Stories of the converts into Islam

Story 21. A Former Lutheran Archbishop Embraced Islam

It was December 23, 1986, two days away from Christmas, when Arch Bishop Martin John Mwaipopo, announced to his congregation that he was leaving Christianity for Islam. The congregation was paralysed with shock on hearing the news, so much so, that his administrator got up from his seat, closed the door and windows, and declared to the church members that the Bishop's mind had become unhinged, that is, he had gone mad.

How could he not think and say so, when only a few minutes earlier, the man had taken out his music instruments and sang so movingly for the church members? Little did they know that inside the Bishop's heart lay a decision that would blow their minds, and that the entertainment was only a farewell party.

But the congregant's reaction was equally shocking! They called the police to take the "mad" man away. He was kept in the cells until midnight when Sheikh Ahmed Sheik, the man who initiated him into Islam came to bail him out.

That incident was only a mild beginning of shocks in store for him. Al Qalam reporter, Simphiwe Sesanti, spoke to the Tanzanian born former Lutheran Arch Bishop Martin John Mwaipopo, who on embracing Islam came to be known as Al Hajj Abu Bakr John Mwaipopo.

Credit must go to the Zimbabwean brother, Sufyan Sabelo, for provoking this writer's curiosity, after listening to Mwaipopo's talk at the Wyebank Islamic Centre, Durban.
Sufyan is not sensationalist, but that night he must have heard something - he just could not stop talking about the man. Who would not be hooked after hearing that an Arch Bishop, who had not only obtained a BA and Masters degree, but a doctorate as well, in Divinity, had later turned to Islam? And since foreign qualifications matter so much to you, a man who had obtained a diploma in Church Administration in England and the latter degrees in Berlin, Germany - a man, who, before becoming a Muslim, had been the World Council of Churches' General Secretary for Eastern Africa - covering Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, and parts of Ethiopia and Somalia.

In the Council of Churches, he rubbed shoulders with the present chairman of the South African Human Rights Commission Barney Pityana and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission 's chairman, Bishop Desmond Tutu.

It is a story of a man who was born 61 years ago, on February 22 in Bukabo, an area that shares its borders with Uganda. Two years, after his birth, his family had him baptised, and five years later, watched him with pride being an alter boy. Seeing him assisting the church minister, preparing the "body and blood" of Christ , filled the Mwaipopos with pride, and filled Mwaipopo Senior with ideas for his son's future.

"When I was in a boarding school, later, my father wrote to me, stating he wanted me to become a priest. In each and every letter he wrote this", recalls Abu Bakr. But he had his own ideas about his life, which was joining the police force. But at the age of 25, Mwaipopo gave in to his father's will. Unlike in Europe where children can do as they will after age 21 , in Africa , children are taught to honour their parent's will above their own.

"My son, before I close my eyes (die), I would be glad if you could become a priest", that's how father told son, and that's how the son was moved, a move that saw him going to England in 1964, to do a diploma in Church Administration, and a year later to Germany to do a B.A degree. On returning, a year later, he was made acting Bishop.

Later, he went back to do Masters. " All this time, I was just doing things, without questioning. It was when he began to do his doctorate, that he started questioning things. "I started wondering … there is Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, each different religions claiming to be the true religion. What is the truth? I wanted the truth", says Mwaipopo. So began his search, until he reduced it to the "major" four religions. He got himself a copy of the Qur'an, and guess what?

"When I opened the Qur'an , the first verses I came across were, "Say : He is Allah, The One and Only; Allah, the Eternal, Absolute; He begeteteth not, nor is He begotten; And there is none like unto Him?" (Surah Ikhlas), he recalls.