Church and State under the Second Republic

HInstitutions of Victorian Expansionism ISTORICALLY, the Church and the modern State in Africa are creatures of Victorian expansionism. Needless to say the same holds true in our Zimbabwe. Both institutions thus carry taint from this peculiar history and ethos, which oftentimes conditions their traditions, behaviours and reflexes.

Older than the Colonial State Colonial settlers did not found the Church in Zimbabwe. If anything, the Church pre-dated settlers, and their State which they crafted after conquest. By 1859, the London Missionary Society (LMS), had already founded their first mission station at Inyati. Hope Fountain would follow in 1870. Nine years later, in 1879, the Jesuits set foot on Zimbabwean soil. By 1887, they had opened Empandeni Mission. The conquest and occupation of Zimbabwe only came much later, in September 1890, and remained incomplete until late 1893 when the Ndebele Kingdom eventually fell. The settler colonial state was thus only formed more than three decades after Church presence in our Land.

The age difference between these two key institutions becomes even bigger when one reads Church presence in our Land through activities of itinerant missionaries. Portuguese missionaries reached Mwenemutapa Empire way back in the 16th Century. They even converted some of the King’s sons, including one Miguel, who became the first ever known Zimbabwean doctor and scholar. He died in a monastery and was buried in Goa, India.

Livingstone and British state

By late 1855, Livingstone had already reached Mosi-oa-Tunya, which we now call the Victoria Falls. In March 1856, he announced his arrival at the Falls to LMS’s Robert Moffat, triumphantly claiming he had “discovered” Mosioa-Tunya. In that letter to Moffat, he wrote, “I wish to name the Falls after our Queen, the ‘Smoke Sounding Falls of Victoria,’ as a proof of my loyalty.” To this day, the Falls are named after Queen Victoria. Through Livingstone, the Church abroad had doffed to the British Monarch. The missionary and explorer conveniently forgot Africans had long lived on both sides of the Zambezi River, and had long named the Falls before he did. To make matters worse, it was the Kololos of Zambia who had introduced David Livingstone to those Falls.

For Colony and Commerce

Not many know the close partnership between David Livingstone and the British State. On 6th February 1858, David Livingstone wrote to his favourite lecturer, Professor Adam Sedgwick of Cambridge University, to say: “…That you may have a clear idea of my objectives I may state that they have something more than meets the eye. They are not merely exploratory, for I go with the intention of benefitting both the African and my own countryman. I take a practical mining geologist from the School of Mines to tell us of the mineral resources of the country, then an economic botanist to give a full report on the vegetable productions - fibrous, gummy and medicinal substances together with the dye stuffs - everything which may be useful in commerce. An artist to give the scenery, a naval officer to tell of the capacity of the river communications and a moral agent to lay the foundation for knowing that aim fully. All this machinery has for its ostensible object the development of African trade and the promotion of civilisation but what I tell to none but such as you in whom I have confidence is thus I hope it may result in an English colony in the healthy highlands of Central Africa - I have told it only to the Duke of Argyll….With this short statement you may perceive our ulterior objects. I want you to have some idea of them….”

A saint of Empire

Rarely is this landmark communication, itself a manifesto of European colonial expansionism, ever attached to the person of David Livingstone. In history, David Livingstone is immaculately celebrated only as a missionary and explorer; very few know him as “a saint of empire”. He worked for colony and commerce, which he cloaked as civilisation and Christianity. We have his statue in front of Munhumutapa Building, the seat of Government. It was placed there by settlers as tribute to this fusion of Church and State histories and identities.

Argyll, duke of Livingstone and

Rhodes

The afore-quoted excerpt made Livingstone a perfect forerunner of Cecil John Rhodes, the Empire Builder. Significantly, Rhodes worked with the same Duke of Argyll whom David Livingstone mentions in the letter to his professor. Fast forward to 2000 and beyond, when we carried out our Land Reform Programme. The name Lord Argyll looms large amongst fiercest critics to Land Reform Programme.

Even as we took decisions on Land Reforms, we had to content with the stark fact of the Church in Zimbabwe as a landowner, indeed as a beneficiary of settler colonial land policies. The past always lives with us. We thus cannot run away from the enmeshed histories of Church and State in our country.

A Church for our leaders

When I look at the pioneering generation of nationalists, again the Church looms large. The late Father Zimbabwe, Joshua Nkomo was a lay preacher of a missionary denomination. So, too, was Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole, Bishop Muzorewa, Reverend Canaan Banana, not to mention late President Robert Gabriel Mugabe who was a devout Catholic raised by the Jesuits. Again, Church and Nationalist histories enmesh.

The Church in struggle

We see the same intertwined histories of Church and our Liberation Movements. We worked with priests and pastors, indeed with numerous church leaders, including those from Independent African Churches which had broken away from established denominations as a precursor to generalised African assertiveness. During the dying moments of our Liberation Struggle, the Church sent its delegation to meet with us in exile. Today’s State is a creature of the Liberation Struggle. We thus have a legacy we should acknowledge, and a veritable resource we should build on, going forward in close partnership.

My door is open to the Church The Second Republic fully recognises the Church and its role in society. Indeed, our Constitution entrenches freedom or religion and worship. We hold that freedom sacred, both for reasons of history and our constitution. Our whole history thus dictates partnership between the Church and the State. It decries needless conflict, which we must avoid at all cost and remove through constant dialogue. To that end, my door remains open to the Church.

