Land reform has been a significant and recurring theme throughout human history, with various societies and countries grappling with issues of land ownership, distribution, and use. In most communities the reform is triggered by political imbalances and economic pressures. Land reform has nurtured liberation movements resisting colonialism and in Zimbabwe these were inspired by the ancestor spirits. Despite its importance, land reform remains a contentious issue. Debates tend to prioritize political and economic matters, neglecting the religious and cultural dimensions. Indigenous religion played a significant role during the liberation struggle and continues to influence post-independent Zimbabwe’s land discourse, but its contributions are often downplayed. This article is inspired by James Cox’s (2005) phenomenological studies in Zimbabwe. It is based on fieldwork among the Shona people in the country. It examines case studies of reburial of fallen heroes and exhumation of human remains to allow development projects that demonstrate the intricate connection between the land and its cultural and spiritual dimensions. In Zimbabwe, land reform holds important religious and historical significance. Besides addressing colonial injustices, it seeks to restore ancestralties and reassert spiritual heritage. This article highlights the complex aspects of land reform, encompassing historical, political, economic, socio-cultural, and religious issues. Zimbabwe’s land reform is not merely a political or economic process, but a restorative act aimed at reclaiming identity and heritage, thereby underscoring its cultural and spiritual significance.
This article is an analysis of the phenomenology of religion as both a method and theory. It assesses the applicability of the phenomenology of religion in an African set-up by discussing how the method and theory gave dignity to the study of traditional religions, whose study was and continues to be marred by Western-centred biases and hegemonic tendencies. This article is an appraisal of James L. Cox’s popularization of the phenomenology of religion. Phenomenology of religion emphasizes the study of religion as sui generis, that is, religion, in whatever form, must be studied in its own right. It gives prominence to the sole right of the believer. I demonstrate the above argument(s) by use of fieldwork. The study focuses on kuputsa (kuzvarira in Shona), a customary practice among the Ndau people. It is a marriage custom where a girl child was, and is still, pledged in marriage without her consent. Fieldwork conducted by Cox and his students during his time at the University of Zimbabwe, where the phenomenology of religion as both a method and theory was used, informed this study. The fieldwork data were corroborated by reviewing related literature on the matter under discussion, observations and having key informant interviews with the kuputsa custom practitioners. The study was guided by the phenomenology of religion as a conceptual framework. Notwithstanding the criticisms levelled against the method, the article submits that the phenomenology of religion as popularized by Cox in Zimbabwe is quite applicable to the study of religions, particularly African traditional religions, and has gained traction in institutions of higher learning in Africa. When applied correctly, the Ndau kuputsa custom can be appreciated but, of course, in the context of global human and sexual reproductive health rights.
The Karanga people who occupy the southern part of Zimbabwe in Masvingo province have long been regarded as environmentally sensitive. Their culture, which is rooted in religion, is vigilant of the relationship between the natural environment and humanity. In their daily lives and religious practices, the Karanga people display positive affinities with nature. This article examines the environmental ethics of the Karanga. The research examines the general history of the Karanga religion and how it relates to the existence of the natural environment. The Karanga religious traditions appear to possess mechanisms that were essential for environmental preservation, and these mechanisms helped shape Karanga environmental ethics. The study builds on J. L. Cox’s fieldwork experiences and his writings on scripture and morality where he articulated that moral values, the authoritative “oughts”, are communicated through the oral transmissions and scriptures of all religious traditions. Cox and his extensive fieldwork on moral values and scripture and/or religions are of great value to this study. The study shows that the morals of the Karanga people which were and are communicated through taboos, songs and folk tales are essential in preserving the environment. The existential phenomenological method is adopted as the research paradigm. Personal observations, interviews and document analysis were used to glean data for this study.
