Papa Mania and the Coming Tragedy: Zambia’s Silent# Papa-ism and the Coming Tragedy: Zambia’s Silent Time Bomb
A reflection 🪞 and advocacy by Rev Walter Mwambazi
✍🏾 The Cult of Personality
We are living in an era where the pulpit has been hijacked by self-styled “Papas” who wield more power than the Constitution itself. These men are not shepherds; they are emperors of manipulation, building empires on the backs of desperate souls.
Their followers surrender land, money, and even their very lives to the altar of charisma. And yet, the nation watches in silence, as though mesmerized by the theatrics of prophecy while blind to the seeds of destruction being sown.
Is it because perhaps some of our “fathers” and leaders are too afraid of the back lash they would get if they openly confronted these dangerous elements, or are they themselves beneficiaries of their “tithes and seeds” and so are compromised?
I can only guess.
✍🏾 The Inevitability of Disaster
History is not shy about repeating itself. Kenya’s Shakahola massacre under Paul Mackenzie, Uganda’s Ten Commandments cult — these are not distant tragedies, they are cautionary tales written in blood.
At the rate we are going, Zambia is not going to remain immune—no! The same ingredients are here: unchecked religious freedom, gullible congregants, and a government reluctant to regulate for fear of being accused of “persecuting the church.” But let us be clear: when faith becomes a weapon of mass manipulation, regulation is not persecution — it is protection.
✍🏾 The State Must Wake Up
The government cannot afford to play spectator. It must establish a Religious Affairs Commission with teeth, not just titles. It must demand transparency in church finances, outlaw exploitative fasting camps, and prosecute leaders who endanger lives under the guise of “spiritual authority.” To do less is to wait for coffins to pile up before acting. And by then, it will be too late.
My very serious appeal is that going forward, after the coming elections, this must be given the serious attention it deserves. Is it because the church holds a large constituency of potential voters that politicians are scared of confronting clergy expecially papas from the pseudopentecostal movement?
✍🏾 The Church Must Police Itself
True pastors must rise above the noise of “Papa-ism.” They must call out false prophets, not with whispers but with thunder. Silence is complicity. If the church does not cleanse itself, it will be cleansed by scandal, and the name of Christ will be dragged through the mud of cultic abuse. Accountability networks, theological education, and interdenominational watchdog councils are not luxuries — they are lifelines.
For me this must happen pronto. The challenge we face today is that many of the pastor’s fellowships are bolstered by the very papas and have the greatest financial muscle, so many pastors cower in the presence of these influential rogues.
Will pastors especially from independent churches have the capacity to do it? I didn’t not think so. I mean, as I write this, for K10,000 I can pay and be ordained Bishop, for more I can be ordained Apostle. Its all about filthy lucre now. 🥺
✍🏾 The Community Must Refuse Silence
Families must be vigilant. Communities must speak out. Journalists must investigate. Youth must be empowered with hope so they are not lured into the false promises of miracle merchants. The cult thrives in secrecy; exposure is its kryptonite. If we do not shine the light, darkness will consume us.
Thankfully the Gen Zs aren’t that dumb. I am proud of our community on this page. They ask many questions and wont swallow the “bull” peddled by these rogues. However, we need more to rise up and get past the “touch not my anointed” manipulation to really hold these Papas responsible.
⚔️ Final Thought: A Prophecy of Prevention
Let us imagine the headlines five years from now: “Hundreds Dead in Zambia Cult Tragedy.” Suppose we read that and realize we saw it coming but did nothing. That is the inevitability we flirt with today. But it does not have to be so. If government, church, and community rally together now, Zambia can write a different headline: “False Prophet Stopped Before Mass Death.”
The choice is ours — silence or salvation. And silence, in this case, is complicity.