The Church as alternative community : contextual bottom-up reconciliation for a Catholic Diocese in Zimbabwe

Abstract

The intention of this thesis is to help the Catholic diocese of Masvingo to foster bottom-up reconciliation in its communities, by seeking ways and means of responding to the painful legacy of political violence. The background to this research is the repeated political violence orchestrated by the Zimbabwean state against its own citizens, especially at election times when the ruling party, through its alliance with the military, uses force to gain political support to remain in power. This thesis uses a five-dimensional praxis cycle to integrate identification, spirituality, context analysis, theological reflection and practical planning. Chapter 2 develops a theological framework around the missiological concepts of missio Dei, alternative community, reconciliation and non-violence, focusing on scholars like Bosch, Brueggemann, Katongole and Schreiter. Chapter 3 does context analysis by surveying five “waves” of political violence in Zimbabwe, from pre-colonial times to the present before making an in-depth study of the most recent (fifth) wave, since 1999. For the sake of its focus on bottom-up reconciliation, the research sought the views of victims/survivors on political violence, limiting its scope to two incidents in the Zaka district during June 2008. Using an ethnographic approach, as part of a qualitative-interpretive design, semi-structured interviews and a focus group were used to listen to people’s experiences of fear, anger, mistrust and desperation, but also their views on the possible role of churches to overcome trauma and achieve reconciliation. Chapter 4 reports and analyses the data generated in that way. In terms of the praxis cycle, Chapter 5 focuses on strategies for mission. It integrates theological resources (Chapter 2), context analysis (Chapter 3) and the input of the victims/survivors (Chapter 4) to suggest concrete actions that could motivate and encourage communities to recover from trauma and seek forgiveness, reconciliation, justice and peace. The vision is for churches to become an alternative community that lives and works, from the bottom up, for the restoration of human dignity, forgiveness and restorative justice as dimensions of reconciliation. The thesis embodies an epicletic spirituality, which acknowledges that reconciliation is the work of God, into which believers are called and empowered to participate.