Towards a Reform of the Christian Understanding of Shona Traditional Marriages in Light of Ancient Israelite Marriages

Abstract

As we celebrate 500 years of the great reformist, Martin Luther, among the most memorable and cherished ideas about him were his calls for a return to the Bible as well as reforms in the understanding of marriage. Departing from the traditional sacramental theology of marriage, Luther convincingly argued that since matrimony existed from the beginning of the world, and still continues even among unbelievers, there are no reasons why it should be called a sacrament of the church alone. Tapping from his reformist ideas, this paper argues for the place of Shona traditional marriages in light of celebrated traditional biblical marriages. The argument here comes against the past and current onslaught against African traditional marriages. Evaluated against the European white wedding, African traditional marriages have been rated as living in sin unless a marriage had been blessed in church. Had it been just a colonial ill-thought it could have been tolerable, but what is quite disturbing is that most pastors today continue to ridicule those who are traditionally married but not yet married in church. Engaging a pragmatic approach to the biblical text, this paper argues that if God blessed such marriages as Isaac to Rachel, Jacob to Leah and Rachel, Boaz to Ruth and others—which were contracted traditionally—there is no way His hand could be seen as short when it comes to African marriages. Since biblical marriages which were contracted traditionally were not sinful in nature, one can use such examples as a leverage to appreciate and defend Shona traditional marriages.

Continuities and discontinuities in the cultural evolution of global consciousness

“…The death of a close-other represents objective discontinuity in people's lives. But it also affords the opportunity to make meaning, and to (re-)create interconnectedness [46]. Maybe death makes people feel small [45], and if the proper rituals are observed to manage such loss, this creates room for new expansive growth.…”

“…By contrast, Zhang's [44] research on dark tourism (sites of death and destruction) suggests a more complicated dialectic between positive and negative life experiences in fostering GC; summarizing the literature, she writes 'A lack of faith or religion potentially creates anxiety, vulnerability, and isolation in the face of death and dying… Consuming dark tourism may reflect this state of anxiety in individuals and expresses their pursuit for ontological security in contemporary society'. This anxiety motivates a search for existential authenticity; it may stimulate awe, and awe and profundity can make the self aware of how small it is in the greater scheme of things [45], but also interconnected: serving as an affirmation of life across generational time, expanding the boundary of who one is, perhaps through ritual affirmation of ancestral ties [46]. No research we are aware of has attempted to track the impact of a death in the family longitudinally on the growth or decline of GC.…”

The role of men and masculinities in mitigating child marriage: a case of Mashonaland central province, Zimbabwe.

“…The largest party of Mashonaland Central is rural and less developed, compared to other provinces in Zimbabwe. For this reason, most of the Shona people believe in traditional African culture where marriage is celebrated and cherished (Mwandayi 1994). Most of the Shona people in the province observe some cultural practices which have a strong influence in their lives.…”

“…Marriage and religion are some of the institutions in which Shona culture expresses different forms of inequalities (Konyana 2011). Mwandayi (1994) further expresses that marriage is a cog around which an African society revolves, the absence of which there is no society to talk about, no reason to live for and no future to talk about. It is this most valued institution traditional African society is using to marginalize the girl child mostly.…”

“…The other form of traditional marriage is 'Ambushing Home a Loved Woman' Musenga Bere, in this practice, a man takes by force the girl he wants to be his wife. All the other formalities of paying bride price will be done whilst the young girl is with the husband Mwandayi (1994). The…”