Barnes in Common

the magazine of Churches Together in Barnes
September/October 2008

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Bishop Wilson Sitshebo in Barnes

Interview by Nik Gowing

Bishop Wilson Sitshebo and the Venerable Shingi Taseke were in Barnes en route to the Lambeth conference in Canterbury. To meet the Bishop of Matabeleland and his Archdeacon amidst the wealth of our own community is to be humbled and shocked.

Shingi Taseke told an evensong congregation from our own “land of plenty” that he and the bishop feel like “chivalrous beggars”.

“I come from a country that is poor, with people who are suffering too much. People back home are saying we cannot continue; we cannot cope. We devote most of our time to prayer to give us the nourishment to keep running”.

The clergy work to give the tens of thousands who are suffering “a sense of justice that will strengthen them in their suffering” and to “help give people their dignity back” and “help them believe in themselves”.

Bishop Wilson confirmed the state of social collapse and state-sponsored terror. He grimaced and shrugged when I asked him for any positive signs. “It is worse now since March” which is when Ross shared a week with him in Bulawayo.

He confirmed how the real Zimbabwean economy is now outside the country. Family networks have expanded into South Africa and elsewhere. That is where most of the 3 million migrant Zimbabweans scrape together earnings and repatriate them to what is left of their family back home.

The social fabric of the community in the Bishop’s diocese has become skewed. Most of the young still there are unemployed. But a large number have just upped and gone, risking the crocodiles and barbed wire at the border. By and large it is the older generation that remain. “They are looking to the young abroad for their own futures”.

The deep economic privations are hard enough. The stresses are intensified by the blanket of fear and terror from the mostly youngish men loosely described as “war veterans”. They act in the name of Robert Mugabe and his ZANU-PF party. Under political orders they intimidate and instil fear. Bishop Wilson dares to describe it as “like Stalinism”.

He and his clergy take “the risk of life”. They appeal to whatever reason and conscience the ‘veterans’ might have in their haze of alcohol and drugs that fuel a poisonous spirit of revenge. But revenge for what? Politics is not the Bishop’s business. But to survive the Soviet-style bugging, surveillance and unspoken threats he has to have a canny, fine tuned appreciation of every political and security nuance.

“There is a confusion between the roles of Zanu P-F and the state. To be seen as patriotic you have to say you believe in Zanu P-F. To do anything else is unpatriotic.” And if that is challenged, I ask? “The cost is your life. Just because you are against this, your life is in danger”.

The weight of memories from the massacre of more than 20,000 Ndebeles by Mugabe’s North Korean trained Fifth Brigade between 1982 and 1986 remains heavy and sinister. “It is as if they happened 2-3 years ago” The tactics of brutality and intimidation remain embedded in official mindsets. “They are so brainwashed that they cannot see reason.”

And some of those officers who carried out Mugabe’s orders in that operation continue to exert considerable power in Mugabe’s Joint Operations Command (JOC). “Many of them committed atrocities and want – need – Mugabe to stay in power”.

The church has to believe that its strength is in argument, the ministry and the power of God. But even that is being tested to extremes in this adversity. “Our spirituality has difficulty. It can’t counter it”, said Bishop Wilson.

“We have meetings with the powers that be in Bulawayo. When you point things out they see your point. But back in the crowd they have to think like the mental camp”.

The uplift generated by the spiritual and financial support from the Kingston-Matabeleland link committee cannot be overstated. £500 twice a year “seems modest. It goes a long way”. But they need more income generating projects.

The cash from us in London enables the clergy to keep their churches functioning with a degree of efficiency. It helps their families and their parishioners, especially to afford basics like maize, wheat and fuel.

In his slow, compelling voice the Venerable Shingi Taseke closed his sermon in Barnes by confirming the challenge: “We need to uplift the diocese from where it is in times of hardship. If you cannot give [support and cash] then just give us your prayers. We cannot manage without your love and support”.

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