BiAS 7 – The Bible and Politics in Africa
ple to hold a different political opinion and inalienable view on issues,
victims of violence usually accept their predicament as having erred and
perpetrators as having a mandate to administer discipline on them,
when the Judas figure is roped in to justify such actions. It is in the best
interest of this paper that, the Judas Iscariot character can be used to
serve a moral purpose to positively shape the actions of the Zimbabwean
community.
The Colonial Use of the term ‘Sell Out’ and its’ Adoption on
the Zimbabwean Political Space
It is generally agreed across the political and religious divide as already
shown that, the coinage of the term ‘sell out’ was popular during the
fight for the liberation of Zimbabwe. It was commonly used by national-
ists^27 and then adopted by respective Zimbabwean societies to refer to
people that were deemed friendly to the Rhodesian colonial forces. For
Blessing-Miles Tendi, the genesis of ‘patriots and sell-outs’ comple-
mented with violence, has its beginnings in 1950s urban politics^28
though it has been a constant theme in Zimbabwean national politics
since that time as seen by the essential part it plays in ZANU-PF’s politi-
or unintentionally show more enthusiasm when working with them. As a result, these
students come to feel more capable and intelligent and perform better. The same with
politicians instilling a certain attitude towards certain people who hold different views
but labeled as bad elements in society; whatever fate that befall them will be inter-
preted as positive and justifiably good for the well-being of society, See R A Jones, Self-
Fulfilling Prophecies: Social, Psychological and Physiological effects of Expectancies, New
York: John Wiley & Sons, 1977, 139; D M Newman, Sociology: Exploring the architecture
of Everyday Life, London: Pine Forge Press, 2009, 59.(^27) The ‘nationalist forces’ point to the military wings of the Zimbabwe African People’s
Union (ZAPU) and the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU). The military wing
of ZAPU was known ZIPRA and that for ZANU as ZANLA. The ZANLA military wing
was popularly referred to as ‘Vakomana neVasikana veRusununguko’ literally, the ‘boys
and girls fighting for the freedom of the majority’.
(^28) Urban Politics was characterised by boycotts against high bus fares and the increasing
prices of basic commodities, for example, on 17 September 1956 Salisbury Bus Boy-
cott. The protest degenerated into violence, theft and the raping of women in the Girls
Hostel by young men. Women who were raped during the boycott were presented as
‘sell-outs who deserved to be raped’ because they did not take part in the boycott, T
Scarnecchia, Fighting for the Underdog: Rhetoric, Violence and Gender in Zimbabwean
Nationalism, 1940-1964, New York: Rochester Univ. Press, 2008, 4.