Religious leaders as regime enablers: the need for decolonial family and religious studies in postcolonial Zimbabwe

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article interrogates family and religious studies in the context of religious leaders who serve as regime enablers and resistors in Zimbabwe. Some religious leaders have overtly or covertly assumed the role of enablers of the current Zimbabwean political matrix, thereby threatening democracy, social justice, and accountability, by using religious narratives to buttress the status quo. I use critical emancipation research as lens to interrogate religious leaders as regime enablers. This theory allows me to name, expose and challenge oppression and injustice in and exclusion from social structures. I answer two questions: What are the trajectories of religious leaders as enablers in postcolonial political discourses, and how can family and religious studies tease resistor ideology among learners, to mitigate the challenges posed by enablers? There is always a price to pay when religious leaders become regime enablers, and there is a need for curriculum that can enact values, such as social justice, equity, and love for humanity, as a counter-hegemonic strategy to mitigate the challenges posed by religious leaders who act as enablers.