrades who lost their lives to get us our independence. We turn away from their cry for rehabilitation from the wilderness.
We have no room for them in our budgets or plans for development. We guard Rhodes’ grave with utmost care and vigilance but neglect Mzilikazi’s tomb close by. Some don’t even know it exists.
We rebuke swine but we eat pork. We join hands with Europe in burying Nehanda’s bones never to rise again among us and our posterity as Zimbabweans.
The question to pause and ask, though, is this: How long shall Zimbabwe sustain its sovereignty and independence without the ancestors as the rightful spiritual owners of this land?