RECENTLY, this writer travelled to the sprawling Gutu District on business and saw one of the biggest surprises of his life.
There is a silent, but very bitter, battle between Judaism and Islam going on in an area called Chinyika, under Chief Chitsa, in central Gutu District.
People in that area and other parts of Gutu, whispering for fear of reprisals, say the above mentioned battle between two foreign religions may bring into the ring Christianity and African Traditional Religion (ATR) and before we know it, a real powder keg will have been set on fire.
Readers may wonder what I am really talking about.
Folks, I am talking about a big but silent fight that is going on between Judaism and Islam in rural Gutu.
To clarify the situation, a little history lesson will help here.
We shall start by looking at Islam.
Aeneas Chigwedere helps us here: “The fourth tribe in Bantu Africa is the Mwenyi tribe that descended from the Moslem Arabs and Moslem Persians.
The Mwenyi are the descendants of the Moslems (who) filtered into East Africa after the death of Mahommed.
In AD 915 and 916, Arab geographer EL Masudi makes reference to Moor (Arab) gold and ivory traders reaching Sofala.
These Arab and Persian settlers married local Bantu women. From the union they gave birth to their descendants called Mwenyi who, over time, were indistinguishable in colour from the Bantu.
But these Mwenyi maintained their Moslem cultural traits. Members of the Mwenyi tribe only eat the meat of an animal killed by one of their sects by severing its throat (with) a knife. They do not eat pork or rabbit meat.
They do not eat food cooked in any pots in which pork or rabbit meat might have been cooked before.
Their all-encompassing totem is mbeva, the mouse.
They all practice circumcision.
All the above are clear Moslem cultural traits which make the Mwenyi distinct from other tribes.”
The above Mwenyi tribe with Moslem beliefs eventually left the East-African coast and penetrated the interior of our country Zimbabwe, looking for our ivory and gold.
“The Mwenyi, filtered into the interior,” says Chigwedere.
Yes into our motherland.
They settled in various parts of the country such as Buhera, Mberengwa, Hwedza, Nyanga and Gutu.
In Gutu District, one of the areas they settled in big numbers is the Chinyika area under Chief Chitsa.
To a considerable extent, they have maintained a lot of Moslem traits to date.
But wait a minute!
Today, some Jewish leaders and scholars are saying, no, these people you are calling Mwenyi are not Mwenyi at all.
They are black Jews and not Mwenyi.
They go on to say these so-called black Jews are the ones who came down to Zimbabwe with the ‘ark of the Jewish covenant’ which is now considered lost.
One Jewish school of thought tells us the Queen of Sheba gave the Jewish King Solomon a lot of gold – 450 tablets— which she had got from Ophir, present-day Zimbabwe.
The acquisition of the 450 tablets triggered an exodus of Jews to Zimbabwe looking for gold. They eventually married Zimbabwean women and settled in the country, giving birth to a tribe which they say people wrongly refer to as Mwenyi. They are black Jews, they cry.
Now let us look at Judaism vs Islam in the Chinyika area of Gutu.
Today’s Moslems were the first people to come to Chinyika in Gutu and decided that the communities in that area, who had practices similar to those of Moslems, were in fact Mwenyi and therefore Moslem descendants.
No wonder they began to preach their Islamic faith to them.
The Moslems went on to build a mosque at Chinyika for the Mwenyi.
Furthermore, they built a school to teach Islam to the children of the Mwenyi there.
These Moslems, some of whom are not Zimbabweans, have gone a step further.
They have built another mosque near a township called Magombedze, about 10km to the east of Chinyika.
Furthermore, in a remote village about five kilometres east of the township, they have built another mosque.
In fact, ‘Islamisation’ of the Chitsa area is now in top gear under the guise that Moslems have come to the Chitsa area to service ‘their followers’, the Mwenyi, when in fact, everyone is being invited to join their faith.
It is said Moslem authorities are now paying for any child in the Chinyika area whose parents cannot afford school fees.
To cap it all, it is said plans are now at an advanced stage for them to establish a Moslem University at Chinyika.
On the other hand, Jews have not allowed Moslems to get away with it in Gutu.
They have built a synagogue at the foot of a rocky dome called Muyeye, less than a kilometre from the Moslem church at Chinyika.
The Jews are not targeting the Mwenyi only.
No!
Everyone!
Now and again they bring doctors, opticians and surgeons at Chinyika Government Hospital where they treat old people and the disadvantaged for free over a number of days.
Those who need spectacles are given for free.
Now where do we go from here?
The question that a number of people are asking is: Why are authorities watching with folded arms while a potentially explosive religious situation is likely to develop in future?
Is it not clear if the frenetic spreading of Islam and Judaism is allowed to go on unabated, dividing communities who have all along been stable and peaceful — trouble will result in the long term?
The teachings of Islam and Judaism, being dished out to our youths, are likely to radicalise them, which is not going to be good for everyone.
We do not want to sound alarmist or anything of the sort, but the energy and zeal with which the ‘Islamisation’ and spread of Judaism is being pushed in Gutu’s Chitsa area is very worrying.
The Boko Horam problem in Nigeria should provide a lesson for us.
Boko Haram was founded as a Sunni Islamic fundamentalist sect influenced by the Wahabi movement, advocating a strict form of Sharia law.
Boko Haram is usually translated as ‘Western education is forbidden’.
This group has since caused havoc in forbidding Western education.
We are not saying there is now Boko Haram in Gutu, but the vigour, speed and political will with which Islamisation is being carried out in the Chitsa area of Gutu is very disturbing.