AFRICANEWS
SOUTH AFRICAAnd you shall be rich and happyby Patrick Chapita (924 words)
Followers of the Johane Masowe Apostolic Faith stand head and shoulders above their contemporaries. If there is anything the followers of this church are famous for, it is their never-say-die attitude and ethic of hard work in pursuit of business opportunities. This attitude is firmly rooted in the church's teachings to its members. Says Lilian Nolutshungu, an affluent member of the church, about her faith's teachings on hard work and wealth: "God does not want people who just sit on their laurels and then cry that they are poor. For one to have the miracle of good living, one must work hard, be adventurous and of course prayerful." It is not unusual to see members of the faith driving posh cars in South African cities. Lilian and her husband, Setswana Nolutshungu, for instance, own a brand new Mercedes Benz car bought primarily from the proceeds of tin-smithing recently. "I'm very happy," says Setswana with a broad smile. "It is through our religious prescriptions of being adventurous and determined that many of us have become successful business people." Both male and female followers of the Johane Masowe Apostolic Faith attach great respect and importance to spirit of self-reliance. Members of the church are easily identified because they are always attired in white, for them a symbol of religious purity. Most faithful specialize in the production of tinware and other hand-made products. The men are the tinkers while the women and children mostly collect "waste" tin plates from industrial areas. It is the women and children who also sell the dishes, water containers and numerous other products made by the men - often moving from street to street in search of customers. Aside from tin-smithing, the men are also adept at welding and carpentry while the women and children also sell second-hand clothes. Though the church has a large following throughout South Africa, it is particularly around Johannesburg that members seem most affluent. Setswana and his wife reside in Duduza, a tiny township on the east range of South Africa. Setswana now can not even dream of taking up formal employment. "I make up to US$ 1000 per month. This is enough to pay my monthly rent, school fees for my children and my business expenses," he says. And his 10 year-old son, George, is already showing signs of becoming a successful tin-smith himself. "Just give him a hammer and tin-plates and you get wonderful results," he says proudly of his son. Setswana's wife Lilian brings in additional income to the family from selling second-hand clothes across the borders. Womenfolk from the Johane Masowe Apostolic Faith can claim a first of sorts for having pioneered cross-border trade in second-hand clothing. Selling second-hand clothes had been previously shunned as unprofitable and therefore unworthwhile but the trade is now the lifeline of hundreds of people across South Africa. "Many people are now following our footsteps but they are not enjoying it because money without God is nothing," says Lilian. Poor neighbours think that the affluent members of the Johane masowe Apsotolic Faith flaunt their wealth - and are unhappy. Indeed, Setswana himself makes no bones about a little ostentation: "God wants us to display our prosperity so that other people can know that with God, everything is possible." Neighbours murmur that the members of the church are crooks who are involved in shady deals such as smuggling stolen cars across borders. The Johane Masowe Apostolic Faith members are, however, uncowed by these accusations. "These are just tramped-up charges by groups of people trying to stop us from doing our business," says Setswana. "If we are crooks, the law enforcement people would have thrown us in jail. But because what we are doing is honest and involves God's touch, there is nothing to worry about." Setswana adds that, "people deliberately close their eyes to the great effort that we put into our businesses. Nothing is impossible if one puts God above all else." For Setswana, plain jealousy is at the heart of accusations that members are crooked. "We are not going to surrender just because the element of jealousy has crept into our relationship with other members of our community. In fact, we are going to display our improved lives: after all, that is what God wants us to do." Analysts draw a parallel between the Johane Masowe Apostolic faithfuls' attitude to work and that of 16th century Calvinists in Europe. For the Calvinists, work was the passport to heaven: the harder you worked, the more valid the passport. But unlike the Johane Masowe faithful, Calvinists would blush at the thought of "showing off" their wealth. For the Calvinists believed in reinvesting what they made from their production. Calvinists produced in order to re-invest - not in order to consume. It is indeed this aspect of Calvinism that made sociologists say that Calvinism and the capitalist style of production fitted like lock and key. Yet the attitude of the Johane Masowe Apostolic faithful towards work and wealth is important if only because it goes against the stereotypes that many have of a typical African Independent Church (AIC). To many, AICs are groupings of wretched , lowly-educated, bottom-of-the-social-strata, people without a social vision. Indeed, it is not uncommon to hear it reasoned that AIC faithful take to religion to ran away from the harsh realities of the social deprivation of their environment. Not so with the Johane Masowe faithful, which by encouraging its followers to be hard-working and wealth-loving, shows that the key pre-occupation of AICs is not always the here-after.
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