Leadership Succession disputes and Economic Interests in the African Apostolic Church of Johanne Marange

Abstract

Abstract The African Apostolic Church of Johanne Marange (AACJM) in Zimbabwe, as an African Initiated Church (AIC), like many others, puts economic determinism at the centre of its activities. The AACJM has been engulfed in succession disputes since in 1963 at the death of its founding leader, Johanne Marange (1912 – 1963). Arnold (Anerod) Taguta, the elder brother to the founder, facilitated Abel Momberume to succeed his father (Johanne Marange) as the Church’s High Priest, which sparked off the initial leadership succession dispute. The Nguni model of succession was initially used where the father’s property is given to the first-born son as an inheritance. This frustrated the ambitions of some of his father’s deputies such as Simon Mushati, and prompted him to refer to the AACJM as a. Nguni Church (Chechi yema Nguni). At the succession ceremony, Abel, Maccabees (Makebo) and Judah Momberume were given Johanne Marange’s Church staffs, which at this stage were regarded as the founder’s personal property. Simon Mushati began to complain against the personalisation of the two Land Rovers purchased by the Church being treated as personal objects of inheritance. Mushati challenged the conflation of the family and Church institutions. The succession dispute has continued after the death of Abel Momberume (1992) through a series of litigation through court cases. Noah Taguta, the son of Arnold Taguta, did not appoint Abel Momberume’s son, Stephen, according to the Church’s and Nguni traditions. Instead, he usurped the leadership of the Church. This has attracted the attention of the media, and one can assume that economic interests are at the heart of all these leadership succession struggles. New models of leadership succession and their mechanisms have been developed to legitimise the social constructs of new factions and their leaders such as the control of sacred shrines, Church and biblical traditions. Constructs in contest for power are useful for excluding other members of the AACJM, where economic interests feature too strongly, and this has generally been the trend in most AICs.