‘Baptising Zambia’s Edgar Chagwa Lungu’: Critiquing the Utilization of the Declaration of Zambia during the Presidential Campaign of 2016

Abstract

Abstract This article employs a public theology approach from the perspective of a decolonial theory. It analyses how the Declaration of Zambia as a Christian Nation functioned as a nationalist neo-colonial ideology during the presidential campaign of 2016. It did so in a way that was designed to legitimize President Edgar Chagwa Lungu’s political candidacy and moral authority within the Pentecostal-Charismatic religious sector. The analysis seeks to demonstrate how the Declaration and the photography of the social media presidential campaign intersected in order to represent the image of Lungu as an idea Christian President. Informed by a thematic analysis and a decolonial public theology, the article unmasks and exposes how ideology can become normalized as social practice within a particular historical context. The theological-ethnographic material within the analysis was collected during the period from January 2016 to February 2017.