Zimbabwe

The Republic of Zimbabwe is a landlocked country in the southern part of Africa, bordered by South Africa, Botswana, Zambia, and Mozambique. The country consists of several ethnicities, the largest of which is Shona. Three languages hold official status: English, Shona, and Ndebele.

The traditional religion indigenous to Zimbabwe is a monotheistic faith that believes in one supreme creator, called Mwari by the Shona and Mulimu by the Ndebele. Prayers are channeled to the creator through family ancestors, sometimes with the help of a spirit medium. Early contact with European religion came when the Jesuit priest Goncalo de Silveria reached the Munhumutapa capital in 1560. However, the first permanent missions were not established until 1859 by the London Missionary Society. Some of the early Christian missionaries who encountered the indigenous religion recognized its monotheistic nature and incorporated local concepts into their evangelism of the locals. For some contemporary Zimbabweans, the Christian faith is practiced in conjunction with indigenous religious practices. Thus, in addition to attending Christian churches regularly, they might also visit traditional healers, consult a spirit medium for advice, or visit a Mwari shrine. Some local religious groups, such as the Seven Apostles, formally combine Christian beliefs with traditional African beliefs.

Today, the country is approximately 70% Christian. The largest denomination is Roman Catholic, and there are significant numbers of Anglicans, Methodists, and Presbyterians. These mainline denominations were imported into Zimbabwe during the colonial era and are financially maintained by a foreign missionary infrastructure. Pentecostalism is the fastest growing sector of Christianity and was originally brought to South Africa and the then southern Rhodesia by foreign missionaries in the 1950s. It is highly transnational due to the international ties created through the Zimbabwe diaspora (such as business contacts and remittances) and through the vast range of ideologies incorporated into the teachings at different times (such as the Christian prosperity gospel, neoliberal capitalism, Marxism, and pan-Africanism). The indigenous Zimbabwe Assemblies of God, Africa (ZAOGA), founded by Ezekiel Guti in 1960, claims to have over 1 million members in Zimbabwe, South Africa, and across the world in places such as Sidney, Sao Paolo, Toronto, Shanghai, Paris, New Delhi, Rome, and London. ZAOGA is an example of what has been called the “reverse flow” of missionaries from the Global South to the former missionary-sending countries of the North.

[Page 1403]Various non-Christian religions have been introduced as a result of immigration. Islam is practiced in Zimbabwe primarily by South Asian immigrants from India and Pakistan as well as some North Africans and Middle Easterners. Muslims make up approximately 1% of the population. These are also small Jewish, Hindu, and Buddhist populations, which like the Muslims, are primarily composed of immigrants located in the capital city, Harare. Like Christianity, the Baha'i faith was established in Zimbabwe through efforts at evangelism. The first Baha'i missionary arrived in 1953 from Iran, followed by missionaries from the United Kingdom and the United States. In 2003, the Baha'is in Zimbabwe celebrated their 50th anniversary in the country with an international conference.