BEING an accomplished gospel recording artist, entrepreneur and inspirational speaker are not the only attributes that define born-again Pentecostal Christian Musa Njoko.

The South African native who has travelled the world ministering to thousands not only does so through her tremendous singing ability but through her testimony as a woman who has been living with HIV for the last 17 years. She recently visited Jamaica with a potent message of tolerance for local churches to be more tolerant of her HIV positive sisters in this country.

Njoko, one of the first women to disclose her status publicly in South Africa, is also an AIDS activist, a role which is not always warmly accepted by the church.

The 39-year-old can still recall the early days of her diagnosis when she was ostracised by her family and church, and was even told to alter her Christian testimonial and limit how much she spoke about her HIV-positive status.

Njoko, who grew up in a polygamist household, was the only girl in the family to not get married at age 15.

She got pregnant, and, after dropping out of school as a teen mother, she left the church she had grown up in to engage in a relationship with a man who had pursued her relentlessly. But it didn’t take more than a couple months for her to realise he was not who she thought he was when he started beating her in drunken rages.

But getting out of the relationship was easier said than done. She was only too relieved when he decided not to pursue her anymore.

“He told me ‘you can get rid of me, but not THAT’, but I didn’t know what that meant then because I was just too glad to be away from him,” she recalled.

Njoko said she asked God for forgiveness and went back to church.

“When I went back to church I was just on fire for Jesus,” she recalled.

But nine months later she became ill and even before she was diagnosed with the disease, Njoko said she was summoned to a meeting by a group of women in the church who asked her not to participate in activities.

“They said what I had was a bad reflection on the church and what I had was because I had sinned,” she said.

By October of 1994, her worst fears were confirmed by a doctor who not only diagnosed her with the virus but informed her that she would be lucky if she lived to see Christmas.

For the then-22-year-old, not only did her dreams come crashing down but there was no medicine in South Africa at that time to treat HIV.

Her health began to deteriorate rapidly as Njoko said she was broken both spiritually and mentally by the rejection of the church.

While waiting to die, Njoko said she went into her closet to pray what she thought was her last prayer, ranting at God for allowing her to become infected.

But in the midst of this anger, Njoko said she was led to read the book of Job in the Bible, and the more she read, the more she recognised that God had forgiven her and he was not the cause of her troubles.

Gradually, Njoko said she started regaining her physical strength and as soon as she was well enough to go out she crashed a meeting of the elders of the church to point out the error of their ways in ostracising her.

She started disclosing her condition to family members and, before long, also found the courage to start speaking publicly about her country’s failure to address many of the issues associated with the disease.

“I wanted to find out from Government how can we have such a bad disease and no medicine available for it, and so I started speaking out and meeting with other HIV persons,” she said.

But, during all that time, Njoko said she still had to learn to forgive herself and the man who had infected her. Additionally, she knew she also had to find a church home.

This wasn’t the easiest thing to do as she was often asked to alter her testimony or not speak so much about her HIV-positive status.

As a Pentecostal born-again Christian who also speaks up for homosexuals and sex workers who also are HIV-infected, Njoka said she still often faces criticism by some churches who will have nothing to do with the disease.

“I believe Satan does not create people but God created them for a purpose,” she said, a testament to her faith in spite of this.

It is for this reason that Njoko embarked on a Caribbean tour, organised by group CREW 40:4 (Culturally Relevant Expressions of Worship) under the theme “One Love in Christ: The Church’s Response to HIV and AIDS”.

The week-long visit in Jamaica was rolled out in collaboration with the Jamaica Association of Evangelicals, Jamaica Theological Seminary, Eve for Life and other key stakeholders in the local fight against AIDS. The sessions explored the role of the church in addressing stigma and discrimination against persons living with, or affected by HIV and AIDS; the historical role the church played in entrenching such stigma and discrimination, and the role of faith in support of those most affected.

“We have recognised that stigma and discrimination are largely religiously entrenched and feel that the time to increase ventilation of the issue within the church and among para-church organisations is now,” said D Marcus Williams, a member of CREW 40:4.

There has to be the initiation of a discussion which addresses tolerance on the basis of gender, religious beliefs, race and sexual orientation if we are to effectively fight HIV and AIDS,” she added.

“Although the church’s position will be one which will not endorse certain behaviours that are contrary to scripture, we are equally cognisant of the church’s call to love all people and to value each person as a human being. This is the platform from which we operate, promoting love and unity in Christ,” added Jo-Ann Richards, Executive Director of CREW 40:4.

Last week Njoko met with a group of HIV-positive Jamaican women who she encouraged not to become victims of the disease.

“How people perceive people with HIV has to do with how we present ourselves,” she told the women.

As one who employs persons, regardless of HIV status in her recording and clothing company, Njoko said she, an HIV-positive woman, helps to put bread on the tables of HIV-negative people.

She has been able to do all this despite having suffered from bone-marrow tuberculosis, being confined to a wheelchair for 13 months, having lost mobility in her right hand as a result of a motor vehicle accident, and weighing as little as 34 kilogrammes at one point.

She encouraged Jamaica’s HIV-positive women to not be afraid to draw closer to God regardless of how this is perceived by others.

Njoko said one of her missions in this region is to also mobilise artistes and celebrities to respond meaningfully to HIV.

“We are not hearing the voice of high-profile people, yet these are the people (whose lives) we celebrate and look up to,” she told the Sunday Observer.

The singer, who made stops in Antigua, St Lucia, St Vincent and Barbados before coming to Jamaica, said the feedback on what she is doing has been very good so far.

Njoko is convinced she is equipped to get churches to buy into the vision of embracing HIV-positive persons and implementing specific programmes, given that she has seen a transformation of attitudes and treatment in her native South Africa — the African country said to have the highest HIV prevalence rate.

She said, although it has not always been like that in South Africa, churches and pastors have become far more receptive to forming support groups for members and other HIV-infected persons.