Linda Masarira, a human rights activist and now the closest thing to the MDC-T President Thokozani Khupe, issued her first and lengthiest public statements in which she showered praises on Khupe, likening her to the Biblical Hannah and Queen Esther.
Masarira, who was elected unopposed as the spokesperson of the Khupe-led MDC-T faction, argued Khupe’s resolve to challenge MDC-T leader Nelson Chamisa and his allies all but inspired her to join the breakaway opposition party.
Posting on her Facebook page which has more than 3000 followers, Masarira said:
“At this stage the life of Khupe could be said it is headed for the direction where she has become a capable, intelligent and virtuous woman, a patriotic military adviser like Deborah, a woman of constancy like Ruth, the ideal mother like Hannah, hospitable as the Shunamite, a revealer of secrets to national leaders like Huldah and even more than Queen Esther the woman who risked sacrificing her life for her people.”
Masarira said Khupe’s resolve motivated her to join the breakaway MDC-T.
“… devoted to the cause of women emancipation and to confront patriarchal dominance peacefully and insisting on what rightfully belongs to her which those that scoff at the guiding constitutions and tenets of life wanted to wrest from her. It is because of that practical devotion that permeated all relationships in her life that I am here today,” she added.
Well, this is not a political commentary platform, so let us just go linear into the part that caught our attention on her post; Masarira bracketing Madam Khupe together with iconic Biblical women of valour whose unique stories of faith have both captivated and significantly challenged us over the years in many ways. Like Ruth, Hannah, the Shunammite women, Huldah the prophetess and Queen Esther.
What’s confounding about her particular hermeneutical analogy is not how it is coming from someone who is unequivocally besotted over her assumed powers as Khupe’s spin doctor, but the meagreness of faith premises on both ends. We are still probing in to see if both women actually believe in the Bible and the God who wrote it. Put simply, are they believers of any sort, other than being believers in the political ascendancy?
Yet, as sophisticated citizens and Christians, we do not require any odd sageness to puzzle this out. It is native intelligence that the Bible has been one of the most influential documents in Zimbabwean Political History.
The book is widely lauded for its impact on our language, literature, ‘culture’ and of its political significance. It has had a profound influence on national politics, boasting an unparalleled durability and reach. Up to the minute, many reports have uncovered that Zimbabwe in particular and Africa at large, are progressively turning out to be a Christian hold. So what is the most effective device to use when addressing people who are ingrained in the Biblical dependence?
To make such a claim for the Bible is not to say that it has always been used on the side of the political nonpareil. It has not. The Christian Scriptures have been used by many over years to justify political disenfranchisement, subservience and inequality. People are well capable of twisting the Bible towards their own ends.
Under false conviction of faith and Biblical proficiency, many Politicians have been able to abuse the Holy Scripture, by either saying leader X is godsent or an angel or saying Y is like various biblical panaceas we relate to thereby misleading the decent and spiritual gullible commonalty.
But, who can tell, maybe Masarira is right in saying that Madam Khupe is like those aforementioned biblical figures. We just being watchful as the Bible urges us to stay awake at all times, lest someone exploit this immutable faith we are tremendously indebted to, to push their own selfish agendas.
The question that remains is whether these politicians and their hackneyed biblical analogues will pursue employing the Scripture to ensure it has an on-going role in sustaining their commitments and shaping understanding of these ‘Political virtues’ they are so keen to make us observe.
Commentary based on Newsday Zimbabwe & The Reasonableness of Christianity (1695)
