Christianity in Zambia - Independence

Independence

The drive for an independent Zambia found a secure home in the churches. "The Christian Church… formed a crucial part of the associational landscape in many Sub-Saharan countries, consisting not only of a forum for spiritual communication but also a sanctuary for secular resistance." Phiri noted that "the mission centres provided a place where the contradictions between Christianity and the politics of racism and colonialism could be discussed in relative freedom… The effect of this was that the anti-colonial struggle in Zambia was clearly driven by Christian beliefs and packaged in Christian social action."

The Lumpa Church was established in 1954 by Alice Lenshina, from a village near Lubwa Mission in Chinsali District of Northern Province of Zambia. It quickly spread to the whole of Northern Province, Eastern Province and the Copperbelt, was an AIC. It staid aloof of the nationalist struggle against the colonial rule. This led to the accusation that the Church was actually opposing the struggle as recently had been initiated by the ANC and later UNIP. The main aim of the Lumpa Church was to clean the country of witchcraft. This message was very popular. She helped also to reintegrate widows who could get important positions in her church, for example as prayer leaders or as church choir leaders. . Lenshina's movement had specifically spiritual roots, she was "a peasant woman who claimed to have died and risen again." Encouraged by Fergus Macpherson, the Scottish missionary of Lubwa Mission to share her story she gathered a large following and formed an independent church.

The rapid rise of the Lumpa church and its reluctance to involve itself with anti-colonial struggle led to violent conflicts with the UNIP youth in Chinsali District and then later also with colonial authorities. In 1963 the new majority government with Kenneth Kaunda as prime minister send the army into the district to restore order and to capture Lenshina. Sporadic clashes became an open war, in which the official death toll was 1,111, although it was probably much larger Lenshina surrendered herself to the army and was sentenced to life imprisonment. The Lumpa Church was banned. Tens of thousands of her followers fled to the Congo. The Church only reappeared after the fall of Kaunda in 1988.

Much of the latter conflict with the Lumpa Church had been undertaken by the transitional government formed to take over from the colonial administration in 1964. This transitional government was led by Kenneth Kaunda. Kaunda was himself a product of the mission schools, as was his father, David, who was "a well-educated Malawian preacher and schoolteacher… who moved to Zambia as a missionary." Kaunda would emphasize his Christian roots, especially in the lead up to independence and in the early years of his presidency. "I was brought up in a Christian home and my Christian belief is part of me now. It is still my habit to turn to God in prayer asking for his guidance." His Christian beliefs ensured the colonial administration were favourably disposed towards Kaunda and the United National Independence Party (UNIP) that he led. His faith also bought him wide support in the churches both African and European led. However, Kaunda also emphasised that it was his understanding of the Bible's teachings that led him to conclude that colonialism "was immoral because it denied Africans their God-given dignity".

Though the church was the seedbed for much of the nationalism that brought about independence in Zambia, Phiri notes that the freedoms that nationalism wrought were to allow other secular civil society associations to ease the church aside as the main source of opposition to colonial rule. With Kaunda's declarations of faith and independence the church retracted from the political sphere, merely lending support to the government policies when necessary. Phiri maintains that this demonstrates the reverse of the phenomenon that Bayart observed in Cameroon in which "churches often replace the manifestly political institutions in certain of their functions. When civil society is repressed by a predatory state, a vacuum occurs in the political system." Phiri indicates that the relative freedoms of political association and the improved public spending initiatives of the early years of UNIP rule caused the Church to return to a more traditional pastoral role. Others, such as Gifford, suggest that Bayart's observations are too generalised and were specific in geographical and chronological reference only to Cameroon at the time Bayart made them. Therefore, it is difficult to translate these interpretations either to newly independent Zambia or even to the present day circumstances.

