Another deadly religious cult has been discovered in Zimbabwe along with 16 shallow graves. That is believed to be the final resting place of mostly young teenage girls who may have died from childbirth after being forced into marriage by their cult leader, a 56-year-old self-acclaimed Prophet named Prophet Marib Baba Ishmael. And it turns out that this cult group may have been existing as far back as 2014 because their so-called leader, Prophet Marib Baba, happens to be a convict. He was said to have been sentenced to 5 years in prison in 2014 after he and his church members at the time physically assaulted the police officer. The problem is, at the time, his cult group was already getting notorious, but when the police came to investigate, they were harassed by these church members of this man....CONTINUE READING
Rather than the government investigating the entire scenario as to the church activities, they only focused on the church members beating up the police officer, and therefore, Mari Baba Ishmael was charged and sentenced for the assault. Eventually, 5 years later, he was released. However, he only came back with full force because he immediately started back his church all over again, gaining as much as over a thousand followers from over a hundred different families, where he relocated them to a village in Mashonaland west of Zimbabwe.
The strange part about this cult is that he actually told his followers to stop praying, since they all lived in a compound and they all lived like a community. He pretty much ordained himself to be God. And again, just like we’ve seen in a lot of religious cults, in a lot of religious cult groups, his tactic was as easy as convincing these church members, convincing this family, that the world would soon end and that anyone who is not in his Canan land, which is in his compound named Joan Mas, will not make it to heaven. So this man pretty much convinced over a thousand people that
…the world is coming to an end, and that when God comes, it’s only those who are in his compound, only those who are his followers, that would make it to Heaven. We’ve seen this way too many times. We’ve seen this in Kenya, we saw it in Uganda, we’ve seen this in the United States; this is one of the tactics of a lot of religious cult groups: the power of brainwashing and inflicting fear in these people’s minds. And obviously, he was successful.
Now, it gets even trickier because his rules and tactics just continue to marvel a lot of people. If these people are working so hard to make it to heaven, to meet God, why did he tell them to stop praying to God and told them that they should only listen to him? Not only that, he banned hospitals, schools, educations, no mobile phone, no technology, no TV. And then he makes his church members walk in his farm. He has a very large acre of land where they work in his farmland, and by the end of every produce they bring, all the harvest goes to him, and he will then allocate it to each family.
Besides that, it was also stated that he would force the young girls as early as 15, 16, 17 into marriage, which it is being allegedly claimed that more than half of the people in the 16 shallow, unmarked graves that were found in his territory belonged to some of these young girls who were forced into marriage early on and may have died as a result of childbirth. He pretty much just created a land of zombies, stripped these members of everything that they know the world to be: not having a mobile phone, not even having money. He stripped them of every earthly possession. I’m sure he most likely convinced some of them to sell their properties and bring the money to him. We see this in a lot of these religious cult tactics. And for him to tell his church members to stop praying to God and only start listening to him shows that he has deemed himself not just a prophet, but God himself, in which his followers refer to him as Mambu, meaning the king in Shaa. They call him King. So obviously, he’s there next to God.
However, on the 12th of March 2024, in the early hours of the morning, the Zimbabwean police swung into action, raiding his compound and territory. And this was after many people had complained about the weird activities going on in his Canan land, in his compound, because obviously, there were neighbors in the village observing them, and it was just unsettling for a lot of people what was going on. There were even rumors and words that whenever any of his church members or his cult members at this point misbehaved or didn’t follow the rules, they were dealt with, beaten, and tortured. And I wouldn’t be surprised if any of them may have passed out from it. There were even claims that some of the children, over 200 of them, who were born and grew up in that Canan land, did not have any birth certificate and were not allowed to go to school or were not allowed to be educated. And he even made some of them work in his farm like slaves. And there were also rumors, allegedly, that some of these kids may have also passed from the extensive workload they had to take on in his farm, which would also amount to making some from the 16 graves that have been discovered in his compound.
