One of the African Anglican bishops who signed last week’s pastoral letter has spoken out in response to the general interpretation that the letter supports Robert Mugabe’s position on the crisis in Zimbabwe.  The Rt Rev Trevor Mwamba, Bishop of Botswana, says that interpretation is incorrect.

[T]he letter had to be seen in the context of the Anglican situation in Zimbabwe. The spirit in which it had been sent was to support the progressive forces and the need for change, and was not in any way meant to be pro-Mugabe, he said.

Choosing his words carefully, the Bishop commented: “As you can imagine, in Zimbabwe there are divisions within the Church itself, and so there was a need to wean certain hearts and minds to be able to put forward a statement all the bishops could subscribe to.

“In that sense, yes, it does not appear as sharp as the pastoral letter from the Catholic bishops. It took a middle-of-the-road pastoral approach. Nevertheless, the sting is there in calling for drastic change, for the government to be called upon to create a conducive environment for that, and for the Church to stand forward and speak sharply in the context of its calling and prophetic ministry.” The Bishop described it as “the beginning of a long journey of bishops moving together — very gently, for need of carrying certain of our friends along.”

I’m afraid that Bp Mwamba faces a steep uphill battle in convincing Anglicans and other observers that the letter supports “progressive forces”.   Mugabe’s friends and foes alike readily interpreted it as a pro-Mugabe statement—with good reason, I think.

The most obvious reason for that interpretation is that the one issue on which the bishops express a political opinion is Zimbabwe’s anemic economy, for which the letter identifies only one cause: economic sanctions imposed by foreign governments.  Mugabe’s disastrous policy of expropriating highly productive white-owned farms is not mentioned, nor the government’s price controls and subsidies that discourage valuable economic activity, nor the central bank’s printing of vast quantities of currency fueling the world’s highest inflation rate.  The bishops, like Robert Mugabe, blame the economic meltdown solely on foreigners.

The bishops’ letter includes a general condemnation of violence.

As Bishops we denounce all forms of violence perpetrated by whatever source as a means of resolving conflict.

“Perpetrated by whatever source”?  The violence is all from the government side, unless one accepts Mugabe’s view that peaceful demonstrators are instigators.  Thus, the government-controlled Herald newspaper immediately seized on the bishops’ equivocation as support for Mugabe’s brutal suppression of non-violent protest.

Moreover, the bishops’ letter contains a gaping hole.  In “Operation Drive Out the Trash”, the Mugabe government destroyed the homes of over 700,000 people.  Many were “relocated” to rural areas to fend for themselves; virtually all were left homeless.  The government has a long and consistent record of corruption and cronyism.  Zimbabwe is effectively under martial law with draconian restrictions on freedoms of speech, press, and peaceful assembly.  Yet the bishops do not mention these or any other human rights abuses.

Bp Mwamba maintains the letter is intended to “support the progressive forces”.  I must confess it is the strangest “progressive” document I’ve ever seen, for it fails to invoke human rights.  The phrase  “human rights” does not even appear in its text.

Pointing to “divisions” within the Province of Central Africa, Bp Mwamba views the letter as the first step in “wean[ing] certain hearts and minds” and “the beginning of a long journey of bishops moving together — very gently, for need of carrying certain of our friends along”.  Apparently, he thinks that the progressive bishops gently carried the pro-Mugabe bishops away from their political bias.  He could be wrong about that.

In early March, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams met with two of the men who signed last week’s letter.  The Most Rev Bernard Malango, Archbishop of Central Africa, and The Rt Rev Nolbert Kunonga, Bishop of Harare, are certainly among the pro-Mugabe faction in the Province of Central Africa.  The three signed a joint statement expressing concerns about “issues of human rights and peaceful non-partisan protest”.  None of that appears in the bishops' pastoral letter.

The progressive bishops of Central Africa coaxed fewer concessions from Bp Kunonga and Abp Malango than Dr Williams did less than two months ago.  One might well conclude that it was in fact the progressive bishops who were gently carried along last week.

h/t: titusonenine

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