In Zimbabwe’s traditional Shona society, death by suicide is considered sacrilegious and disturbing to the cosmic order. Committing suicide is believed to be a serious breach of taboos which preserve the sanctity of life. In the Shona indigenous religious system, suicide is an immoral evil which invites an ancestral curse upon the victim. It forfeits one’s entry into the ancestral realm, the most important post-mortem benefit. The living also give instant judgment by denying the victim proper funerary and burial rites. Despite these divine and societal sanctions, the upsurge of suicide rates in modern-day Shona society boggles the mind, particularly because traditional beliefs and practices are averse to suicide. Questions that arise are: What motives drive suicide? What anti-suicide resources exist within the Shona cosmology? What suicide coping mechanism can be tapped into from the Shona cosmology? To unpack these questions we hinged this study on the family systems theory and the escape theory. Data were gathered through document analysis, interviews, and observations. The key argument advanced in this article is that the surge in suicide cases in Shona society is largely due to acculturation that has blurred and distorted indigenous beliefs and cosmological views. Due to acculturation, the integrating and regulating role of the traditional belief system has been weakened.
Influenced by James L. Cox’s insider-outsider fieldwork research principle, this paper argues that the phenomenology of religion and hunhu-ubuntu, a philosophy embedded in African indigenous knowledge systems, might positively serve to mitigate the crisis of underdevelopment in contemporary Zimbabwe. The available literature on the history of Zimbabwe’s development largely identifies the precolonial period as the most successful era of heritage-based development. The postcolonial Zimbabwean epoch has neither significantly attained nor achieved this. As such, this article maintains that prior to colonialism, development in Zimbabwe was informed by traditional hunhu-ubuntu institutions of knowledge production for development, as defined in the lens of Shona Zimbabwean people, such as dare (homestead and community court), mukwerera (rain-inducing ceremony), and mushandirapamwe (collectivism). Retrogressively, colonial attitudes continue to manifest in postcolonial Zimbabwe, prioritizing externally driven economic growth and sidelining indigenous knowledge systems in favour of development models unfamiliar to local communities. The paper advances Cox’s fieldwork research principle that accentuates the relationship of co-existence and respect of people’s religions in a bid to ensure heritage-based development in Zimbabwe.
Defined by formality, repetitiveness and rigidity, rituals in the indigenous religions of Africa are not exempt from these notions. Yet, the oral nature of Africa’s indigenous religions suggests otherwise. Not only are the times and contexts different in each ritual situation, but they are also imbued with nuanced transformations. In Ghana, rituals have undergone significant changes, and fieldwork on any indigenous religio-cultural phenomenon reveals this reality, as illustrated in this study. Although James L. Cox, and other scholars, have engaged the discussion on transformations and innovations in African rituals, they have not paid close attention to how practitioners manage these processes. Thus, this study aims to demonstrate how indigenous practitioners address the definitional scholarly issues of ritual formality, repetitiveness and rigidity, as well as the reality of contemporary social change in ritual performance. This phenomenological study explains how diverse indigenous practitioners in Ghana have relied on ritual itself as a means of bargaining with spirits for transformations and relief during life crises. The study argues that the oral nature of indigenous religions presents practitioners with diverse opportunities, which necessitate special considerations when dealing with ritual innovations and/or transformations in Africa. The study contributes to the understanding of rituals, as well as the innovation and transformation in Africa’s indigenous religions.
In Zimbabwe, just like other African countries, agriculture is the backbone of the economy since it underpins economic growth, food security and poverty reduction. However, since time past in Zimbabwe, it is crucial to acknowledge that the agricultural sector has been hard hit by several challenges ranging from pestilence, erratic rainfall, declining soil fertility, low investment, as well as shortages of farm power such as labour and draft animals. It is considering this background that this study explores the importance of myths and rituals in agricultural practices in rural Zimbabwe by drawing insights from the Zion Christian Church (ZCC) of Samuel Mutendi. The research was guided by the phenomenological principles in collecting and analysing data. The study reveals how the ZCC agricultural myths and rituals integrate the traditional Karanga religio-cultural values with Christian theology. The study concluded that myths and rituals play an important role in shaping the agricultural practices and resilience of communities within the Zion Christian Church by providing spiritual guidance and strengthening community bonds in addressing challenges faced by farming communities in Zimbabwe.
Mingo, AnneMarie. 2024. Have You Got Good Religion? Black Women’s Faith, Courage, and Moral Leadership in the Civil Rights Movement. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. xiii + 222 pp. ISBN 978-0-252-08776-9 (pbk). $24.95.
