Guta raJehovah or Guta ra Jehovah (English: City of Jehovah), also known as the City of God, is a church and series of religious healing communities located across Zimbabwe. The beliefs of this church stem from the Methodist teachings that were present across Southern Africa at this time as well as more traditional healing practices indigenous to the area. The church was founded in 1954 by renowned faith healer Mai Chaza following her departure from the area's Methodist church with the community's first independent healing centre, what those in the church refer to as a Guta, being established in a village outside of Zimbabwe's capital, Harare (formerly known as Salisbury). This community, and Guta ra Jehovah more widely, was founded on curing the sick through spirituality and prayer particularly through Mai Chaza's perceived ability of being able to successfully pray for barren women to conceive. Not only was Mai Chaza known widely for her powers as a healer, she was referred to by her followers as "Matenga", meaning "heavens". With this view, Mai Chaza was viewed in a messianic way as the human embodiment of the Holy Spirit on Earth forming the basis of Guta raJehovah's beliefs and attracting followers to these healing communities. Those seeking treatment would travel to spend time living in the church's compounds undergoing spiritual healing from Mai Chaza and through other prayer rituals for days, months and even years at a time, practices that continue to this day.
Throughout the 1950s, Guta raJehovah experienced relative success with large amounts of people travelling from all over Zimbabwe and other Southern African countries to receive the faith healing offered by Mai Chaza, her followers and their rituals. The number of followers at the height of the church's popularity was estimated to be around 70,000. However, despite continuing to this day, the church has struggled to maintain its popularity and prominence following the death of their spiritual leader in 1960 with only around 3,000 followers still existing today.
History
Mai Chaza and Formation
The history of Guta raJehovah is closely linked with the history of its founder and spiritual leader, Mai Chaza. Varied stories about her past exist but it is widely accepted that she lived as a wife and mother preaching within the Wesleyan Methodist community in Harare until a disagreement with her husband, based on her own mental or unknown physical illness, saw her cast from her home and returned to her childhood family. From this illness, Mai Chaza "died" in 1948 and claimed to have been "resurrected" after meeting God and being divinely ordered to return to Earth to heal both physical and spiritual ills. Thus, her image of a powerful spiritual healer was established.
This claim to divine powers was not accepted by the Methodist Church Mai Chaza had been a part of and so she developed an independent preaching circuit attracting people based on her healing abilities and own connection to the Holy Spirit. As more people began to flock towards the charismatic leader, the first Guta was built and the overall church of Guta raJehovah was established.
After Mai Chaza
Following a number of years of relative success and popularity healing through the church's spiritual compounds, Mai Chaza passed away on 25 December 1960 leaving no successor and with the mysterious phrase "I will not have a grave here on earth" indicating that her spirit would continue despite her bodily death. This left somewhat of a vacuum in the church with no clear physical leadership existing beyond the spirit of Mai Chaza which members continue to follow and believe in.
Attempts to fill this void in more recent years have seen the church splinter into a number of different sects led by new leaders claiming to be the latest embodiment of God and the manifestation of the Holy Spirit that Mai Chaza possessed. Most notably, Guta raMwari was established in 1961 in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe by the second "host" of God. This splinter sect continues the practices of Guta raJehovah to this day and remains relatively popular compared to the original church despite continuing to experience further division into smaller individual sects.