This article examined the story of the beheading of John the Baptist according to Mark 6:14–29 in the context of politically motivated violence perpetrated by youth in Zimbabwe. While the article only focuses on the violence perpetrated by youth, it acknowledges the fact that there are also other stakeholders such as the army. The problem of political violence in Zimbabwe and the extent to which it negatively impacts the human rights of Zimbabwean citizens is well-documented (Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in Zimbabwe 2009; Maringira & Gukurume 2020; Mavengano & Moyo 2023; Mhike 2018; Muchacha 2016; Mwonzora & Helliker 2020; Research and Advocacy Unit 2018; Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum 2008) among others. Zimbabwe is ranked as the most politically violent country in Southern Africa when it comes to harmonised elections (Research and Advocacy Unit 2018). This revelation was based on data collected by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project regarding political violence that occurred between 1998 and 2018 in five Southern African countries, which included Zimbabwe, Angola, South Africa, Namibia and Mozambique (Research and Advocacy Unit 2018). Politically motivated violence has mostly been experienced during the country’s various elections and there is overwhelming evidence that most of the acts of violence are organised by particular political parties and others were state-sponsored (Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in Zimbabwe 2009; Research and Advocacy Unit 2018, 2021). The culture of politically motivated violence in Zimbabwe is believed to have been entrenched because of its history of violence that goes back to the liberation struggle and beyond, as precedence shown in the attainment of independence seems to reinforce the belief that violence yields the needed results (Research and Advocacy Unit 2018). A culture of political impunity has also helped to justify the use of political violence in this Southern African society as perpetrators of organised politically motivated violence were, allegedly, not arrested (Bradfield 2013; Chibango 2019). Meanwhile, Zimbabwe is also pursuing the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal Number 16, on promoting peace, justice and strong institutions (United Nations Zimbabwe 2023). Significantly reducing all forms of violence and related death rates in the country is also one of the targets earmarked for this goal (United Nations Zimbabwe 2023). A step towards achieving this goal, therefore, entails finding ways of ending this culture of violence in Zimbabwe.

This article uses insights from Mark 6:14–29 to address the role of the youth in light of the powerful using their vulnerability for their selfish interests. The ‘power’ referred to in this article is mostly exousia, which refers to authority or right to occupy a ruling position as in 2 Corinthians 10:8–10; 13:10 (Barthn & Blanke 2000:308). Exousia is opposed to charisma, which refers to grace or extraordinary powers freely given by God (e.g., the power to cast out demons). The study of Mark 6:14–29 is also in view of the argument by Punt (2017) that New Testament texts are politically laden documents whose political narratives need careful interpretation. The article, therefore, is also an attempt to unpack the political messages in Mark 6:14–29. Much scholarly work of various disciplines inclusive of linguistics, history, social science, health, among others, has been produced in an attempt to solve the problem of politically motivated violence in Zimbabwe (Alexander & McGregor 2013; Humbe, Chirongoma & Sande 2023; Mhike 2018; Mude 2014; Nyere 2016; Shemyakina 2021). Despite the existence of well-documented biblical and theological scholarly works conducted in the light of politically motivated violence in Zimbabwe (Chitando & Togarasei 2010; Dube 2012; Gusha 2022; Madzokere & Machingura 2016; Matikiti 2012; Togarasei 2022), a culture of political violence, which is, sometimes state-sponsored, has continued to characterise the country. Togarasei (2022) used a gender perspective to reflect on Zimbabwe’s state-sponsored political violence to submit that this violence is because of the fact that the state sees itself as a father disciplining his children in line with the biblical teaching that one should not ‘spare the rod and spoil the child’. There have not been any works that focus on the dynamics of power and vulnerability in Mark 6:14–29 in the context of politically motivated violence in Zimbabwe. This article is an attempt to address this gap in literature.

This article used insights of the ‘youth bulge theory’ to establish and consider the context of political violence in Zimbabwe as a possible result of youth unemployment. The ‘youth bulge theory’ refers to a situation whereby the rapid growth of a country’s youth population, compared with the general population of the country, causes a significant impact on the country’s economy and politics (Weber 2019). This impact is usually considered to be negative if large cohorts of youth in the given society are poor and unemployed (Weber 2019). The theory maintains that such youth have a potential to pose a threat to peace in the society as they may end up using violence to meet their perceived needs (Ganie 2020). Literature portrays the view that if the ‘youth bulge’ coincides with unemployment and poverty, it becomes a good recipe for civil unrest, violent crimes and political instability, among other consequences (Goldstone 2002; Goldstone, Marshall & Root 2014; McCall et al 2013; Muchemwa 2019; Urdal 2008). However, the ‘youth bulge’ is also considered in positive light if a country’s economy is able to gainfully employ its growing number of youth while there is also a relative decline of its dependent population (Bloom, Canning & Sevilla 2003). Our interest in this article, is in the case in which youth bulges coincide with high unemployment and poverty, thereby posing a threat to social stability in the society.

