Moria Moria


So curiosity got the better of me and I finally decided to visit Moria. Yes, Moria the headquarters of the Zion Christian Church (ZCC). To jog your Sunday School memory, Moriah is the mountain where Abraham was to sacrifice his son Isaac, at God’s command. If you’re a member of the ZCC, Moria is your spiritual home where the prophet Bishop Dr Barnabas Lekganyane resides and it is the destination of each Easter pilgrimage where more than 3 million members gather. The ZCC has membership of more than 6 million, making it one of, if not the largest Christian denomination in Southern Africa.


                            Aerial view of the City of Moria courtesy of Ivan Muller

Moria has been on my to do list for a few years. I have enormous interest in people of different denomination, culture, religion, race & nationality. This is the main reason I travel the world, especially Africa in recent years. I still dream of Pre-colonial Africa where there was freedom of movement and no segregation along ethnic or geographical lines. The reason behind producing a passport to travel a mere 40 minutes between Nairobi & Kilimanjaro or a 1 hour flight between Johannesburg and Maputo still baffles me.

 I digress...

Back to Moria, I bet you have heard or even made a few jokes about Moria or the ZCC but have you asked yourself who they are or what they stand for? I'm not going to give you answers to those questions here unfortunately but I WILL tell you about my experience in Moria.

On 22 March 2015 my horseband Kenny, my sister (niece) Lil Q and I decided to take the #RoadTrip. I love road trips to nowhere. When Kenny arrived to pick us up that morning, he was surprised to find us wearing shorts instead of long dresses, long sleeves and headscarves. You HAVE seen ZCC women, right? They dress very presentably, long dresses; heads scarves; not forgetting the ZCC five pointed silver star badge on the left side of the chest. *shrug*  I was not prepared to go on a road trip dressed in long dress and a doek. Where's the fun in that? Hellooooo?!

                                   VERSUS


Anyway we got the car & our stomachs filled up, took a few selfies and made our way towards the North.  The trip was a blur adventure characterised by laughter and a random playlist from Kenny's iPhone. The untamed beauty of South Africa remains unparalleled. Limpopo & its beautiful views, the gentleness of its people is enough to disarm you.                                        




                                                         
A few hours later we touched down, Moria!!!



Security directed us to the search area where we parked and awaited further instruction.  As we got off the car, we got very weird looks from the community. You know that Exodus 3 "Moses do not come near here. Take off your shoes (or rather put on some decent clothing in our case) for the place on which you are standing is holy ground" kind of look? Yeah that. Well, Lil Q and I WERE plastered in make up and had large earrings on. We had covered our legs in long pants by then at least LOL! It got so awkward, one of the elders mumbled "we wear pants because WE are the men here" That did not bother us too much, our church back home shares the same sentiment. Luckily our father has never forced such rules upon us. We responded by "we do have clothes to change into bontate" Lil Q & I were escorted to the ladies' change room and we got into more conservative clothing. We had to show respect, Moria IS the holy city after all. Under the blazing 38 degrees of Limpopo, I had on a maxi dress; long sleeved sweat top and a doek. One lady even complimented Lil Q "Bona o montle yang?  Doek ya o tshwanela." Kenny on the other hand was dressed to the nines: pants, formal shirt, blazer and all. 

                                         Lil Q selfie in her Makoti swagger

The elders (security) were strict about cameras. We were instructed to leave our phones and cameras at the gate after being quizzed about how many pictures we had taken inside and outside the property. I would have loved to take pictures of the village, Lil Q in her makoti gear and the congregation at large but alas.

Once we were in the car, ready to start our tour of the village one of the elders offered or rather insisted to accompany us. I gave up my front seat, as is customary. My parents would disown me for letting an elder sit in the back while I assumed the position "yo mfazi we polisa" (This is a Nguni saying about how a policeman's wife sits in the front-seat while prisoners sit uncomfortably in the back of the van)


We drove slowly through the village, the elder (a man of very few words) giving us more information on the church itself, the hierarchy and the different uniforms. He also showed us the school where the Bishop did his primary education. I asked a lot of questions, I was there to find out more about the church. 
A few moments later we stopped in front of the main church building. Our tour guide emphasised "do not get out of the car until I come back." There were at least 4000 members walking around the village that Sunday. They simply stood there staring at us. We felt rather very out of place.Without our phones, it was worse. Technology gives one that assurance that one can easily communicate with the rest of the world.