Hoenes del Pinal, Eric. 2022. Guarded by Two Jaguars: A Catholic Parish Divided by Language and Faith. Tuscon: The University of Arizona Press. 257 pp. ISBN 9780816547029 (hbk). $65.00.
The Karanga people who occupy the southern part of Zimbabwe in Masvingo province have long been regarded as environmentally sensitive.Their culture, which is rooted in religion, is vigilant of the relationship between the natural environment and humanity. In their daily lives and religious practices, the Karanga people display positive affinities with nature. This article examines the environmental ethics of the Karanga. The research examines the general history of the Karanga religion and how it relates to the existence of the natural environment. The Karanga religious traditions appear to possess mechanisms that were essential for environmental preservation, and these mechanisms helped shape Karanga environmental ethics. The study builds on J. L. Cox's fieldwork experiences and his writings on scripture and morality where he articulated that moral values, the authoritative "oughts", are communicated through the oral transmissions and scriptures of all religious traditions. Cox and his extensive fieldwork on moral values and scripture and/or religions are of great value to this study.The study shows that the morals of the Karanga people which were and are communicated through taboos, songs and folk tales are essential in preserving the environment. The existential phenomenological method is adopted as the research paradigm. Personal observations, interviews and document analysis were used to glean data for this study.
Land reform has been a significant and recurring theme throughout human history, with various societies and countries grappling with issues of land ownership, distribution, and use. In most communities the reform is triggered by political imbalances and economic pressures. Land reform has nurtured liberation movements resisting colonialism and in Zimbabwe these were inspired by the ancestor spirits. Despite its importance, land reform remains a contentious issue. Debates tend to prioritize political and economic matters, neglecting the religious and cultural dimensions. Indigenous religion played a significant role during the liberation struggle and continues to influence post-independent Zimbabwe's land discourse, but its contributions are often downplayed. This article is inspired by James Cox's (2005) phenomenological studies in Zimbabwe. It is based on fieldwork among the Shona people in the country. It examines case studies of reburial of fallen heroes and exhumation of human remains to allow development projects that demonstrate the intricate connection between the land and its cultural and spiritual dimensions. In Zimbabwe, land reform holds important religious and historical significance. Besides addressing colonial injustices, it seeks to restore ancestral ties and reassert spiritual heritage. This article highlights the complex aspects of land reform, encompassing historical, political, economic, socio-cultural, and religious issues. Zimbabwe's land reform is not merely a political or economic process, but a restorative act aimed at reclaiming identity and heritage, thereby underscoring its cultural and spiritual significance.
The position and status of African Indigenous Religion (AIR) in the Zimbabwe education system continue to attract scholarly introspection and uncertainty. Despite the dominance of Christianity and Islam, AIR continues to play a critical role in shaping the spiritual, cultural, and social life of communities. This study focuses on the status of AIR in secondary school pedagogy, higher institutions of learning and in the lives of people in Zimbabwe. The study argues that over the years, the approach for religious education in Zimbabwe was Christocentric, which was largely deceptive, as it was essentially influenced by the “world religions” paradigm, which is theologically and ideologically charged. This evokes James L. Cox’s call for a socio-culturally contextualized phenomenological study of AIR in Zimbabwe. This qualitative research employed Cox’s phenomenological approach as a research design and was guided by decoloniality as a theoretical framework. Data were gathered through fieldwork anchored by in-depth interviews with secondary school teachers, lecturers and education officers. In addition, the study utilized document analysis and review of Zimbabwean policies and circulars from the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education (MoPSE) on the implementation of the Heritage-Based Curriculum (HBC) framework and historical accounts of AIR’s role in the public sphere. The study established that the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)-heavy curriculum “minoritized” the humanities pathway by placing Family and Religious Studies as an elective in the lower secondary level, whilst its exclusion in the Secretary’s Circular No.4 of 2024, sent wrong signals about the real status of not only AIR, but the entire subject area of Family and Religious Studies. The study concludes that Cox’s insights into the methodological challenges of studying AIR clarify the broader Western imposed theological paradigms on other religious systems. The phenomenological approach, alongside a decolonial approach, can enhance the repositioning of AIR into multi-faith initiatives in Zimbabwe.
