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.
