By Dumisani Ndlovu
Although most visual and performing arts and groups in Zimbabwe promotes culture, encompassing the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals, Gweru based Zim Cultural Splash has come up with a film that promotes omnism.
Omnism is the respect of all religions. Zim Cultural Splash’s movie consists of around 40 actors.
In truth, today’s society has taught us that religious stigmatization on the basis of stereotypes and misconceptions are completely irrelevant and incorrect. In its thrilling must watch movie,titled “Nyikadzimu” Zim Culture Splash, dispute that people of different religions are not ‘monsters’ and ‘backward savages,’ but rather a beautiful collection of loving and peaceful ideologies that have a lot in common.
Modern aspects of life which has seen more advancement in science and technology have taught us much about the things we didn’t know and opened our eyes to a truth different from the one portrayed in religious texts but Nyikadzimu lay bare the naked truth about the beauty of all religious set-up in our society.
According to the author, Knowledge Muzondo the movie is an attempt to knit-together religions that were torn apart by religious politics and stereotypes spreading like bush fire across the world.
The script was edited and directed by Siphosami Ndlovu, filmed by Pasca Manhivi of Hodzeko Media Productions as well as edited by Brendon Pedzi and Rossenfell Matizha.
The omnism promotion movie recognizes the legitimacy of other religions in the sense that they believe each religion holds its own fragment of the “truth,” not that there is a single religion that is truer than the others.
This does not mean that the author, Knowlwdge Muzondo has an absolute belief that there is a God/gods/higher power. The play titled Nyikadzimu to be premiered next month and shown on youtube and facebook platforms may be agnostic in the sense that it isn’t concerned with whether there is a higher power but rather, it only care about what wisdom different religions can offer humanity.
On this 25 episode Shona teleplay(Nyikadzimu), omnism has been portrayed as a syncretistic religion, a type of belief system that combines features of religions with each other. This usually happens when cultures combine, however, such as when a foreign religion is introduced via intercultural or inter-religious matrimony and colonialism.
In an exclusive interview, author of the movie, Muzondo said his extensive author’s research has it that religions, regardless of how accurate one finds them to be, serve as a means to attaining a more spiritual and deeper perspective in existence and life.
“Nyikadzimu is a unique play which has seen all its episodes hold deep philosophical contexts beneath the parabolic surface and they all tell a similar story of multi-religious perspective towards one God, the Almighty”, he said.
While we may have countless religions, he said they all believe and serve one God.
“It may differ in languages. Some call God Mudimo, Shonas call him Mwari/ Musikavanhu, Moslems call him Allah, Ndebeles calls him Unkulunkulu/ Uthixo. It’s a multilateral and multi-lingual name in one, all feeding to the Almighty God,” he said.
While some episodes of the play depict many divided opinions regarding the role of religion in society, the truth is that all of these opinions take on different approaches to notions that can be easily viewed from different angles.
As a result, the many-isms that pop up serve to define the attitudes of the people toward the religious and spiritual interpretations of reality and existence. The most common approaches to this are the monotheistic (there is one God) and atheistic (there is no God) viewpoints which are on the opposite sides of the spectrum.
In between, there is deism (the belief that there is a God who doesn’t get personally involved), polytheism (the belief in many gods), and agnosticism (the uncertainty that there is a God).
Hence the movie “Nyikadzimu”, seeks to influence the society to take every religious approach with an open mind and finding the connection between them, thus uniting them into a singular philosophy. It further persuades believe that every religion serves to provide pieces of information in the great puzzle of life and existence as a whole.
Omnism comes as a result of an awakened society, and even in the movie, both the author and characters practice its philosophy even without being aware of the existence of the word.
And really, one’s mind cannot be but transformed in the vastness of information and insight that is available to all of us and understand what truly matters in life. Nyikadzimu embrace the path of spirituality and understand that the Universe is much more complex than previously thought.
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