Only we can save ourselves, not Makandiwa or Angel

By Shaun Matsheza

So, despite the many, and I daresay much more pressing, issues facing Zimbabwe at the moment, our public sphere is inundated with stories about the ‘men of the moment’, Emmanuel Makandiwa and Uebert Angel and their self-proclaimed prosperity gospel.

I am not personally familiar with any of the two gentlemen, as I have not had the opportunity to interview them, and neither have I attended any of their services. I write, therefore, from the standpoint of an (uninformed?) external observer.

Whereas much of the debate around the issue has been on whether these gentlemen are genuine or not, as in, whether their ministry is indeed inspired of the holy spirit or is rather a scam in the vein of the scams my fellow Africans from Nigeria are notorious for, I would like to approach the issue from a slightly different perspective.

Recently, I posted on my blog about why I thought Zimbabweans were not doing more to change the circumstances they find themselves in. The main cause I postulated as standing in the way of political emancipation was the perceived lack of agency that characterizes the way many Zimbabweans think about the nation-(re)building project we currently find ourselves engaged in.

I could not help but find a connection between that issue and the recent prominence of religious leaders in our society preaching the prosperity gospel. Prosperity theology is the religious doctrine that financial blessing is what God wills for Christians.

The idea is that faith, positive speech and regular donations to the ministry will increase one’s material wealth. Basically, the argument propounded is that if we have faith in God, he will deliver his promises of security and prosperity.

The faithful should therefore profess these promises to be true, and it is taught that God’s promise to the Israelites applies to Christians today. The doctrine emphasizes the importance of personal empowerment, proposing that it is God’s will for his people to be happy.

Atonement is interpreted to include the alleviation of sickness and poverty, and that curses can be broken by faith; achieved through visualization and positive confession. The interaction between religion and politics is not a new issue, and has had much prominence in the philosophical writings of western societies for centuries.

It has also been much written about in an African context. I believe that religion can vastly influence people’s perception of their own agency, and this is my own humble contribution to the Zimbabwean debate about prosperity theology.

In what he penned as a critique of Hegel, Karl Marx wrote:

Religious distress is at the same time the expression of real distress and the protest against real distress. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of a spiritless situation. It is the opium of the people. The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is required for their real happiness. The demand to give up the illusion about its condition is the demand to give up a condition which needs illusions.

The third sentence of this statement has been widely quoted as ‘religion is the opium of the masses’, an unfaithful quote which I believe makes Marx appear more callous than he intended to sound.

While I do not necessarily agree with his recommendation for its abolition, I feel that Marx was merely pointing out how religion can be a sad and unavoidable response to the distress of life. Religion, when approached the wrong way, offers a way out being responsible for our destinies, and facilitates the acceptance of particular situations as ‘divinely ordained.’

As Zimbabweans, we have devised many ingenious arguments to explain, both to ourselves and to people from outside our country, why we still find ourselves under the yoke of an obviously unpopular and oppressive regime after so many years.

Our arguments vary from the obvious fact that ‘ZANU (PF) controls the army and security forces so there’s nothing we can do’ to the more roundabout, ‘well, Zimbabweans are a peaceful people in general and it’s difficult for them to revolt’.

In general, however, I think we all furnish ourselves with mechanisms to shirk the responsibility we actually have to make our own country a better place. For many of my compatriots, religion has comfortably fit that bill.

The prominence of Makandiwa and Angel presents itself to me as the embodiment of that denial of our own agency. A study by Tomas Rees and Gregory Paul shows that, unless religious belief itself leads to socially unhealthy societies rife with uncertainty; social distress and uncertainty promote religiosity.

In their study, they showed that high levels of faith among countries are correlated with high levels of ‘life uncertainties’, which they quantified in various ways such as measuring levels of inequality in income, the lack of health care, high crime rates and other negative factors.

Nigel Barber, in a paper published in the journal Cross Cultural Research also offers results that support this thesis, showing that there is a strong negative correlation between measures of ‘material security’ and religiosity; that is, in those countries in which individuals are less secure, religiosity seems to be higher.

A 2009 Gallup Poll offers similar conclusions. These studies lead me to the deduction that it is the dismal state of our country that is giving these ‘gospreneurs’ such unprecedented leverage.

Zimbabweans are looking for a way out of their situation; and even if that way out turns out to be divine deposits in their bank accounts, or miraculous winds that turn up alluvial gold, they will take it. As long as they don’t have to do anything themselves, except maybe pray and declare to the world that they are God’s children.

To me, it is irrelevant whether these guys are actually God’s true messengers, or whether their entire ministry is an elaborate scam. I see no objective way in which the question can be settled. There is no mutually accepted method of differentiating magic from miracles, both break the laws of physics and influence or change reality in some manner.

And there are no arguments or facts that will make people discard the convictions they hold dear. In support of religious freedom, I say let the next person buy Angel’s shirt for $20 000 if they so desire it of their own free will.

However, we should, as Zimbabweans, ask ourselves whether these prophets would bring about the permanent change in our circumstances that we desire.

When we finally claim Zimbabwe and make it our own and we occupy our rightful place as the jewel of Africa, when our children get milk every morning, go to well-furnished and well-staffed schools, when we do not have to rely on foreign currencies to conduct our trade, when every Zimbabwean can occupy their place in the economy and look after themselves, when the ZANU (PF) era is an anecdote that we tell to our grandchildren (which it will be!), will we still flock to these men who promise us the manifestation of heaven on earth?

We need to have faith, not only in metaphysical answers, but also in our own agency to change our circumstances. After all, God helps those who help themselves. The demons we are fighting against are not esoteric beings that visit our dreams at night, they are the real life political bloodsuckers who have brought our country to its knees.

I was raised religious, and I have no problem with people seeking metaphysical answers to the problems in their lives. I too believe that there must be a greater power out there. I just find it difficult to believe in a guy who tells me that all I have to do is go to his church on Sunday, and to believe his sermon and ‘miracles’ will solve the problems my country is facing.

Call it a lack of faith if you will, but I refuse to be intoxicated by that sort of opium.

I am not calling for the abolition of religion. I just believe that we as Zimbabweans need to do more to change our material circumstances. And a guy who tells people to expect gold from the ground, and miraculous money, will not solve the real problems my people are facing. Instead, he delays the moment of confrontation.

I’m sure God in his mercy and omniscience can forgive my scepticism.