There's a new 'feel-good' video being shared across facebook-land of a dance challenge to the song Jerusalema. This one particular video I watched is of nuns, fathers and brothers in a monastery doing the dance and viewers are praising it as something good during this lock down. The lyrics are in African so I had to take a look-see for the translation and then I looked for the origins of such a song and dance.
Jerusalem, my home.
Rescue me,
Join me,
Don't leave me here!
My place is not here,
My kingdom is not here,
Rescue me!
Come with me!
Save me, save me,
Don't leave me here....
My place is not here,
My kingdom is not here,
Rescue me Come with me
To me, this does not sound like a song of praise being offered to the Creator, Yahweh. It should sound confusing to anyone who knows Jerusalem is the center of the universe according to our Creator; it is where His Son will set up the kingdom to come, on this earth. And the choreographed dance steps sort of kind of remind me of a study I did on Messianic dancing - not a good thing either. Come to find out Mbende Jerusarema Dance is the original fertility dance which has evolved into what folks are seeing today as this Jerusalema dance challenge. If those dancing nuns knew they were dancing to a fertility ritual, do you think they'd be smiling?
Here is a quote from the UNESCO website:
The Mbende Jerusarema Dance is a popular dance style practiced by the Zezuru Shona people living in eastern Zimbabwe, especially in the Murewa and Uzumba-Maramba-Pfungwe districts.
The dance is characterized by acrobatic and sensual movements by women and men, driven by a polyrhythmic drummer accompanied by men playing woodblock clappers and by women hand clapping, yodelling and blowing whistles. Unlike other drum-based East African dance styles, the Mbende Jerusarema does not rely on intricate foot stamping or a large number of drummers. Instead, the music is performed by one master drummer, and no songs or lyrics are involved.
In the course of the dance, men often crouch while jerking both arms and vigorously kicking the ground with the right leg in imitation of a burrowing mole. The dance’s curious name reveals much about its vicissitudes over the centuries. Before colonial rule, this ancient fertility dance was called Mbende, the Shona word for “mole”, which was regarded as a symbol of fertility, sexuality and family. Under the influence of Christian missionaries, who strongly disapproved of this sexually explicit dance, the dance’s name was changed to Jerusarema, deriving from the Shona adaptation of the name of the city of Jerusalem, to endow it with a religious connotation. Both names are commonly used today. In spite of its condemnation by the missionaries, the dance remained popular and became a source of pride and identity in the struggle against colonial rule.
The dance is changing its character and meaning as its enactment as an exotic animation for tourist audiences becomes more widespread. It is also increasingly used at political party rallies, where it is removed from all its original intentions. The mitumba drum, rattles and whistles, which used to accompany the dance, have successively been replaced by instruments of poor quality, contributing to the loss of the uniqueness of the Mbende music.
Here is a link to a study I did a few years back in regards to dancing:
Time is running out for us to become fully Set Apart. I share various topics about pagan origins so as to help others make the choice to 'come out of Babylon', that old feel good worldly system that pleases Satan and makes him feel like a 'god'.
