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Masuka, David

18XX-1950
Zion Christian Church
Zimbabwe

While David Masuka’s exact birth date is unknown, it is clear that he was born in the late 19th century and was a “mu-Duma from Bikita-East,” a region in what was then Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe).[1] He was among the original leaders of Zionism in that country, and unlike several of the other original leaders, Masuka had never been a member of the Dutch Reformed Church prior to his commitment to Zionism, nor had he any previous catechetical training.[2] Making his way south to the Transvaal in the 1920s in search of work, Masuka eventually met Bishop Mhlangu, the founder of the Zion Apostolic Church of South Africa (ZAC SA), in 1921.[3] Mhlangu converted Masuka along with a number of other future church leaders and baptized them in the “Jordan” (a nearby river). Then Masuka returned to Rhodesia in 1923, ordained as the first minister and therefore senior representative of Mhlangu in Rhodesia.

Immediately, Masuka began preaching and conducting protracted meetings of healing, spirit-possession, and prophetic teaching in the Melsetter district.[4] Masuka and his coworkers caused a stir in the region by making the rural peasants restless, as Masuka’s preaching was particularly popular among women. As a result, traditionalists and tribal leaders saw Masuka and his coreligionists as threats and reported their activities to the colonial authorities. This led the white administration to arrest and detain Masuka for some time at Buhera.

After this experience, it seems that Masuka stepped back from religion. There were rumors that Masuka had “back-slidden” out of fear of imprisonment and had possibly become involved in traditional African spirituality. As a result, Samuel Mutendi (the later leader of the Zion Christian Church (ZCC) in Rhodesia / Zimbabwe) visited Masuka and persuaded him to recommit to conducting ministry.[5]

This spurred Masuka into motion once more. He began by evangelizing the areas of Bikita, Zaka, and Buhera, but before long he made journeys further East and South to Mashaba, Belingwe, and Nuanetsi.[6] Sometimes he would travel with his family, and often at the behest of sick people from a region who had requested his ministry.

Despite a number of schisms from within the ZAC SA, Masuka remained loyal to Mhlangu.[7] At the same time, Masuka’s loyalty to the man did not quite mean he was Mhlangu’s subordinate. Although Masuka went to Mhlangu during the early years of his leadership for advice, he saw himself as independent from the latter’s leadership. This is evidenced by the fact that Masuka felt free to consecrate his own bishops and otherwise act as the head of the Zion Apostolic Church (ZAC) in Rhodesia during Mhlangu’s life.[8]

Structurally, Masuka’s group was similar to other Zionist churches, but somewhat less tightly organized. The ZAC had many bishops relative to other independent churches, as “virtually every congregation’s leader is designated ‘bishop’” in the ZAC.[9] Additionally, Masuka never developed the rigorous collaborative programs spearheaded by people such as Samuel Mutendi of the ZCC that helped provide work, money, healing, and cohesion to followers.[10]

Nonetheless, Masuka’s message and piety was much the same as most other Zionist groups, with an emphasis on tongues, healing, being baptized in “the Jordan” (typically a nearby river) and practicing a major Easter celebration called Passover. In ZAC local meetings, “there is a tendency to concentrate on prophecies throughout services and to conclude the ceremony with a joint prayer for the sick.”[11] These prayers of healing were a particular cause for Masuka’s success, as Masuka was a faith-healer of renown in the country.[12]

Schisms

Throughout and after Masuka’s life in ministry, the ZAC experienced many schisms. In 1930, Peter Mutema split off from Masuka “in friendly fashion” to start the Sabbath Zion Church, largely due to differences of biblical interpretation regarding the practice of the Sabbath.[13] Three years later, Johane Matambeni split off from the ZAC because Masuka allegedly broke the church’s rules by taking a second wife and allowing people to drink beer. This, however, seems to be in reality merely a smokescreen to cover the more centrally motivating ethnic factors that were ultimately decisive. Matambeni and his followers were almost exclusively Ndau people, with some of them even saying they followed Matambeni because he spoke their language, allowing them to understand him better than they understood Masuka.[14]

