17 February 2026
There are significant populations of Shona communities who permanently settled in Botswana and Kenya. Their migration to those countries was mainly for missionary work as members of the Gospel of God Church: Johane Masowe.
These communities are the followers of Johane Masowe (born Shoniwa Masedaza). Masowe was born in 1914 and he died in 1973. He preached throughout southern Africa and settled in Port Elizabeth in 1947. His mission was to preach the gospel and to liberate Africa from colonial rule.
The Botswana, group led by Ebrahim Moyo, arrived in the 1940s. Chief Moroka contracted him and his followers to build a primary school for the village in exchange for an arrangement to pay taxes three years in advance, thus guaranteeing their citizenship in Botswana and South Africa.
This arrangement angered the British colonial office and Ebrahim Moyo and his followers were tacitly oppressed as migrants in Moroka. They then migrated to Francistown, a gold-mining town.
This is where they were first called “Mazezuru,” a name which has stuck to this day.
They subsequently increased in number and settled in other areas such as Mandunyane and Shashe, before spreading to other economically viable centres, including the capital city Gaborone. However, their largest concentrations are found along the “eastern belt” of Botswana.
The Mazezuru are distinguished by their dress code. White garments for women, bald heads/long beards for men.
They also sell home made house hold utensils, and men are involved in light scale home-based industrial activities such as carpentry and welding.
The group in Kenya arrived in the 1960s but has been stateless ever since. The Kenyan Government only started issuing them with birth certificates in 2019 as a pathway to citizenship.
Source: https://shorturl.at/jB9lO
