ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the key features of Robert G. Mugabe’s rhetoric and preaching on land. It examines how the theology borrows from the Bible and uses the Bible to shield itself from criticism. The chapter illustrates how Mugabe’s self-presentation as the champion of the rights of dispossessed black Africans resulted in his apotheosis. Mugabe’s ability to express himself with clarity, deep emotion and effectively has generated considerable scholarly interest. Mugabe’s message of the primacy of land and its strategic significance to the salvation and well-being of black Zimbabweans/Africans was delivered with eagerness and urgency. Mugabe’s theology of land earned him many followers, both in Zimbabwe and beyond. His followers embraced his notion of suffering for the sake of recovering their God-given heritage. Mugabe’s new religious movement that was informed by message of land to black Zimbabweans and the empowerment of oppressed people everywhere in the world, and buttressed by a specific interpretation of the Bible, gained him significant followership.
