ABSTRACT
The chapter seeks to determine how far issues of spirituality and uncertainty are central in the context of COVID-19 vaccination. The study grapples with the question: To what extent has COVID-19 vaccination provided sites and scenes of power contestations? There has been a ‘Big Brother’ syndrome on the collection, collation and predictions of the ‘data’ captured through the super-information highways and technologies pertaining to COVID-19. The diverse COVID-19 responses ranged from issues of basic hygiene, social distancing, alertness to symptoms and potential infection as well as vaccination. Vaccination became controversial because of the conspiracies and the doubt of its efficacy in harnessing the pandemic. Previous experiences of racism and marginalisation informed vaccine hesitancy in Zimbabwe and Africa, demonstrating the need to appreciate historical and ideological factors when discussing religion and vaccination in Zimbabwe and Africa. While COVID-19 has been and continues to be a global pandemic, this chapter will be grounded within the Zimbabwean experiences especially the complex reasons and permutations of reactions and the hesitancy to vaccination based on conspiracy theories and religious beliefs in particular.
