Totems: do they control our lives?

Generally Zimbabweans believe in God (Mwari/Musikavanu), but they also believe their lives are controlled by the ancestral spirits (vadzimu/amadlozi). Vadzimu is the spirit of your ancestors – when a person dies, his spirit wanders until he is given permission to come back and protect his children. Only a full grown person who has children can become an effective mudzimu.

Totems identify the different clans, and it is generally believed that people of that clan will portray attributes of the totem. If your totem is Shumba (Lion) for instance, your attributes will be hunting, you will most likely be powerful, sexy, fearless. But you may also be selfish, cunning, and proud – most men I know of the Shumba totem are sexual predators and are prone to abuse of power.

If your totem is monkey, you will probably be a very jumpy, unstable person – moving from place to place and rarely settling. You will also probably be untruthful, changing your story with your changing circumstances. If your totem is Zebra, you will probably be smart, proud, maybe a loner as well – not keen to associate with all and sundry.

After independence in Zimbabwe we made the effort to tell our story as a nation, and this is a good and important thing. However, parts of our story pay allegiance to vadzimu, crediting them with liberating us from the colonial oppressors during the Chimurenga war, and daily asking them to watch over us. Even in our churches we have members who pray to God on Sunday and pray to vadzimu the rest of the time.

Now, hear what the word of the Lord says – “You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on earth below or in the waters below. You shall not bow to them or worship them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.” (Exodus 20:4-6).

This law of the Lord has generational effects of blessings and curses to all mankind. We are bound by these laws whether we acknowledge them or not. As it is said, we cannot break God’s law, but we can break ourselves on it – if one attempts to defy the law of gravity he will not break that law, but he himself may well break in the process.

I believe that in attaining our independence in 1980 we rightfully took pleasure in being a sovereign state. But I also believe in the process of attributing the victory to our ancestors, we took a place that rightfully belongs to the one and only true God, and gave it to others. There is only one God, and he is God of all the earth – he will not share his glory with any other. Until we have the courage to proclaim from the highest office that God is God over Zimbabwe, we remain under the curse.