HARARE, Zimbabwe — At only age 20, Madzimai Yemurai of Mbare, the oldest suburb of Zimbabwe’s capital Harare, is already a mother of three, having been married at 15 as the fifth wife to a man old enough to be her grandfather.

This is not unusual in their church, the Johane Marange, a hugely popular African apostolic sect whose doctrine opposes Western medicine, instead putting reliance on faith healing and prayer. The sect’s doctrine also encourages child-marriages and polygamy. The church is the biggest of a many indigenous sects that are part of a broader religious group that mixes Christian beliefs with some traditional African cultures.

“I will not tell anyone, let alone my husband, about it,” she said, referring to her recent secret visit to a cholera vaccination site in Hopley, a suburb on the southern outskirts of the city. “I had to come here secretly with my children to take the vaccine, otherwise it’s immediate divorce.”

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She added: “I know many members of our church that have succumbed to the disease, but vaccination is a big no for my husband, so I had to secretly come here with my children to get vaccinated.”

Cholera is an acute, diarrheal illness caused by infection of the intestine with the toxigenic bacterium Vibrio cholerae serogroup O1 or O139. An estimated 1.3 to 4 million people around the world get cholera each year and 21,000 to 143,000 people die from it. Cholera is passed through feces. It is spread by eating or drinking food or water contaminated by such feces.

Outbreak blamed on religious objectors

As Zimbabwe battles to control a cholera outbreak that grew in late January and, as of last month, claimed the lives of more than 500 people and infected more than 20,000 others, the government and health officials are blaming the attitudes of these religious sects, not only for spreading this deadly diarrheal infection but also of hampering ongoing vaccination campaigns.

“We have discovered that most religious sects that discourage their followers from seeking medical healthcare services are the ones either contracting or succumbing to the disease,” Health Minister Dr Douglas Mombeshora said shortly after the start of the outbreak last year.

Zimbabwe is one of the several countries in Southern Africa that are suffering from bouts of cholera outbreaks. These include the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia, Mozambique, Tanzania, Malawi and the Comoros.

While authorities scramble to stop more people from dying and stop future epidemics, the recent cholera outbreak has put these sects at odds with civil authorities and health organizations. The sects cite religious freedom as a protection against government-mandated vaccines and medicines aimed at stopping the death toll from rising.

Religious sects reject allegations

Apostolic churches have a very strong presence in Zimbabwe where it is estimated that a third of the country’s 16 million population belong to one of their many sects.

Bishop Andby Makururu, a leader of one of these main apostolic church sects, told Religion Unplugged that while it is true that there was still a remnant that still resists modern medicine, a majority has since moved with time and embraced it.

“That is not true [the allegations that they are complicating the fight against cholera],” Makururu said. “There has been a major transformation … most of us have embraced change. … As I am speaking to you, we were getting our members vaccinated.”

He added that he visited Botswana, “where I was able to engage health ministry officials in that country and asked them to come to address our followers on health issues. … Recently, I was also in Kenya and in South Africa, preaching and addressing the health concerns of our followers in those countries.”

He also revealed that as evidence of their embrace of Western medicine, the church is building a hospital in Mvuma, a town in the central part of the country, for the benefit of its members and others.

“Yes, there is still resistance in some quarters, especially among the Johane Masowe eChishanu and Johane Marange sects, but what is needed is engagement and education, with time they will also embrace use of modern medicines,” he added.

Polygamy and marriage controversies

Most of these African apostolic sects are off shoots from the mainstream Johane Marange Apostolic Church — named after its 20th century leader — that was founded in Zimbabwe in the 1930s and has since spread its wings throughout East and southern Africa, where it commands a following that runs into tens of millions.

Apart from its opposition to medicine and education, this sect is known for its encouragement of polygamous marriages. In fact, one of its leaders, Noah Taguta Momberume, who died in April 2023, had 23 wives, 120 children and more than 300 grandchildren.

Most of the sects’ doctrines are not based on the Bible, but on what the leadership claims to be instructions from the Holy Spirit. These doctrines have constantly put it into direct collision with the government and human rights groups. Last year, authorities in neighboring Mozambique announced that they had banned the Johane Marange sect in that country over its doctrine promoting child marriages and disregard for peoples’ health rights.

Vaccine ‘ambassadors’

Itai Rusike, the executive director of the Community Working Group on Health, said there is need to fight resistance among religious objectors while at the same time improving hygienic practices in communities.

“We need to identify vaccine champions and ambassadors among the religious objectors so that they can encourage their members and followers to embrace the vaccine and improve their health seeking behaviors,” Rusike told Religion Unplugged.

Rusike said shot are not a replacement to clean water and improved sanitation that need to be implemented even as the population receives vaccines. He said the response to the cholera outbreaks requires an organized and collective approach, buttressed by the active participation of the community as it is not just the responsibility of the health sector alone. 

A similar outbreak in 2008 affected about 100,000 people and resulted in more than 4,000 deaths in Zimbabwe.

“Through community engagement, we can promote cholera control strategies, hygiene promotion and reduce the risk factors for cholera transmission, such as make better use the national clean-up campaign, improve personal, family and community hygiene, solid waste management, household water treatment and handling, and food hygiene and food safety practices,” he said. “Unfortunately, communities have up to now been left out and not fully capacitated and equipped with the necessary health education, health information and tools to protect themselves.”

Cyril Zenda is a Christian and an African journalist and writer based in Harare, Zimbabwe.