Harare — THERE was chaos at the Anglican St Andrew's parish church in Glen View 8 on Thursday evening when rival groups fought.
Two camps have emerged within the Anglican Church, one supporting Bishop Sebastian Bakare's leadership while the other is behind Bishop Nolbert Kunonga.
Bishop Bakare was appointed head of the Harare Diocese to replace Bishop Kunonga who led the church in withdrawing from the Province of Central Africa.
Police had to intervene to quell the disturbances which left some church members injured.
When The Herald visited the parish at Stand number 6955, adjacent to Tichagarika Shopping Centre, police had just left the scene after restoring peace.
However, parishioners were still grappling to come to terms with what they had experienced while residents living in the vicinity of the church expressed shock that worshippers could do such a thing.
In interviews, residents said a parish committee believed to be aligned to Bishop Bakare was having a meeting at the church when all hell broke loose.
"Two vehicles, one ferrying three priests in their robes and the other one a group suddenly arrived. We heard some noise and we rushed to the scene to investigate," said one witness.
"We found them beating parishioners who included women."
Some parishioners found wandering about the church in disbelief of what they had just witnessed, confirmed the assaults.
"We held a meeting on Tuesday at the church and agreed that we wanted the Old Diocese. We do not want Kunonga. We want our Bishop Bakare because he was the one appointed to temporarily lead the diocese," said one woman.
The woman said Thursday's meeting was a follow up to Tuesday's meeting.
"At Thursday's meeting we intended to summon our resident priest Martin Zifoti, who we know belongs to the Bishop Kunonga group, to discuss the matter. We wanted him to hand over to us car keys, house keys and other important things belonging to this parish," said the woman.
Midway through the meeting, three Anglican priests from other parishes in Harare allegedly arrived together with some people in two vehicles.
The woman identified all the pastors.
"They were three priests dressed in their robes and three thugs. They started assaulting us starting with a senior member of the church Mr Nyamupingidza. I used my umbrella to fight back," said another parishioner.
"The situation only normalised after armed police rushed here."
The member in charge of Glen View Police Station Chief Inspector Allen Nyazire confirmed the incident.
He said one person was injured in the skirmishes.
"The committee of the parish was holding a meeting. We were made to understand that they passed a vote of no confidence on Kunonga. One person was injured and we gave him a medical report. The suspect stays in Kuwadzana," Chief Insp Nyazire said.
He urged the church to solve its differences amicably instead of resorting to violence and warned that police would not hesitate to arrest the culprits.
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It is indeed a sad day when another tool of mental slavery and colonialism is used to divide and conquer Africans. While religion can play a positive part in human existence, many people today are returning to their traditonal religons, improving them, reforming them (leaving out some practices that are unacceptable to modern moral and legal standards), and refining them (like building temples and statuary of the highest quality, writing religious books, creating new shrines, developing a strong 'priesthood' and reviving sacred and holy days. This happens to be the course of the second largest religion among African-Americans in the entire Americas, from Canada/US to Brazil. That religion is ORISHA/VADU nd it is growing because African-desent people are tired of the hipocracy of people who pretend to be 'holy than thou' yet refuse to change the racist and colonial agenda of some religions that came from the MiddleEast/European elements. See "Susu and Susunomics," http://www.iuniverse.com
Hence, what are Africans to do? Nelson Mandela called for an African Renaissance -- that renaissance has to be put into effect and it has to first begin with taking steps to create larger, more powerful and more wealthy states. For example, why not create a 'United States and Kingdoms of Africa,' with the ECOWAS states. Why not create an Angola/Congos Union, or a United Southern African States, or a Union of East African states? Why not?
These states can function as the United States functions. All the present nations remain part of the greater UNION and maintain their cultures, but a regional language is promoted, as a single language to be spoken by all, while traditional and foreign languages are maintained if people want to use them, ( see UNITED STATES KINGDOMS AND DIASPORA OF AFRICA http://blackafricanamericansunited.blogspot.com also see 'Susu and Susunomics," along with 'Susu Economics,' http://www.myspace.com/bestsellingbooks
African nations can learn from China, the US, Russia and the European Union. These are collections of provinces, states and nations -- all with distinct cultures (see more about the Chinese effort to preserve its 52 ethnic groups and many languages http://www.CCTV.com http://www.chinadaily.com.cn http://www.crienglish.com ) Yet, despite these varied groups, the regions/nations above have been able to become powerful nations. The US is a conglomeration of hundreds of ethnic groups, races and subraces. English is the official language and most people speak it, but there are also 'red' Indian and 'Black' Mandinga-Shi (precolumbian Black African origins - who speak their own languages, as well as Africans of slave-trade era who speak languages - like Mandinga or Yoruba) particularly in the litergy of Orisha, Vadu and other African religions.
And so, working to create strong 'Unions' of states among all the nations of AFRICAN/NEGRO origins without having to be dominated by the whims of nations of Mediterannean origins, has to be taken into consideration.
More on African issues:
http://www.raceandhistory.com
http://blackmalepowermovement.forumsland.com
References: http://www.myspace.com/bestsellingbooks
http://blackmalepowermovement.forumsland.com/blackmalepowermovement-post-19 1.html#191
http://www.raceandhistory.com
http://blackmalepowermovement.forumsland.com/blackmalepowermovement-about97 .html&sid=92206678917dfca0a749f563d49ee83b
HAPPY NEW YEAR 2008
HAPPY AFRICAN (KHEMET SOLAR CALENDAR NEW YEAR 6249
The problems in Kenya and the 'tribalism' and other problems with religion clearly show why AFRICA WILL HAVE TO REVIVE ITS ANCIENT TRADITIONS (THOSE THAT ARE POSITIVE).
One of these traditions is the recognition of the African solar calendar WHICH RECOGNIZED THE NEW YEAR ON THE SPRING EQUANOX IN MARCH OF THIS YEAR 2008.
It is reviving African religions, culture, art. It is unifying through language, it is building good economies and DEVELOPING A POLITICAL SYSTEM THAT WORKS FOR AFRICANS.
http://blackmalepowermovement.forumsland.com/blackmalepowermovement-about97 .html&sid=92206678917dfca0a749f563d49ee836
http://blackmalepowermovement.forumsland.com/blackmalepowermovement-post-19 1.html
http://africanamericansunited.blogspot.com
http://www.raceandhistory.com
nubianem@webtv.net http://www.myspace.com/bestsellingbooks