Articles · Vol. 6 No. 1 (2002): African Sociological Review · Pages 1-16

1 - ‘Down with the devil, Forward with Christ!' A study of the interface between religious and political discourses in Zimbabwe

  • Ezra Chitando
    Ezra Chitando Department of Religious Studies, Classics and Philosophy University of Zimbabwe Harare Zimbabwe https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2493-8151 (unauthenticated)
    Ezra Chitando is a Zimbabwean religion Academic. He is Professor of History and Phenomenology of Religion at the University of Zimbabwe, in Harare, Zimbabwe.  He serves as Theology Consultant on HIV and AIDS with EHAIA, the Ecumenical HIV and AIDS Initiatives and Advocacy,...
    Their articles →
Vol. 6 · 2002 No. 1 African Sociological Review ASR

Abstract

The relationship between religion and politics in Africa has been approached from a multiplicity of angles. Many commentators have ana­ lysed the role of churches in democratisation processes in the postcolonial period, while others have examined the impact of religion on ethnie imagination. African Traditional Religions and their contribution to African liberation struggles have also received considerable scholarly attention. This article builds upon the available reflections on religion and politics. lt examines the inte,face between religious and political dis­ courses in Zimbabwe from the late 1990s. While many scholars adopt a deterministic interpretative framework, I argue that there has been a dynamic interchange and free borrowing of phrases, catchwords and ide­ologies between the religious and political arenas. I also maintain that as the social, political and economic climate worsened in Zimbabwe, reli­ gious and political rhetoric became pronounced. Religion and politics injluenced each other in ways that call for a rethinking of traditional for­ mulations, I argue in the conclusion.

Keywords

political discourses religious discourses Zimbabwe

Statistics

Abstract views
1,313
Downloads
115

Author Biography

  • Ezra Chitando, Department of Religious Studies, Classics and Philosophy University of Zimbabwe Harare Zimbabwe

    Ezra Chitando is a Zimbabwean religion Academic. He is Professor of History and Phenomenology of Religion at the University of Zimbabwe, in Harare, Zimbabwe. He serves as Theology Consultant on HIV and AIDS with EHAIA, the Ecumenical HIV and AIDS Initiatives and Advocacy, of the World Council of Churches. In this capacity, he has engaged in gender activism, specifically concerned with transforming socio-cultural and religious notions of masculinity.