Converging on the physical and the

spiritual

Broadly speaking, the State minds the physical needs of the citizen, while the Church ministers to his the spiritual side of the citizen. However, as history amply shows, matters are not as clear cut as this physical/spiritual binary suggests. There is a way in which activities of the State can and do actually assist the Church in enhancing its spiritual mission. Equally and as demonstrated in our long history, the Church has been a key provider of many basic services, key among them health and education. That role, dating back in history, and often bravely done in defiance of racial laws of the day, must be remembered and cherished. As Africans living under settler colonialism, we owed our physical and spiritual advancement to the Church. Even into Independence and under the Second Republic, that vital role continues. We fully appreciate it.

Pride of place for Church-run

institutions

Church-run schools must be respected and should be part of our institutional matrix. They assist Government achieve its goal of universal education. Equally, Churchrun clinics and hospitals must be fully cherished. They assist Government in expanding health delivery nationally, including in remote areas which were neglected in colonial days. In a number of districts, Church hospitals have taken and fulfilled the role of District hospitals. The same also goes for certain Church schools. As Government, we are looking at ways of assisting such Church-run institutions so they grow in scope so they can expand the repertoire of services to our people.

Prophetic role of the Church Beyond the material, the Second Republic recognises the prophetic role which the Church has always played in society, and in history. The Church is the conscience of Society; it must be listened to, while its wise counsel must be heeded. It propagates peace, amity and unity at all levels. At no time will such a role become more crucial than now as we drift towards our Harmonised General Elections which fall due sometime next year. The Church should preach peace and calmness in our communities and our Nation so our elections take place in an environment of non-violence and tolerance.

It has always been the Church’s view that durable peace comes from justice. The State, too, shares that view. This is why we have several Constitutional Commissions working towards that end. Any peace which avoids justice, or which seek to abort or to sidestep basic rights, can never endure. It is with this persuasion that I have personally made it my singular mission to settle deep hurts from past conflicts, principally those to do with disturbances which occurred in the early part of our Independence. The Church must help Government protect that delicate process which can easily be wrecked by those seeking to profit from frozen animosities. Above all, it must help us avoid the recurrence of such conflicts in future.

G enuine peace cannot

disenfranchise

It is also with the same persuasion that the Second Republic insists on peace built on full accomplishment of all processes provided for by our Supreme Law. We cannot carve

Confusion over BCC

forex discounts

“However, councillors made it clear that they want the discount to be effected. Councillors further reprimanded the Town Clerk and his team for issuing the notice for the indexing of bills in foreign currency without consulting them and only did so after it was already in the public domain,” said the source.

The city’s mayor, Councillor Solomon Mguni and the Town Clerk, Mr Dube were last Thursday, during a service delivery update media briefing at pains trying to explain the official position, both avoiding to commit themselves on an actual position. Clr Mguni said they were going to see how management was going to implement the issue saying all that was being done was in the interest of the public.

“The matter was indeed deliberated on during the council in-committee meeting on Wednesday, the bottom line is that the decisions that were made were mainly in the interest of the public. So now we leave it to see how the management will implement the resolutions of council,” said the mayor.

Pressed further on the percentage discount to be effected Clr Mguni could not be drawn to give the final position of the local authority. Mr Dube on the other had insinuated that despite the directive from councillors management would not be implementing the resolution.

“Suffice to say as management our duty is to then take any resolution, we go over it, look at the legal implications and if it is not implementable we then go back to council and inform them of this position. For now all I can say is that since the resolution was passed yesterday (Wednesday) we are yet to go over it and we will be advising accordingly once this is done,” said the Town Clerk.

In coming up with the resolution councillors had said the council, which is owed $5 billion, would rather get half of the amount in foreign currency and write off the rest of the bill as that would go a long way in improving service delivery.

The local authority announced the decision to index bills in foreign currency starting on 1 June as a way of hedging against inflation.

Last week it was reported that the local authority was forced to review nearly 120 000 incorrect bills in 19 of the city’s 26 wards with more expected to come, as residents raised a red flag over the high bills they have been receiving.

genuine peace by deferring, let alone defeating those processes which our Constitution makes mandatory. That includes elections. Once we begin to go down that dangerous route, we rest our peace on selfish whims, on expediency and on false morality. It is our firm view that genuine Peace cannot disenfranchise; it cannot abridge fundamental human rights enshrined in our Constitution.

Rationale for PVO Bill

I am happy that after several meetings, the Churches now understand why Government is working on the Private Voluntary Organisation (PVO) Bill. That Bill does not seek to curtail humanitarian work by Churches and genuine Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs). What the Bill seeks to do is to stop mischief which has often sought to take advantage of the poor and situations of need in the country. Additionally, it seeks to flush out dirty money which is often laundered through some PVOs. Such a law makes us compliant with international protocols.

Insulating processes against foreign

interests

Above all, it seeks to stop the subversion of national processes by foreign actors who often front political NGOs. Electoral processes are solely for citizens; they should never come under the undue influence of outsiders who hold no legitimate stake in our country. To allow that to happen undermines our sovereignty, and the integrity of those processes. We are aware that in this era of scarce resources, resource-rich countries like our Zimbabwe become attractive targets. Negative foreign interests will always seek to exploit every conduit in our society to exert undue influence. We must all be wary of this, including Churches. We already have reports of foreign Embassies which seek to abuse their purpose and status here by mobilising religious organisations for political ends. That must be resisted, lest we are back to the Victorian ethos of western expansionism under different guises.

Celebrating the Zimbabwean

Church

We continue to celebrate the good work which the Church is doing. Above all, we celebrate the fact that for the first time in history we are well on the road to having a Zimbabwean Church which is led by Zimbabweans; not just a Church in Zimbabwe run from afar. Indeed, let God manifest Himself and His Will to us through us.