In a recent speech, Zimbabwe’s President E.D. Mnangagwa recounted his experiences with the Church and Church leaders in the early years of Zimbabwe’s independence. He spoke of how Rhodesian propaganda had demonized the freedom fighters, painting them as a godless lot associated with all manner of devilry. He said by contrast, white Rhodesia had beatified itself as a God-fearing civilization whose mission was to redeem and Christianize a benighted race inhabiting the “Dark Continent.”
President Mnangagwa also described how the Church and State were inseparable in Rhodesia, with the Anglican Church being the Church of the Settler Rhodesian State. He explained how the Church had viewed the freedom fighters as “ogres” and how the Church had heavily invested in African education, running the majority of schools for Africans in the country, right through to Zimbabwe’s independence.
Despite initial anxieties from the Church, President Mnangagwa explained how the State had sought to heal the wounds of colonialism and develop the country on egalitarian principles through the ideology of Marxist-Leninism. He further explained how their choice of ideology was appropriate for a post-Independent Zimbabwe and drew parallels and similarities between their ideology and the values espoused by Africans under African communalism.
He highlighted how the State and Church had partnered to build a better Zimbabwe, with the State resting their politics and development on God. President Mnangagwa emphasized the importance of a God-fearing leadership in Zimbabwe, stating that the First and Second Republics were built on values espoused by the Church.
He noted that the State and Church have a complementary partnership, and he frequently meets with Church leaders across denominations. The President said he introduced a new mantra, “Nyika inonamatirwa nevene vayo,” which completes the Holy Trinity at the heart of the Church and emphasizes the need to give God to all politics, policies, and programs.
He called on Church leaders to pray for peaceful elections and urged the nation to put God at the heart of development, citing the success of the mining, agriculture, and tourism sectors as evidence of divine favor. The President also praised the Catholic Church’s agricultural and value-addition program, which demonstrates a symbiotic relationship between the State and the Church, both serving the same person created in the image of God.
Mnangagwa has been attending multiple religious groups, which is perceived by some as a strategic effort to amass support for the ruling party prior to the upcoming August 23 harmonized elections.