‘Rocking the boat?’: Church‐NGOs and democratization in Zimbabwe

Abstract

Historically, relations between church and state in independent Zimbabwe have tended to be co-operative and non-confrontational. However, in 1997 the Zimbabwe Council of Churches (ZCC) initiated the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), leading to the government's defeat in the first post-independence referendum and setting the stage for the violent elections of June 2000. Nevertheless, as the NCA developed the strength and capacity which enabled it to challenge the status quo, the ZCC withdrew. As a key-player said '. . . as churches we had to take issues that don't raise too much dust or rock the boat too much, but the boat was rocking'. This suggests that, although the church may play a critical role in opening up space for debate, the state may still co-opt and weaken churches and other groups, in its effort to retain hegemony. Churches and church NGOs relate ambiguously to both the state and society, in both colonial and post-colonial Zimbabwe, and remain vulnerable to political, economic and social pressures. Theories of democratization, and in particular the role played by churches and NGOs, must begin to recognize the complexity and ambiguity of state-society relations as detailed in this study. ZIMBABWE HAS A RICH LITERATURE ON THE ROLE OF CHURCHES and church organizations in the colonial period, which neatly captures the complexity of their relations with the Rhodesian state.1 Yet post-independence churchstate relations have been little studied. Upon investigation, many similarities between the earlier literature and the post-independence period become apparent, especially in terms of relations between state elites and church Sara Rich Dorman is a DPhil Candidate at St. Antony's College, Oxford. This article draws on research carried out between 1995 and 1999,whichwas greatly facilitated by, among others, Jonah Gokova and Tawanda Mutasah. The article has benefited from the comments of Erica Bornstein, W. J. Dorman, Tim Kelsall, David Maxwell, and Gavin Williams. 1. See Carl Hallencreutz and Ambrose Moyo (eds), Church and State in Zimbabwe (Mambo, Gweru, 1988); Terence Ranger, Are We NotAlso Men? The Samkange family andAfrican politics in Zimbabwe: 1920-64 (James Currey, London, 1995); Michael Lapsley, Neutrality or Co-option? Anglican Church and state from 1964 until the independence of Zimbabwe (Mambo, Gweru, 1986); Canaan Sodindo Banana, The Church in the Struggle (Mambo, Gweru, 1996); Diana Auret, Reaching for Justice (Mambo, Gweru, 1992); J. A. Dachs and W. Rea, The Catholic Church and Zimbabwe (Mambo, Gweru, 1979); Ian Linden, The Catholic Church and the Struggle for Zimbabwe (Longman, London,1980); R. H. Randolph, Dawn in Zimbabwe: The Catholic Church in the new order: a report on the activities of the Catholic Church in Zimbabwe for the five years 1977-1981 (Mambo, Gweru, 1985); Janice McLaughlin, On the Frontline: Catholic missions in Zimbabwe's liberation war (Baobab, Harare, 1996); Carl Hallencreutz, Religion and Politics in Harare (Swedish Institute of Missionary Research, Uppsala, 1998); David Maxwell, Christians and Chiefs in Zimbabwe (Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 1999).