Religion and Social Marginalization in Zimbabwe
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26 BiAS - Bible in Africa Studies Exploring Religion in Africa 5 Lovemore Togarasei, David Bishau & Ezra Chitando (Eds.) RELIGION AND SOCIAL MARGINALIZATION IN ZIMBABWE Religion and Social Marginalization in Zimbabwe Marginalization and Social Religion Lovemore Togarasei (Ed.) Lovemore Togarasei 26 Bible in Africa Studies Études sur la Bible en Afrique Bibel-in-Afrika-Studien Exploring Religion in Africa 5 Bible in Africa Studies Études sur la Bible en Afrique Bibel-in-Afrika-Studien Volume 26 edited by Joachim Kügler, Kudzai Biri, Ezra Chitando, Rosinah Gabaitse, Masiiwa Ragies Gunda, Johanna Stiebert, Lovemore Togarasei Exploring Religion in Africa 5 2020 Religion and Social Marginalization in Zimbabwe edited by Lovemore Togarasei, David Bishau & Ezra Chitando 2020 Bibliographische Information der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deut- schen Nationalbibliographie; detaillierte bibliographische Informationen sind im Internet über http://dnb.d-nb.de abrufbar. Dieses Werk ist als freie Onlineversion über das Forschungsinformationssys- tem (FIS; https://fs.uni-bamberg.de) der Universität Bamberg erreichbar. Das Werk – ausgenommen Cover und Zitate – steht unter der CC-Lizenz CCBY. Lizenzvertrag: Creative Commons Namensnennung 4.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 Herstellung und Druck: docupoint Magdeburg Umschlaggestaltung: University of Bamberg Press Umschlaggraphik und Deco-Graphiken: © Joachim Kügler Text-Formatierung: Irene Loch, Joachim Kügler, Karelle Eyafa © University of Bamberg Press, Bamberg 2020 http://www.uni-bamberg.de/ubp ISSN: 2190-4944 ISBN: 978-3-86309-745-5 (Druckausgabe) eISBN: 978-3-86309-746-2 (Online-Ausgabe) URN: urn:nbn:de:bvb:473-irb-478365 DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.20378/irb-47836 DEDICATION This Book is Dedicated to The memory of Two of the contributors Who were promoted to glory During the preparation of this book: Our teacher, friend, and colleague Rev Dr Philemon T. Chikafu, Our friend and colleague Prof Richard Maposa May them Rest in Peace! ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The chapters that make up this book come from two conferences that were held under the flagship of the Zimbabwe Chapter of the Associa- tion of Theological Institutions of Southern and Central Africa (ATIS- CA). The first conference was held in 2012 while the second one was held in 2014. Lovemore Togarasei organized the 2014 conference as one event of his Visiting Professorship itinerary at the Zimbabwe Open Uni- versity. The chapters have been subsequently updated to include later developments and new publications. As the editors, we are grateful for the support given by the leadership of Zimbabwe Open University, from the late Vice Chancellor, Prof Primrose Kurasha, the then Pro-Vice Chancellor, Dr (now Prof) Ncube, the then Dean of Faculty of Arts and Education, Dr (now Prof) Anna Chitando and the then Chairperson of the Department of Religious Studies and Philosophy, Dr Vengesai Chimininge. We are also very grateful to World Council of Churches (WCC) Ecumenical HIV & AIDS Initiative in Africa (now Ecumenical HIV & AIDS Initiatives and Advocacy) (EHAIA), through Prof Ezra Chi- tando for the generous funding of the two conferences. Lastly, we would like to thank the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation for funding re- search stays of Lovemore Togarasei and Ezra Chitando, hosted by Prof Dr. Joachim Kügler, Chair for New Testament Sciences in the Institute of Catholic Theology, University of Bamberg, Germany. These stays provided time and space to finalize this book. The editors 7 TABLE OF CONTENTS Lovemore Togarasei | Introduction ........................................................................................ 13 PART A | THEORETICAL VIEWS ON RELIGION, DEMOCRACY AND MARGINALIZATION Tarisayi A. Chimuka & Lovemore Togarasei 1 | Religion and Socio-Political Marginalization During Zimbabwe’s Crisis Decade ...................................................................................... 19 Philemon T. Chikafu 2 | Why is the Justice and Righteousness of God Proving to be Insufficient to Build and Sustain Democratic Societies in Africa? .... 31 Roy Musasiwa 3 | Theology and Social Democratization ............................................... 49 PART B | DISABILITY AND POVERTY Francis Machingura & Nyasha Madzokere 4 | “Do you want to be healed?” – The Pentecostal Churches’ Engagement with Persons Living With Disabilities ........................... 59 Kudzai Biri, Clive Tendai Zimunya & Joyline Gwara 5 | Personhood and Disability in Zimbabwe: A Critical Philosophical Analysis ........................................................ 75 Shoorai Konyana 6 | Responses of Pentecostal Churches to the Situation of the Poor ..... 