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This theoretical article argues that megachurches are an inadequately problematised factor in the Zimbabwean crisis and uses, as examples of violent and corrupt megachurch leaders, Emmanuel Makandiwa, Uebert Angel, and Passion Java. As Zimbabwe moves towards elections in 2023, ZANU-PF has resorted to using megachurches to enact propaganda, create voter empathy, and stir up violence, dividing the religious electorate along party lines in the process. The article is couched in decoloniality theory to position megachurch leaders within instability and as thwarting democracy in Zimbabwe. I respond to two questions: how do Makandiwa, Angel, and Java contribute to thwarting democracy while promoting corruption and violence? And, how can religion be approached from the perspective of decolonial thinking to reverse the crisis that has been created by prophets in Zimbabwe? I end by arguing that the Zimbabwean crisis takes various forms and that the role of megachurch leaders in finding a solution and in reconstructing narratives of peace and good governance in Zimbabwe cannot be ignored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This qualitative paper couched with the decoloniality theory addresses the question of how religious education as a pedagogy of care can mitigate the ambivalent terrain of school violence. Despite various inventions within South African schools, the classroom remains violent and unsafe for both learners and educators igniting the adoption of religious education as a pedagogy of care. The author used the decoloniality theory since it calls for rehumanisation of people affected by school violence. The findings indicate that despite challenges associated with religious education, the subject can be conceptualised as a pedagogy of care to mitigate the challenges of school violence. The argument of the paper is that education authorities need to re-imagine religion as a pedagogy of care that has the impetus to evoke working and thinking together within the mainstream curriculum practices in South Africa. The paper contributes to knowledge in the sense that it locates arguments in decoloniality calling for equal representation of knowledge in the curriculum to address school violence. It sees religious education as the key to contributing to a peaceful existence in school and society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Christian missions are historically captured in the construction of mission stations that facilitated religious instruction to advance the gospel with unintended consequences, such as an extension of missionary-colonial ideologies and attitudes. This article discusses how these were captured in mission station naming, inclusive of erroneous or misspelt names. This makes it necessary for the Church of Christ in Zimbabwe's (COCZ) rural membership, commonly around mission stations, to rename these centres. The distortion of history on mission stations like Dadaya calls for the renaming of the station so as to recover lost values and culture, and the significance of the ecology to Africans. Our discovery of Dadaya macrops, an Asiatic marine species of water flea found in freshwater in this study, denies the assumption that Dadaya was a misspelling of Dayataya. This makes us assume that Dadaya was an idolatrous symbol for missionaries that rhymed with local isotopes to mentally drawn local communities. Norming the mission station, missionaries named Dadaya to transmit images, symbols and meanings known to New Zealand supporting churches. Dayataya Hills has been used as a scapegoat to validate their Dadaya macrops symbol. This study probes into the need to correct and guide people in renaming the mission station. Renaming transforms Dadaya into an African mission station. The article used critical discourse analysis (CDA) from purposive snowball interview results and a hermeneutic of suspicion to probe into naming the mission station. Contribution: The article is interdisciplinary involving missionary history, humanity, socialisation, missiology, literature and education. it contributes to knowledge through decentering on African discourses, contextualisation, christianisation and decolonised church of christ positioned for healing and transformation where church names are not used for perpetuate Westernisation in African context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the nexus of religion and politics in Zimbabwe, which has arguably contributed to the death of democracy. The article is earthed in decoloniality, and gives examples of how religion has contributed to the death of democracy. The examples that are discussed are praise texts siding with oppression, mental destabilization by religious leaders, and ignoring the plight of poor and marginalized people. The article goes further to suggest how religion can be reconfigured within the political space as part of a struggle to enact democracy in Zimbabwe's second republic. The article argues that religious leaders who are in a nexus with political figures should contribute to structures and discourses that champion social justice and democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]