Biography
Stephen Lungu is a Zimbabwean evangelist and the author of the book Out of the Black Shadows, in which he told the story of his conversion. He was born in the 1940s in Southern Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, and grew up in a township, in the years when the country was under white minority rule. He was raised in poverty, in a city slum, in a family that was not religious. He was a boy of some ability who left school early. As a teenager, he was caught up in the politics of the black nationalist struggle and in the life of the street. He became an angry young man, who was drawn to violence and revenge against the whites.
He joined a gang and took part in acts of crime and political agitation. He hated the white regime and the white people who ruled it. He was in a state of rage and despair. He also became involved in witchcraft and the practice of traditional rites. By his own account, he lived a wild life of drink, fights and fear. He said that he had come to the point of wishing to kill and to be killed. In the 1960s, he became a member of one of the nationalist groups and was part of the underground.
He was converted through the witness of a white Christian man. He heard the gospel in a meeting in a church, to which he had been invited by a friend, and he was moved. He said that he had a vision of the love of Christ, and that he was changed in an instant. He gave up his hatred. He later said that the bitterness that he had held toward whites was taken away, and that he was able to forgive. He felt a call to preach the gospel to his own people. He took training as an evangelist and joined an organization that worked among youth in the townships.
He wrote his story in a book, Out of the Black Shadows, which was published in 1980, with the help of a missionary, and became a best seller. It was translated into a number of languages. It told of the way that God had broken the cycle of hatred in his heart and made him a messenger of reconciliation. It was a powerful testimony, at a time when Rhodesia was in the midst of civil war. He became a speaker at a number of conferences in Africa, Europe and North America. He traveled to many countries and spoke of the love of Christ and of the need for forgiveness.
He served for many years as the leader of a church in Harare. He also became the president of an organization for evangelism and leadership training in Zimbabwe. He was also drawn into the work of reconciliation. He was a man who spoke out against the corruption and the abuse of power in his country. He was criticized by some who thought that he was too ready to forgive. He has sought to hold to the message that the gospel is the answer to hatred. He is a living man, and the record of his life is still being written. His life shows how a man who was formed by hatred became a witness to peace.