 Is there anything that you think the people need to know before I go on? I think what I'd want to do is rather encourage people, like you said, to experience something first before they have an opinion, you know, have an open mind, you know, don't fear experiencing things, don't hesitate, rather go and experience something before you have an opinion on it. So, let me understand this here. When it comes to, let's say, Islam, the worship through Muhammad through the Creator, Christianity, Jesus to the Creator. Now, Masoie, from who to the Creator. This church was originated from this country. I wanted to experience it for the first time. I spoke to so many friends that I have in this beautiful country, and most of them condemn their church. And I wanted to do my own research about this church. The first thing that I found, it's an African indigenous church that worships in an open space, which, where I'm coming from, I've never seen anything like that. Who is the founder of the most popular and controversial church in Zimbabwe? Sonia Mutuniani, born in Zimbabwe and died in Zambia. He's popularly known as Dohani Masoie. And you know what that means? John of the Wilderness and John the Baptist. Masoie was a movement that was founded in the year 1930s. So to me, it's not a church, but a movie. But most of my friends were telling me that it's evil. It's more spiritual. And I know that when it comes to anything African, African thinks it's evil. So I had to disobey my friends for the first time and go experience the church on my own. I don't know how many times I need to tell you all that traveling is the best university in the whole world. If I knew this earlier, I wouldn't have gone to the university. But yeah, it's okay. I'm having another degree along my journey. Today is Sunday. Let me tell you something. Along my journey, I found myself in South Africa. When I found myself in South Africa, I saw a church in an open, they worship in an open spaces. And I couldn't believe it because I'm coming from Ghana and I've never seen anything like that before. So when I got closer, I was told that this church was originated from Zimbabwe. If I'm in Zimbabwe, you know how I always do it? I always travel to land. So I'm here to land. I'm just going to mess myself in whatever they do here. And I believe that I'm going to educate myself and educate you too. Don't forget to like this video, subscribe and be part of this YouTube channel. My name is Wadam Maya. Come along with me. I am Maya. I hope you have not been waiting for me for so long. Not even. I was looking forward to it. How are you, Maya? I'm good. Good to see you. Good to see you too. Finally. Yeah. Today is Sunday. It's your day to worship. Thank you. Okay, so it's part of our doctrine. Okay. If for as long as you're part of this church, you're required to put on this garment. Okay. And so I've made an effort to get you one. So let's get to it. Thank you. You have to help me put it on, yeah? Of course, of course. Oh, wow. Okay. Okay, so this is the back and this is the front. Oh, okay. I can already see it making good on me. Oh, wow. Based on my research on the internet, I think this church is one of the most controversial churches in Zimbabwe. You know why I'm saying this? Because this same church got most unanswered questions in Zimbabwe. And that indeed got me curious. It's a must to wear this clothes, right? Yes. For as long as you're part of the church. I saw one in Deban, South Africa. It was white. But this one is blue. Yeah, we... Here at Johan Mosul, it's Shannon Velvet. Okay. We wear both. So some congregations also use both. They stick to white. Okay. Yes. All right, good. So we're going to walk along the halves. Yeah. Oh, that's more? Yeah, and this as well. So you just put this on top. Okay, so before we go, this is... I just want to tell you about this particular place. Okay. So this is Johan Mosul, Shannon Velvet, led by Mazbaba Owen. Can you say Mazbaba Owen? Mazbaba Owen. Yes. Okay. He's our prophet here. All right. This is a lovely time. Thank you. We can go and join the others. Thank you so much. I went to the church myself to also get more answers to what my question is. And I believe that this church is a secretive church. So this is how we sit here. Good. The men sit on one side facing the women and the women sit on the other side facing the men. Why is this all? That's just how we make sure we don't mix the gender. So we separate the men from the women. It's sort of like a patriarchal church. Okay. Yeah. But not that bad, you know. Because nowadays, you know, when you mention the word patriarchal, people automatically think women are being suppressed. Oh, okay. So that's not the case. Yeah. But we just make sure that women have their own duties that they follow and men have their own duties that they follow. So they've got both children too in here? Yeah, they're here. So they sit in front. Why do you worship non-opal space? Okay. With regards to this church, it started way back in 1931. And it sort of took the roots of how the African people lived back then. So they did not worship in doors and all that. So what happened is when the Holy Spirit descended on Baba Joanne, the idea was not to change, to completely change what the African people were doing, their practices and all that, but rather shift a few things, you know, not a radical change, not changing