87 9 PART C | LEADERSHIP Lovemore Togarasei 7 | Reconstruction Theology and the Church’s Role in Post-crisis Zimbabwe ........................................................................................... 99 Kudzai Biri 8 | Man of God or God of Man? Pentecostalism, Authority and Accountability in Zimbabwe ............................................................. 111 Clemence Makamure 9 | Power Struggles and Leadership Succession Practices in the African Apostolic Church of Johanne Marange ..................... 125 Ezra Chitando 10 | Ending the Poverty of Theology in Order to End Poverty in Africa ................................................................................ 147 PART D | HEALTH Tarisayi A. Chimuka 11 | Emerging into Marginality: The Effects of Politically Motivated Sexual Violence on Women and Children ........................................ 161 Dudzai Chimeri 12 | Gender-Inequality and the Celebration of Sexuality: A Quest for a Solution to the HIV & AIDS Pandemic ..................... 179 Macloud Sipeyiye & Tenson Muyambo 13 | Rite writing off Rights? Male Child Circumcision in the context of HIV & AIDS in Zimbabwe ............................................................ 191 Bernard P. Humbe, Elias G. Konyana & Richard S. Maposa (†) 14 | African Theology of Mental Illness: An Ontological Spirituality from the margins? ............................................................................ 205 10 PART E | OTHER THEMES Lovemore Ndlovu 15 | Pentecostal Responses to Gender and Social Inequality: The Case of Celebration Church in Zimbabwe ................................ 219 Canisius Mwandayi 16 | Polarity and the Quest for Identity: Inter-religious Dialogue and the Problem of the Polarisation of African Christians .............. 231 Vengesai Chimininge 17 | Utilizing African Traditional Religions for the Safety of Children in Zimbabwe ..................................................................................... 243 Notes on the Contributors and Editors ................................................... 253 BiAS at UNIVERSITY OF BAMBERG PRESS ..................................................... 259 11 Lovemore Togarasei | INTRODUCTION In each and every society, certain groups of people are ‘marginalized’. By marginalization here we mean being disregarded, ostracized, harassed, disliked, persecuted, or generally looked down upon. Such people often include women and children, the poor, the disabled, people of different sexual orientation, ethnic minorities, religious minorities, refugees, among others. In short, the marginalized are those people who are so- cially, politically, culturally, or economically excluded from mainstream society. For this reason, J. Hampson (1990) sees all the rural people in Zimbabwe as disadvantaged and therefore marginalized when compared to their urban counterparts. This observation is very important as it has implications in the voting patterns that we have seen in post-colonial Zimbabwe. Musasiwa (in this volume) discusses, how lack of knowledge, and therefore power, makes democracy a mockery as those without knowledge are made to make choices while they are disempow- ered knowledge wise. The history of the marginalization of certain groups of people in Zimba- bwe goes back a long way. Traditionally, people with albinism, the disa- bled, the elderly and women were generally marginalized. With the com- ing in of colonialism, the black people in general were marginalized. Not only was their land taken by the colonialists, they were driven to poorer parts of the country and even forced to work for the colonialists. Margin- alization is a question of power, as those with power marginalize others. As Musasiwa discusses in chapter 3, marginalization happens when certain people lack knowledge. Colonisers did this and thus marginal- ized the black people. Even black people education was meant to make them effective hewers of wood and drawers of water for the whites. This kind of marginalization has continued even in independent Zimbabwe although it is now no longer based on colour. Scores of people are struc- turally marginalized through systems that are meant to protect the inter- ests of a few. In all this history, the church in Zimbabwe has played a role in improv- ing the lives of the marginalized. Black education, health services, care homes for orphans, lepers and the elderly were first introduced by the 13 TOGARASEI/ BISHAU/ CHITANDO | Religion & Social Marginalization | BiAS 26 / ERA 5 church. This book looks at what religion, especially Christianity, is doing for the marginalized in the current Zimbabwe context. Who are the marginalized and why are they marginalized? The different chapters that make up the book address these questions. Although religion is also implicated