Mugabe’s Bishop Guides Flock with a Truncheon

In his ongoing effort to cow the Zimbabwean electorate ahead of the June 27 presidential runoff vote, President Robert Mugabe has deployed cudgel-wielding security forces and party militias against political activists, trade unionists, journalists, and any other members of society who are suspected of disloyalty to the regime. This campaign has even extended to the country’s Anglican parishioners, as major media outlets have noted. For several weeks, the police and other agents of the state have been invading churches in Harare and beating men, women, and children who attempt to worship in communion with the internationally recognized Anglican hierarchy, headed locally by Bishop Sebastian Bakare. The actions are meant to enforce the authority of Mugabe’s man in the miter, Nolbert Kunonga, who was dismissed as bishop of Harare by the Anglican Church of the Province of Central Africa (CPCA) in late 2007.

Kunonga had long drawn criticism for refusing to speak out against human rights abuses by the regime. He stridently supported the government’s economically disastrous policy of expropriating white-owned commercial farms, and was reportedly rewarded in 2003 with a 1,630-acre farm of his own. In 2005, the CPCA set up an ecclesiastical court to try Kunonga on 11 alleged violations of church law, including a plot to kill 10 opponents. However, the trial was derailed when the presiding Malawian judge withdrew in the face of the two sides’ intractable disputes over evidence and other technicalities. Kunonga then continued to rule his diocese as a dictatorship in miniature, complete with its own personality cult.

The disaffection between Kunonga and his church superiors came to a head in late 2007, after he attempted to withdraw the Zimbabwean church from the CPCA and form his own province within the worldwide Anglican Communion. He linked the move to the wider church’s tolerance toward homosexuality, which both he and Mugabe condemned, but critics said it was more likely a bid by the two men to obtain political and personal control over church property and parishioners.

Since being officially replaced by Bakare, Kunonga has hunkered down in St. Mary’s Cathedral and used government forces to defy court orders instructing the two Anglican factions to share church facilities. Worshipers have repeatedly been locked out of church buildings, allowing the small flock of Kunonga loyalists to gather inside. The rogue bishop has also praised Mugabe as “a prophet of God who was sent to deliver the people of Zimbabwe from bondage,” openly endorsing him in the presidential election. He remains subject to U.S. sanctions targeting close Mugabe associates. While many Anglican leaders have lambasted the regime’s crimes, and some have expressed hopes for an end to Mugabe’s rule, the church has avoided a direct association with the political opposition.

In late May 2008, Kunonga and his clerical supporters were excommunicated by the CPCA. Rowan Williams, the archbishop of Canterbury and symbolic head of the Anglican Communion, and Thabo Makgoba, the archbishop of Cape Town, issued a joint appeal the following week, calling on the United Nations and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to protect Zimbabwe’s Anglicans and “prevent people being torn away from the altar rails on the orders of the ruling party or state officials.” They noted the government’s failure to enforce court decisions on the local schism, and called the state’s actions a “clear violation” of Article 18 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which covers freedom of religion. The two prelates placed the attacks on churchgoers within the broader context of “murderous” political repression in the country, urging the UN Security Council and the SADC to provide mediation and monitoring ahead of the presidential runoff.

Mugabe’s attacks on freedom of religion are particularly disturbing because they appear to be part of a broader effort to penetrate and destroy all societal entities that could harbor political opposition. The regime has often targeted critical religious leaders, using surveillance and state media to force the resignation of an outspoken Roman Catholic archbishop in September 2007. However, it generally allowed the predominantly Christian country’s sizable Anglican, Methodist, Catholic, and other congregations to operate without serious interference. The latest campaign of violence suggests a clumsy grab for totalitarian control over religious practice and institutions, perhaps in emulation of China, an increasingly important Mugabe ally. The Chinese government has provided Zimbabwe with military equipment as well as technology designed to jam foreign-based radio broadcasts, upgrade state media, and control internet traffic—essential tools for an aspiring totalitarian state. But unlike China, which can at least claim to be offering its people the promise of a better economic future in exchange for their basic human rights, the Mugabe regime seems to provide little other than broken bones and empty stomachs. While religious faith alone may not protect Zimbabweans from these scourges, it could bolster their confidence that continued resistance—or even mere survival—will lead to better times.

Photo credit: Flickr user aheavens