Can religion (un)zombify? The trajectories of psychic capture theology in postcolonial South Africa

Bekithemba Dube

doi:10.4102/hts.v76i3.5902

Abstract

‘Police arrested suspected criminals in a satanic place masquerading as a church … There is no church there, but there is Satanism … Those people are not praying for anything, but they have hypnotised abantu [ people ]’. Informed by a decoloniality lens in relation to motifs such as coloniality of power and knowledge and being, I argue that mafiarised religions in South Africa thrive through psychic capture theology. Some emerging religious movements subject their followers to unthinkable practices, which makes outsiders question the way in which both religious leaders and adherents operate outside the conventionally accepted practice of religion, and, instead, indulge in practices characterised by manipulation, corruption and mental destabilisation. I respond to two questions: What are the trajectories of a religion that zombifies, and how can the social pathologies of psychic capture theology be addressed? I respond to these questions with special reference to the Seven Angels Ministry and Penuel Mnguni. I argue that some emerging ministries strive to destroy the psychic ability of adherents, to achieve strategic distance that dehumanises, removes people from the zone of being, and causes them to question their ontological density. I end the article by arguing that there is a need for religion to be regulated, and reintroduced, to challenge religious mafias that thrive through mental destabilisation. In doing so, religion can be reconfigured and have relevance in a postcolonial state, such as South Africa, especially in contexts where the rationale of religious discourses is questionable. Contribution: The article contributes to knowledge in the sense that it calls for religion to be problematised and reconstructed within education and sociological space when it dehumanise and removes people from the zone of being. Through this approach, the article fits with the scope for the journal that calls for interdisciplinary approach to the study within the international contexts.

Highlights

In most colonial states, religion evolved in ways that were, perhaps, never imagined or expected
Maluleke (1997:6) argues that the quest by Africans to articulate their own brands of theologies consciously, deliberately and, sometimes, carelessly, has evoked various trajectories and ambivalences, of which one is mental destabilisation
The reason for this is that, usually, when people visit churches or ministries, they hope to ensure a better future and find solutions for their social problems; in some cases, instead of problems being solved, people become entangled in exploitative acts that are easy to propagate through mental destabilisation

Summary

Introduction

Religion evolved in ways that were, perhaps, never imagined or expected. Once a society succumbs to a religious mafia, it is doomed, and it requires an intervention from outsiders who can name, problematise and challenge acts that are harmful to the members of that society To this end, I support Mpofu (2017), who argues that there is a need for a counter-hegemonic strategy that can evoke a philosophy of liberation, which entails the rehumanisation of the dehumanised and the courage to care and to love, while at the same time challenging forces that capture people’s psyches under the pretext of religious obedience to the man of God. I will suggest ways in which psychic capture theology and zombification can be mitigated in society. I submit that religion, as taught at school, can assist to eliminate the zombification that is the trajectory of some postcolonial religious movements

Conclusion

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