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RAIN SEASON IN AFRICA

Indeed rains mean life in Africa where the majority of the population survives on agriculture. In 1992 drought extended from the Sahel to Southern Africa and food had to be sourced from North and Latin America. Traditionally Africans hold ceremonies to ask the spirits and gods above to bless them with good rains.
Clairvoyants specialised in mediating for rain normally lead such rituals.
For most Africans this rain ceremony is a holy religion and spiritual mediums have the final say in their special faculty, be it health, politics or war.

About 30 kilometres from Zimbabwe’s capital Harare, a spiritual medium allowed us to attend his seance.
We had to remove our shoes before entering his hut where he put on black and white robes and donned a fur hat. Amid clapping of hands he went into a trance.
A high pitched voice of Chinamora, a spirit renowned in the area for four hundred years, agreed to answer our questions through an interpreter. We asked why prayers for rain were not answered during the 1992 drought.

Young Zimbabwe Girl goes into a trance during a spiritual rain dance

"There are a number of wrongs which have been committed by today’s generation which has lost African culture", the spirit of Chinamora explained in the local Shona language. "For example bloodshed during the independence war.
So the nation must be cleansed and society must, through traditional chiefs, appease the spirits by brewing beer and slaughtering oxen. Then the way can be paved for rain prayers to be answered", said Chinamora.

Canadian trained environmental scientist, Dr. Christopher Kuruneri who is also a member of the Parliament of Zimbabwe, does not prescribe to this traditional way of thinking.
Dr. Kuruneri’s scientific explanation is not believed in rural areas.
Politicians who are trying to keep pace with industrialisation may have to re-examine the grassroots and look at the statements of spiritual leaders who are saying they have not been appeased and whose word is impeccable to the majority voter in rural areas.
It has already been established for example that the Zambian voter was swayed to support President Chiluba by spiritual leaders in Zambia.
Chinamora insisted that politicians did not honour their promise.

"Spiritual mediums were asked by nationalist leaders to back the war effort before independence but were never approached again after independence and as far as the spirits are concerned the war is still on, hence the drought and economic tribulations", Chinamora said.
Dr. Kuruneri gives a scientific explanation insisting that the environment is influenced by such effects as El Nino / Elini and environmental pollution.

Recently, Christians in Lesotho who had gathered to pray for rain had to seek shelter from the deluge as they went home from church.
King Letsie III had called for a day of prayer after a prolonged drought in the southern African kingdom, which relies heavily on subsistence agriculture. The local weather office has predicted more rain is on the way.
The country relies heavily on agriculture and is expected to have a poor harvest this year as a result of the drought’s effects on the staple maize crop.
The rains are unlikely to save this season’s crops, but could help in the cultivation of winter crops.
South Africa’s industrial heartland is also partly dependent on water from Lesotho, which is channelled down from the mountains from a dam project inaugurated in 1998.


23 August 1999


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