http://hdl.handle.net/10386/2824 Tue, 14 Apr 2026 17:11:00 GMT 2026-04-14T17:11:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10386/4702 Religious and political intersections : the instrumentalisation of Christianity during Zimbabwe’s 2018 presidential elections Mpofu, Shepherd This article discusses the critical intersection of Christianity with Zimbabwean politics during the 2018 harmonised elections. Christianity and politics play an important role in organising or polarising society. Major problems arise when the church becomes more “political” than spiritual or becomes silent on political matters affecting society. Religion has been used for various purposes in Zimbabwean politics, such as holding on to power, contesting power, rebuking leaders and silencing opponents. In the current research, my interest lies in two specific aspects; how, firstly, the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) leader, Emmerson Mnangagwa, and, secondly, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change-Alliance (MDC-A’s) Nelson Chamisa evoked Christianity in their national electoral campaign through rallies and posts on social media, before the 2018 harmonised elections and during the disputation of the results. The article concludes that Chamisa and Mnangagwa instrumentalised Christianity differently as a political tool. Journal article published in Canadian Journal of African Studies · May 2021 Fri, 01 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10386/4702 2021-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10386/4245 The use of knowldge and perceptions of malaria for improved control and elimination of malaria in the community of Dan, Limpopo Province, South Africa Malatji, Moshohli Kenneth This exploratory study is based on the philosophically and metatheoretically sound epistemic position that to avoid category mistakes and transubstantive error in comprehending African phenomena, it is abserlutely necessary to jettison Caucasian paradigms and locate epistemologically in African-centredness. African people have been the “most written about” and yet the “least known and understood” of all the world’s people due to category mistakes and transubstantive error which arise from the hegemonic practice and tendency of valuating and evaluating African phenomena with Caucasian paragigms whose essence is anti-African. To avoid such mistakes and error, the Afrocentric paradigm was deployed to make sense of the pivotal necessity and need of utilising AIK and perceptions in the effective control and elimination of malaria in Dan Village which is racially and culturally African. To this end ten (10) African diviners and herbalists and fifteen (15) elderly African women and men were carefully and purposively selected to participate in the exploratory study. An Afrocentric research methodology based on the African spiritual principles of Maat and Nommo was deployed to collect, analyse and interpret data. Deploying the Thematic Content Analysis (TCA) tradition framed epistemologically by the Afrocentric paradigm rooted in the deep structureof African culture, significant African-centred themes were distilled from the data. A significant overarching theme which subsumed all other themes was that the effective control and elimination of malaria can only be realised if programmes for such control and elimination are rooted in and derive from the irrefragable African worldview and survival thrust. This African worldview, it must be noted, derives from African biogenetics and phylogeny. The upshot of this position, which itself is based on epistemologic centering in the reality structure of African people, is that a model for the control and elimination of the pernicious disease of malaria in Dan Village must derive from the deep thought and practice of the Ba-Pedi and Va-Tsonga ethnic groups. It is on this basis that the basic principles required for the construction of a tentative African-centred model for the control and elimination of malaria were identified and elaborated. This exploratory study thus sought to effect a dicisive break with Eurocentric discourses on the control and elimination of malaria. Thesis (Ph.D. (Anthropology)) -- University of Limpopo, 2022 Sat, 01 Jan 2022 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10386/4245 2022-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10386/3026 Adaptation measures to sustain indigenous practices and the use of indigenous knowledge systems to adapt to climate change in Mutoko rural district of Zimbabwe Mugambiwa, Shingirai Stanley This article examines adaptation measures used to sustain indigenous practices and the use of indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) to adapt to climate change in Mutoko rural district of Zimbabwe. Community-based adaptation is able to reduce the vulnerability as well as improve the resilience of the local people to climatic variability and change. Subsistence farmers have always adopted adaptive strategies to some of these changes over the years. As such, the adoption of indigenous practices will significantly help rural community members to adapt to climate change. This study employed a qualitative method and an exploratory design, and the results are derived from 30 purposively selected in-depth interviews. The study discovered that there are numerous measures used to adapt to climate change and subsequently to sustain indigenous practices. The study also found that the community no longer grows maize in large quantities, having shifted to millet and sorghum in order to adapt to climate change. The community also provided various strategies to adapt to climate change. These strategies include mulching, creating large storage houses for produce and creating temporary walls on riverbanks in order to store water when the rivers dry up. This study concludes that climate change adaptation measures employed by the community have significantly helped them to sustain their indigenous practices in many ways. Also, the use of IKS, through activities such as crop type change from maize to traditional millet and sorghum (which facilitates traditional lifestyle and activities), re-establishes the community’s indigenous practices since they are made to observe the practices of yesteryear. Article published in the Jàmbá - Journal of Disaster Risk Studies 10(1), a388. https://doi.org/10.4102/jamba.v10i1.388 Thu, 12 Apr 2018 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10386/3026 2018-04-12T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10386/2998 African Initiated Churches’ potential as development actors Öhlmann, Philipp; Frost, Marie-Luise; Gräb, Wilhelm African Initiated Churches (AICs) are not yet recognised as relevant actors of community development interventions. While it has been acknowledged that many of them provide coping mechanisms in adverse environments, support in social transformation and social capital, little information is available on their role as development actors. In this article, we evaluate the potential of AICs as partners of international development agencies for community development. We draw on interviews and focus group discussions with leaders of various AICs conducted in South Africa in February and March 2016. In particular, we examine the churches’ understanding of development, their view on the separation of spiritual and development activities and their priorities. Moreover, we outline the development activities which they are currently engaged in and analyse the structures they have in place to do so. Our findings indicate that AICs are increasingly active in community development and offer various entry points for possible cooperation. Journal article published in , HTS Teologiese Studies/ Theological Studies 72(4), a3825 Fri, 01 Jan 2016 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10386/2998 2016-01-01T00:00:00Z