For many years now people have come from different parts of the country to pray on Chigona mountain, which rises steeply above the settlement for people with leprosy where Bradburne spent his last ten years. This year they will also gather at Westminster Cathedral, London, for a special Mass to mark the anniversary.
Why do they come? What is it about Mutemwa that draws people? And who was John Bradburne? All three questions can be answered together.
John started life as a soldier in the Malayan jungle during the Second World War. It was a terrible experience but it set him searching deeply for God and after the war he tried several times to enter different religious communities in the UK and in Jerusalem. It became clear to him that such a life was not for him but he continued his search in other ways. He moved from place to place but consistently sought silence and solitude.
Eventually he ran out of places to stay in the UK and wrote to his friend, Fr John Dove, the founder of Silveira House Chishawasha, asking if there was a cave in Africa where he could stay. The cave was to be Mutemwa, close to Mutoko, where for ten years he cared for the people with leprosy, feeding and bathing those who needed help, keeping vigil with them in their sickness and burying them when they died.
He met with misunderstandings and opposition and finally rejection and death. The manner of his living and his dying can be read in the gospels. It was much the same as that of Jesus.
And people have sensed this. They are drawn to John because they know he came close to God during his journey and he can show us a way of reaching God too. John cared nothing for the things that motivate so many people; a position in society where people stand up and call you chef or money to buy a nice house in a leafy suburb and drive a car that draws peoples eyes.
John had no power and no money and he lived in a tin hut outside the camp with no running water or electricity, freezing in winter and scorching in summer. His heart was wholly centred on God and his people in Mutemwa and he poured out his thoughts and feelings in thousands of poems which are now being collected, organised and put on a website under his name.
In brief, that is why people will gather on September 5 in two continents to honour a man who gave literally everything so as to possess God.
(The Mass at Westminster Cathedral, London, will be at 2.00 on Saturday, September 5th)
19.8.2009
10:15
John Bradburne of Mutemwa
In the early morning of the 5th of September 1979 John Bradburne was shot dead near Mutemwa and his body left by the side of the Nyamapanda road. Thirty years on, this coming 5th of September, Bradburne will be remembered both at Mutemwa and in London, the capital of the land of his birth. (Pictured: The Late John Bradburne)
Comments
I have spent 2 weeks at Mutemwa the month of July 2014 as a cleaner during my sabbatical this year, what a challenging thing to do and I saw and was told about the work of John Bradburne. What a challenging life style it is now, to think how it was like in the 70s is beyond one can imagine. John offered to do that for the rest of his life it is really really humbling. May God bless his soul There is a lot still to be done. To think that just a shavel can change one’s life is heart breaking. This week I am having a talk about Mutemwa and ask who ever would like to help to do so. At Pelsall Methodist Church, Chapel Street, WS3 4LN, phone 01922445802
Such a thoughtful letter, Molly.
My cousin, Donald Purdon bought the tin shed for John after he was evicted from Mutemwa for exposing the expropriation of government rations for the lepers by administrators.
Our Lions club (MTOKO/MREWA) used to contribute an ox or 2 to the leper settlement each Christmas. Donald Purdon (deceased) was the closest to John of any of our Lions.
No task was too small, too big or too grubby for John for his beloved leper brothers.
Later on Pauline Hutchings became John’s closest friend. I can find an email address for her, if you wish.
John was not ‘one of’, he was THE best.
Go safely and in God’s blessing
Chris Purdon