The ‘Royal Coat of Arms’ here in Swazi depicts a dark-maned lion, or ngwenyama, and the great she-elephant, ndlovukasi, supporting a Swazi shield. The ngwenyama represents His Majesty, King Mswati III, and ndlovukasi, represents his mother, Ntombi Tfwala. This shield, used by the “Sotja” (soldier) Regiment that served in WWII, is made of cow hide and is half black and half white. These colors demonstrate racial harmony. Under the shield is a banner with the term, “Siyinqaba”, which means ‘we are the fortress’.
This morning we as a group prayed with Gary about this ‘fortress’. Gary said if we were not sure what to pray about, just pray the way Jesus taught us in Matthew 6:9. “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven….” We were praying for the kingdom of Swaziland, that the kingdom of heaven would come to this land.
Swaziland claims to be a christian country. So does the United States. I do believe that christianity is the belief here, as I have heard it stated, “a mile wide and an inch deep”. Why would we pray for the kingdom of heaven to come here? Why would we need to pray “your will be done (in Swaziland) as it is in heaven?”.
We pray for this ‘fortress’ because it is forecast (by the UN) that in the year 2050 there will no longer be a Swaziland. In less than 50 years, Swaziland will be history. A headline in the newspaper today claimed that by the year 2010 the life expectancy of a Swazi would be 30. (I believe earlier this year ‘Time’ reported that Japanese women have a life expectancy of 88. In that issue it was also stated that Swazi women could expect to see 33.)
We prayed for King Mswati III, that God (the Ngwenyama of ngwenyamas), in His grace and mercy, would open the lion’s eyes to the suffering of his people, or the young lion cub, King Mswati IV (right now a fictional character), will no longer have a ‘pride’ to govern. This ‘fortress’ of proud Swazis will be dead. Swaziland will be a ghost town.
King Mswati III could just be the last of his kind. I pray he lives long enough (he was born April 19, 1968, so he is not yet 40, but he has been in power since 1986) to personally KNOW his people, that he sees what is happening in his country. (The way power is handed over in Swaziland is, for lack of a more tactful word, insane in my mind. Men take many wives. The son to inherit from the father must be the father’s youngest son, and the only son of his mother. This structure is consistent in all of Swazi for the poorest of homesteads to the Royal Family. I believe King Mswati III has 14 wives, and his own father, Sobhuza II, had at least 70, and I heard one person say 100 wives. I believe that King Mswati III is one of 600 children. The king must die, then the wife with the youngest ‘only son’ becomes the Queen Mother. So a child becomes king, at the mercy of his mother’s wisdom. The new king is not trained by his father in how to become king, so generation after generation a king is put in place, taught how to be a king by his mother.)
We were taught some on AIDS here, by a man named Colin. He and his wife, Kathy, are stationed here. Colin is a geologist, a well known diamond miner, and yesterday explained to me how finding water with a stick works. I have seen my grandfather and my father do this trick. I was not sure what I believed about it, but I have heard that it works. Colin said it is called ‘dowsing’ for water, not ‘divining’, and has something to do with polar charge of the earth and how it changes over water. Colin was also educating me in my own field of exercise and nutrition, and convicting me on the trash I put in my body. Colin seems to be some kind of genius and is also on the African board on AIDS.
If I am reading my notes correctly, 30-40% of Swazi children are born HIV+. Presently, in Swazi, there are 60,000 AIDS orphans. These are children who have lost their parents due to AIDS. Swaziland has a land mass approximately equal to New Jersey, and it is estimated that 1.1-1.2 million people are infected with AIDS. The guesses are that anywhere from 30% to 60% of the population is infected, with the most accurate study stating that the number is 44%.
As we walk around this city, travelling from site to site, it is difficult to imagine that 1 out of every 2 people we meet will be dead of AIDS in 3 years.
What is more difficult for me to imagine, is the sheer ignorance of the country. The ignorance of the ‘fortress’. The IGNORANCE of the ‘church’.