Another big accusation that Maraba is getting is the fact that people who have family members in his church have complained that whenever their loved one passes, they are buried immediately without their family members being informed. A lady accused the pastor that when her 27-year-old daughter died in his church premises, she was immediately buried and was not told by anyone until she had heard about it. The family of a professor who also was part of his sect also complained that when their loved one passed too, he was buried and was not informed by the church. And the church had responded that the young girl, the so-called 27-year-old girl, died from food poisoning, and the man died from some kind of sickness. They always have a way of making it look like it’s not their fault.
However, there is no way to know what is really killing these people and how they are dying. Of course, it is okay and common for people to die, but when it comes to a religious cult, it’s hard to just see it as a normal cause of death given the history. When we talk about religious cults, especially in Africa, it takes a whole total difference. I don’t know any religious cult in Africa where members of the church were not directly harmed by these so-called cult leaders. It is always that case, well, apart from the TB Joshua story, which despite the accusations and despite the accident that happened in his church, we know it wasn’t specifically said he directly ordered the death of anyone, so that can be seen as a cult per se. However, with all these extreme cult activities in some of these countries, and the one we saw in Kenya, these cult leaders actively are known to directly cause harm and death to their church members.
So, that is why if a loved one is in a church or a serious, intense church membership that turned out to be a cult to the rest of the world, and they die from it, it is hard to believe they die naturally. It is hard to say that they died of something that anyone could believe because there is that chance that they may have been killed, maybe because they want to leave or maybe because they are tired, and that happens. My thing is I’m glad that this cult was found so quick and reported instantly. I’m glad that the police swung into action because, in as much as I believe that there is more than 16 or 17 graves, there could have been more if nothing was done. We all know where this was headed.
We all know how this was going to turn out. He was going to keep increasing his followers because the notion that he had used to brainwash these 100 families with over a thousand people in it is the idea that the world is coming to an end, and that works every single time with Christians, poor Christians, to be specific, poor, uneducated ones, even some educated ones. Imagine a professor was part of it. And when we remember what happened in the um Kenya own situation, that whole church religious thing that happened in Kenya, we saw educated, well-traveled people fall victims to these men of God and their cult initiating and their brainwashing tactics. We saw it.
And that is why when these Church pastors start getting ahead of themselves and they start getting so much praise and so much honor, it gets into their head and they start to see themselves as someone capable of leading a community of people who want to go to heaven and who doesn’t want to go to heaven, who doesn’t want to go to heaven? Religion has so much power and so much tool on a lot of people, and most times, men of God who are gifted with this followership, with this congregation of people who adore them, listen to them, they get tempted to abuse that power, such as this case that we see. And we know where it was going to. All he has to do is keep the lie going that the world is ending, and every year, the world
would not end because clearly the world has been trying to end for over 200 years now and it hasn’t, and he will keep his followers working for him. He will keep them brainwashed since these kids are not getting education; the only thing that they would know is his words, is his wisdom, is the thing that he tells them. And he even goes on to employ seven top followers, seven top people who would assist him, grown adult men also following and going about his rule, which is really, really dangerous. For the most part, it’s so interesting that he has them working on his farm. I guess maybe since they don’t have to have money or go to work somehow, they would have to feed. The good thing is that he was caught and arrested, and I hope he stays in jail because if it turns out that he’s released again, I don’t think he would stop.
But the strange thing is, and this is where the internet is having some form of division and you guys, we just have to talk about it briefly because I need to address it: When this happened, a lot of his members were furious and angry with the police. Many of his members came to the defense of Prophet Marib Baba. Many of his followers came; a lot of the women were furious and angry; they were like, “We chose this life. This is our choice to be here. This is not a cult. This is what we believe in.” And at the point of learning about that, it kind of made me feel like they have a point because let’s face it: these are adult men and women, except for the children. But these adult men and women claim that they chose to go that way, they chose to walk in his farm, they chose to be under his guidance, they chose to leave their family or their homes behind to be here. That man, the whole brainwashing, “Heaven is coming, Jesus is coming, the world is ending” thing, it was their choice to be there.
