Reviving Paradise: Clean water purifies the body, mind and soul
We can all do our bit to help keep our rivers and ocean clean.
As the sun rose on the South Coast last week Thursday, scouts from the Isambulo Church of Christ in Zion identified Tweni Beach as clean enough to be suitable for their annual cleansing ceremony ahead of the Easter weekend. By 07:30, a few hundred congregants had gathered in the parking lot, dressed in white and exuding a feeling of joy and peace.
Men, women and children from the Port Shepstone branch of the church had been fasting for a week and had come from as far afield as St. Faiths for the event.
Church elders, the church band and congregants made their way to the beach to be immersed in the sea water in celebration of Passover and the resurrection symbolised by Easter. Similar ceremonies were scheduled for the Mtubatuba and Cape Town congregations on Good Friday.
African Zionism is the largest religious movement in Southern Africa, with between 15 and 18 million members in the region. Zionist baptisms, cleansing ceremonies and other religious rituals take place in rivers and the ocean. As such, Zionists recognise the importance of keeping our ‘living waters’ clean and pure.
We can all do our bit to help keep our rivers and ocean clean by not littering, using bio-friendly cleaning products, looking after wetlands, avoiding chemical fertilisers and poisons, helping the municipality to minimise sewage spills and by supporting moves to prevent potentially polluting events such as oil spills from offshore mining for oil and gas.
Alien invasive plants such as eucalyptus (gum) trees take a lot of water from our rivers – research shows that we lose at least 14% of surface water to these plants – and removing AIPs from our environment and replacing them with indigenous reeds, grasses, shrubs and trees goes a long way towards reviving water flows and keeping our rivers and ocean clean.
Common indigenous plants like waterberry trees (Umdoni) and iboza are valuable sources of food and medicine, and strelitzias, agapanthus, emezi grass, thatching grass, leather leaf ferns, bullrushes and arum lilies remove contaminants from water and the soil. Contact Helen on 084 9872018 for more information or to join TGN.
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