Alice Lenshina

Alice Lenshina Mulenga Mubisha (* around 1924 in Kasomo in the Chinsali district; † December 7, 1978 in Lusaka ) is the charismatic founder of the powerful African Independent Church Movement , the Lumpa Church , the so-called Lumpa movement in Zambia .

Alice Lenshina was about to be baptized when she experienced a series of visions that took her to Heaven, where she was instructed to combat witchcraft and shamanism. She claimed to have died and resurrected four times. Less benevolent interpretations claim that she fell ill with cerebral malaria in September 1953 and fell into a coma. In 1953, she started a movement she called lumpa better than any other on ChiBemba , and founded a place she called Zion . She took the name Lenshina , which means queen . A Presbyterian pastor baptized them, which reinforced their visions. When she was expelled from the church with her husband in 1955, her real preaching mission began. Numerous followers listened to their sermons and in 1959 a church was organized with 50,000 to 100,000 members who had previously been Presbyterians or Catholics.

Lenshina preached an essentially Christian doctrine, but with baptism as the central act. Baptism was a special ceremony that she herself led. She spoke out against shamanism, but also against alcohol and polygamy. Lumpa composed his own chorales in Bemba, which overshadowed the somewhat wooden translations of the Presbyterians and Catholics. With them they proselytized in the villages for a pure communion worthy of the coming of the Lord. In 1958 a large cathedral was built in Zion, which has a column on which Jesus descends from heaven for his parousia .

The problem of the Lumpa teaching for any government, colonial as well as national, was its sharp rejection of any earthly authority. In addition, fierce competition had broken out between her, the Kirk of Scotland and the Catholics, as the latter were running away from the believers, which in turn was a political challenge for the colonial government.

In 1958, Lenshina refused to register her church with the government as a recognized organization. Lumpa also refused to pay any taxes, establishing their own villages, undermining the local chiefs. Initially, the Lumpa Church supported the efforts for national independence. Lenshina later challenged the ruling United National Independence Party , which experienced a marked decline in membership when Lenshina urged its supporters to withdraw from political groups. UNIP saw the Lumpa movement more and more as a rival and there were more and more clashes between the two groups. On July 24, 1964, the first firefights broke out between UNIP and Lumpa .

When Zambia gained independence in 1964, the Lumpa Church openly challenged the new government. The Lumpa supporters fortified their villages and the ensuing conflict with police and army resulted in the death of 700 of them. The skirmishes lasted three months. They ended with the ban on Lumpa Church on August 3, 1964 and the imprisonment of Alice Lenshina. 15,000 supporters fled to the Democratic Republic of the Congo .

Alice Lenshina was held in Kalabo from 1965 with her husband Petros Chintankwa, who died in 1972 . Although they managed to escape in October 1967, they were caught again six months later, thrown in prison for six months and then detained in Mkushi with conditions . In May 1970, Kenneth Kaunda ordered her detention again and destroyed her church in Kasomo . She was released in 1975 and arrested again two years later and placed under house arrest in New Chilenje, Lusaka , for worshiping. At that time, however , the Lumpa movement was as good as dead .

Alice Lenshina died under house arrest on December 7, 1978 and may have been buried in Kasomo. Lay movements such as the Catholic Legion of Mary now called many former members of the Lumpa Church their own, and had also adopted the chorales that had so strongly influenced the Bemba national sentiments.

literature

• Ewanue, Ralph (ed.), Makers of Modern Africa . London: Africa Books, 1991.
• Lipschutz, Mark R., and R. Kent Rasmussen, Dictionary of African Historical Biography . Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986.
• Roberts, Andrew , The Lumpa Church of Alice Lenshina , 1972.
• Wiseman, John A., Political Leaders in Black Africa . Brookfield, VT: Edward Elgar Publishing 1991.

Web links

• resume
• Lenshina story in photos
• Obituary for Alice Lenshina
• History of the Lumpa Church