By Tadiwa Shunje
MASVINGO – The Reformed Church in Zimbabwe has honoured the late Reverend Ezra
Shumba, regarded as the first black minister of the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) in Chivi,
with a tombstone unveiling at his grave, ending a 46-year wait for a promised memorial.
Shumba’s family, church members, and villagers gathered at Musungo Village in Chivi for the
memorial service on September 26, 2026, where the tombstone was unveiled, honouring a man
whose legacy had gone unmarked for decades after his death on November 11, 1980.
His family said the DRC, now the Reformed Church in Zimbabwe, had promised to construct a
memorial at his grave, but the promise was not fulfilled for decades.
The memorial was eventually made possible by RCZ Chivi Congregation pastor Messiah
Muchairi, who became concerned after visiting Shumba’s grave during house-to-house pastoral
work in 2025.
“When I came here in 2025, I walked as a pastor doing house visits. That is when I passed
through the house of Pastor Ezra Shumba, who was the first black minister in the Reformed
Church in the DRC before it became RCZ.
“When I came there, I had a wish to see where he was buried. I saw that the place where he was
buried was now like a forest, and it did not sit well with me,” said Muchairi.
Muchairi said he then approached the church council and congregation members, who agreed to
buy a tombstone in honour of Shumba.
“So today we have achieved what we wished for. We thank God for that. We realized that he is
the one who helped us to be where we are today by faith. He started the work, and we followed
him, so my message to church members and the rest is that your works follow you. The works of
this man followed him. That is why we are here doing this work to honour him,” he said.
Giving a history of Shumba’s life, his nephew Enias Shumba said the late minister was born on
January 10, 1898, in Chivi and became a member of the DRC at the age of 16. He later became
involved in preaching and was among the first black people to receive training for pastoral work
at Morgenster Mission. He completed further studies in 1938 and was later officially ordained as
a pastor at Morgenster, becoming the first black minister of the church.
He served in several churches, including Nyajena, Muchibwa, Zunga and Chivi, before retiring
in 1951. After retiring, Shumba was given a house and a residential stand at Chibi High School
as part of his pension, but he questioned the arrangement, saying he had a family to support. At
the time, he already had a house at Mawarire, where he was also the headman.
He was later allocated a portion of a farm at Muneri, which belonged to Chivi Mission, while
Dombo Primary School was also built for him as part of his pension. The area around the farm
later became known as Musungo Village, named after him.
Despite retiring, Shumba continued preaching and teaching people the word of God.
His grandson, Trymore Ezra, described him as a God-sent man who dedicated his life to teaching
people about God.
“He was a God-sent man who spent his time telling people about the importance of God. He
would use his time to talk about God and we are honoured as a family to do this memorial,”
Trymore said.
He said the family had not abandoned its responsibility to honour Shumba but had waited for the
church to fulfil its earlier promise.
“As a family, we did not fail to put a tombstone to our grandfather. We just spent time following
what the DRC told us and promised us, which has now been fulfilled today,” he said.
Shumba’s daughter-in-law, Shuvai Mawarire, thanked Muchairi for taking part in the memorial
project after years of waiting. She said Shumba had been a God-fearing man who dedicated his
life to teaching people the word of God, and the honour bestowed upon him was a fitting tribute
to his legacy as the first black minister of the church.
