Alice Lenshina: Difference between revisions

Lenshina founded and led the [[Lumpa Church]], a religious sect that embraced a mixture of Christian and native beliefs and rituals.<ref>http://www.dacb.org/stories/zambia/lenshina1_alice.html</ref> The Lumpa Church rejected the authority of any "earthly government", it refused to pay taxes and it established its own tribunals. Shortly after Zambia became independent under President [[Kenneth Kaunda]], she and her followers were engaged in the so-called "Lumpa Uprising".  The uprising was suppressed and she was detained, but the Lumpa Church was never entirely eradicated.

Lenshina became very ill with cerebral malaria in September 1953 and fell into a deep coma. On regaining consciousness, she claimed that, during her coma, she met Jesus Christ, who gave her the task of spreading a special message. She became the focus of a revival movement at [[Lubwa Mission]], where she was baptized. Lenshina preached a Christian doctrine with baptism as the only observance. She attacked witchcraft and sorcery, and condemned the consumption of alcohol and the practice of polygamy. A grand temple was built at Zion (the name given to her home village) in 1958. Gradually the revival became a witchcraft eradication movement and evolved into an independent church called the [[Lumpa Church]] in 1955. The new church rapidly joined the competition for souls against the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of Scotland. Lumpa was so successful that by the late 1950s it may have had up to 150,000 members in the northern and eastern provinces of Northern Rhodesia. The church's drive for membership was so aggressive that it was seen as a political threat by the colonial Northern Rhodesia government.

Alice Lenshina herself played no significant role in the Lumpa Church's political activities. She regretted the fact that the political actions weakened the religious impact of her message, which stressed the sanctity of marriage, opposed both [[polygamy]] and traditional African folk magic and promoted the upliftment of common people, especially women. Lenshina never faced a trial but was detained by Kenneth Kaunda in Mumbwa district, beginning in August 1964. Her husband, Petros Chintankwa (who died in 1972), was detained with her. In 1965 they were moved to Kalabo district, near the Angolan border, but they escaped in October 1967. They were caught, jailed for 6 months and restricted in Mkushi district. In May 1970 Kaunda placed her in detention and ordered the destruction of her temple church in her home village of Kasomo.  Finally she was released from detention in December 1975 but was put under house arrest in [[Lusaka]]'s New Chilenje compound, Nkunda Road. She died on 7 December 1978 while under house arrest and was eventually buried at Kasomo village where the Kamutola Church stood.