The elder came back to collect us. We were rather apprehensive about getting off the car.  It would be impossible to blend in, I thought. First of all we were not in uniform. How do we even explain our friendship/polygamy? We decided that Kenny & I are husband and wife and Lil Q is our daughter ahahahahaha. We were taken to the offices on the first floor of the church building to meet a church representative, whom at the first sight of me asked whether I did not have a blazer to cover my shoulders. I thought "No this again, I'm boiling under all these layers, dude." The second question was whether we are journalists, where we come from and what we are doing there. I guess our response that "no, we are mere citizens of South Africa interested in the ZCC and decided to visit" did not quite cut it. He told us a bit more about the faith & spoke proudly of their prophet and committing to a life where alcohol and cigarettes are replaced by a badge and a cap. I have to say that people there live a simple life man. Uniform, no pressure to look better than the next person. They all look the same. 

Once we were done we got back in the car and made our way to the gate. The elder's attitude had changed so much by then. He was very welcoming and conversational, even tried to accommodate Lil Q & I by speaking English. My Setswana only takes me as far as Hammanskraal and not further. I was totally out of depth. Thank goodness for Kenny's presence, he did his best speaking his Setswana First Language, which came in rather handy as we tried to negotiate our way into & around the village. The time was not enough, I would love to learn more about the church. What the media tells us is nothing compared to what we witnessed that day. When you have time, take a road trip and get lost in the beauty of Limpopo. Make your way to Moria, you won't regret it. 

The experience for me was a once in a lifetime. To the people of Moria & Limpopo at large: 

KGOTSO E BE LE LENA



                                  Infrastructure upgrades in Moria (Department of Transport)



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Khumbulekhaya: A Quantum Leap

Image
Only a few things in this world make me happier than being called by my clan name, Chizama. My mother calls me that. Bless her. Usually when she recites our clan names she says Cete ; Chizama wase Mdizeni kwa Mayipase. Until a few years ago, I thought eMdizeni was Nirvana, some place of perfect peace, heaven almost.   A town whose reach is only in imagination. It produced my father, right? A perfect man in my eyes it can’t be short of perfection. As one grows up, one wants to know their heritage. We start to question where we come from. December 2014 I asked my parents to tell me more about themselves and their upbringing. One should know what to write on their orbituary like. Shhhh my parents do not want to hear about death, please don’t tell them I mentioned orbituary ahahha. We took a drive, just the 3 of us to spots where they used to play;  their homes; their schools etc. One thing stands out from that long drive, however. My dad showed me a police station where he used
Read more

#LessonsFromMyDad

Image
My siblings & I had a dog once. His name was Benjy, a Jack Russell Terrier I think. I’m a black South African, I grew up in the 1980s and the only breeds we knew were the bulldog and a German Shepherd or “police dog” as it was known. Benjy joined our family in the late 1980s and unfortunately met his Maker in the winter of 1991 after a short illness. The loss was unbearable for all of us, it was very hard losing a member of the family. I remember my dad’s prayer at the funeral. Yes that’s how much we all loved that dog, we held a funeral. My dad described life as a Stage Play. He said, I paraphrase “Lights come on, the audience claps and the actor plays their role. Once their role is done, the actor runs or disappears backstage and that is the end.” 24 years later, those words I still carry with me every single day.                      I too have a role to play in life and had better make it memorable.  My father, u Dukie; #TheDuke, Bra Max, Merican, uTata Bhobho, Principal u
Read more

The Power of three: Mount Kilimanjaro

Image
It was exactly 7 days after my birthday in 2014 that I decided to take on Mount Kilimanjaro. I had done almost all the wild activities on my #BucketList, from flying the Raven R44 to Skydiving. Some physical and mental challenge has got to be next on my list, I thought. A friend had mentioned Mount Kilimanjaro years earlier but the whole idea of camping for 7 nights did not appeal to me in the least. As a casual hiker I had done most local hiking trails including the Table Mountain a number of times by 2014 and all of them had become rather mundane. On 10 July I sent an email to people whom I considered a good fit to travel with and take on such a mission. The list included my brother of course, we had planned to enter the #AmazingRace since varsity and we've been waiting for SABC3 to bring the local version eversince. Anyway, I started with almost 20 people on the invitation list, friends and acquaintances from across the world. A lot of enthusiasm was shown in the begi
Read more