**The Church of England’s Colonial Confession: Time to Pay the Dues, Not Just Say Sorry**
Listen up, world. The truth’s about to drop, and I don’t sugarcoat. The so-called divine arm of the British Empire — also known as the Church of England — has a long, blood-stained tab to settle in Zimbabwe. And no, a neatly typed apology letter on fine Anglican parchment won’t cut it. When history’s written in blood and built on stolen land, you don’t get to walk away with a shrug and a hymn.
Let’s call this what it is — ecclesiastical imperialism. Yeah, I said it. Soft colonialism wrapped in cassocks and incense, with a dash of missionary zeal and a whole lot of silence when the bullets started flying and the land was being snatched. The Church didn’t just bless the conquest — it *bought in*, profited, and held its cross high while people were hauled off their ancestral lands.
You want receipts? Let’s open the holy ledger.
For generations, the Church of England sat cozily on massive swaths of land in Zimbabwe, handed over during colonial plunder like party favors. All the while, local communities were displaced, disempowered, and systematically muted. The pulpit became a platform not for salvation but for subjugation. A slick operation of spiritual colonization — all in the Lord’s name, of course.
And when the liberation war lit up the Zimbabwean bush like Christmas lights in hell? The Church kept conveniently quiet. Was that the sound of hymns or silence bought with white settler gold? Don’t be fooled — this wasn’t just lack of action; it was calculated inaction. A strategic stay on the fence while black Zimbabweans were hunted, homes were bulldozed, and the streets ran hot with revolution.
Now, more than four decades after Zimbabwe’s hard-won independence, the Church has suddenly discovered its conscience. Bravo. Clap, clap. Slow golf clap under a rain of historical trauma. But here’s the twist — they want to talk *reconciliation*, not *reparations*. They want your forgiveness, not your invoice. Sound familiar?
This isn’t repentance — it’s PR.
The Church is acting like the guest who shows up late, drinks all your wine, trashes your house, then says “sorry” and offers you a damn candle as a token of goodwill. Zimbabwe doesn’t need your liturgy. It needs land, resources, and economic justice. Your amens don’t fix ancestral dislocation. Your prayers don’t build schools, rehabilitate trauma, or unroot systemic inequality fertilized in colonial soil.
Let me make it plain for the bishops sipping Earl Grey in Lambeth Palace: you cannot *ethics* your way out of theft. You cannot *pray* away plunder. And you sure as holy hell cannot *apologize* your way out of accountability.
We’ve seen this play before. Empire sins, memory erases, and institutions linger like ghosts with robes and rings, asking for peace while clinging to privilege. Zimbabwe doesn’t need your ghost stories. It needs a reckoning. It’s time to move from confession to restitution.
Cut the sermons. Pay your dues.
Because justice, my dear Church, is not a ministry.
It’s a mandate.
– Mr. 47