In 1972 the political freedoms declined markedly and this was rapidly followed by economic volatility as well. In response to, Simon Kapwepwe, the former Vice-President's attempt to form an alternative political party to UNIP Kaunda's government declared Zambia a one party state. The following year Zimbabwe closed its borders to "all Zambian exports, except copper, which adversely affected the economy". Exports were diverted through Tanzania and Angola, but in 1974 the outbreak of civil war in Angola was to have a further impact on the Zambian economy. At this time the price of copper, accounting for 95% of Zambia's export earnings, began to fall dramatically. By 1976 Kaunda was forced to declare a state of emergency and the dramatic dip in revenue caused the UNIP government to borrow heavily, significantly increasing Zambia's external debt. The worsening economic situation and increasing debt led the IMF to intervene in the 1980s to shore up the economy and impose Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs) on Zambia. Kaunda only survived politically with the return and reconciliation with Kapwepwe in 1978.

During this period there was also a shift in the power and politics in Zambian ecclesiastical life. The churches began to assemble around three representative bodies: The Episcopal Conference of Zambia (ECZ), the Christian Council of Zambia (CCZ) and the Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia (EFZ). The ECZ was a unified voice for the component elements of the Roman Catholic Church; the CCZ was largely the traditional Protestant mission churches, the UCZ, the Anglicans etc. and the EFZ was started by the Baptists as a more Evangelical body, but as the years have passed has become increasingly Pentecostal. Following independence the colonial mission churches came under pressure from two fronts. The first was a growth in AICs that "split off from mission churches, usually because of perceived racism, or… to incorporate local elements that the mission churches would not countenance." The second came from the influx of missionaries, especially from the United States, who were sent by Pentecostal and Charismatic churches. The emphasis on the miraculous and an acknowledgement of the impact of the spiritual realm on the physical world had a great impact in Africa, where "the traditional culture of African society… draws little distinction between the spiritual and the temporal." The growth in the AICs in particular and probably the memory of the Lumpa uprising caused Kaunda to impose "a ban on the registration of new churches", in 1988 to "stem what he considered to be an 'unprecedented establishment of breakaway churches'". This move though was indicative of a widening gap between the church and state in regards to the economic policies, political ideologies and personal life of Kaunda.

During the late 1960s the UNIP government embarked on a more radical socialist agenda which became known as Scientific Socialism. This move alarmed the wider Christian community of Zambia fearing that it could lead to Marxist Humanism in the nation. The ECZ, CCZ and EFZ took the unusual step of issuing "a joint statement entitled Marxism, Humanism and Christianity". The government fearing a backlash from the public toned down its policies. Phiri comments on this episode, "the churches discerned that the UNIP was adopting socialism not necessarily because of an ideological change of heart, but as another method of control." The success of the combined pressure prompted the three bodies to continue to work closely in terms of public policy, which Gifford goes on to note "makes Zambian Christianity… virtually unique on the continent" in that "the co-operation includes Pentecostals."

The ideological tensions rose again when Kaunda identified his personal political philosophy as "Zambian Humanism". To Kaunda it was the coming together of his Christian ethics and the values of traditional African society. However, Kaunda's newly expounded philosophical outlook ran headlong into the theological outlook of the churches of the EFZ that were being heavily influenced by the new missionary movement from the United States. Gifford notes that Kaunda's "idealistic and utopian combination" endured the anger of the EFZ influenced by "American Evangelism the word humanism carried the worst of connotations", Colin Morris, an English Methodist missionary in Zambia who was a friend and strong supporter of Kaunda, described Kaunda's beliefs as syncretistic: "he can make himself a cathedral, mosque, temple or synagogue with an ease that makes nonsense of religious divisions." By now Kaunda had lost the trust of the churches who regarded him as a "renegade Christian presiding over a corrupt and oppressive government". The churches refused to co-operate with the 1976 education reforms believing that because of socialism, "government's educational ideology was atheistic".

The harshness of the SAPs was to cause serious food riots in Zambia during the last years of the UNIP government when subsidies on staples, such as maize meal, were removed. Kaunda was often forced to back-pedal and reinstate the subsidies. In doing so the UNIP government incurred the wrath of the IMF who blacklisted Zambia on the international financial markets, so furthering its poverty. With the halcyon days of post-independence free education and health now in the past the poor in particular needed to look elsewhere for help. Shao says, "when a government is unable to build a clinic in a village, the people's tendency is to look to the church for help." the same was true in Zambia at this period. With the waning of Kaunda's star the power of churches was in the ascendancy again and any serious challenger to Kenneth Kaunda would need to show indisputable Christian credentials.