Mugabe calls for 'Africanisation' of churches in Zimbabwe
Thursday, 27th March 2008
By: George Conger

Robert Mugabe has called for the “Africanisation” of Christianity in Zimbabwe, calling upon the nation’s churches to break free from foreign overlords.

In a reference to Dr Nolbert Kunonga’s battle with the Anglican Communion and to his long-running battle with the Roman Catholic Church, President Mugabe said ecclesiastical authority in Zimbabwe’s churches should be held by Zimbabweans.

Speaking in the Bulawayo suburb of Lobengula on the final Sunday before the March 29 General Elections, Zimbabwe’s president said "independence means power has come to the indigenous people of the country. In every area we should show that we could exercise that power.”

After crushing Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in what was widely viewed as a corrupted election in 2000, the Roman Catholic Church’s Archbishop of Bulawayo, Mgr Pius Ncube emerged as the country’s leading democracy advocate. While Archbishop Ncube resigned last year in the wake of what his supporters say was a plot concocted by the country’s secret police the Catholic Church has remained an outspoken supporter of human rights and democratic freedoms. the rest