By VICTOR KALALANDA, 2018*A fiery Pentecostal preacher recently became a
chief in Northern Province and his ministry has thus far carved out a niche for
itself among his people.
He is speeding his throne to heaven, absolutely no
doubt, for that is precisely what it means when a chief exudes piety with a
capital P, and turns a palace into a religious hotspot where subjects come in
search of prayer and salvation.
His name is Maurice Simwinga, the new Chief Chindo
of the Mambwe-speaking people in Zambia’s Senga District, Northern Province.
His story is like a nightingale among birds because
it is the very thing that controverts the widespread notion that all
traditional leaders in Africa are wizards and witches, using charms and human
blood to wield influence over territories.
I recently chummed up with Maurice in Chindo
Village, spending a week at the chief’s residence to get a lot of perspective
on this numinous evangelist who commands ruggedly good looks.
Maurice was installed as the 15th Chief
Chindo on 24 May 2017 by the Mambwe-Lungu Cultural Association
(MALUCA), which is currently headed by Chief Mpande.
His predecessor was his uncle, Ellies Simwinga, a
pariah chief deposed by the MALUCA for committing 13 atrocities deemed to
desecrate the throne. The offences included divorce, mysterious disappearance
of a child named Idian, witchcraft, malicious arrest and partial treatment of
subjects, to mention but a few.
“I was in Ndola with my family at the time the
previous chief was dislodged. We immediately knuckled down to travelling
arrangements at the approval of the Mambwe royal family that I was the
legitimate successor,” Maurice recalls.
Accordingly, Maurice shot up as the sought-for good
deal to restore royal sanity in Mambwe land. He comes from the Simwinga family,
which is the Mambwe tribe’s royal clan, and he is a descendant of Musamvu, the
8th Chief Chindo.
“I hadn’t the slightest doubt, when I was taking
over, that God’s time for my people had come,” he says with a grin.
The Chindo Chiefdom is a relatively vast area that
boasts of more than 25,000 inhabitants in a total of 49 villages.
It is in such an environment where Maurice’s fame
as a tough votary of Jesus Christ, a voracious Bible reader and a stubborn
prayer man has reached epidemic proportions.
He is one of those chiefs—like Chief Mumena of the Kaonde-speaking people in North
Western Province—that are not
remotely afraid to publicly pledge support to Christianity and assert their
faith.
“I am a blood-bought saint of God, redeemed by the
blood of Jesus Christ. I am not the kind of chief whom people think sleeps in a
small house in the graveyard!” he states emphatically.
During my stay at Maurice’s palace, scores of
“pilgrims”-cum-subjects kept coming through for prayer.
As a new chief, Maurice attends to the people from
a makeshift shelter within the environs of the palace. Here he prays for them,
counsels them and preaches the gospel to them 7 days a week!
Lillian Nakazwe, a resident of Chindo Village,
says, “What we love about this chief is that he is a Christian and a man of
prayer. He has no discrimination also.”
Having been born in Senga District to Wellington
Simwinga and Lister Nandala, both alive, on 17 July 1961, the new chief’s
association with the Christian religion has endeared him to the Mambwe-speaking
people under the Chindo Chiefdom. “He is a signpost of hope,” as Chrisostom
Simwinga, an elderly resident of Chindo Village, says.
Maurice says his contact with Jesus Christ in 1982
led him to vow to serve God and subsequently find his place in evangelism.
“I was captain of the first United Church of Zambia
(UCZ) Kapiri Mposhi Brigade Company, and yet I had not known Jesus as my Lord
and personal saviour. It was until 1982 at the preaching of an itinerant
evangelist that I came to be born again.”
As if to add a turbulent chapter to his spiritual
experience, Maurice got excommunicated from UCZ on grounds that he was
preaching faith-healing, deliverance and the message of baptism in the Holy
Spirit.
But despite this, Maurice would not stop preaching.
Instead, he entered Trans-Africa Bible College in Kitwe to pursue pastoral
studies from 1985-1987
After the Trans-Africa Training, he served with the
Apostolic Church in Zambia until 1992, when he founded the Potter’s House
Christian Faith Church in Zambia.
In terms of professional qualifications he is no
mere man: he has over 20 qualifications in pastoral ministry, advanced
leadership, teaching methodology, training, health, social work, finance,
business entrepreneurship, psychosocial counselling (HIV/AIDS) and military
training.
Additionally, he is a philanthropist, having
personally founded and managed Maurigrace Schools, a robust institution
providing free education and health services to more than 700 orphans and
vulnerable children in Ndola, Copperbelt Province.
He was the director of Maurigrace Schools until his
installation, thus committing the administration of the institution to his
eldest child.
He is married to Evelyn Simwinga and they together
have four children and a grandson.
His reputation as “a chief with the Bible in one
hand” has continued to grow, so much so that he says: “we are currently looking
for an independent venue within the chiefdom, where we can be doing more of the
Lord’s work! The palace isn’t enough!”
Besides, the chief put up a statue of the cross
outside his palace, the explanation being that: “We are in a covenant with God.
The cross is a symbol of the priceless good that God has done for humanity in
general and the Mambwe people in particular.”
Maurice doubtlessly demonstrates that traditional
leaders can still be steeped in their Christianity while they address
themselves to the manifest functions of chieftainship.
Indeed, witchcraft may be found in some African
chieftainships, but certainly not in all. Many can readily agree that this
chief is dead right on this score!
*This article was first published in the Times of Zambia
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