By Kennedy Nyavaya
The longstanding African Traditional Religion (ATR) practice of praying and worshipping the Creator via the ancestral spirits is demonic and has been erroneously tied to African culture yet it has foreign roots, renowned preacher and author Batsirai Java has said.
In unpacking his third book titled African Religion, A Blessing or a Curse, scheduled for launch tomorrow, Apostle Java said familial rituals practiced under the guise of local culture are an imported form of idolatry.
“The ancestral worship we call our own in Africa started in Mesopotamia in the Middle East. So through thorough research we have unearthed it from the very times it started about over a thousand years before Jesus Christ was born,” said Java.
“This is one of the biggest cults in the world, but denied as a cult and hidden under our African culture as part of it.”
According to Java, Christians or other people determined to pray to God the right way must desist from consulting the spirits of dead people.
“We need to start separating our good tradition of love, honour, respect, righteousness and justice from religion which is cultic practice of worshipping the dead and totally against the Bible,” he said.
“Just because someone lived and died first does not give them power over how our walk or life as a grouping should be. We should always take things from the Bible, the Word of God and if one does not believe it or the Lordship of Jesus Christ, it is to their peril.”
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The argument between Christianity and ATR has divided opinion since time immemorial with those who subscribe to the latter also claiming the former came as a smokescreen used by Western colonialists to brainwash and colonise locals.
However, traditional spiritual counsellor and musician Diana Samkange, also known as MaNgwenya, said African religious practices are equivalent to Christians’ prayer to God through Jesus Christ.
“We understand that there is a Creator of heaven, earth and sea. So if we do not ask our ancestral spirits to get our prayers to the Creator, then we will be worshipping to them and that is not right because ancestors are like a channel similar to what Jesus is to Christians,” said MaNgwenya.
She added that Christians must put into practice what they preach by desisting from judging other religions or branding them evil.
“There is something strange about how Christians approach other religions. They say God is love so if He is, then they ought to love, respect and embrace others for who they are because if that happens the world will be in harmony,” she said.
The book marks Java’s third following two others titled The Voice and The Mystery of Dreams and Interpretations and it will be sold online and in hard-copy formats.
