And on the seventh day

My Bradt guide to Zambia tells me there are an estimated 200 Christian churches in Zambia. Looking around the Katete area I see signs for Burning Bush Church, Jehovah’s Witness, a few different Catholic churches, the Anglican Church at the hospital as well as many others. Overall there is no shortage of places to worship on a Sunday if you are so inclined. Having associated the Jehovah’s witnesses mostly with Americans coming to your door with leaflets trying to convert you, I was surprised to see how big a presence that church has in this area from both the number of patients in the hospital who are members to numerous signs for various ‘Kingdom Halls’.

Frequently in the hospital the issue surrounding blood transfusion arises particularly regarding children who have anaemia secondary to malaria where the parents refuse consent to life saving blood transfusion because the are Jehovah’s witnesses. Thankfully many do seem to change their mind after a reasonable discussion outlining the facts, the absolute necessity for transfusion and the absence of an alternative. Keen as I am to experience as much of Zambian life as I can here I decided to take myself along to a gathering of Jehovah’s witnesses.

A school student tends to my small garden and after visiting his house and family who are all extremely welcoming and generous I discover they are Jehovah’s witnesses. They invite me along to a local convention. On the appointed day I meet my gardener and his dad and we head off. Just a couple of kilometres from the hospital we turn off the tar and drive for another four or five kilometres. We arrive at an immaculate little village with a nice school in the middle. A lot of others are arriving also, mostly on foot and by bicycle, though there are a few other vehicles.

I am introduced to Mr Phiri one of the elders of the congregation. We enter a large enclosure where several thousand others are already assembling. When I ask is this convention for all the eastern province he explains this is for the Katete area only. A couple of weeks earlier I had been to the Catholic service at Katete Stores so I am keen to compare the two. Whilst in the Catholic Church there were a few hundred I later learn there are eight thousand here. Proceedings start pretty much bang on eight thirty another big difference from the Catholic service which like most things in Zambia started considerably later than advertised.

There are several people on a stage with microphones and some speakers around the enclosure, everything is in the local language Chichewa. Mr Phiri gives me an English Bible and some sheets in English out-lining what is going on. There are five or six ten minute talks on different themes such as ‘Jehovah’s generosity’ or his loyalty or his consideration, it all seems pretty reasonable, there is much flicking through the bible from one snippet to another to explain these themes.

There is very little music and singing unlike the Catholic service which had a fantastic array of musicians with lively singing and people dancing in the church. What little singing there is some dull hymns to a tape recording of some drab piano music. It all seems very un-Zambian. Mr Phiri explains that all Jehovah’s teachings are the same the world over. True enough I see looking at my sheets that they are printed in Zambia but produced by the Watch Tower Bible and Trust society of Pennsylvania.

After the talks on the virtues of following Jehovah which all seem very reasonable we move on to the keynote speech. Here things loose the plot a completely. Following my English leaflet I see the address goes from dismissing the theory of evolution ‘how can we be descended from apes and still run away from them when we see them in the bush’.

I then learn that from a passage in Paul’s letter to the Romans the Jehovah’s witnesses foresaw the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War two. Indeed Himmler the head of the SS apparently once bragged that the Jehovah’s witnesses would capitulate but had no answer to the in the last days of the regimen before poisoning himself. I wonder how the average Zambian can identify with any of this. The address moves on to more rational issues that the seven million members worldwide are all apostles spreading the word ‘this is indeed the only organisation that God is using to help draw people to him’.

Leafing through the brochure I have I also see an article explaining that ‘we simply can not socialise with non-believers and hope to suffer no ill consequences.’ Bang on time at 11.20 the interval (and my cue to leave) arrives and Mr Phiri asks me for his thoughts. I first if all thank him for the kindness and generosity shown to me by him and the family that invited me which could not be equalled.

I explain that I found the experience very un-Zambian and struggle to understand the popularity of the Jehovah’s witnesses here. ‘We are an international organisation, anywhere you go will be the same’ he explains as we walk towards his vehicle a fairly new van with ‘Jehovah’s Witnesses Zambia’ printed on the side. He also explains that everyone who attends gets a bible which might cost 65 pen in the shop (about €11). He feels the main reason for their success is that all members must preach everyday so that others can hear their message ‘we are very serious with the preaching work.’

I am not so sure this can explain eight thousand people in an isolated African village. Perhaps there is an attraction to many in the dogmatic nature of the belief system. Perhaps there are other reasons. I ask Mr Phiri the burning question on the blood transfusion issue. He explains that it is written in Acts 15:28-29 and that there is not a total equality of blood. I protest that that surely all Gods children should be valued and not allowed to die when life saving treatment in the form of blood is available.

Mr Phiri calmly explains that ‘why do we bring our children to the hospital if we want them to die, you have other avenues like blood expanders’ I explain that we don’t in Katete and indeed these are no substitute for blood. I ask what will happen to the mother who will consent eventually to a blood transfusion for her child ‘we leave it with Jehovah and herself’.