Prayers and Players: Religion and Politics in Zimbabwe edited by Ezra Chitando
Published by SAPES Books (2013)
ISBN: 978-0-7974-5633-4

By Shingirirai Mutonho

PRAYERS and Players: Religion and Politics in Zimbabwe edited by Ezra Chitando is an attempt by various writers to analyse ‘the extent to which political actors sought to deploy religion to achieve specific goals.’
The contributors in the book include Chitando, Munetsi Ruzivo, Tarisai Chimuka, Fainos Mangena, Tavengwa Gwekwerere, Mediel Hove and Molly Manyonganise.
The book focuses on how religion was manipulated by both the politicians and religious leaders to advance their own personal agendas.
Lovemore Togarasei in his contribution titled, Pentecostal Churches and Politics in Zimbabwe’s turbulent years (2000-2008) highlights that religion and politics have been intertwined even during the pre-colonial era.
“Although some politicians in Zimbabwe advocate the separation of religion and politics, the history of the country, from pre-colonial to post colonial periods, has seen a close relationship between the two,” he writes.
“In pre-colonial Zimbabwe, the chiefs were both political and religious figures.”
With this notion, Togarasei dismisses the undertones set by the other contributors in the book that seem to suggest it is only the current crop of politicians that cannot separate politics and religion.
It is also important for readers to know that even when Christianity was being introduced to Africa, religion was used to advance political agendas as well.
At a time when Christianity was being introduced to Africans, the West took that opportunity to plunder the continent’s resources.
Just as King Leopold II of Belgium wrote in a letter to colonial missionaries in 1883, the underlying reason for bringing evangelism to Africa was not to ‘save’ it, but to ‘inspire above all the interests of the coloniser’.
In the contribution Manipulating Religious Songs in Electoral Politics: the Case of Zimbabwe’s 2008 Harmonised Elections, Itai Muwati and Mangena castigate ZANU PF supporters for turning religious songs into campaign songs in an effort to sanitise their violent activities.
“Through content analysis of the selected songs based on Afro centric reasoning, the chapter contends that the supporters from the grassroots or the subaltern manipulate religious content in a manner that potentially sanitises and spiritualises politics and political activity,” they write.
An example of the songs cited include, “Tsvangirai ho-o, Wafunga kudzosera nyika Ijipita, nyika yehuranda, Wafunga kudzokera Ijipita.”
Zimbabwe being largely a Christian nation, it is in human nature for people to use what they relate to in a bid to express views and relay messages.
Obert Mlambo in his contribution titled Force and Fraud in Politics in the Roman Republic: a Case for Comparison with Zimbabwe, he writes that by incorporating religion into politics, politicians will be trying to sanitise or justify their evil deeds such as violence.
He accuses politicians for using statements such as ‘God given resources’ and he writes that President Robert Mugabe most of the times quotes the Bible to say God created Zimbabweans and gave them the land and resources contained therein.
By so doing, Mlambo argues that President Mugabe’s stance “demonstrates how the idea of God is smuggled in as a political argument”.
Mlambo writes that political parties in Zimbabwe rely heavily on violence to maintain their support and hide behind the Bible.
He cites the Land Reform Programme of 2000 as a time when violence was used to advance the selfish needs of ZANU PF leaders and used religion to try and justify its actions.
“Violence therefore is justified on the basis that people must defend the land of their ancestors and that which God has given them,” he writes.
Contributors in the book also explore the issue of violence in Zimbabwean and in some cases African politics and accuse Africans as the chief architects of civil unrest.
“Many theorists of violence blame African political violence on European imperialism or colonialism,” writes Mangena and Hove in their contribution titled Moral Leadership in a Politically Troubled Nation: the Case for Zimbabwe’s Decade of Violence.
“While this may sound to be true, it may be logical to argue that political violence, especially in Africa is a recent phenomenon if we consider what has been happening since the turn of the new millennium, where governments have used violence for purposes of prolonged stayism.”
The contributors choose to ignore the fact that civil unrest in Africa is sponsored by the West as part of its efforts to plunder the continent’s resources.
There are cases of civil unrest in countries such as Libya, South Sudan, Mali and Mozambique which have been intentionally designed and engineered by the West.