Ozia Ncube (32) has taken it upon himself to fight the stigma attached to the church whose origins are traced back to “the dark continent”. This Zimbabwean migrant worker has entwined the fight for his religion with that of trying to foster social cohesion among Africans living in Africa’s strongest economy, who face threats from intolerant locals on a daily basis.
“The plight of Zion Church members anywhere in the world is no different from that of migrants in this country. So I have realised that I cannot fight for one and leave out the other,” said the Plumtree-born man.
His first step on that road when he arrived here in 2006 was to form a singing group that sings only Zion accapella songs.
“The songs are those we sing in church and others I personally compose. The ultimate aim is to penetrate society through music, which appeals to all classes and once more people accept Zion music as a form of entertainment and communication with God, they will also accept our religion and get to appreciate us more as a denomination,” he says.
He is not happy that the religion he was brought up on, to which he still subscribes, is being stereotyped by both fellow Christians and society alike.
“While there is better recognition of our church here in South Africa, I still find it strange that back in Zimbabwe, it is associated with the downtrodden, uneducated and poor people from the rural areas – yet we are also Christian. We read the same bible and believe in the same God.”
He plans to take his 30-member music group, Izingane ZamaKrestu, to the highest level possible so that when it gets world acclaim, it will pull up the denomination, like the International Pentecostal Church Choir did. He admitted that the struggle would not be an easy one, as he faces challenges even from within the church itself.
“The first greatest challenge has been to convince our fellow church members to accept that they are Zion members. Most of them are still ashamed of proclaiming their religion because of the stigma that has been associated with it, yet we cannot win the world without having to go out in our large numbers to declare who we and follow that with good deeds. People have to first accept that they are Zion and stop being ashamed of it. There is a lot of spiritual healing that happens in the church and we need to make the world understand that.”
The struggle is the same in the musical field, where Zion songs are hardly played on radio, especially in Zimbabwe.
“We have not yet taken any of our three albums to Zimbabwean radio stations because we did not know the procedure, but I wish more Zion songs could be played in our national radio stations,” added Ncube. “We are lucky that South Africa has some television and radio stations dedicated to the kind of music we play.”
The group has recorded three albums since 2006, with the latest, UJes’ uliqhawe, flying off the shelves . “We are in the process of shooting a DVD for the latest album, following demand from those who have heard our songs,” added Ncube, who was born in Empandeni, Plumtree.
A member of a middle-class family, he migrated to South Africa in 2005, having led an Imbube group in his home country for some time.
Post published in: News