Windhoek
Police in the Khomas Region have warned religious worshippers frequenting unorthodox churches in their search for riches not to be colon-cleansed by sects conducting bizarre rituals in the veld.
Inspector Christian van Dumen Fonsech of the Khomas Police Regional Community Affairs Department issued a warning through the media, following a police operation on Sunday after they were tipped-off about the outlandish practices of some foreign-owned churches.
Fonsech told New Era earlier this week that they are aware of some unusual activities conducted by religious groups, who are performing cleansing rituals in graveyards and colon cleansing members by flushing milk through a tube into their rectums.
“Work hard or study if you want to be promoted,” Fonsech said, while also warning women to refrain from going to these churches to seek marriage.
The Namibian police conducted a joint operation with immigration officials and members of Nampol’s legal department on Sunday morning when they targeted several unorthodox churches that conduct religious crusades in the open field in and around some of Windhoek’s most impoverished areas.
Following Sunday’s operation Inspector Fonsech said the activities of a group of people, who regularly assemble in the bush, raised suspicion among local residents.
She said some church groups are misleading their members and questioned whether they were legitimate churches, or traditional healers, that they have to be so secretive about their activities.
During the operation 42 Zimbabweans and Angolans were arrested after they were found to be in the country illegally and without work permits. Nineteen babies and children were arrested alongside their mothers. The women and children were taken to a shelter in Windhoek.
A community member deployed by Nampol to observe the activities of suspicious church groups in the area said she saw men coming to the veld to be colon-cleansed.
The informer, whose identity is withheld for safety reasons, was sent into the veld near the Northern Industrial area and told New Era that a week ago seven men came to the area in a state of undress, wearing only underpants, to have their colons flushed.
She went back on Saturday again and found two men dressed in long white garments guarding the area. She said one of the guards received a call and went to the road, returning with a second man, who was later colon-cleansed.
She noticed that the guard called a church member from his cellphone to come and attend to the man. The men who visited the area were likely between the ages of 25 and 45 years old, she said and arrived in various types of vehicles, including BMWs.
When she went back to observe on Sunday she found different people guarding the area, who blocked her from entering the place, where the purported church service was taking place.
She further narrated that after the police rounded up members of the church, a local security guard showed up in the company of a friend, whom he wanted to introduce to the church. The security guard allegedly told her the churchmen gave him three stones, which were to be placed in clay bowls filled with water.
According to the guard he was instructed to take one stone and put it in his boss’ office, the second stone in his shack and the third in a bottle filled with water, which he used for drinking and filling his bath. All three stones were to be eventually returned to the churchmen, though the purpose is not immediately clear.
When asked about her view of the activities of these church groups that use stones or colon-cleansing methods, the Secretary-General of the Council of Churches in Namibia, Reverend Maria Kapere said it is not entirely strange, as some African countries have churches that practice animist religion by use of symbols, such as fire, water and stones.
Kapere said for Christians, though, the worship of objects is forbidden: “We don’t worship stones or water. We believe in the holy spirit, which is ever present.”