BiAS 7 – The Bible and Politics in Africa
“Haiwa, Ishe wangu, ini nomukadzi uyu tigere paimba imwe chete; ini ndaka-
pona mwanakomana ndigere naye paimba. Zvino ndapona mwana wangu ma-
zuva matatu, mukadzi uyu akaponawo mwanakomana wake ... Zvino mwana-
komana womukadzi uyu akazofa usiku, nokuti mai vake vakavata pedera pake
pamusana pamavato muhope... Amai ava vakataura saizvozvo pamberi pa
Mambo Soromoni. “Mambo akati, nditorerei banga rehondo. Varanda vakauya
nomunondo kuna Mambo. Mambo akati gurai nepakati mwana wasara ari
mupenyu, mupe mai mumwe nemumwe rutivi rwake. “Ipapo mukadzi aive mai
vechokwadi vemwana mupenyu akati kuna Mambo: Haiwa, Ishe wangu, chipai
zvenyu mumwe wangu mwana ari mupenyu, pane kuti aurayiwe.“Asi mumwe
wake wakanga asiriye nyakubereka mwana mupenyu akati kuna Mambo:
Zvirinane tienzane. Kuita kuti mwana asave wangu kana kuti wemumwe
wangu; mugurei zvenyu napakati, tipedze bopoto. Ipapo Mambo Soromoni
akapindura akati: Mai varamba kuti mwana adimburwe nepakati, ndivo nya-
kubereka. Vapei mwana.” (1 Madzimambo 3:17-27, Native Version, para-
phrased)For Mahoso, mediation as was shown by King Solomon requires tact
and neutrality; which elements are missing in global political media-
tions. Today’s mediators for Mahoso already have their favourites and
sometimes themselves are the creators of the problems they try to medi-
ate. He thus compares some of these mediators to Judas Iscariot, the
one who sold Jesus to the enemy (Mk 14:43-50; Mt. 26:14-56; Lk. 22:1-
53).^67 While he is sometimes clear on who fits the Judas hat and who fits
the Solomon title, sometimes one can glean from his analysis depending
on the images given. In the case of Cote d’ Ivoire, the two women who
went to Solomon for arbitration are represented by Alessane Quattara
and Laurent Gbabo. One is the mother of the child (nation) while one is
not for she killed the baby as she was asleep.
Quattara, for Mahoso as well as pan-Africanists, does not enjoy grass-
roots or local (African) support, that is why he was sworn in as president
in the hotel against the law soon after disputed elections; he was pro-
tected by the UN peace keepers; that is why he called for sanctions on
the nation to starve the workers and the security forces into submission
and that is why he was holed up in a luxurious hotel paid for by the
western powers through the UN. He is as Mahoso sees it, a puppet im-
posed on the people of Cote d’ Ivoire, to manage Western economic
interests. On the one hand, Gbabo, for Mahoso and pan-Africanists is
(^67) Mahoso’s deployment of the Judas Iscariot imagery here is not new. He is borrowing it
from his previous articles; See, Mahoso, ‘Betrayal of Africans by Judas-like characters’,
AFRICAN FOCUS: The Sunday Mail. 06-12 May 2007.