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This book approaches perceptions of Robert Gabriel Mugabe within Zimbabwe during his period in power, and towards the end of his time in government.

This book illustrates how religion and ideology were used by Robert Mugabe to ward off opposition within his own party, in Zimbabwe and from the West. Contributors argue that Mugabe used a calculated narrative of deification to remain in power in Zimbabwe.

This book investigates the role of religion in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in Southern Africa. It will be of interest to researchers across the fields of African Studies, Health, Politics, and Religious Studies.

This book interrogates the contributions that religious traditions have made to climate change discussions within Africa. Drawing on a range of African contexts and religious traditions, the book provides suggestions on how individuals and communities of faith must act in order to address the challenge of climate change.

This book explores religion-regime relations in contemporary Zimbabwe to identify patterns of co-operation and resistance across diverse religious institutions.Using co-operation and resistance as an analytical framework, the book shows how different religious organisations have interacted with Emmerson Mnangagwa's "Second Republic", following Robert Mugabe's departure from the political scene. In particular, through case studies on the Zimbabwe Council of Churches, Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops Conference and Pentecostals, African Traditional Religions, Islam, and others, the book explores how different religious institutions have responded to Mnangagwa's new regime. Chapters highlight the complexities characterising the religion-regime interface, showing how the same religious organisation might co-operate and resist at the same time. Furthermore, the book compares how religious institutions co-operated or resisted Mugabe's earlier regime to identify patterns of continuity and change. Overall, the book highlights the challenges of deploying simplistic frames in efforts to understand the interface between politics and religion.A significant contribution to global scholarship on religion-regime interfaces, this book will appeal to academics and students in the field of Religious Studies, Political Science, History and African Studies

This book approaches perceptions of Robert Gabriel Mugabe within Zimbabwe and beyond during his period in power and towards the end of his time in government.The book examines how Mugabe became the focus of a thriving personality cult, studying the argument that Mugabe could be regarded as the founder of a new religious movement in Zimbabwe and the Global South. The contributors analyse the use of ideology and mythology in promoting Mugabe's hegemony in Zimbabwe, looking at the appropriation of religious ideas by the Mugabe government and the impact this had on perceptions of Mugabe both within Zimbabwe and beyond. Focusing on the final years of Mugabe's rule, the chapters provide new insights into how different actors, including politicians, African Traditional Religions, African Independent/Initiated Churches, Pentecostal churches, the media and others deployed religious idioms to support or critique Mugabe at a time when his tenure was coming under serious threat.This book will be of interest to students and scholars of Southern African politics and religion.

This book investigates the role of religion in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in Southern Africa.Building on a diverse range of methodologies and disciplinary approaches, the book reflects on how religion, politics and health have interfaced in Southern African contexts, when faced with the sudden public health emergency caused by the pandemic. Religious actors have played a key role on the frontline throughout the pandemic, sometimes posing roadblocks to public health messaging, but more often deploying their resources to help provide effective and timely responses. Drawing on case studies from African indigenous knowledge systems, Islam, Rastafari and various forms of Christianity, this book provides important reflections on the role of religion in crisis response.This book will be of interest to researchers across the fields of African Studies, Health, Politics and Religious Studies.The Open Access version of this book, available athttp://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.