There’s more to Vapostori than clean-shaven heads

Rosenthal Mutakati Ghetto Blast
FOR long revered as a holy and apolitical lot, members of apostolic sects have clawed into infamy following the assault on journalists and police officers at a Budiriro shrine two Fridays ago.
Subsequent court appearances by nearly 30 suspects have helped publishers move a significant number of newspaper copies off the streets.
Distinguishable by their white garments and sporting Kojak-style bald heads and long beard with a hook-shaped staff in hand, members of apostolic sects are dominating public talk and newspaper columns.

No story seems to be presently valued than the attack on policemen which has transformed Vapositori into butts of jokes in bars, churches, kombis, at weddings and funerals.

The vicious Budiriro attack has totally eclipsed tales of the horrific Seke Road kombi crash which claimed 10 people, protracted police-kombi battles and the Tafadzwa and Alick Macheso divorce saga. “Pakarohwa munhu pamasowe nemaporofita,” you hear children railing in the streets as Vapositori make their way down most streets.

Naughty touts jeer at passing cops, threatening to report them to Vapositori for harassing them. “Iwe mungonjo ngwarira kwaurikuenda kuzere madhara emisoro svuu,” they shout while hanging precariously on sliding doors of moving kombis. “Beware of Vapositori,” cheeky kombi crews have inscribed on their vehicles.

Followers of the apostolic faith are commonly referred to as “mapositori” which is derived from the English word apostle which means a follower of Christ.

Men are usually referred to as “madzibaba” while the women are called “madzimai”.
These people are usually not flashy and lead modest lifestyles though some among them don trendy garments and the texture of their skin shows they live large.

Vapositori wormed into infamy shortly after independence when they reportedly crossed the border from South Africa with a coffin full of trinkets for resale disguised as a body being repatriated home for burial.

While most of them are truly God-fearing, there are bad apples among them who snatch other people’s wives and rely on money laundering.
Prophetesses reportedly demand cash from unsuspecting clients and sometimes lure well-heeled men into bed.

“Vanoera, vachaenda Canaan baba, Jerusarema/Chingwa chinemajarini kuna baba, tinoda tii hobvu/Wanzai chingwa kunababa, nekuti ndivo vanotenga/Vane ndebvu dzakachena muromo dzinenge mupunga wakaoma/,” this olden classic by Zexie Manatsa called “Tii Hobvu” is now being played in kombis by crews keen on spiting members of the apostolic faith.

Some members of the apostolic faith have since abandoned their religious dress code perhaps until after the Masowe saga has died down.
But the last month has not been so rosy for Vapositori.

Only three weeks ago, an acclaimed healer in Seke reportedly gunned down his wife following a heated argument over alleged infidelity.
This comes as The Herald’s vernacular sister paper Kwayedza ran a story of an Epworth prophet who reportedly held a family captive and ended up impregnating a married woman on the pretext that he was casting out bad spells.

Day in day out false prophets are being flushed out from the communities in which we live.
This has prompted Government to order an investigation into the operations of apostolic sects amid reports of child sexual abuse and ill-treatment of women.

Current goings-on in apostolic sects have removed a veil of secrecy which was cast over this closed community.
Most sects do not take kindly to their members attending schools and visiting hospitals in the event of sickness, hence violating their rights.

Access to education and health care is a basic human right which most apostolic sects break willy-nilly for alleged fear of contamination with the outside world. Children of school-going age are made to sit at home learning skills like carpentry, metalwork and brick-moulding.

Some of them are made to tend livestock at the expense of their studies.
Visiting hospitals is taboo.

The churches believe in praying for the sick and letting them move around with stones which elders in the church believe have a healing effect.

In a country awash with hospitals and clinics and various medical aid schemes for the benefit of almost all classes of people, one shudders to think why it does not dawn on these people to seek medical treatment.

Most followers, communities allege, are buried in secrecy and everything is viewed as normal.
Pregnant women are made to stay at makeshift hospitals where they are taken care of by self-styled midwives where death of both the mother and child is certain should complications occur.

Births and deaths at these makeshift church clinics are not registered, a development which is in abrogation of the country’s laws on the registration of births and deaths.

This accounts for the reason why most followers of apostolic sects do not possess identity documents.
Girls are married off at tender ages largely to elderly men who have little care for them except treating them as baby-making machines.
Reports are awash that girls as young as 13 are made to view marriage as the only way to crawl out of poverty.

“Baba ndivo mutsvaki wepfuma, amai muchengeti wayo. Hapana mudzimai akarairwa anosiya musha achinotsvaga basa. Musafurirwa navemabasa erima vasingadi kuteerera mirairo yeshoko,” you hear women being brainwashed at most gatherings.
Women in these churches are largely viewed as animals of service and sacrifice.

All property belongs to men yet they toil day and night to put food on the table.
Birth control is way against church principles, resulting in these mostly polygamous unions being blessed with many children they are unable to feed and clothe.