In 1940, Masuka was accused by “his fellow churchmen… of allowing his third wife to be taken by his son.”[15] Whatever the truth of the matter was, it was the occasion on which several leaders under Masuka severed their connections with him, including Mtisi in Melsetter district. Three years later, Elijah Dzawanda split off from Masuka, accusing the latter of publicly hitting a church congregant and of using church funds for personal expenses.[16]

Death and Legacy

Masuka carried on his ministry of traveling, preaching, presiding over ceremonies, and anointing bishops for roughly thirty years. Based in his headquarters Rabinoni (Lebanon) in Bikita, Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), he led the ZAC until his death by natural causes in 1950.[17]

Throughout his life, Samuel Mutendi exerted considerable influence on Masuka, and often referred to Masuka’s followers as his [Mutendi’s] “children,” a clear claim to spiritual authority over Masuka.[18] Mutendi also propagated the story of Masuka’s moment of hesitancy or even sin in the 1920s out of fear of the colonial government, which undermined Masuka’s popularity among some Zionists. All of these “interferences” by Mutendi into the ZAC and its leadership prompted many of the bishops under Masuka to split off and start their own churches, particularly around the time of his death. Thus, the ZAC “virtually fell apart” in the 1950s into several break-away bodies.[19]

As a result of these and other schisms, Masuka indirectly birthed Mutemo’s Zion Sabbath Church; Zacheo’s Zion Protestant Church; Kuudzerema’s Zion Apostolic Church of Jesus Christ; Komboni’s African Zion Church of Jesus; “and a host of others.”[20] Although a number of these divides were somewhat acrimonious, the followers of these more recent churches still acknowledge David Masuka as their spiritual father, and see themselves as members of the same spiritual family.[21] Thus, Masuka has an enduring and wide-reaching legacy, as groups informed by his theology continue to multiply in Zimbabwe and beyond.

Luke B. Donner

Notes

  1. Daneel, Inus. Old and New in Southern Shona Independent Churches, Vol. 1: Background and Rise of the Major Movements. (The Hague, Mouton: 1971): p. 287.
  2. Ibid, 288.
  3. Ibid, 289.
  4. Ibid, 293-4.
  5. Ibid, 294.
  6. Ibid, 296.
  7. Ibid, 298.
  8. Ibid, 300.
  9. Daneel, Inus. Old and New in Southern Shona Independent Churches, Vol. 3: Church Leadership and Fission Dynamics. (Gweru, Mambo Press: 1988): p. 33.
  10. Ibid, 136.
  11. Daniel, Inus, Old and New in Southern Shona Independent Churches, Vol 2: Church Growth: Causative Factors and Recruitment Techniques. (The Hague, Mouton: 1971): p. 215.
  12. Ibid, 191.
  13. Daneel, Inus, Old and New, Vol. 1, 302.
  14. Ibid, 302-03.
  15. Ibid, 304.
  16. Ibid, 305.
  17. Daneel, Inus Old and New, Vol. 3 228,
  18. Ibid.
  19. Ibid, 162.
  20. Ibid, 166.
  21. Ibid, 162.

Sources:

Daneel, Inus. Old and New in Southern Shona Independent Churches, Vol. 1: Background and Rise of the Major Movements. (The Hague, Mouton: 1971).

Daniel, Inus, Old and New in Southern Shona Independent Churches, Vol 2: Church Growth: Causative Factors and Recruitment Techniques. (The Hague, Mouton: 1971).

Daneel, Inus. Old and New in Southern Shona Independent Churches, Vol. 3: Church Leadership and Fission Dynamics. (Gweru, Mambo Press: 1988).

For further information, please refer to the works of Professor Daneel, which covers many of his publications, including information about the foundation, persecutions, schisms, miracles, teachings, healings. Photos, videos, and recordings gathered by Prof. Daneel are available here, and a compilation of his digitized works is accessible at this link.

This article, received in August 2023, was written by Luke B. Donner, who was the DACB Research Assistant and PhD student at Boston University at the [Center for Global Christianity and Mission] (https://www.bu.edu/cgcm/research-associates/current-students/) in summer 2023.