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Zambia: Jehovah's Witnesses Deserve Pat On the Back
TIMES OF ZAMBIA, August 28, 2015
By Alfred Mlenga
Some people might have their views or even disagree but as for me I feel I would be failing in my duty if I did not acknowledge the remarkable job the Jehovah's Witnesses are doing to improve the infrastructure in the country.
As an amateur artist I am constantly struck by the beautiful and freshly constructed Kingdom Halls - some in the middle of nowhere - that light up the environment like little shining stars in townships and along major highways from Livingstone in Southern Province to Chipata in the Eastern Province. I believe the pattern is the same in Northern, North-Western, Western, Luapula and Muchinga provinces.
Critics may be quick to jump to the unfair if not irrational conclusion that Witnesses are probably doing this to swell their ranks in the face of increased competition from other religious organizations.
But that would be missing the point. Instead these Kingdom Halls (both in rural villages and major townships like Kabushi in Ndola, Chibote in Mufulira's Kamuchanga township and Kwacha in Kitwe on the Copperbelt, etc.) should be seen as inspirational because they are, in my opinion, setting a standard of cleanliness for every rural or urban dweller.
I do realise that most mainstream churches, including Catholic and Protestant, are doing the same or even more. But I am focusing on the subject of kingdom halls because it seems to a new development by the Witnesses who were seen as trouble or rubble-rousers by the colonialists.
With persuasive eloquence and overflowing zeal, the Watch Tower movement adherents used to move from house-to-house or stand by the street corner and pavement selling their literature and preaching the Word. Hate them or love them, they were always there, especially at weekends. Some people would even go to the extent of locking their homes just to avoid or keep the irrepressible Witnesses at bay.
I had an uncle, a staunch Witness, who would not allow anyone to use the sign of the Cross, as Catholics do, when saying grace. 'Bwali bwa kwanani ulebalikila (whose food are blessing?) he would demand before defiantly walking away. Once in a while I found myself, may be out of curiosity, in some of the old kingdom halls in mine townships on the Copperbelt.
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