References

  1. Alexander, Jocelyn, JoAnn McGregor and Terence Ranger. 2000. Violence and Mem- ory: One Hundred Years in the 'DarkForests 'ofMatabeleland.Oxford: Currey.
  2. Anderson, David M. and Douglas H. Johnson (eds.) 1995. Revealing Prophets: Prophets in Eastern African History. London James Currey.
  3. Bediako, Kwame. 1995. 'The significance of modem African Christianity: A mani­ festo', Studies in World Christianity 1 (1), 51-67.
  4. Behrend, Heike. 1999. Alice Lakwena and the Holy Spirits. Oxford: James Currey. Bhebe, Ngwabi. 1999. The ZAPU and ZANU Guerilla Warfare and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Zimbabwe. Gweru: Mambo Press.
  5. Bourdillon, Michael F.C. 1984/5. 'Religious symbols and political change'. Zambezia 12, 39-54.
  6. Bourdillon, Michael F.C. 1990. Religion and Society: A Text for Africa. Gweru: Mambo Press.
  7. Callahan, Bryan, 2001. 'Review of Terence Ranger's Voicefrom the Rocks: Nature, Culture and History in the Matopos Hills of Zimbabwe.' Philosophia Africana 4(1), 83-88.
  8. Chitando, Ezra. 1998. 'Rejoice? Reflections on the World Council ofChurches Jubilee celebration'. Exchange 27(3), 221-235.
  9. Chitando, Ezra. 1999. 'Complementary Approaches to the study ofreligion: An appli­ cation to a study of gospel music in Zimbabwe'. Scriptura 71 (4), 331-341.
  10. Chitando, Ezra. 2000. 'Stop suffering': An Examination of the Concepts ofKnowledge and Power with Special Reference to Sacred Practitioners in Harare'. Religion and Theology 7(1), 56-68.
  11. Daneel, Marthinus L. 1971. Old and New in Southern Shona Independent Churches. Vol 1. The Hague: Mouton.
  12. Daneel, Marthinus, L. 1998. 'Mwari the Liberator: Oracular Intervention and Zimba­ bwe's Quest for the 'Lost lands', 95-125. In James L. Cox (ed.) Rites of Passage in Contemporary Africa, Cardiff: Cardiff Academic Press.
  13. Dunton, Chris and Mai Palmberg. 1996. Human Rights and Homosexuality in Southern Africa. Copenhagen: Freemuse.
  14. Eyre, Banning. 2001. Playing with Fire: Fear and Self-Censorship in Zimbabwean Music. Uppsala: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet.
  15. Ezeani, Geo B. 1998. The African Church and Politics. Kent: Veritas Lumen. Gaidzanwa, Rudo. 1999. Voting with their Feet: Migrant Zimbabwean Nurses and
  16. Doctors in the Era of Structural Adjustment. Research report no. 111. Uppsala: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet.
  17. Geschiere, Peter. 1997. The Modernity of Witchcraft: Politics and the Occult in Postcolonial Africa. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia.
  18. Gibbon, Peter (ed.) 1995. Structural Adjustment and the Working Poor in Zimbabwe.Uppsala: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet.
  19. Gifford, Paul. 1990. Christianity: To Save or Enslave? Harare: EDICESA.
  20. Hallencreutz, Carl F. and Ambrose Moyo (eds.) 1988. Church and State in Zimbabwe. Gweru: Mambo Press.
  21. Hallencreutz, Carl F. and Mai Palmberg (eds.) 1991. Religion and Politics in Southern Africa. Uppsala: The Scandinavian Institute of African Studies.
  22. Hansen, Holger B. and Michael Twaddle (eds). 1995. Religion and Politics in East Africa. London: James Currey.
  23. Kriger, Normal. 1992. Zimbabwe 's Guerrilla War: Peasant Voices. Cambridge: Cam­ bridge University Press.
  24. Lan, David. 1985. Guns and Rain: Guerrillas and Spirit Mediums in Zimbabwe. Lon­ don: James Currey.
  25. Linden, Ian. 1980. The Catholic Church and the Struggle for Zimbabwe. London: Longman.
  26. Lundby, Knut and Daniel Dayan. 1999. 'Media scape missionaries? Notes on religion as identity in a local African setting'. International Journal of Cultural Studies 2(3), 398-417.
  27. Maxwell, David J. 1998. 'Delivered from the Spirit of Poverty'? Pentecostalism, Pros­ perity and Modemity in Zimbabwe'. Journal of Religion in Africa 28 (3), 350-373.
  28. Melber, Henning. 2001. 'Liberation and Democracy in Southern Africa: The Case of Namibia', 17-28. In Henning Melber and Christopher Saunders, Transition in Southern Africa: Comparative Aspects. Discussion paper 1O. Uppsala: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet.
  29. Mlambo, Alois S. 1997. The Economie Structural Adjustment Programme: The Case of Zimbabwe, 1990-1995. Harare: University of Zimbabwe Publications.
  30. Mndende, Nokuzula, 'From Racial Oppression to Religious Oppression: African Reli­ gion in the New South Africa', 143-155. ln Thomas G. WalshandFrankKaufmann (eds.), Religion and Social Transformation in Southern Africa. St. Paul, Minne­ sota: Paragon House.
  31. Moore, David.2001. 'Island the economy and the economy the land? Primitive Accu­ mulation in Zimbabwe' ,Journal ofContemporary African Studies 19(2), 253-266.
  32. Mugambi, Jesse N.K. (ed.) 1997. Democracy and Development in Africa: The Rote of the Churches. Nairobi: All Africa Conference ofChurches.
  33. Mupedziswa Rodreck and Perpetua Gumbo, 2001. Women Informai Traders in Harare and the Struggle for Survival in an Environment of Economie Reforms. Research report no. 117. Uppsala: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet.
  34. Muyebe Stanslaus and Alexander Muyebe. 1999. The Religious Factor Within the Body of Political Symbolism in Malawi, 1964-1994. Florida: Universal Publishers.
  35. Pobee, John S. 1992. Religion and Politics in Ghana: A Case Study of the Acheampong Era. Accra: Ghana Universities Press.
  36. Sibanyoni, M.R. 1995. 'he Fading Songs ofChimurenga: Chenjerai Hove and the Sub­ version of Nationalist Politics in Zimbabwean Literature' African Studies 54(2), 52-72.
  37. Sithole, Ndabaningi. 1970. Obed Mutezo. London: Oxford University Press. Tshuma, Lawrence. 1997. A Matter of (ln) Justice: Law, State and the Agrarian Ques­tion in Zimbabwe. Harare: SAPES Books.
  38. Turino, Thomas. 2000. Nationalists, Cosmopolitans and Popular Music in Zimbabwe. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  39. Vambe, Maurice T. 2000. 'Popular Songs and Social Realities in Post-Independence Zimbabwe', African Studies Review 43(2), 73-86.
  40. Van Dijk, Rijk A. 2000. 'Christian Fundamentalism in Sub-Saharan Africa: The case of Pentacostalism', Occasional Paper, Centre of African Studies, University of Copenhagen.

In this issue

Vol. 6 No. 1 (2002): African Sociological Review →