This book is Kachere Thesis 13 in this series of monographs from the University of Malawi - Chancellor College's Depart of Theology and Religious Studies (www.kachereseries.org). It is based
on the author’s PhD dissertation with the University of Malawi and argues that
Chiluba’s vision of Zambia as a Christian nation did not materialize due to
“serious moral failures in political governance”.[1]
The first chapter, “Church and State up to 1989”, traces church-state relations
from independence until 1989 and argues that the churches were united in their
interface with the state before the Charismatic Movement which brought division
in the church ranks as its leaders appealed to unconditional submission to state
authorities in line with their reading of Romans 13:1-2. Thus he surveys
church-state relationships during the years of Kaunda’s humanism (1961-1980) through
the turbulence of the 1980s, highlights the churches’ reaction to his
increasingly corrupt rule, and traces the origins, development, and influence
of the Charismatic Movement in Zambia. The next chapter, “The Churches and the
Transition from One Party Participatory Democracy to a Multiparty System”,
attempts to demonstrate that Zambian churches played “the role of midwives of
multiparty politics” by outlining their involvement in Zambia’s evolution to a
multiparty state and Chiluba’s and the MMD’s political ascendancy vis-à-vis
Kaunda’s and UNIP’s demise. In “The Declaration of Zambia as a ‘Christian
Nation’”, the author argues that Chiluba’s declaration of Zambia as a Christian
nation was merely political rhetoric that did not curb “political greed,
corruption, and social injustice” by examining its origins; responses from
religious groups, the Zambian public, and the government; and, the constitutionalization
of the declaration and its implementation by Chiluba. The author offers a
kaleidoscope of the MMD’s failures in curbing corruption, the churches’
reaction to corruption, and other governance issues in chapter four, “Issues of
Political Ethics in a Multiparty Zambia”. The penultimate chapter, “Towards
Political Ethics in African Multiparty States”, delineates legislative and
ethical lessons from Zambia, outlines the role of the church in politics in
Africa, and concludes with recommendations on how the church can positively
impact politics chief of which is a proposed ecumenical Centre for Theology and
Ethics in Public Life. Finally he notes the need for leaders to be good
stewards of their countries resources and the crucial importance of ethics in
government if African countries are to develop.
I find some
inadequacies with this book such as his simplistic argument, his omission of the
history of Christian political ethics and the neopatrimonial system of most
post-colonial African states, his misunderstanding of the history of African
Charismatic movements, and his superficial sketch of Chiluba’s faith. Cheyeka’s
argument – “what failed Kaunda in his Humanist state was that the political
system and practice considerably differed from his political theory. The
political change in 1991 was thus prompted by the failure of Zambian Humanism.
However, the new regime’s redeeming theory of ‘Christian Nation’ did not work
either due to serious moral failures in the political governance” – seems not as
substantive as it states the obvious without any warrant or qualifiers to his
claim. Further to this, the author asserts that this is a case study but makes
no attempt to show the generalizability of this case so as to extend his
argument to other African post-colonial states. This, in my opinion, would have
been very insightful seeing as the Charismatic wing of the church in Africa seems
to champion the “Christian nation” teaching. The glaring omission of at least a
synopsis of Christian political thought in a book that advances a Christian
political ethic is disturbing as the Christian tradition has such a wealth of
ideas on the subject such as Augustine’s City
of God. Another overlooked aspect is the phenomenon of neopatrimonialism –
or the “big man” politics prevalent in Africa – that is so endemic to
post-colonial African states yet the concept neither gets mention nor analysis
in this book when quite a lot of verbiage has been given to the phenomenon such
as Paul Gifford’s African Christianity:
It’s Public Role whose hypothesis he briefly interacts with on pages 88 and
89.
The author also
repeats the fallacy of seeing African Charismatic movements as Western imports
when he draws a straight tangent from the 1960’s Charismatic Revival in the
West to Zambia in the 1970’s. Arguably this is his background chapter but
unfortunately it sets the tone to seeing the whole Chiluba saga as being one
that is crafted in the West on naive Africans, in my opinion. Furthermore, what
would have been a great opportunity to delve into the interaction of the
Charismatic faith and politics in Zambia is missed when Cheyeka relies mostly
on secondary sources in painting a scant picture of Chiluba’s faith. Surely
primary sources abound on Chiluba’s faith and self-understanding since the
author says Chiluba was an ardent preacher of the gospel and, knowing how state
media is abused by African governments, there should be a plethora of archived
material on Chiluba.
I think this book can be used to complement a study of the Zambian and African interface of faith and politics. It is very informative in its history but really lacks a careful analysis that would make it a useful tool in applying its concept to other contexts.
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