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‘Catch the Cockerel Before Dawn’: Pentecostalism and Politics in Post-Colonial Zimbabwe

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2011

David Maxwell
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Abstract

The article examines relations between pentecostalism and politics in post-colonial Zimbabwe through a case study of one of Africa’s largest pentecostal movements, Zimbabwe Assemblies of God, Africa (ZAOGA). The Church’s relations with the state change considerably from the colonial to the post-colonial era. The movement began as a sectarian township-based organisation which eschewed politics but used white Rhodesian and American contacts to gain resources and modernise. In the first decade of independence the leadership embraced the dominant discourses of cultural nationalism and development but fell foul of the ruling party, ZANU/PF, because of its ‘seeming’ connections with the rebel politician Ndabiningi Sithole and the American religious right. By the 1990s ZAOGA and ZANU/PF had embraced, each drawing legitimacy from the other. However, this reciprocal assimilation of elites and the authoritarianism of ZAOGA’s leadership are in tension with the democratic egalitarian culture found in local assemblies, where the excesses of leaders are challenged. These alternative pentecostal practices are in symbiosis with radical township politics and progressive sources in civil society. Thus, while pentecostalism may renew the process of politics in Zimbabwe, it may itself be renewed by the outside forces of wider Zimbabwean society.

Résumé

Cet article examine les relations entre le pentecôtisme et la politique au Zimbabwe après l’époque coloniale à travers l’études d’un des plus grands mouvements pentecôtistes d’Afrique, le ZAOGA (Zimbabwe Assemblies of God, Africa). Les relations entre l’Eglise et l’Etat ont considérablement changé entre la période coloniale et la période postcoloniale. Ce mouvement était à l’origine une organisation sectaire issue des townships qui rejetait la politique mais usait de ses relations avec les Américains et les Rhodesiens blancs pour obtenir des ressources et se moderniser. Au cours de la décennie qui suivit l’indépendance, ses dirigeants adoptèrent les discours prépondérants en faveur du développement et du nationalisme culturel mais se brouillèrent avec le parti au pouvoir, le ZANU/PF, en raison de ses liens «apparents» avec le politicien rebelle Ndabiningi Sithole et la droite religieuse américaine. Au terme des années 80, le ZAOGA et le ZANU/PF s’étaient réconciliés, les deux partis se conférant mutuellement une légitimité. Cependant, des tensions s’exercent entre cette assimilation réciproque des élites et l’autoritarisme des dirigeants du ZAOGA, d’une part, et la culture égalitaire démocratique présente dans les assemblées locales au sein desquelles les excès des dirigeants sont contestés, d’autre part. Ces pratiques pentecôtistes alternatives sont en symbiose avec la politique radicale des townships et les sources progressistes de la société civile. C’est pourquoi, bien qu’il soit susceptible de relancer le processus politique au Zimbabwe, le pentecôtisme risque de connaître un renouveau sous l’influence de forces extérieures dans l’ensemble de la société zimbabwéenne.

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 70 , Issue 2 , May 2000 , pp. 249 - 277
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 2000

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