Finding the Faithful

There is nothing more beautiful –magical, really- than hearing African music rising to the clouds throughout your neighborhood as you play with your child inside your lush yard walls.

And there is nothing more unsettling –terrifying, really- than hearing a thousand voices screaming non-understandable words in unison so loudly that the earth under your feet shakes.

Such is our weekly experience with the faithful in our African city. 

Church is a very cultural thing, as any person who has ever traveled will tell you.  Though people across the world may share the same religion, chances are their cultural habits also affect how they show their practices of worship in uniquely different ways.  Though there are many churches in Africa, of a variety of religions and sizes, the most visible way faith is present in our country looks like this:

 

 

(please pardon the bad photography that happens when your husband never slows down for pictures...) 

You can call these communal churches.  You can call these cults.  You can call these small worships.  But beyond being referred to in a variety of ways, almost each of these gatherings is unique in its particular practices.  Animation is a common partner with Christianity in many places in Southern Africa; beliefs in personified pieces of nature, places, or animals go hand in hand with a male-led Christianity that literally varies from street to street and field to field.  Idol worship and ancestral tradition is often present, and the sexes are often separated for most, if not all, of the service time.

Times of worship vary from group to group, but most practices call followers to gather on Saturdays or Sundays.  No matter whether the sun is just rising or nearly setting, whether it is pouring or painfully hot, groups of worshipers wearing their distinct colors are always out and about.   Add in some extra enthusiasm during Christmas, Easter, New Years, and special revival weekends, and there is rarely a day you will not pass the prayers of the faithful as you drive along farms and fields.

When we first moved to Harare, I spent our first month thinking we lived near a stadium.  Loud speakers, shouting, and roars of a crowd filled our yard constantly.  Sometimes it was beautiful.  And sometimes it was so powerful it was unsettling, as though the chanting was out of control.  We came to learn that the sounds we hear every Saturday, and sometimes on other special days, is a church that gathers on a field over a kilometer away.

It was actually surprising for us to learn just how many of my husband’s students attend church every weekend.  Though church-going statistics are high, you would never know it from the small amount of formal churches to be found throughout our neighborhoods.  The church communities that do gather inside an enclosure for worship often gather in rented or borrowed places such as schools, libraries, and other public buildings. 

Our son Jonas has become obsessed with the churches we have found here in Africa.  There is something about them he loves so much that he almost always screams for us to back up or to get the camera when we pass one.  Hence, here are a few sweet little churches I can share with you:

Masvingo, Zimbabwe

Johannesburg, South Africa

This was the sweetest looking building in a worn down neighborhood in Johannesburg, South Africa. This teeny shack no bigger than half my living room sat in the midst of a dirty mechanic and a razor-wired parking lot. 

Mount Pleasant, Zimbabwe

 JoBerg, South Africa: I took this picture haphazardly with my camera out the window just seconds before a man tried to mug us.  Sort of spoiled the moment.