Jerusalem Church National Chairperson Urges Unity and Preservation of Lumpa Church Principles

Jerusalem Church National Chairperson Alex Musanya has appealed to all Lumpa Church members to be united and defend the principles on which the church was founded.

Mr Musanya says there is a need for the country to know the truth about Lumpa church and Alice Mulenga Lenshina and her contribution to Christianity in Zambia and Chinsali in particular.

Mr Musanya says the Jerusalem Church members should create awareness on how the Lumpa Church came into being.

“Let the truth be told to the public so that people’s negative perception about Lumpa church is understood with the truth,” Mr Musanya said.

Speaking during the burial of the last daughter of Alice Mulenga Lenshina who was put to rest at Chinsali District Council Cemetery over the weekend, Mr Musanya said there is a need to document the truth about Lenshina and the then Lumpa church.

Mr Musanya, who is also Jerusalem Church lawyer and former MP for Chinsali in the Mwanawasa regime, explained that due to public interest and history, Jenipher Bubile Ng’andu, the late daughter to Lenshina, requested to be buried in Chinsali adding that the church is ready to support the heritage of the graves of both Lenshina and her daughter since both graves are in Chinsali.

Mr Musanya also made an earnest appeal to the government to consider Lenshina’s story in the history curriculum so that it helps future generations to understand the positive contributions that Lenshina made towards Zambia’s liberation struggle for Independence from 1962-1964.
He recalled that the Lumpa Church went through some revolutions which made it change the name from Lumpa to Jerusalem Church in 2005 when Late President Patrick Levy Mwanawasa recalled them from exile in Congo DRC in 2005.

He said that the Government then recognised the then Lumpa church members as Zambians and later repatriated them back to Chinsali District in Muchinga Province in Kasomo village as a duly registered church with executive members.

“Kasomo village is also a burial site for Alice Mulenga Lenshina whose tomb is protected by her church members,” he said.

And Lenshina family spokesperson, Emmanuel Kashimu Lubusha who gave the life history of Jenifer Bubile Ng’andu at the burial site, said the family tree of Alice Mulenga Lenshina needs to be documented and be kept for its contribution to Christianity in Chinsali.

Mr Kashimu explained that Jenifer Bubile Ng’andu chose to be buried back in Chinsali not because she was poor but because she saw the value of their history towards political dispensation.

He added that Jenifer was born in 1949 to Petros Chintakwa and Alice Mulenga Lenshina in a family of seven, who have all died, marking the end of Lenshina’s nuclear family.

Mr Kashimu disclosed that Jenipher’s original clan is Ng’andu of senior Chief Nkula of the Bemba people in Chinsali whose parents hailed from Chintakwa village in Nkula Chiefdom hence her wish to be buried in Chinsali.

And speaking on behalf of the Government, Chinsali District Commissioner Samson Muchemwa thanked Jerusalem Church members for their unity and obedience
Mr Muchemwa said the Government is ready to work with leaders of Jerusalem Church so that the burial sites for both Jenipher Bubile Ng’andu and her Mother Alice Mulenga Lenshina are well protected and be considered for recognition as heritage sites.

He said as the province prepares to host its Expo in October this year, Kasomo village is among the tourism sites that have been identified adding that soon the Road Development Agency will move into the Chinsali -Kasomo area.

Scores of Chinsali residents joined the funeral procession to send off the last biological daughter of Alice Mulenga Lenshina who was commonly known as “Mama” as this marks the end of Lenshina’s children.

She has left behind a husband Justin Bwalya 82, two grandchildren and 16 great grandchildren.