Machingura, The Judas Iscariot episode in the Zimbabwean Religio-Political debate...statements I found interesting were inscribed on taxis, mini-buses and
buses were as follows: 1) “His Name is Jesus”; 2) “Try Jesus and you will
never fail”; 3) “Rich and Famous because of Jesus”; and 4) “Only the
Blood of Jesus and Resurrection Power can make you rich”. These in-
scriptions are found on public transport that service people of different
religious persuasions and not only Christian believers at all. Besides
Christianity taking the largest share of believers in Zimbabwe, it is clear
that Christianity has become part of marketing and the language of
business. It is interesting and not surprising that, some of the owners of
the transport business that invoke Christian inscriptions might not be
Christians at all. This is the same with politicians who quote the Bible at
their political gatherings despite not being believers. It is also common
to find that in Zimbabwe, many people have biblical names such as:
Peter, John, James, Paul, Samuel, Elisha, Elijah and Moses; but it is rare
to find people or institutions with names positively coined after Judas
Iscariot. The Judas character only manifests negatively and the assump-
tion is that, no serious business persons can afford to name their busi-
nesses after Judas Iscariot and at the same time expecting their busi-
nesses to flourish. Surprisingly the Judas character finds a fertile plat-
form in Zimbabwean politics, courting the attention of this paper.
The use of Judas Iscariot character in stigmatizing opponents in Zim-
babwe has tended to bear fruits for liberation parties like ZANU-PF in
conscientising people about the consequences of holding a different
political view. It is like the Animal Farm episode^25 that ‘you are either
with us or against us where other more equal than others’, which some-
times lead to violent political tendencies. Instead of celebrating the
power of holding different views in society for building societies, victims
of violence are labelled as deserving to be punished and not eligible for
sympathy like what happened to Judas Iscariot, hence self-fulfilling
prophecy.^26 Instead of realizing that it is the constitutional right of peo-
(^25) G Orwell, Animal Farm, Florida: Harcourt Brace, 1945.
(^26) Self-Fulfilling Prophecy is a prediction that, purely as a result of having been made or
causes the expected event to occur and thus confirms the prophecy’s own ‘accuracy’. It
influences peoples’ social interaction based on initial beliefs about certain people lead-
ing them to behave in a certain manner. It is a powerful tool that can affect people
physically, psychologically when it becomes an element of social, political and religious
institutions. In social institutions like schools and universities, teachers can subtly and
unconsciously encourage the performance they expect to see in their students, for ex-
ample, if they believe their students to be intelligent, they spend more time with them