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Experiences of Zambia and Botswana (Volume 2)

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Experiences of Zambia and Botswana (Volume 2) The Politics of Development and Stagnation of Civil Society: Experiences of Zambia and Botswana (Volume 2) Mitsugi Endo Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Centre for Southern African Studies, the University of York September 1996 CHAPTER 4 CHURCHES: HISTORICALLY INSTITUTIONALISED ASSOCIATIONAL ORGANISATIONS IN CIVIL SOCIETY "Christianity and its institutions could no longer be viewed as being imposed upon Africans, but rather as something now firmly entrenched in its country and its society" (Henkel 1989: 205). In this chapter, my argument will be that churches have become institutionalised in civil society through their historical contribution to people by providing mainly educational and health facilities and their role in checking the state in "crises," and that churches are important actors in the process of democratisation. In fact, especially Christian churches have been regarded as one of the most important actors in democratisation (Bratton and van de Walle, 1993), and their roles in this process of a variety of countries have been documented (e.g., Gifford, 1994; Gifford ed., 1995: Haynes, 1996). However, it is necessary ask why Christian churches have been involved in the process of democratisation and what kind of role they have played and will play in the process (both in the transition and the consolidation phases). One of the important arguments on this issue have just come from Haynes as follows: "...[Christian] leaders have on occasion, in the absence of alternatives, become the focal point of opposition - the mouthpiece of public opinion, speaking on behalf of citizens who may well regard democratic change as a sine qua non for the achievement of both individual and collective material improvements" (1996: 107, original emphasis). 267 Basically, Christian churches's concern about democratisation derived from their interest in human development and human rights (see, e.g., CCZ, EFZ, and ZEC, 1987), which will be argued later in this chapter. As stated in chapter 2, the main focus of this chapter will be the mainline Christian churches. Therefore, the roles of Christian fundamentalism, known as the New Right of American origin in southern Africa (Gifford, 1988), which are themselves very important issues in political and religious studies in the region, will beyond the scope of the current study. However, it is worthwhile to refer to that the new religious movements were to play an insignificant role in the process of democratisation (democratic transition), and even these churches were actively hostile to democratic movement (Ranger, 1995: 25)1. It is necessary to clarify the meaning of the term "church" in this chapter. By the term "church," I mean the religious organisations and institutions whose faith is rooted in the Christian faith. Although there are adherents of religious faiths other than Christianity such as Muslim and Hindus in southern Africa, they are not included in the argument because their numbers and influences are not so significant in Zambia and Botswana. This chapter deals with (1) churches' involvement in development activities, (2) churches' political involvement, from the historical point of view to clarify their significance both in development and political affairs, although the main focus will be on the post-colonial era. 4.1 The Case of Zambia 1 According to Foston Sakala, the President of the Reformed Church of Zambia, and Chairman of the Foundation for Democratic Process (FODEP), "(s)everal fundamentalist groups denounced the participation of church leaders in the [election] monitoring, stating, that politics was strictly an earthly affair and should be of no concern for true Chris-hams" (quoted in Ranger, 1995: 25-26). 268 There have been a variety of studies of religion and churches in Central and Southern Africa and Northern Rhodesia from historical and anthropological points of view, including, for instance, a series of works by Ranger (e.g., Ranger and Weller, (1975), Van Binsbergen (1981), Weller and Linden (1984) and Gifford (1988). There are also studies which focuses on specific churches. On the issue of church union efforts focusing on the United Church of Zambia (UCZ), Bolink (1967) documented details of the process of the formation of UCZ. Johnson's case study was the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) (Johnson, 1977). In addition, the Reformed Church of Zambia (RCZ) was a detailed study by Verstraeleu- Gilhuis (1982). Furthermore, churches' involvement in social services, like education and health care have been documented in more recent studies (e.g., Ragsdale, 1986; Henkel, 1989). Therefore, it is not necessary to repeat these descriptions in this chapter at length. Neither is it my intention to describe the historical activities of various churches in detail. Rather it is to consider the activities and policies of the main present church bodies, namely the Christian Council of Zambia (CCZ), the Zambia Episcopal Conference (ZEC), and the Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia (EFZ), with a special attention to the CCZ in terms of practice in the first half of the case of Zambia. In the second half, Christian Churches' political involvement will be considered from a historical point of view. Here it is necessary to briefly refer to general religious situation of Zambia. As stated in the previous chapter, Zambia is considered to be a de facto Christian nation, considering the fact that a majority of people (72 percent) are Christians (Barret, 1982). This was a result of the wide infiltration of missionaries into central Africa. In this process, churches in Zambia have also been institutionalised as one of the most important actors in civil society through their economic and political involvement. 