Mission - Resources - Stories
Systematic Injustice - Abuse of power against the poor
This article illustrates the level of injustice being experienced by
many people in Zimbabwe. This is one out of many. The denial
of food, which is a human right, to a starving citizen is one among many
other unjust acts being experienced by many people in Zimbabwe. These
acts of injustice are committed against some citizens who are supposedly
known to be supporters of the opposition party. Hundreds and thousands
of such people are faced with starvation and yet the government does not
feel responsible for them.
Misuse of authority, power, wrong understanding of democracy (totalitarianism),
lawlessness, disregard of human rights are some of the factors that have
created the unjust system we have today in Zimbabwe. The goal of
injustice is to kill or eliminate those people who are considered undesirable
elements in the society. Indeed the church whose missionary mandate
it is to condemn injustice cannot turn a blind eye against such an evil
whereby food is denied to a 79 year old man. Murinda - 79 years old
- is left to starve because he is suspected to support the opposition. The
only way for him to survive is to collect leaves.
The hallmark of an unjust regime is that it is not accountable to all
its citizens but only to the few who support it for their selfish ends. It
is sad though, even in a country like ours, where glaring examples of injustice
are committed, you still have a few co-opted voices from the church saying:
There is peace and justice in Zimbabwe. But such voices are familiar
in the history of the church. The British church did not say a word
to condemn the so-called pioneer column in the early 1890's when thousands
of black Zimbabweans were killed. The "German-Christians" supported
Hitler. Some individual church leaders in the USA supported their
government in Vietnam killing and maiming of the indigenous population. We
see this being repeated in the Burundi/Rwanda massacres and in the Sudan
and in many other places around the world. The church has to live
with some of its members who totally misunderstand the teaching of Jesus,
that is to preach the gospel of peace, justice and love. In spite
of all this, those voices which have refused to be co-opted have to continue
to speak against injustice.
Communion in Mission 2006
The Rt Revd Sebastian Bakare
Bishop of Manicaland