Charles Dube
MR Clopas Wandai J Tichafa (Clopas) goes overdrive presenting false testimonies to members of the Church of the Holy Spirit – a church he has just joined. Shamiso, his wife disapproved that as she sarcastically asked him if it was necessary to say all the things he said. To prove that he was telling lies, he reveals to Shamiso that he only wanted to impress. Clopas is not repentant as he does not understand the implications of his statement that he only wanted to impress.
Shamiso does not take kindly to Clopas’s utterances which verge on blasphemy. This is her reaction: “Impress, impress, impress. That’s all you’ve always wanted to do. Impress me, my family, the deacon, the overseer, the church people, your boss, your neighbours, and the whole world. Do you think you can impress the Almighty God, too, with your fat lies?” Indeed Clopas has uttered fat lies. We can thus conclude that Clopas is a good liar and his wife Shamiso is unimpressed by this behaviour of keeping up appearances.
In fact, this sums up Clopas’s character, that he lives for other people. He is untrue to himself. All that he does is to impress other people and is full of show off. We are told by his wife Shamiso that he did it at the beginning to her when she was young. When he says he is sorry, Shamiso responds curtly: “You expect me to believe that? I’m no longer that girl you showed off to at the DC’s office”. Shamiso is hurt by Clopas’s open defiance to God, the Almighty when she asks him if he thinks he can impress the Almighty God.
It is clear that Clopas is paying lip service to God. All that he says is not from the heart hence his wife cautions him to stop being over dramatic by making false testimonies. I do not think we will be wrong to say Clopas is like the devil citing scriptures to get his own ways. He portrays himself as having been extremely evil and is now changed, ready to be accepted in the church. He is well ready in the Bible and cites relevant examples to impress the leaders of the church and the congregation.
Clopas states that he was a man caught in the jaws of the devil. He goes on likening himself to known biblical characters like Jonah whom the shark swallowed and almost never spat, a Saul on the road to Damascus when the lightning struck at the very last minute, a Legion possessed by a thousand demons. He claims that he was a rotting man maybe likening himself to Job who was heavily infested with boils. The latter was being persuaded to abandon his God.
People listening to this will be strongly convinced that Clopas is truly a Man of God. He goes on to narrate all the evil deeds he committed to the shock of his wife Shamiso and the whole congregation. Remember most of these were listed in last week’s column. Ironically, he says he went to church to please those who knew him, to satisfy his lust by gazing at the lithe bodies of young women and other men’s wives. He says he did anything for money. He lied, cheated, stole.
He makes a stunning revelation that he gambled at cards and if he lost he slashed his rivals with knives and cast them into wells -. This revelation is met by a strong “Haaa!” from the church people. Clopas had gone too far to make this revelation. Was he a murderer? But as we hear later he did it to impress. As stated earlier there is irony in what Clopas says like going to church to please those who knew him. This what he is doing even now. He says he went to church to satisfy his lust by gazing at the lithe bodies of young women and other men’s wives.
This is what his life is like. Later on we will find him eloping with his neighbour’s wife to satisfy his lust. Clopas is truly revealing his own character in the testimonies he presents. He pretends to have moved on and repented from his evil deeds, yet he is still to fall into more sin.
All what he is doing at the present moment is to impress other people. He is a fake character who keeps up appearances.
There was joy at the birth of Benjamin as we find Clopas expressing thankfulness to Shamiso and to God. There is so ecstasy much that Clopas cannot hide it from their neighbour Muchaneta. Note the description we get about Muchaneta for future reference in the discussion of this play.
She is described as a young and sexy housewife, in a provocative nightdress and slippers when she appears for the first time. When Muchaneta inquires about the boy’s name Clopas informs her that he is called Benjamin named from the Bible by their church deacon. He adds that they were told that they would have two more, a girl called Esther and a boy called Peter. Shamiso shudders to hear of that as she is groaning from pain and says they would have two more children over her dead body.
But the question still asked by readers is which power resulted in the pregnancy of Shamiso? Was it the power of prayer to the Almighty God or Sekuru’s herbs? Clopas has joined the Church of the Holy Spirit and seems to have abandoned Sekuru’s stuff.
Book review: Harvest of Thorns Classic: A play by Shimmer Chinodya
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