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Of spirit mediums and empowerment policies

Opinion & Analysis
The year 2013 is only 35 days old which means there are still 330 more days to go. But already, January was an eventful month.

The year 2013 is only 35 days old which means there are still 330 more days to go. But already, January was an eventful month.

Develop Me with Tapiwa Gomo

This time it is not about politics, but supposed spirit mediums and their powers to purportedly delivery money.

Those are the stories that dominated our media in January.

I am cognisant of the fact that modernisation, or rather colonisation taught us to distinguish between spirit mediums and prophets even though both operate on the same wave length.

Spirit mediums were considered to be agents of primitivity while prophets symbolised modernity. But when you eliminate that modernity dichotomy, you will realise that both are agents of some spiritual calls as they speak on behalf of some supernatural powers from a world unknown to human kind.

Where the mind of humankind fails to secure answers to questions about life, it tends to consciously or unconsciously submit to this world of the unknown for hope.

But that world is dark, hazy and remains to human imagination and its existence is only sustained by human belief and faith.

It is not known because no one can describe it and yet many people the world over submit to it.

Its unknown-ness is the epitome and source of its spiritual power and therefore, attractive to hearts and, souls with questions whose answers the human world cannot offer.

For their ability to claim to connect to that world, people like  Emmanuel Makandiwa, Uebert Angel and the late Speakmore Mandere of Zengeza have not only grabbed headlines, but have domiciled in our media as their pulpit.  Mandere is believed to have started off as a prophet by the way.

Are these the first prophets to emerge in Zimbabwe? I doubt. There are strings of great names such as Nehanda, Kaguvi, Chaminuka before Makandiwa and Angel and there will still be more to come.

I don’t intend to address issues of spiritualism as it is not my area of strong calling, but I wish to decipher some of the reasons why suddenly spiritualism has found its demand in our times.

What are our times is perhaps the first question that requires attention. We live in troubled times, where hope is swallowed by political despair. It is a world where promise and hope are antagonistic neighbours.

What is promised does not inspire hope and yet what we hope for is not what is promised. It’s a huge conundrum.

To thaw things a little bit, let’s look at our neighbours in South Africa. Prior to independence, the African National Congress prioritised and popularised the black economic empowerment, better known as BEE than education.

This policy has created a huge appetite for money than the acquisition of knowledge and a standardised way of earning riches which explains why our neighbours have suffered a serious lack of role models who have made it in life through education than hustling. Schooling is not fashionable because there is no example of someone who has made it through education. Even the education system tells a similar story. But there are so many rich people there both black and white.

Because of the huge appetite for money, everyone wants to have it through whatever means. Nothing wrong with that,  but managing money and consuming it are two different things.

Making and managing money require different levels of knowledge and, in any case, you can’t evade the need for an educated mind to take care of business. In a society where education is not fashionable, such minds become scarce unless one resorts to external labour sources.

While Zimbabwe is a different scenario to South Africa, the past decade has displaced the hardworking and principled Zimbabwean mentality into one where people worry about making money now and work tomorrow.

Since 2002 we learnt that one can own a well-developed farm without paying a single cent. We also learnt by being at the farm doing nothing, you can also qualify to receive free agriculture inputs and resell them and then blame sanctions for lack of production.

Starting from 2005 we learnt that someone can earn a living by buying and selling money in the streets. We also learnt that through the new indigenisation laws, you can wake up having shares in one of the big banks in the country without much sweat. Just as we started 2013, we just learnt that by being in Angel’s church, cash can be channelled right into your pocket, while Makandiwa told us that gold shall rain from the spiritual skies. So who needs a job?

Who needs education? Where does working hard for the country fit into this?

Our political world has created a desperate and short-cut mentality where ethos of working and productivity has lost their meaning and value. And spirit mediums are feasting on that gap. We have lived in a world full of policies and promises of free things from the government.

The willingness to work is gradually dying. I am aware that the practice of consulting the spirits for riches is as old as perhaps humankind, but I would be right to argue that in Zimbabwe the practice has become endemic.

In a country characterised by politicians so desperate for survival, the policies of grabbing and donating will persist and unfortunately the effects of such will be felt by our children, the same way we feel the effects of what our parents did not do to change things. Makandiwa and Angel including other spirit mediums will surely remain a source of hope for many.

Until the day when Makandiwa and Angel prophesy the emergence of industries and new jobs coming, there will be more blasts, bribes and promises of money because that is what our hearts are made to fall for. Such is my country. Cry my beloved Zimbabwe for you shall survive on prophecies.

lTapiwa Gomo is a development consultant based in  Pretoria, South Africa