In Zimbabwe,just like other African countries, agriculture is the backbone of the economy since it underpins economic growth, food security and poverty reduction. However, since time past in Zimbabwe, it is crucial to acknowledge that the agricultural sector has been hard hit by several challenges ranging from pestilence, erratic rainfall, declining soil fertility, low investment, as well as shortages of farm power such as labour and draft animals. It is considering this background that this study explores the importance of myths and rituals in agricultural practices in rural Zimbabwe by drawing insights from the Zion Christian Church (ZCC) of Samuel Mutendi. The research was guided by the phenomenological principles in collecting and analysing data. The study reveals how the ZCC agricultural myths and rituals integrate the traditional Karanga religio-cultural values with Christian theology. The study concluded that myths and rituals play an important role in shaping the agricultural practices and resilience of communities within the Zion Christian Church by providing spiritual guidance and strengthening community bonds in addressing challenges faced by farming communities in Zimbabwe.
The article is a fieldwork examination of the history of Judaism in Zimbabwe during the precolonial and postcolonial eras. It provides a brief historical survey of classical Judaism incorporating areas such as the key beliefs and practices of selected Jewish religious movements, scriptures, sacred places and festivals. The article primarily explores selected events which characterized the inception of the religion as a way of expressing and experiencing the sacred in Zimbabwe. It examines influential sacred practitioners and other personalities, the establishment of Jewish religious institutions, and assesses the impact and influence of Judaism in Zimbabwean society during this period. Moreover, the article establishes the membership of the adherents of Judaism throughout this era. It is imperative to note the challenges around the scarcity of sources related to the activities of Judaism in Zimbabwe during the post-independence era. However, with the assistance of the existing Jewish adherents in Zimbabwe, valuable information has been unearthed through interviews. Notably, the role and influence of Judaism in the socio political sphere of Zimbabwe are examined. The article concludes that the future of Judaism in Zimbabwe is precarious; it may rest in the remnant of Black Jews who claim to be bona fide adherents of Judaism as evidenced by their religious beliefs and practices.
Molly Manyonganise is a senior lecturer at the Zimbabwe Open University and a research associate of the Department of Religion Studies, FacPretoria. She is an alumna of the Alexander von ship. She has published widely in the area of religion and its intersections with other concepts. Her research interests comprise religion and politics, gender and religion, religion and ecology, religion and law, religion and sexuality, religion and well as African Christianity. ORCID iD: https://orcid.
James Leland Cox is credited for developing and promoting the phenomenology of religion as a methodology or approach to the study of religion in Zimbabwe. A number of Cox’s students in Zimbabwe and Southern Africa as a whole appreciated his efforts and have conducted research claiming to use Cox’s phenomenology as their chosen methodology to gather and analyse data from fieldwork. However, in a number of these pieces of research it has been very difficult to isolate and indeed clearly apply specific phenomenological guidelines for conducting human science research involving fieldwork. As a result, some critics of phenomenology as a methodology, have cast some doubt on, inter alia, its applicability to the study of religious phenomena. This study sought to assess the extent to which Cox’s methodology of phenomenology can be applicable to the study of selected rituals in the United Methodist Church in Zimbabwe. The study found out that the methodology of phenomenology has a long and complicated historical origin and therefore, when applying it there is need to specify the preferred type of phenomenology intended for use in the study of religious phenomena. This study applied an amplified form of Cox’s methodology of phenomenology called historical-typological phenomenology on selected United Methodist Church rituals. The study concluded that this methodology is quite applicable and does yield trustworthy results in the study of religious phenomena.
Influenced by James L. Cox's insider-outsider fieldwork research principle, this paper argues that the phenomenology of religion and hunhu-ubuntu, a philosophy embedded in African indigenous knowledge systems, might positively serve to mitigate the crisis of underdevelopment in contemporary Zimbabwe. The available literature on the history of Zimbabwe's development largely identifies the precolonial period as the most successful era of heritage-based development. The postcolonial Zimbabwean epoch has neither significantly attained nor achieved this. As such, this article maintains that prior to colonialism, development in Zimbabwe was informed by traditional hunhu-ubuntu institutions of knowledge production for development, as defined in the lens of Shona Zimbabwean people, such as dare (homestead and community court), mukwerera (rain-inducing ceremony), and mushandirapamwe (collectivism). Retrogressively, colonial attitudes continue to manifest in postcolonial Zimbabwe, prioritizing externally driven economic growth and sidelining indigenous knowledge systems in favour of development models unfamiliar to local communities. The paper advances Cox's fieldwork research principle that accentuates the relationship of co-existence and respect of people's religions in a bid to ensure heritage-based development in Zimbabwe.
