MANY African nations, Zimbabwe included, consider themselves Christian nations.
This is only correct if perceived from a colonial perspective. Rather Zimbabwe is a hunhu/ubuntu nation and Christianity came to this region via European missionaries with colonial interests.
Whites colonised Africa with a gun in one hand and a Bible in the other.
Otherwise Africans knew and observed hunhu/ubuntu from ancient times and to this day, African society uses hunhu/ubuntu as a criterion and standard of ethics and good behaviour.
Chivanhu/isintu demands for certain rites to be observed, for example, rain-asking, feasts of harvest, observing a rest day weekly and making offerings (kupira), among others.
Western holidays like Christmas and New Year have no place in this region, except as a form of neo-colonialism.
A letter by King Leopold II of Belgium to such missionaries attests to the fact that Africans already knew God and his laws. Rather the mandate of the Western missionaries was to pacify Africans through Christianity.
This would aid European empires in their plight to colonise our resource-filled continent without facing resistance from the locals.
The missionaries were clearly successful as many African nations now identify themselves as Christians.
Blacks now have a misconception that Christianity is the world’s most dominant religion.
Rather, Christianity is only prevalent in former European or American colonies like South Korea.
Besides this, Christianity in places like the US has a strong following of blacks.
This is owed to slavery, an era during which blacks were programmed to forgo their religions along with their identities and accept that of the slave master.
Among the devout black followers of Western Christianity, there is a belief that Christianity is the salvation of the world and anyone who does not accept Jesus as their personal lord and saviour is doomed for hell and destruction.
These were the teachings, not of the Bible, but of the Western missionaries.
The Bible teaches about covenants, laws, diets, festivals and restrictions that Israelites and interested groups ought to follow as a lifestyle.
But many of these teachings are ignored by Western Christianity.
For example the missionaries never taught blacks to circumcise their males, to abstain from eating blood, pork and so on, to observe the new year at springtime, to observe the feast of harvest and to abstain from shaving and shaping their heads and beards.
This was the type of man Christ was — a follower of the law of God which most Christians call obsolete and an old testament.
The Christianity of the missionary is thus questionable as its followers are unobservant of the ordinances Christ himself followed.
In practice, Muslims are altogether more Christian than most proclaimed Christians because they submit to the will of God as opposed to the missionaries.
Yes, Muslims believe in Christ as a messenger and prophet of Allah (God).
In the founding years of Islam, most of the Muslims were formerly Christian.
This Christianity was truly dominant in Africa and Asia, so much so that three centuries before then, Emperor Constantine of Rome took up the influential religion to save his empire.
After corrupting Christianity with Roman ways and customs, Muhammad introduced Islam as a way of life inspired by the prophets of old, Christ included.
Muslim means one who submits to the will of Allah (God).
The Christians of Africa and Asia then became Muslim with the understanding that Adam, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, Miriam, John and Yhwshua (Jesus), among others were Muslims as well.
Ethiopia and Egypt are the last remaining nations with the Christianity of old and they actually follow the festivals, laws and ordinances of the old testament.
However, these nations participated in Roman-led conferences like that of Nicaea, through which they adopted doctrines such as the trinity, festivals such as Easter and the use of the cross as a symbol.
Christmas used to be the Roman winter solstice holiday of Saturnalia, during which people feasted and drank to excess.
They would exchange gifts, have public orgies and men would routinely beat on their wives upon returning home.
This holiday was so immoral, Christians started protesting against its observance in 19th Century England.
The holiday was then banned and in place of Saturnalia, the masses began honouring Christ in this period.
All the fables of December 25 being Christ’s day of birth are untrue as he was not born in winter.
Rather he was born in spring or autumn, just before a major Hebrew festivity, when shepherds were yielding sacrificial lambs and filling the inns of Jerusalem.
Him being born in a manger and escaping to Egypt on foot soon after his birth are all telling signs that he was not born in December but around February/March and if not, September/October.
These are the times of sacrifice, the former being the Passover period and the latter the first fruits of harvest.
During these times, the Roman officials of Israel would conduct surveys and population counts.
The celebration of birthdays was a Greco-Roman trait.
So even if we were to uncover when exactly Christ was born, there is no command to celebrate his or any other prophet’s date of birth.
Ancient Israelites were incredibly accurate in recording days and remembering events.
They counted moons and the phases therein but chose not to document dates of birth of the common folk, prophets, priests and kings alike.
Many of the customs we now attribute to Christmas were existent long before Christ and were deemed vain and materialistic by Israelites.
In Jeremiah 10:3, we find northern gentiles having customs of axing upright trees from a forest, fastening them with nails and hammers and decorating them with silver and gold.
How is this different from a Christmas tree, under which gifts are shared as in the custom of Saturnalia.
All these pagan ways were existent even long before the time of Christ.
Easter was an age-old fertility festival named after Ishtar, the goddess of fertility.
The worship of Ishtar was evident in Judges 10:6.
She was called Ishtar by the Assyrians and Accadians and Astarte by the Greeks and Phoenicians.
In the scripture, she was called Ashtoreth or Asherah and in the times of Jeremiah, she was worshipped as an idol called the queen of heaven.
Ishtar was observed in spring and was used to replace the observance of the Passover at the Roman Nicaea conference.
So it must be clear that what Africans call Christianity is from the missionary not Christ’s way of life.
The festivities associated with Christianity are not of Christ.
The dates and the customs predated his existence and they were frowned upon by the prophets of Israel.
The vain customs and materialism associated with Western holidays can never be compatible with African culture.
Israelite festivities are no different from Bantu festivities.
They involve animal and drink offerings and are set in line with rain and harvest periods.