269 4.1.1 Church Groupings in the Contemporary Era in Zambia There are three coordinating or mother bodies in Zambia, which are, the Zambian Episcopal Conference (ZEC), the Christian Council of Zambia (CCZ), and the Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia (EFZ). ZEC, which is the administrative body of the Catholic Church in Zambia, was founded in 1935 for the purpose of coordinating Catholic missionary work (Henkel, 1989: 53). The Catholic Church in Zambia consists of seven dioceses and two archd:oceses (Lusaka and Kasama), which coincide with the nine Zambian provinces, and 26.2 percent of the population of Zambia was estimated to regard themselves as the Catholic Church (Barrett, 1982: 765). As Henkel showed, Catholics are evenly distributed over the country, but they are heavily concentrated in the rural dioceses of Kasama and Mansa and the urban dioceses of Ndola and Lusaka2 . Day-to-day Church's activities are coordinated by the Catholic Secretariat in Lusaka. In Zambia, the Catholic Church is notable in that it still has many foreign priests and other workers. In comparison with other African countries, Africanisation began much later in Zambia (Henkel, 1989: 53). The Christian Council of Zambia (CCZ) is an umbrella body of Christian denominations which are more ecumenically oriented (See table 2-5 in chapter 2 for membership of the CCZ). The core of the CCZ are the United Church of Zambia (UCZ), the Reformed Church, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the Salvation Army and the Lutheran Church (Henkel, 1989: 53). The Organisational form of the CCZ will be 2 Therefore, Henkel concluded that Catholicism has influenced most strongly on the Bemba area (Henkel, 1989: 54-55). 270 considered in detail later. The CCZ also functions as the official link between member churches and the World Council of Churches (WCC). There is another umbrella body, the Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia (EFZ), members of which are mainly evangelically-oriented denominations (see table 2-6 for membership of the EFZ). In addition, one of the characteristics of the EFZ is that it is a loose union of the evangelical churches (Henkel, 1989: 69). Among the membership of the EFZ, the Seventh Day Adventist Church (SDA), which began in 1905 in Zambia and which is today the third largest Protestant denomination, is the main member. This group is supposed to be less political, in the sense that the EFZ is not so much interested in national political issues, in comparison with the other two. Even so, the EFZ has also collaborated with the others, when they faced political "crisis," as stated later in this chapter. Although the magnitude of the involvement in development schemes is still low, it has its own secretariat coordinating developmental activities. Jehovah's Witness and the New Apostolic church are not included the above groups (Henkel, 1989: 77-80). Though Jehovah's Witness, which is known as "the Watch Tower," has been occasionally confronted with the state and repressed by the state 3, the church has continued to grow. On the other hand, the New Apostolic church seems to work more quietly to keep its profile lower that other churches (Henkel, 1989: 80). Therefore little is known on this church. According to Barrett (1982: 765), at the time of survey around 1980, there are about 70 active indigenous (or independent) churches, many of which have been brought to Zambia from other countries. About 7 percent of the total population is supposed to belong to these churches (Henkel, 1989: 80). The largest independent churches are the African 313etween 1967 and 1969, for instance, there were clashes between jehox ah's 1,,N itne,ns, and members of UNIP, as the Witness refused to accept the new flag, to sing National Anthem, to become party members or to vote in elections (Henke(, 1989: 79). 271 Gospel Church and the Watchman Healing Mission, each with an estimated 60,000 adherents. Historically speaking, the best known independent church is the Lumpa Church led by Alice Lenshina because of its confrontation with the state (see e.g., van Binsbergen, 1981: 266-317)4. 4.1.2 Churches' Involvement in Development Activities: Historical Achievements There have been many efforts of churches in the area of development, such as education and health as well as economic development, since various missions arrived in central Africa.
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