Subversive Liturgical Song: Jonas Manjengwa’s “Ndofamba Ndofamba” Song in the Methodist Episcopal Church and Colonial Regime in Southern Rhodesia

This article interrogates the work of Jonas Mandara Manjengwa, an African convert in the early movement of the Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) in Rhodesia. The article examines the ingenuity of Manjengwa, an MEC African pastor-teacher, in challenging the church’s ideological conceptions through his song “Ndofamba Ndofamba.” By prioritizing Manjengwa’s song, the article explores the appropriation of indigeneity in music writing as a challenge to the MEC’s theological and ideological conceptions. Utilizing James Scott’s “hidden transcript” theory, the article submits that “Ndofamba Ndofamba” is a subversive composition within the matrix of missionary liturgical hegemony. The subversion follows what Lamin Sanneh calls the “indigenous discovery of Christianity”—a prioritization of indigenous cultures in understanding Christianity. The article concludes that “Ndofamba Ndofamba” connotes subversion against the church’s ideology and the broader sociopolitical and economic realities in the Rhodesian colonial hegemony.