AIDS is a secret killer here. Hospitals are not allowed to write AIDS on death certificates, so pneumonia and tuberculosis are what is causing death. I say ignorance in the ‘fortress’ because the rulers of this kingdom seem totally blind to what is happening. A vice president here raped his niece. He knew his niece was HIV+, and when he was asked why he would do this, he said it was ok, he SHOWERED afterwards. Top ranking officials 1. get away with rape (sounds like the US, or at least Boston’s version of ‘Camelot’), and 2. have no idea how AIDS is spread. A health minister suggested garlic juice and beetroot juice as an AIDS preventative.
The ‘church’ will not step up here and be a moral voice. Polygamy, incest, and rape are part of the culture. IN THE CHURCH! Colin said that the churches will not let him speak out on the truth about what the bible says about sexual issues, the church will not let him speak about AIDS. Sixty percent of the pastors and church leaders here are involved in sexual sins. Eighty to 85% of the CHRISTIANS in this country are involved in the occult!
For some reason, I don’t think this is the kingdom that Jesus prayed for.
The ‘inyanga’ and the ‘sangoma’. The traditional healers. At least 80% of the population consult these ‘physicians, prophets, priests, diviners and herbalists. The ‘inyanga’ is a man who inherited his ‘skill’ from his father and grandfather. He holds a senior place in society and makes decisions based on throwing bones and interpreting where the patterns in which they fall. The ‘sangoma’ is usually a woman who is consulted to alleviate physical and mental issues. When ‘divining’ (different than looking for water) the sangoma “traditionally relies on spirit possession” (directly quoted from ‘Swaziland’s Official Tourist Guide 2006/7’).
The ‘inyanga’ and the ‘sangoma’, it seems, agree that the best way to cure AIDS is through “SEX WITH A VIRGIN”.
With this incredibly sexually-active culture (children as young as 5 years old need to be kept apart because of this activity) when a man learns he has AIDS, he is determined to have sex with a virgin, and this has led to adult men raping infants to cure themselves of AIDS. That sounds like wisdom which can only be found through the demonic. Wisdom from these same people (the inyanga and sangoma) is cherished by 80% of the church members here. (the newspapers here report that the church is up in arms because the government wants to tax them, go figure, the churches seem to be making a profit, without making much of a difference).
Colin says Bill Gates and his people have poured FIVE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS into tackling AIDS in Africa (maybe it was just in Botswana), and according to one person on the AIDS board, there is no positive results yet to show for it.
Colin also says the biggest cause of AIDS proliferation is condom promotion. He says condoms have a 40% failure rate in the prevention of AIDS, that a person has a greater chance of surviving ‘russian roulette’ than he does of preventing AIDS with a condom. Condom promotion is destroying any moral fabric here, and the only real way to prevent AIDS is abstinence, but there is no money in abstinence education.
Condom promotion is a huge money machine for everyone. Colin said one latex manufacturer has seen a 36% rise in profits, just from condoms. Schools and churches receive funding for condom promotion, that even churches are handing out condoms here.
Leaders here have ‘written off this generation’, called it a ‘wild generation’. (sounds like leaders in our churches back home). The issue is, will there be a generation after the ‘wild’ one?
But there is hope. There is always hope.
This is why AIM is in Swaziland. Gary says he believes (it has been prophecied) that Swaziland will be one of the pulpits in Africa. That this country will be a kingdom ‘on earth as it is in heaven’. This is why we met to pray today. We met to pray for Swaziland, to ask God to show us His will.
There are amazing projects going on here, miracles happening. Contacts being made, businesses are waking up to the fact that AIDS is destroying their labor base. (a mine here is actually doing AIDS testing on their workers, and providing AIDS medicine. This is great, but very reactionary and expensive. The AIDS medication must be taken everyday, or the virus will mutate an immunity to the drug and become ineffective, and the medicines themselves cause cancer.)
People are waking up to religion which is “pure and faultless” (James 1:27), which is “to look after widows and orphans in their distress”.
There is hope in these orphans. That today the problem is the number of orphans, and maybe tomorrow the solution will be the number of orphans.
There is hope of men (always the issue is the absence of men) waking up and being fathers to the fatherless. Educating these orphans, teaching them life skills. Leadership schools: teaching character, honesty,and integrity, to children as young as preschool age.
Dreams of changing this generation through the orphans. Dreams which can happen.