And in contrast to what we saw happen in Kenya and maybe in Uganda, you know, back in the tungu massacre, these particular sect were not exactly directly being killed, per se. Maybe those 16 graves were just members who may have passed. I mean, the cult group has been existing for nearly since 2014, so there is that possibility that people will die; people will die of old age, people die of sickness, people will die from working, people would die, so they would have to bury these people. So, if it turns out that these people who may have passed died from natural causes, then clearly it’s almost risky to say that there’s a chance that this man probably is not doing as much as we would expect him to do as a religious cult leader.
The only thing now said that the Zimbabwean authorities are holding him hostage for is the fact that the children who were there, over 260 of them, were not properly documented and were not allowed to go to school, and that was where it was read to him that he has violated human rights. So, he’s been charged for violating human rights, not murder or killing. So, he has been charged for violating the children’s and women’s rights, which correlates with him forcing these teenage girls to go into marriage and having babies, and some of them passing from it. That is where the law is focusing on his own case now, the children and the young girls.
However, when it comes to the idea alone of the cult or the sect or the entire group, nothing is being said, nothing. Which means, somehow, someway, if he goes to church and gets a good lawyer and somehow is able to defend his way out of denying the children education and forcing some of these young people into marriage, he might come back to his church and it will continue because a lot of the adults, a lot of the mothers of these children, even the 15-year-old who gave birth to these children who are still alive, are saying that it was their choice. Many of them should be older by now; many of them should be adults by now. So, if they are all of them are saying these kids are dead and they agree and choose to be there, it’s going to be a tough thing for the government of Zimbabwe.
And honestly, personally, at the point I started saying that, “Oh my God, these adult people really want to be here, then let them be there. Take the children, take the young girls. Let those adults who say they want to follow this man as slaves and work in his farm, let them continue being there till whenever the world ends because, in the end, when you look at these things, these are adults, these are grown men and women, educated, following one man of God, listening to him, obeying him. That is a choice that they should deal with because we just can’t keep coming to rescue these people from their own selves all the time.”
I don’t know why a grown adult would want to follow a pastor to a land and rid himself of every worldly thing and say, “Oh, they want to go to heaven.” That is their choice. But I’m happy that the government took away the children and everyone under age and let those adults who want to be there be there. And it was said that the prophet, Prophet Maraba, along with his seven senior men, seven senior leaders, were all arrested. And only God knows what they’ll be charged with. I guess they’ll be charged with the children’s neglect and the death of some of these people in their church. And you know, I guess since it’s not a legal organization, it shouldn’t even function in the first place.
My thing is now, it’s tough that we still live in a world where this kind of thing still happens. When we did the tungu massacre story, it happened in 1999 to 2001, and the people were like, “That was many years ago,” but we’ve seen it happen many times, too many times. We’ve seen it too many times. Even in Kenya, the shakula forest massacre that came as a shock to a lot of people, what one man who claims to be the man of God can do to his congregation.
And now we’re seeing it in Zimbabwe. It’s just unfortunate. It’s just so risky because anyone can be a victim of this, well, anyone who doesn’t have a mind of their own, I guess. But I guess this is what it is. I guess maybe it will probably never end, hopefully it ends somehow, someway. But given how Africa is, given the extent of poverty in a lot of these states, given the impact and the whole religion have on a lot of people who are looking for divine mercies and miracles,
I would not be surprised if it continues. Because every day, a man of God is springing up, every day, people are setting up churches, and the more people keep believing in these men of God, or these prophets, or these people who claim to know when God is coming, the more chances that we would see more of this in the future. It doesn’t look like it will stop anytime soon. There are probably still more out there that we have still not heard of. The church is pretty much the second most powerful thing after politics, after politicians in Africa. And a lot of these men of God are overusing their power.
And I just like the fact that the police are doing their job. Hopefully, it continues; hopefully, more people are woke, more people are exposed to calling these things out once they see it because many people are in it don’t even know they’re in a cult. You see these people defending their pastors because they don’t see it as a cult; it’s a lifestyle, it’s the life that they know now. So, it will be hard to even save these people from themselves. It would be hard. But you guys, let me know your thoughts.
