I was born on the 25th of October, 1918 at Holy Cross Mission, Chirumanzu District, near the small town of Mvuma. I was baptized Paul by Father Schmidt a Roman Catholic Priest. My mother Saramina, who herself was a devout Christian, had initially named me *Mamvura.

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After the death of my father Joseph Mugovera Mwazha, our family moved to Kwenda Village in Njanja, Charter District (now Chikomba) near the town of Chivhu, in then the Midlands Province of Zimbabwe. In 1929 I started learning the Roman Catholic Catechism from my uncle Nyamayedenga, who was my mother’s brother. We recited the Lord’s Prayer every night before retiring to bed and each morning as the family woke up to a new day. I had not learnt to read and write but could say the Lord’s Prayer.

 

It was also at this time that I learnt to respond to questions of the Holy Scripture. I began to understand that the Lord God was my Father in Heaven and Jesus Christ my Savior. *Mamvura means “Child of the Water”. My mother had the notion that I was not going to survive beyond infancy. At that time most infants lost their lives to the scourge of the contagious disease influenza. Hence if I had died I was going to be buried in the muddy, wet marshy river banks. (An African custom for dead infants.)

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It was not long after I was born that I was seriously ill with this highly contagious fever and as my mother expected, I must have passed away. This prompted my mother to rush me for baptism and the last rites at the altar in the church before burial proceedings were conducted. To the amazement of everyone I seemed to spring back to life through the baptism done in the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Father Schmidt and the congregation were filled by the Holy Spirit and uttered, “The child has been raised for a mission,” three times.