Defined by formality, repetitiveness and rigidity, rituals in the indigenous religions of Africa are not exempt from these notions. Yet, the oral nature of Africa's indigenous religions suggests otherwise. Not only are the times and contexts different in each ritual situation, but they are also imbued with nuanced transformations. In Ghana, rituals have undergone significant changes, and fieldwork on any indigenous religio-cultural phenomenon reveals this reality, as illustrated in this study. Although James L. Cox, and other scholars, have engaged the discussion on transformations and innovations in African rituals, they have not paid close attention to how practitioners manage these processes. Thus, this study aims to demonstrate how indigenous practitioners address the definitional scholarly issues of ritual formality, repetitiveness and rigidity, as well as the reality of contemporary social change in ritual performance.This phenomenological study explains how diverse indigenous practitioners in Ghana have relied on ritual itself as a means of bargaining with spirits for transformations and relief during life crises. The study argues that the oral nature of indigenous religions presents practitioners with diverse opportunities, which necessitate special considerations when dealing with ritual innovations and/or transformations in Africa. The study contributes to the understanding of rituals, as well as the innovation and transformation in Africa's indigenous religions.
This article is an analysis of the phenomenology of religion as both a method and theory. It assesses the applicability of the phenomenology of religion in an African set-up by discussing how the method and theory gave dignity to the study of traditional religions, whose study was and continues to be marred by Western-centred biases and hegemonic tendencies. This article is an appraisal of James L. Cox's popularization of the phenomenology of religion. Phenomenology of religion emphasizes the study of religion as suigeneris, that is, religion, in whatever form, must be studied in its own right. It gives prominence to the sole right of the believer. I demonstrate the above argument(s) by use of fieldwork. The study focuses on kuputsa (kuzvarira in Shona), a customary practice among the Ndau people. It is a marriage custom where a girl child was, and is still, pledged in marriage without her consent. Fieldwork conducted by Cox and his students during his time at the University of Zimbabwe, where the phenomenology of religion as both a method and theory was used, informed this study. The fieldwork data were corroborated by reviewing related literature on the matter under discussion, observations and having key informant interviews with the kuputsa custom practitioners. The study was guided by the phenomenology of religion as a conceptual framework. Notwithstanding the criticisms levelled against the method, the article submits that the phenomenology of religion as popularized by Cox in Zimbabwe is quite applicable to the study of religions, particularly African traditional religions, and has gained traction in institutions of higher learning in Africa. When applied correctly, the Ndau kuputsa custom can be appreciated but, of course, in the context of global human and sexual reproductive health rights.
A cursory exploration of literature on phenomenology reveals one evident observation that the meaning of the term “phenomenology” among various scholars differs depending on the scholars’ academic discipline and context. In particular, three perspectives emerge. First, there are those who view phenomenology as a philosophy. Second, there are those that view phenomenology as a methodology in the study of religion that particularly assists with gathering and analysing data from fieldwork. Third, there are those, especially among Western and North American scholars, who regard the methodology of phenomenology as theology in disguise. This study is a response to two strictly related questions from critics of phenomenology. First, is phenomenology a philosophy or a methodology and, second, granted that it is a methodology, faced with an interview transcript, how does one process it in a Heideggerian hermeneutic phenomenological sense, to present and analyse data from fieldwork? To answer this two-fold research question the study carried out a systemic review of recent research on phenomenology to determine whether phenomenology is a philosophy or methodology. From the systemic review, the study concluded that at the early stages of its historical development, phenomenology was purely philosophical. However, at a later stage there was a paradigm shift from philosophical phenomenology to phenomenology as a methodology for conducting human science research. Following this conclusion, the study expanded James L. Cox’s views on phenomenology as a methodology to recommend specific guidelines for conducting human science research from the perspective of historical-typological phenomenology as the research methodology.
