• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Zimbabwe - Religion

The US government estimates the total population at 14.2 million (July 2015 estimate). According to the 2010-2011 nationwide Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) conducted by the government statistic agency ZimStat, 84.5 percent of the population is Christian, including 33.5 percent Apostolic, 18 percent Pentecostal, 15.5 percent Protestant, 9 percent Roman Catholic, and 8 percent other Christian. Some religious groups estimate their percentage of the population differently.

While there are no reliable statistics regarding the percentage of the Christian population that is syncretic, many Christians also associate themselves with traditional practices on occasion, according to the organization Religion in Zimbabwe, and religious leaders reported a continued increase in such syncretism. According to the DHS, 2 percent of the population adheres uniquely to traditional beliefs. According to the DHS, 13 percent of the population reports no religious affiliation, while less than 1 percent is Muslim. The Muslim population is concentrated in rural areas and in some high-density suburbs, with smaller numbers living in upper-middle class suburban neighborhoods. There are also small numbers of Greek Orthodox, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, and Bahais.

The constitution prohibits religious discrimination and provides for freedom of religion, including the freedom to practice, propagate, and give expression to one’s religion, in public or in private and alone or with others. A pastor of the Remnant Pentecostal Church was arrested and charged with criminal nuisance after demonstrating outside the ruling party annual conference in December and was awaiting trial. On April 29, Madzibaba Ishmael, the leader of the Johanne Masowe eChishanu Apostolic religious group, was found guilty and sentenced to four years in prison for public violence. In 2014, Ishmael and several followers reportedly attacked police, journalists, and members of the Apostolic Christian Council of Zimbabwe (ACCZ) after ACCZ President Archbishop Johannes Ndanga suspended Ishmael’s group from the ACCZ for its “wayward practices.”

Youth affiliated with the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) party organized a rally outside an Anglican Church service in connection with a land dispute. The congregants reported being intimidated, but no one was injured, and authorities disbursed the crowd. Later, Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) forcefully evicted the ZANU-PF youth from the 82-hectare (203-acre) church property, where the youth had started building homes.

According to human rights groups and media reports, Patrick Mugadza, pastor of the Remnant Pentecostal Church, was arrested in December for demonstrating outside the ZANU-PF annual conference. He carried a sign with the message “Mr. President the people are suffering, Proverbs 21:13”. Mugadza was charged with criminal nuisance for allegedly blocking pedestrian movement. Mugadza was released on $50 bail and was awaiting trial at year’s end.

On 29 April 2015, Madzibaba Ishmael, the leader of the Johanne Masowe eChishanu Apostolic religious group, was found guilty and sentenced to four years in prison for public violence. In May 2014, Ismael and others reportedly attacked ACCZ representative, the ZRP, and journalists as the ZRP escorted Johannes Ndanga, the ACCZ President Archbishop, to the shrine of the Johanne Masowe Apostolic Church in Budiriro, a Harare suburb. Prior to the violence, the ACCZ had temporarily suspended the Johanne Masowe eChishanu Apostolic group, reportedly for failure to fully pay council dues as well as for its “wayward practices,” including reported statements by Ishmael that he was God, abuses against women and children, and preventing children from attending school. According to the press the attacks were a response to the suspension and the targets of the attack fled. The ZRP returned later that day, arresting group members as suspected perpetrators of the attacks on police and others, but Ishmael was not arrested until January 2. The ACCZ banned the Johanne Masowe eChishanu Apostolic group following the violence, but said it could rejoin the ACCZ if members conducted themselves according to ACCZ principles.

According to church leaders, on 26 April 2015, approximately 1,000 ZANU-PF youth gathered outside the walls of St. Mary’s Anglican Church in Chitungwiza in connection with a dispute over 82 hectares (203 acres) of land owned by the church. The crowd chanted ZANU-PF songs and blocked congregants from leaving the church grounds. For their safety, the congregants said they stayed inside the church for several hours after the service ended until riot police dispersed the youth who had massed outside the church gates. There were no reports of injury. Subsequently, the High Court ruled in favor of the church and police evicted the youth from the church property, where they had started building homes. The church reported there were no further incidents regarding the land dispute.

Some Christian groups blamed Christian groups with indigenous beliefs, particularly the Apostolic community in Marange, for increasing HIV/AIDS rates by discouraging condom use and preventing HIV/AIDS education, as well as encouraging polygamy with young girls.

Witchcraft--widely understood to encompass attempts to harm others not only by magic but also by covert means of established efficacy such as poisons--traditionally has been a common explanation for diseases of which the causes were unknown. Although traditional indigenous religions generally include or accommodate belief in the efficacy of witchcraft, they generally approve of harmful witchcraft only for defensive or retaliatory purposes and purport to offer protection against it. In recent years, interest in healing through traditional religion and through prayer reportedly has increased as HIV/AIDS has infected approximately one-third of the adult population, and affordable science-based medicines effective in treating HIV/AIDS have remained very difficult to obtain.

The Witchcraft Suppression Act (WSA) criminalizes purporting to practice witchcraft, accusing persons of practicing witchcraft, hunting witches, and soliciting persons to name witches; penalties include imprisonment for up to 7 years. The law defines witchcraft as "the use of charms and any other means or devices adopted in the practice of sorcery," and provides punishments for intending to cause disease or injury to any person or animal through the use of witchcraft. Since 1997 the Zimbabwe National African Traditional Healers' Association (ZINATHA) has proposed amendments to the 1989 revised law that would redefine witchcraft only as the practice of sorcery with the intent to cause harm, including illness, injury, or death; however, such legislation reportedly has been opposed by mainstream Christian churches. Human rights groups also generally supported the existing WSA, which has been used particularly to protect persons, primarily women, who have been accused falsely of causing harm to persons or crops in rural areas where traditional religious practices are strong.

There is some tension between the Government and some of the indigenous African churches because of the latter's preference for prayer over medical practices that result in the reduction of avoidable childhood diseases and deaths. Some members of the indigenous churches believe in healing through prayer only and refuse to have their children vaccinated or treated. The Ministry of Health has had limited success in vaccinating children in these religious communities against communicable childhood diseases. Human rights activists also have criticized these indigenous churches for their sanctioning of marriages for underage girls.