everything at once. Maybe slowly getting them to adapt to how they are supposed to do things. For example, back then people believed when someone dies, their spirit comes back into the home and then it lives within us. So the Holy Spirit descends on him. He comes and says, the Holy Spirit, God likes or God appreciates how the African people are living, but we want to teach them that heaven actually exists. So instead of thinking that when you die, your spirit comes back home, we want people to believe that when you die, your spirit actually ascends to heaven, you know. So we sit here. That's how it was always done back then. Okay. So the idea is we're not changing that, you know. We came from the soil and we'll sit on the soil and we'll go back to the soil. It's more like African spirituality. It is. Is it like an African spirituality that is modernized? I don't want to call it that because then we're working with the Holy Spirit. With regards to this church here, what I can say is everything we do is led and guided by the Holy Spirit. I don't know if you understand what I'm saying. Of course. Yeah. So it's different from African traditional religion in so many ways because back then, for example, they believed if you want something, you go and pray under a tree or something like that and then you receive what you want. And they actually did get what they wanted. So now the Holy Spirit comes and says, instead of doing that, going to a tree and praying for what you want, you can kneel down and pray to God and ask God for what you want. And now since we're led by the Holy Spirit here, there's more like direct communication between the people and the Holy Spirit because these churches, every church within the John us away church has a prophet. So I remember you asked me earlier on why there are so many churches. So yeah, usually what happens is it's a prophet and then people, you know, follow the Holy Spirit through that prophet, you know. Christians pray through Jesus. Muslims pray through Prophet Muhammad. What about Maso? OK, I'll say, let me say Baba Joanne, you know. But we do believe in Christ. We do believe the Son, you know. But the reason why we mention Baba Joanne a lot is because he brought the doctrine to us, you know. So whilst we pray, we recognize the Son Christ to the Creator. We also recognize that Baba Joanne is a prophet sent to us by Christ. We worship Baba Joanne, but it's recognizing that Baba Joanne, you know, brought the doctrine to us and then so we pray to Christ to the Creator. Yes, but not forgetting who? Baba Joanne. But some of the controversies that I read on the Internet was white people are now allowed to join this church. You know why? Because the church was created specifically for African black people. So if you are a white person, you cannot join the church, but you can stand somewhere and watch them worship. I might be wrong. So if you are a member of Masoil Church, please answer me in the comment section because I want this video to be very engaging. So Baba Joanne was not called Baba Joanne before? Okay, so Joanne is the shona way of just saying his name. So his name is John. So for example, my name is Kevin Takuza, Kevin Takuza. So you can call me Baba Takuza or Baba Kevin. So let's say if I turned a church like this, how are people going to call me? See, we have a Pentecostal. So when you are turned a church like this, how are you being called? Okay, so you go to Masoil? Oh, you go to Masoil? Masoil. Okay, Masoil. Masoil. Yeah. So we are my posterity. He is an imposterity, you understand? That's what they call him. Listen, when I came in here, I saw no musical instrument. But the voices that I joined together to sing to God. Those voices are angelic. Oh my goodness. It beats the musical instrument that we've been using. They also don't believe in using the Bible as their main guide. You know why? Because when the white people colonized Africa and brought Christianity, they altered the Bible to see them. That comes to my next question. So this African-Indigenous church, is it a Christianity church or not? So which means you follow the teachings of the Holy Spirit? Of the Holy Spirit. So we don't just open the Bible and just spread the word of the Bible or in the Bible. But rather everything we do, as I said before, is led by the Holy Spirit. You know where I'm coming from, the Holy Spirit can actually speak through someone. Okay. That doesn't happen yet. That's exactly how it happens here through our Prophet. So we don't just get up, for example, and say, let's go to Matari to worship with another church. The Holy Spirit sends us to Matari to worship with another church for a reason. It's never just random. So here it's not like the Bible said we have to do this and it's always directed by the Holy Spirit. So which means he is a preacher? Okay. So we have a lot of, anyone can preach here. Can you preach? Yeah, I can. So anyone can, if you feel that you have something to say on that particular day, you're free to get up and preach. You sit down, if he wants to, because every day it's about teaching one another how to live our day-to-day lives. So if you don't use the Bible as a guide, but rather use the Holy Spirit as a guide, I want to ask this question because I am confused. Does that make you a Christian? Please leave that as a comment and let me know. We make reference to the Bible. But