WHO DO WE WORSHIP EXACTLY AS EMASWATI?

JUST who do the people, specifically the Swazi nation now that it is no longer a homogenous society, worship?

This question has been gnawing at my conscience in the aftermath of the visit by the one so-called Prophet Shepherd Bushiri to these shores last month. This after I read in the local newspapers how the Malawian prophet was welcomed on Swazi soil by a girl, estimated to be nine years old, who promptly kissed his shoes after presenting him with a bouquet of flowers amid a tight security detail usually reserved for visiting heads of State, among throngs of people.

For some, the arrival of the South Africa-based Malawian could have been the second coming if the fervor and anticipation were anything to go by; with people converging 10 hours in advance for his sermon slated for later that evening at the old Trade Fair ground. The opening question to this article is contexted, on one hand, from the widely accepted - mind you not necessarily proven - convention that the Swazi nation is predominantly Christian, which presupposes that the majority of compatriots worship God.

I would be naïve to readily believe and accept that the nation comes from a Christian background. There are too many competing and contradictory interests that could be enumerated on if … (I hope you get my drift). Yet on the other hand, the question is informed by the truism of the de facto political capture of some Christian and church organisations to the extent that they are now appendages of the obtaining political hegemony.

As a consequent, these organisations have abdicated their moral and spiritual enclave for political expediency for the earthly benefit of their leaders.
The Kingdom of eSwatini has in recent years sprouted many of the so-called charismatic churches whose popularity stem from the miracles that are attributed to their founders, a majority of whom are foreigners of African origin. Yes, too many people are diseased thus making them vulnerable to con artists professing to have the power of miracles to heal them.

Equally so, owing to the wealth disparities created by an unjust political system, the majority of the people are wallowing in abject poverty and thus become easy targets for unscrupulous pastors claiming to have the power to make them wealthy. But all these come at exorbitant costs to the target audiences that have transformed these so-called religious leaders into mega-rich superstars living in palatial homes and driving, if not flying, the latest machines.
It is possible that today the kingdom has more churches per capita than any other country in the world. This may largely be owed to the fact that religion and churches are not regulated by the State as may be the case in other parts of Africa. Individuals can freely open their churches for which they are at liberty to formulate policies that would economically benefit their founders.  
South Africa has not been spared either, culminating in that country’s vigilant and proactive government’s Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities, also simply referred to as the CRL Rights Commission, recommending strict measures for foreigners wishing to open church branches in that country. Among findings of the CRL were the following; prima facie evidence of commercialisation of religion; uncontrolled movement of cash in and out of the country; lack of good governance structures, etc.
The CRL Rights Commission recommended for the vetting of whoever wanted to establish a church or religious group in South Africa. This would also include a quota system for foreigners desirous of opening branches in that country as well as introducing a tax regime for churches. On the domestic front; the Ministry of Home Affairs is drafting legislation to regulate churches extending to all non-governmental organizations (NGOs). As I see it, while regulating religion and churches is not desirable especially in a country like the Kingdom of eSwatini that frowns upon democratic values, principles and practices, there appears to be a need to rein in certain of the new-age churches. For while in the majority of instances these churches preach the gospel of wealth, there is no empirical evidence of this practically translating to the benefit of congregants yet the pastors, who invariably are the owners of these new churches, have become obscenely wealthy. Added to this is the abuse of congregants who are often made to eat or drink all kinds of toxic substances.
But even more interestingly, which is germane to the question of the object of worship, is that in many instances, congregants are so fixated with the lead or founding pastors as the primary source of miracles – and whatever else that is appealing to their senses - that God becomes a by-the-way. This usually manifests itself whenever the principal pastor is away when church halls become half-empty, or perhaps half-full. The essence being that the pastor or leader, and not God, is the focal point.

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