Decolonization of Religion in Africa with a Focus on Zimbabwe

By Musafare T. Mupanduki

The book is about the decolonization of Religion in Africa. The author views religion as the highest magnitude of a people's culture. Therefore, for an African to accept foreign religions is tantamount to a complete abandonment of one's culture. This author defines religion as a system of beliefs and practices through intermediaries who may be saints or some other entities. It, therefore, follows that when mankind reaches the maximum point of his reasoning, and he/she cannot explain certain things within his/her environment, including the origins of mankind, he/she appeals to the metaphysical world - the world of the Supernatural Being called by different names but all meaning the Creator of all things in the whole universe. This explains why there is no nation without some religion of some sort. Therefore, God has no religion and no denomination. These are only different ways of establishing connections with the Creator.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Chris Hughes
• Release date: Aug 17, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005658069

Book preview

DECOLONIZATION OF RELIGION IN

AFRICA

WITH A FOCUS ON

ZIMBABWE

MUSAFARE T. MUPANDUKI, PH.D.

Copyright © 2021

Musafare T. Mupanduki, Ph.D.

ISBN: 978-1-7377505-0-5

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface

Chapter 01 | Religion as in African Culture, African Spirituality, and African Christianity

Chapter 02 | Corruption and Poverty in Africa Amidst Civil Societies, Christianity, and Islam

Chapter 03 | Religion as in European and Arab Cultures

Chapter 04 | Religion as in the Zimbabwean Culture

References

DEDICATION

To my late father and mother, and to all my late brothers and sisters who have not lived to read my books. In memory of all of you, I will always dedicate all my works to you.

Preface

The author wishes to apologize to the African readers that the title of this book is Decolonization of Religion and Politics in Africa and yet he is writing in English, a language used to transmit a foreign culture. However, decolonization did not mean only the departure of colonial officials, they also left their culture with the Africans. The church as established by missionaries did not also pack up and leave as the African administration set in, nor did they do anything to decolonize the church and leave it in the hands of the Africans. That is the reason why there are so many Africanized churches from the 20th through to the 21st centuries in Africa. Religion was used by both Arabs and Europeans to colonize Africa. For an example, in the 1705 Virginia General Assembly, it was voted that All servants imported and brought into the country who were not Christians in their native country, shall be accounted and be slaves. All Negro mulattos and Indian slaves within this dominion shall be held to be real estate. If any slave resists his master…correcting such slave….and shall be free of all punishment as if such accident never happened.

Africans should now use religion to decolonize Africa because political decolonization is meaningless unless it is linked to the total decolonization of religion and the mind. Religion made Africans loyal subjects of foreign nations and governments. Foreign religions divided Africa. A good example is what is happening in Nigeria and Mozambique today. In Nigeria, Boko Haram is from the north which is predominantly Muslim and they are waging a devastating war against the South which is largely Christian. Clearly then we can see one nation divided by foreign religions to the extent of waging bitter fighting against each other. In Mozambique, the Islamic Isis wants to establish the Sharia law in Northern Mozambique which is predominantly Muslim. It also wants the rich area of Cabo-Delgado. In essence these are religious wars taking us back to the Wars of the Moors and the Crusades. These religious wars have now been shifted to Africa and unless African minds are decolonized the continent will know no peace.

As if this was not enough for the African countries, religion also forced Africans to be dispossessed of their land. The land defined the Africans. That means that the land meant everything to the African-economics, politics, religion-in fact everything African was based on the land. This explains why when African Nationalism became radicalized during the process of its formations, it started demanding the redemption of the land from the aliens who had taken it away from the Africans-the sons and daughters of the soil.

It was also through religion that Arab and European invaders introduced their political systems such as demonocracy (if I am borrow Joshua Maponga 111’s term) which was quite different from the African Democracy. The foreign demonocratic system implied the process whereby the majority put power into the hands of the minority. This involved political parties and elections both of which also were very divisive to the African nations. The Africans had their system of politics that was functional. They ruled by consensus and they worked together to produce enough food for themselves. These were the systems that were completely destroyed by both the Arabic and Western missionaries together with the mercenaries.

They also introduced foreign education for the Africans. The schools forced on the Africans by these aliens taught the African child the bible or the Koran, foreign languages, history-in fact they were taught everything foreign and nothing African as if the Africans did not have languages and history. The geography taught to African children was about foreign objects. The only African subject the child was taught was the sources of rivers with connections to the European founder of that river and most probable colonized African countries’ capitals. They were also taught English Literature which included drama and prose. The drama was mainly Shakespeare and prose included such characters as Chaucer all of whom portrayed English culture. African students were forced to act Shakespeare’s books drama in plays wearing English attire. That kind of education was meant to colonize the mind of the African child forever and as elaborated later in this analysis, it was education which involved only remembering and not practice. It was therefore education meant to produce graduates who contained theoretical knowledge much to the detriment of African development when the African eventually took over the reins of government in Africa. The African people viewed religion as a Western denomination. They definitely believed in God, the spirits and the ancestors. God was believed to be the Creator of all things on earth including all human beings regardless of their skin pigmentation. Those Africans who did not subscribe to the Eurocentric religion and were called traditionalists would refuse to be called religious. This is why many Africans would go to Church and still come back and practice their traditional rituals and customs. To them, the two are different and should not be brought into each other's way. What then is religion?

I define religion as a system of beliefs and practices related to the worship of a deity and that worship is done through the mediation of ancestors, who may be saints or spiritual entities. If this definition is accepted, then God has no religion. When Martin Luther broke away from the Catholic Church he