By Brother Alfonce Kugwa
-a wakeup call for Church to rethink nexus between Christianity and African Traditional Religion
For many years the issue of Christianity and African Traditional Religion (ATR) has been raging on with homegrown religions, cultures, beliefs, issues, and customs being regarded as unholy and as signs of living in darkness while Christianity is hailed as the prototype religion that brought about enlightenment to all races and ages and that everyone should follow.
Sarfo F.O, 2023, states that one of the reasons for the earliest challenges to Christianity and African Traditional Religion (ATR) was social and cultural challenges. Christianity and ATR have different beliefs, practices, and values that can clash with the social and cultural norms of the people they interact with.
I believe that further exploration of the relationship between the two religions is necessary to balance the equation in matters of faith, beliefs, and customs, particularly in the areas of ngozi, kurova guva, and divining. In contemporary society, people face many physical, psychological, and spiritual challenges, leading them to find solutions that they cannot find in the Church in diviners and elsewhere.
An attempt has been made through inculturation to bridge the gap with Pope John Paul II’s urgent request to the Pontifical Council for Culture: “You must help the Church to respond to these fundamental questions for the cultures of today: how is the message of the Church accessible to the new cultures, to contemporary forms of understanding and of sensitivity?
How can the Church of Christ make itself understood by the modern spirit, so proud of its achievements and at the same time so uneasy for the future of the human family?”, (Pontifical Council for Culture; Towards a Pastoral Approach to Culture,1999.)
The Pontifical Council for Culture states that those who are pastorally responsible for culture are resolutely committed to finding ways for evangelization to reach minds and hearts, and to transform cultures in a way that also enriches them.
They weigh up the elements of culture that are open to the proclamation of the Gospel, and the challenges that have arisen from cultures that are indifferent, or sometimes hostile, to the faith. This commitment should also be demonstrated in finding ways of strengthening people whose faith has been shaken by cultural challenges such as ngozi and others.
Youtube is abuzz with the Ngozi yaFata documentary by different producers and the Manica Post also published the story on 03 January 2025. In my first encounter with the documentary, I dismissed the story as something imaginary and hogwash because of my strong Catholic belief and I had never heard of the late priest whose avenging spirit is demanding appeasement from the family within the vicinity of St. Barbara’s Mission under Chief Mutasa in Manicaland. The matter was brought to Chief Mutasa’s community court where one of the family’s sons, claimed that the spirit of the priest was giving them a torrid time causing numerous deaths and misfortunes. He implicated his uncles whom he said killed the late Fr. Matara as gathered from the prophets and diviners consulted by the family.
The spirit of the priest which manifested through a middle-aged lady at the invocation of the traditional healer Sekuru Shungirai Mukotsanjera, set tongues wagging as people questioned the return of a holy man as an avenging spirit. The spirit first demanded fifty beasts from the family and later reduced them to thirty and finally settled at 15 at the intercession of Sekuru Mukotsanjera.
I later gathered the courage to view all the episodes of the documentary and I, like many of those who have seen it, had to confront myself with many questions.
First was the reality of ngozi and for that matter yafata. Second was the nexus between this reality and our faith in Christianity. Third can solutions for appeasing ngozi be found in the church and what is the position of the Church on that? What solutions does the church have in dealing with such challenges? Is it really the avenging spirit of the priest that is tormenting the family or could it be some people taking advantage of the situation?, Could there be more issues of priests and religious demanding appeasement considering the different circumstances in which people meet with their death?
Is our faith enough to prevent us from coming back as avenging spirits after death or is there room to merge Christianity and ATR in studying and addressing such issues? Do our Catholic exorcists have the power to handle ngozi and free the victims from the demands of the dead person’s demands? Lastly, is our Christian faith strong enough to protect us from avenging spirits?
Investigations into the matter show that the issue is real and that the priest was well known in the area where he worked at St. Barbara’s Mission and where he met his death. Other impeccable sources also confirmed that the priest, Fr. Edward Matara from Bocha in Marange was stationed at St. Barbara Mission in the early 1970s where he was murdered in 1971.
This incident should serve as a wake-up call for the Church to find ways of addressing such issues by merging Christianity and people’s cultures. There is also a great need to thoroughly investigate the matter to further inform future pastoral decisions and expand the spectrum of evangelization and inculturation.
One of the women at the community court had her rosary around her neck which clearly shows that people are caught at the crossroads of their faith and tradition.
The Pastoral Director for Mutare Diocese, Fr. Simbarashe Rukanda noted that there are pertinent issues that we have ignored as an African Church. They are deeply disturbing because they haunt the laity, religious, and clergy.
He added that the Church needs to reflect and explore the implications of cultural practices on Christianity.
“The issue of Ngozi is real and affects us all. We need to find a solution as a Church for dealing with this and other cultural issues. We need African theologians to research the issue thoroughly and write extensively on it. We also need to look into issues that affect Africans in their Christian religion,”
The cleric felt there was a void left by not addressing these issues.
“Whenever there is a void someone or something is sure to fill it, ie n’anga or vaporofita because people will be searching for answers,” he said.
Fr. Tafadzwa Joel Matambo from Chinhoyi Diocese said the church’s position is not clear on issues such as ngozi and that most of the cultural challenges are neglected and swept under the carpet.
He added that people who find themselves in cultural challenges as ngozi are often isolated and neglected. It seems the pastoral workers are either afraid or have no solutions to such issues. I am convinced that the issue of ngozi has to do with the deceased seeking justice or reparation for the grisly murder.
According to Fr. Walter Nyatsanza of Masvingo Diocese, the reality of ngozi cannot be discounted in an African setup. He weighed in saying the issue was not only an African problem but cuts across all races.
“The issue of ngozi is a reality, and not just according to the Shona tradition and culture. World over evil spirits are a reality. Indeed, you raise a pertinent issue of how to assist Catholics or Christians in general who find themselves in this difficult situation.
The Church should do more to assist them. In fact, Jesus affirms the reality of the powers of the evil one, this is why in Matthew 10:1; Acts 5:12–16; 8:4–8; 16:18: Jesus gave His disciples power to cast out evil spirits in His name! And further: Matthew 8:16; Mark 5:1–13; 7:24–30: Jesus Christ cast out evil spirits from people possessed by them,” Fr. Nyatsanza said.
He stressed that while the Catholic Church teaches that frequenting receipt of the holy eucharist, prayers for deliverance, and holy water, calling on the holy name of Jesus, using the bible, praying the rosary and putting it on, fasting, and other practices are used to fight evil spirits, he opined that there was need to cultivate the praxis of exorcism and empowerment of priests and all Christians to confront evil spirits.
“But this can only be done by a holy priest with explicit permission from the Bishop and can be done by the Bishop himself. This is where the Church finds a challenge. How does it qualify one’s holiness to take up that position? Perhaps to formulate community prayers that can be said in common could be a starting point or to encourage fasting for a specific case, taking each case separately. More investigations and studies need to be done to reach out to Christians in such difficult situations,” he said
I remember the late Fr. Augustine Urayai from Gweru Diocese as one priest who assisted people to shirk spiritual challenges and I have not heard of another after him. People will be more comfortable being assisted at a church, by a priest, sister or brother, or a trained catechist, but because of the lack of such services in the Church, they are left with no option but to consult traditional healers where they go under the blanket of darkness. Thanks to social media for bringing the issues to light
