Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-02T22:38:19.615Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

‘In the Beginning was the Land’: The Appropriation of Religious Themes in Political Discourses in Zimbabwe

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2011

Ezra Chitando
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

As the political and economic crisis in Zimbabwe worsened between 2000 and 2003, the state embarked on an intense propaganda campaign. Facing an increasingly popular opposition, the state adopted a two-pronged strategy of marketing its programmes while subjecting the opposition to violence and negative publicity. Using various media, the propagandists sought to portray the ruling party (ZANU-PF) as a sacred movement fulfilling prophetic oracles that the black majority would reclaim the lost land. State functionaries systematically appropriated religious ideas, with concepts from Christianity and African traditional religions being used to buttress political statements. The controversial land reform programme was couched in religious terms and notions like sovereignty attained mythical proportions. This article examines the appropriation of religious themes in political propaganda in Zimbabwe. It analyses the communication environment in the country and how it facilitated the interface between religious and political discourses.

Résumé

Au moment où la crise politique et économique s'amplifiait au Zimbabwe entre 2000 et 2003, l'État s'est lancé dans une intense campagne de propagande. Face à une opposition qui gagnait en popularité, l'État a adopté une stratégie sur deux fronts consistant à promouvoir ses programmes tout en menant une campagne de violence et de mauvaise publicité contre l'opposition. Usant de médias divers, les propagandistes ont cherché à présenter le parti au pouvoir (ZANU-PF) comme un mouvement sacré répondant aux oracles prophétiques selon lesquels la majorité noire allait reprendre possession des terres perdues. Les fonctionnaires de l'État se sont systématiquement appropriés des idées religieuses en usant de concepts empruntés à la chrétienté et aux religions traditionnelles africaines pour étayer leurs déclarations politiques. Le programme controversé de réforme agraire était formulé en termes religieux, tandis que des notions comme la souveraineté atteignaient des proportionsmythiques. Cet article examine l'appropriation des thèmes religieux dans la propagande politique au Zimbabwe. Il analyse l'environnement de communication dans le pays et la manière dont il a facilité l'interface entre le discours religieux et le discours politique.

Type
Articles
Information
Africa , Volume 75 , Issue 2 , May 2005 , pp. 220 - 239
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 2005

