Tribal Blue – River Revelations

New members of the Nazareth Baptist Church are baptized close to the church headquarters near KwaMashu, KwaZulu Natal, January 1998. The founder Isaiah Shembe is seen as a spiritual descendent of Moses and Jesus, and th church embraces traditional Zulu values and customs. Photo Greg Marinovich

I understood I was living under tribal rule and conditions after I pissed Gary off – but good! We were studying Mark 4. There were about five of our neighbors gathered in Greg Mel’s home. I asked our minister this question:

“Jesus is speaking in parables and riddles to the crowd who are struggling to get his message. Then he says he told his disciples the answer to his riddles, in secret, when they were alone. I’m wondering, why didn’t one of the disciple write these answers down so we can read them? We’re talking about ‘The Secret of The Kingdom of God!”

There…