htp://www.hts.org.za Open Access Page 1 of 8 Original Research Read online: Scan this QR code with your smart phone or mobile device to read online. HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies ISSN: (Online) 2072-8050, (Print) 0259-9422 Author: Phillip Musoni 1 Afliaton: 1 Department of Church History and Church Polity, University of Pretoria, South Africa Project leader: Graham A. Duncan Project number: 02618958 Descripton: Philip Musoni is partcipatng in the research project, ‘History of Theological Educaton in Africa’, directed by Emeritus Professor Graham Duncan, Department of Church History and Church Polity, Faculty of Theology, University of Pretoria. Corresponding author: Phillip Musoni, pmusoni@ymail.com Dates: Received: 23 Nov. 2015 Accepted: 02 Feb. 2016 Published: 05 Aug. 2016 How to cite this artcle: Musoni, P., 2016, ‘Contestaton of “the holy places in the Zimbabwean Religious Landscape”: A study of the Johane Masowe Chishanu yeNyenyedzi Church’s sacred places’, HTS Teologiese Studies/ Theological Studies 72(1), a3269. htp://dx.doi. org/10.4102/hts.v72i1.3269 Copyright: © 2016. The Authors. Licensee: AOSIS. This work is licensed under the Creatve Commons Atributon License. Introducton Worldwide, scared spaces serve as focal points in almost all the religious movements. Eliade (1957:26) posited that ‘Every sacred space implies a hierophany, an eruption of the sacred that results in detaching a territory from the surrounding cosmic milieu and making it qualitatively different‘. Eliade further claims that a sacred place is different from an ordinary space because it is the manifestation of the divine. It must be noted that Eliade regards sacred spaces as sites which are always considered as authentic spaces while the profane spaces are indistinctive without value (Eliade 1957:20). In other words, a sacred place is concrete and permanent site to which generations will point and say, ‘this place is sacred and/or holy’, while profane space is an amorphous area without quintessence (Eliade 1957:22). This implies that a non-sacred space can be approached without orders, restrictions and prohibitions of certain actions or words; while a sacred place is ordered and distinctive with set rules to be followed. Eliade (1957:28) concluded by saying a sacred space is understood as a place where the divine meets human beings. Therefore, this present study seeks to enquire: 1. What distinguishes a sacred space from profane space? 2. What are the benchmarks the Johane Masowe Chishanu yeNyenyedzi Church employ in choosing its holy places for Church prayer and Baptismal rituals? 3. Do Christian Churches use traditional Religious shrines for their Church services? With these questions raised, the researcher selected two traditional religious shrines the Johane Masowe Chishanu yeNyenyedzi Church appropriated for church services in Zimbabwe that is Chivavarira hill and Gonawapotera pool which are situated in Chirumhanzu district in the Midlands province of Zimbabwe. Religious confict This study is about a contemporary conflict between African Indigenous Churches (AICs) – represented by Johane Masowe Chishanu yeNyenyedzi Church and/or African Apostolic Places that are regarded as holy are highly esteemed in most religious institutions. Such places are revered because they denote the converging points of human beings and the divine. The fundamental questions addressed in this study are: what makes a place holy? Do Christians share sacred places with other religious groups? The study theorises that the Johane Masowe Chishanu yeNyenyedzi Church has forcefully appropriated most of the African indigenous scared places such as hills, shades and dams for all-night prayers and water baptisms. The researcher has selected two indigenous religious shrines; Chivavarira hill and Gonawapotera pool of Chirumhanzu located in the Midlands Province of Zimbabwe. The two shrines are regarded by the indigenes as renowned and sacred. This study analyses and thereto seeks to decode deeper on what makes the Johane Masowe Chishanu yeNyenyedzi Church to enthusiastically appropriate most of the African indigenous shrines and, to some extent, turn them to be their shrines. It is this insight which makes the two shrines to be contested places, especially as perceived from both the indigenes and Christian perspectives. Therefore, this study is a contemporary issue that constitutes the focus of the present concerns. Accordingly, in order to archive the intended goal, this research study relies heavily on participant observation and interviews for data collection, since there is hardly documentation readily available about the Masowe yeNyenyedzi Church in Zimbabwe. Contestaton of ‘the holy places in the Zimbabwean Religious Landscape’: A study of the Johane Masowe Chishanu yeNyenyedzi Church’s sacred places Read online: Scan this QR code with your smart phone or mobile device to read online. Note: This artcle is a reworked version of aspects of the author’s PhD-research, with the theme of ‘Inculturated African spirituality: A critcal study of the Johane Masowe Chishanu yeNyenyedzi Church spirituality in Zimbabwe’, prepared under the supervision of Prof. Duncan, Emeritus Professor, Department of Church History and Church Polity, Faculty of Theology, University of Pretoria.