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alexander, Jocelyn, and McGregor, JoAnn. 2001. ‘Elections, land and the politics of opposition in Matabeleland’, Journal of Agrarian Change 1 (4): 510–533.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alexander, Jocelyn, McGregor, JoAnn, and Ranger, Terence. 2000. Violence and Memory: one hundred years in the ‘dark forests’ of Matabeleland. Harare: Weaver Press; Oxford: James Currey; Portsmouth NH: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Allen, Tim, and Seaton, Jean (eds). 1999. The Media of Conflict: war reporting and representations of ethnic violence. London: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Arntsen, Hilde. 1997. The Battle of the Mind: international media elements of the new religious political right in Zimbabwe. Oslo: Department of Media and Communication, University of Oslo.Google Scholar
Banana, Canaan S. 1982. Theology of Promise: the dynamics of self-reliance. Harare: College Press.Google Scholar
Bornstein, Erica. 2002. ‘Developing faith: theologies of economic development in Zimbabwe’, Journal of Religion in Africa 32 (1): 4–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bowyer-Bower, T. A. S., and Stoneman, Colin (eds). 2000. Land Reform in Zimbabwe: constraints and prospects. Aldershot: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Brickhill, Jeremy. 1995. ‘Daring to storm the heavens: the military strategy of ZAPU 1976 to 1979’, in Bhebe, Ngwabi and Ranger, Terence (eds), Soldiers in Zimbabwe's Liberation War. London: James Currey.Google Scholar
CCJP (Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in Zimbabwe). 2001. Crisis of Governance: a report on political violence in Zimbabwe. An account of events highlighting efforts to subvert the popular will in Parliamentary elections held in June 2000. Volume 1. Harare: CCJP.Google Scholar
CCJP and LRF (Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in Zimbabwe and the Legal Resources Foundation). 1997. Breaking the Silence: building true peace. A report on the disturbances in Matabeleland and the Midlands 1980–1988. Harare: CCJP and LRF.Google Scholar
Chitando, Ezra. 2002a. ‘“Down with the devil, forward with Christ!” A study of the interface between religious and political discourses in Zimbabwe’, African Sociological Review 6 (1): 1–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chitando, Ezra. 2002b. Singing Culture: a study of gospel music in Zimbabwe. Research report no. 121. Uppsala: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet.Google Scholar
Dansereau, Suzanne. 2003. ‘Liberation and opposition in Zimbabwe’, Journal of Contemporary African Studies 21 (2): 173–191.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dorman, Sara Rich. 2002. ‘“Rocking the boat?” Church-NGOs and democratization in Zimbabwe’, African Affairs 101 (402): 75–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dunton, Chris, and Palmberg, Mai. 1996. Human Rights and Homosexuality in Southern Africa. Uppsala: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet.Google Scholar
Ellis, Stephen, and ter Haar, Gerrie. 1998. ‘Religion and politics in Sub-Saharan Africa’, Journal of Modern African Studies 36 (2): 175–201.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frederikse, Julie. 1982. None But Ourselves: masses vs media in the making of Zimbabwe. Harare: Zimbabwe Publishing House.Google Scholar
Gundani, Paul H. 2002. ‘The land crisis in Zimbabwe and the role of the churches towards its resolution’, Studia Historiae Ecclesiasticae 28 (2): 122–169.Google Scholar
Gundani, Paul H. 2003. ‘The land question and its missiological implications for the church in Zimbabwe’, Missionalia 31 (3): 467–502.Google Scholar
Hackett, Rosalind I. J. 1991. ‘Revitalization in African traditional religion’, in Olupona, Jacob K. (ed.), African Traditional Religions in Contemporary Society. New York: International Religious Foundation, Paragon House.Google Scholar
Hammar, Amanda, and Raftopoulos, Brian. 2003. ‘Zimbabwe's unfinished business: rethinking land, state and nation’, in Hammar, Amanda, Raftopoulos, Brian and Jensen, Stig (eds), Zimbabwe's Unfinished Business: rethinking land, state, and nation in the context of crisis. Harare: Weaver Press.Google Scholar
Kalu, Ogbu U. 2000. Power, Poverty and Prayer: the challenges of poverty and pluralism in African Christianity, 1960–1996. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Kamete, Amin. 2003. ‘In defence of national sovereignty? Urban governance and democracy in Zimbabwe’, Journal of Contemporary African Studies 21 (2): 193–213.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kwaramba, Alice Dadirai. 1997. Popular Music and Society: the language of protest in chimurenga music. The case of Thomas Mapfumo in Zimbabwe. Oslo: University of Oslo.Google Scholar
Lan, David. 1985. Guns and Rain: guerrillas and spirit mediums in Zimbabwe. London: James Currey.Google Scholar
Lundby, Knut. 1998. Longing and Belonging: media and the identity of Anglicans in a Zimbabwean growth point.Oslo: Department of Media and Communication.Google Scholar
McGregor, JoAnn. 2002. ‘The politics of disruption: war veterans and the local state in Zimbabwe’, African Affairs 101 (402): 9–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maxwell, David. 1999. Christians and Chiefs in Zimbabwe: a social history of the Hwesa people. Edinburgh: Cambridge University Press; Westport CT: Praeger.Google Scholar
Maxwell, David. 2000. ‘“Catch the cockerel before dawn”: Pentecostalism and politics in post-colonial Zimbabwe’, Africa 70 (2): 249–277.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meredith, Martin. 2002. Our Votes, Our Guns: Robert Mugabe and the tragedy of Zimbabwe. New York: Public Affairs.Google Scholar
Moore, David. 2001. ‘Is the land the economy and the economy the land? Primitive accumulation in Zimbabwe’, Journal of Contemporary African Studies 19 (2): 253–266.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moyo, Ambrose. 1996. Zimbabwe: the risk of incarnation. Geneva: WCC Publications.Google Scholar
Mpunga, Shupi, Jekemu, Wonder, and Ruswa, Goodhope (eds). 2002. Land: facing the millennium challenges in unity and hope. Harare: Konrad Adenauer Foundation.Google Scholar
Mugabe, Robert G. 2001. Inside the Third Chimurenga: our land is our prosperity. Harare: Department of Information and Publicity, Office of the President and Cabinet.Google Scholar
Muponde, Robert. 2002. ‘The sight of the dead body: dystopia as resistance in Vera's Without a Name’, in Muponde, Robert and Maodzwa-Taruvinga, Mandivavarira (eds), Sign and Taboo: perspectives on the poetic fiction of Yvonne Vera. Harare: Weaver Press; Oxford: James Currey.Google Scholar
Muyebe, Stanslaus, and Muyebe, Alex. 1999. The Religious Factor within the Body of Political Symbolism in Malawi, 1964–1994. Boca Raton FL: Universal Publishers.Google Scholar
Pongweni, Alec J. C. 1982. Songs that Won the Liberation War. Harare: College Press.Google Scholar
Raftopoulos, Brian. 2003. ‘The state in crisis: authoritarian nationalism, selective citizenship and distortions of democracy in Zimbabwe’, in Hammar, Amanda, Raftopoulos, Brian, and Jensen, Stig (eds), Zimbabwe's Unfinished Business: rethinking land, state, and nation in the context of crisis. Harare: Weaver Press.Google Scholar
Ranger, Terence O. 1986. ‘Religious movements and politics in Sub-Saharan Africa’, African Studies Review 29 (2): 1–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scannell, Paddy. 2001. ‘Music, radio and the record business in Zimbabwe today’, Popular Music 20 (1): 13–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shaw, William H. 2003. ‘“They stole our land”: debating the expropriation of white farms in Zimbabwe’, Journal of Modern African Studies 41 (1): 75–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Togarasei, Lovemore. 2003. ‘African oral theology: the case of Shona Christian songs’, Swedish Missiological Themes 91 (1): 67–80.Google Scholar
Tshuma, Lawrence. 1997. A Matter of (In)justice: law, state, and the agrarian question in Zimbabwe. Harare: SAPES Books.Google Scholar
Vambe, Maurice Taonezvi. 2000. ‘Popular songs and social realities in postindependence Zimbabwe’, African Studies Review 43 (2): 73–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Windrich, E. 1981. The Mass Media in the Struggle for Zimbabwe: censorship and propaganda under Rhodesian Front rule. Gwelo: Mambo Press.Google Scholar
Worby, Eric. 2003. ‘The end of modernity in Zimbabwe? Passages from development to sovereignty’, in Hammar, Amanda, Raftopoulos, Brian, and Jensen, Stig (eds), Zimbabwe's Unfinished Business: rethinking land, state, and nation in the context of crisis. Harare: Weaver Press.Google Scholar
Yap, Katri Pohjolainen. 2002. ‘Sites of struggle: the reorientation of political values in the Matabeleland conflict, Zimbabwe 1980–1987’, African Sociological Review 6 (1): 17–45.Google Scholar
Zaffiro, James. 2002. Media and Democracy in Zimbabwe, 1931–2002. Colorado Springs: International Academic Publishers.Google Scholar