I just cannot describe the magnitude of this book. A Zimbabwean allegory, featuring an animal population, it is poignant, humorous, elaborate, mocking, sad, intense, and above all, written in the true tradition of oral storytelling. Violence, inflicted by the government, is met by resilience, magic and compassion in this dictatorial state. Seen through the eyes of all those concerned, you can only wish for peace for everyone, and justice done.
The long, lean pig was none other than the one and only Prophet Dr O. G. Moses, founding leader of the famed Soldiers of Christ Prophetic Church of Churches. Most things in Jidada naturally included a prayer – that’s how come the charismatic Prophet, who was also Dr Sweet Mother’s spiritual adviser, was on the programme. Those who know about things said the pig’s church was the top evangelical sect in Jidada and boasted the largest following of congregants, not just in the nation but in the whole entire region – yes, tholukuthi a congregation that, according to those who know about things, wasn’t only inspired by the word of God but also by desperation, disillusionment, idiocy, frustration and a search for a lifeline – something, anything, to help the animals cope with the business of surviving a life that was daily becoming unlivable as Jidada’s economy struggled.