as you heard before, he was speaking about how Peter and other disciples moved around spreading the word of God. So we do make reference to certain things in the Bible because they actually did happen. But what we do here on a daily basis is led by the Holy Spirit. One unique thing that I saw in this church is the fact that all the men in this church have cut their hair short. So which means I was not qualified to be in this church. We have visitors every now and then. I don't know if you noticed, but there are people wearing their clothes. So they're not part of the church. So they just come here, they seek help from the Prophet, and he does help them. So for some of them, they're not part of the church yet because they don't understand certain things. And then some think the church is strict. For example, we don't drink alcohol at all. We don't drink alcohol, we don't eat pork. So there are certain things we're not allowed to do. Do you smoke? No, we don't. So allowed. What about the way of dressing? You have to dress in a decent way. So some people see it as strict. For example, women can't play their hair. So they require to keep their hair short. So you know, women don't come here and think, okay, I like how they praise and worship. But I don't think I'm ready to cut my hair and stop putting on makeup. You understand? So those are some of the barriers that are there between the people out there in the church. I want to ask when we're coming here. Yes. I mean my camera guy was wearing a long trousers. Or jeans, okay. Yeah. Are we supposed to always wear shorts? Yeah, well, yeah, we wear shorts here. So white t-shirts, and I don't know if you noticed, but we're wearing khaki shorts. Okay. So that's what we wear. And then the women wear white t-shirts and they're white or blue skirts. So that's how we dress. Women need to cover up in the church. Women from this church are not supposed to have makeups on. Women in this church are not supposed to wear trousers. Now let me know what you've had about them because I'm not here to judge them. This is what I saw and this is what I'm telling you. One of the challenges the church has faced over the years since 1931. So this guy, Babajoran, comes and he claims to have been sent by the Holy Spirit, you know. And so some people believe and they follow. That's exactly how it happened with all the prophets in the Bible. Jeremiah came, John the Baptist came. Some people decided to follow, some decided not to follow. Some people call them fake prophets. Some people call Jesus a fake prophet. Sorry, you understand. So it has faced some sort of resistance over the years. But looking at the church today, I would say it has massively grown, you know. The biggest thing that Christianity is actually facing is offering. Okay. Do you guys give offering here? We don't take offering. We don't give offering here. We are simply here to follow the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit sends us, we go. We are here to learn about how to live and to help one another go to heaven at the end of the day, you know. If you face a problem, we are more than welcome to help. We are there for one another. If a close family member of yours dies, we'll gladly go. You know, let me know how far it is. We are there for you, you know. That is how it's supposed to be. Yeah, we'll take money from our own pockets and put it towards the cause, you know. I want to say thank you so much and I'm educated right now and I believe that anyone who watched this video who had a certain perception about this church, it's not what you think. That's what I'm going to say. And I'm so glad you took me through. Nah, I just want to, I mean, grab my dancing shoes and then. But why is our feet on the ground? We don't wear shoes here. It's a holy ground. It's a holy ground. We don't use shoes here. So you leave your shoes there from a certain point you don't wear shoes. I would say this is one of the most beautiful days in my life. Being here, I think I have had so many things but I'm just going to tell you something, yeah. Sometimes you just have to express something before you judge from afar. I mean, the love that I've, people in here have shown me. I mean, I don't know if you guys saw what I wanted to take a photo. It was just myself. The lesson I saw. I mean, I saw people coming closer. This is the love that we need among ourselves. And this is the love that is missing in so many places that we find ourselves. I just want to let you know that, like, I'm inspired, man. Even the melody itself, it's something that you will hear in so many places. There are no drums. No, there are no drums, no instruments. It's just voices. Join together to worship the Lord, man. I'm glad you've enjoyed yourselves. That's so beautiful. Is there anything that you think the people need to know before I go? I think what I'd want to do is rather encourage people, like you said, to experience something first before they have an opinion. Have an open mind. Don't fear experiencing things. Don't hesitate. Rather, go and experience something and have an opinion on it. Apart from Zimbabwe, I saw Masowe in South Africa and Zambia. Let me know in the comments section. Do you have Masowe in your country? I mean, I think my grandmother was Masowe. I need to ask my mom. But I don't know if the 12 apostles have the same doctrines with the people of Masowe.