This thesis examines the entanglements and interactions between OMG – a Charismatic Pentecostal Church and the post-colonial Zimbabwean state through an ethnographic analysis of church members' everyday lives. I focus on money and consumption, and make several arguments in an attempt to explain the rapid expansion of OMG. Whilst the study adopts a political economy approach in framing the conditions under which the church emerged, I place Pentecostal Charismatic belief and experience at the centre of the analysis. Money and commodity consumption have been creatively incorporated into OMG belief systems and doctrines at a time when the Zimbabwean economy is performing poorly, and poverty is an everyday reality for most of the population. The consumption of commodities has religious significance inasmuch as it is a critique of the post- independence government that has largely failed to improve the lives of Zimbabweans. In consuming commodities, OMG congregants set themselves apart from non-members and construct themselves as ‘blessed’ and thriving. I argue that the mismanagement of the postcolonial state has provided crevices and clefts through which OMG has emerged and grown as a proxy to the state by appropriating aspects of state and chieftaincy rituals. Secondly, OMG offers alternative social spaces for citizens to be - or to appear to be - upwardly mobile and construct a sense of common identity based on religion, history and belonging. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria 2019. / Human Economy Programme / University of Pretoria for the Post-Graduate Doctoral Bursary – Humanities / FlyHigher@UP grant / Anthropology and Archaeology / PhD / Unrestricted
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:up/oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/72549 |
| Date | January 2019 |
| Creators | Taru, Josiah |
| Contributors | McNeill, Fraser G., tarujosiah@gmail.com |
| Publisher | University of Pretoria |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Rights | © 2019 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. |
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