BiAS 7 – The Bible and Politics in Africa
dential runoff elections, Musindo and bishop Kunonga openly supported
the ruling party basing their claims on Rom 13:1-7. They urged the elec-
torate to vote for Robert Mugabe and his party ZANU PF because he was
chosen and ordained by God. For instance, Kunonga was quoted in the
local Herald newspaper (Monday 10 March 2008) urging Zimbabweans
to vote for Mugabe in the 29 March 2008 presidential elections because
he was Zimbabwe’s anointed leader. He reiterated that
“as a church we see the president with different eyes. To us he is a prophet
of God who was sent to deliver the people of Zimbabwe from bondage. God
raised him to acquire our land and distribute it to Zimbabweans; we call it
democracy of the stomach....”
We wonder which church Kunonga was making reference to? A close
analysis of his speech clearly stresses that he indirectly made reference
to Rom 13:1-7 and Old Testament messianic texts such as Jer 23:5 and
Zech 9:9ff. To him Mugabe has messianic qualities, that is, a prophet (a
prototype of Moses) and an anointed leader. It is sad to note that the
land that Kunonga claims that Mugabe distributed to the people through
chaotic means and most deserving poor masses did not benefit. The
process was haphazard, bloody and racist. This view is clearly attested in
the ecumenical document entitled The Zimbabwe We Want (2005),
where the Zimbabwean heads of churches lament that while land redis-
tribution was noble, “but regrettably it was done in a haphazard man-
ner.”
The submissions of the bishops were lambasted by political analysts who
were rather sympathetic to ZANU PF. The trio, Dr C Mararike, Dr
Chivaura, and Professor I Mupepereki, were on record denouncing the
role of the church in politics and demonising “The Zimbabwe We Want”
document in a televised program called Dzimbabwe (ZBCtv Dzim-
babwe-Sundays 2005 18.30hrs) chaired by Mararike. In most of their
state sponsored air space they underscored that the church was there to
obey the government of the day because God instituted it (thus an indi-
rect usage of Pauline state theology). It is important to note that, Presi-
dent Mugabe also gradually developed his own ‘theology of land’ in
which he reiterated that God had set aside Zimbabwe as the sacred space
for black people. Addressing a packed auditorium at the Harare Interna-
tional Conference Centre on the Day of National Prayer on 12 January
2002, Mugabe maintained that God had parcelled out the world accord-
ing to racial origin. (Chitando 2005).