The adoption of this theory as framework for this research was mainly motivated by the fact that 67.7% of the total population of 13 million Zimbabweans was under the age of 35 in 2013 (Human Development Report 2014). Muchemwa also notes that Zimbabwe has a youth bulge of people aged 18–35 (Muchemwa 2019), the age range, which the Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment (No. 20) Act 2013 defines as youth (Government of Zimbabwe 2013). The majority of these youth are poor and unemployed, with the unemployment rate estimated at 90% (ZimEye 2022). The ‘youth bulge theory’ also appeared appropriate for use in this study as it was mainly the young people who engaged in political violence (Mude 2014). Despite the youth bulge coinciding with violence, poverty and unemployment among the youth, Reeler (2015) argued that this ‘bulge’ did not burst because the Zimbabwean youth had access to emigration and remittances, factors that took off the pressure from the bulge. However, Reeler (2015) was also mindful of the fear factor as he stated that Zimbabwe’s efficient repressive political machinery curbed dissent and kept the lid on the pressure cooker of the youth bulge. However, Reeler (2015) wondered what would happen if this fear would, one day, disappear. For Muchemwa (2019), however, the youth bulge posed a threat to political stability in Zimbabwe as long as the older men continued to occupy positions of power in all sectors of the society while sidelining the youth.

This study was also informed by the historical-critical method. This method of studying the Bible takes into account the fact that the biblical texts were written way back in history and in a particular cultural context quite different from the contemporary one. This approach, therefore, attempts to understand the cultural context in which the biblical texts were written. Factors of when and where the text was written and the circumstances that prevailed during the writing of the concerned text are important for this methodology (Collins 2016:129). The insights of the inquiry are then applied to a contemporary context. In the case of this study, insights from an inquiry on Mark 6:14–29 were applied to the theme of politically motivated violence perpetrated by some youth in Zimbabwe.

The article adopted a qualitative research methodology in order to arrive at an in-depth understanding of the phenomenon (Myburgh & Poggnepoel 2007) of the youth’s involvement in politically motivated violence. Data for this article were collected through Documentary Analysis (Myburgh & Poggnepoel 2007), whereby data sources included various reports by different organisations, published journal articles, books and the Internet. These were purposively sampled and the data-collection process ended when the information collected had reached a saturation point. The analysis of the collected data involved identification and arranging of emerging themes. The findings were then recontextualised based on the re-reading of Mark 6:14–29, thereby showing, as Myburgh and Poggnepoel (2007:65) put it, ‘commonalities, differences and new contributions’.

The choice of re-reading Mark 6:16–29 was motivated by recent New Testament scholarship that focuses on the relationship between power and vulnerability in the story of the death of John the Baptist, which features characters of Herodias, Salome, her daughter, Herod Antipas and John the Baptist (Girard 1984; Knapp 1996; Betsworth 2010; Knight 2017; Lyons-Pardue 2020). This story also found in Matthew 14:1–12. Luke (9:7–9) only narrates the response of Herod the tetrarch to the rumour that Jesus could have been John the Baptist resurrected. Herod had wondered if Jesus could have been John the Baptist whom he had beheaded. The death of John is also mentioned in Antiquitates Judaica (V, 2), the Jewish historical writings of Flavius Josephus (37–after 100). Although none of the evangelists mentioned the daughter of Herodias by name, it was Josephus who referred to her as Salome and that her father was Herod Philip (Josephus 1981:383).

In this article, we pay special attention to biblical scholars who relate this story to power and vulnerability. Lyons-Pardue (2020) who not only focused on the story of Herodias’ daughter but also on two other daughters presented by Mark, namely Jairus’ little daughter (Mk 5:21–43) and the woman with a haemorrhage (Mk 5:21–43), argued that Mark’s use of diminutive terms such as ‘little daughter’, (θυγάτριον), ‘daughter’ (θυγάτηρ) and ‘little girl’ (κοράσιον) pointed to some level of vulnerability that these little girls had, especially in the presence of abusive power. In her analysis of power and vulnerability in the account of Herod Antipas, Herodias and her daughter in Mark 6:14–29, Lyons-Pardue (2020) argued that the κοράσιον (Herodias’ daughter) was merely a pawn used by both Herod (who saw John as a threat to his power) and Herodias (who wanted vengeance for having been reprimanded) while she gained nothing. She was vulnerable in the face of powerful and selfish royal parents who never considered the protection and needs of their daughter/ but used her as a means to attain their selfish and vengeful desires (Lyons-Pardue 2020:60–62). In a related study, Knapp (1996) exposed how vulnerability in the form of lack of identity could lead to manipulation by the powerful. According to Knapp (1996), in the story by Mark, the daughter of Herodias is practically a non-person as she is simply presented as a dancer and an obedient daughter who accepted to be an agent of her mother’s will and who could not realise that her parents were manipulating her. Her dancing skills were transformed into a weapon of Herodias, leading to the beheading of John the Baptist (Knapp 1996:192). For Girard (1984), the vulnerable could be negatively empowered and that was why the apparently passive and harmless little girl, Salome, was suddenly turned into an instrument of wickedness. Herodias had negatively empowered her daughter in such a way that she appeared confident and empowered to make evil demands (Girard 1984:314) – the immediate bringing of the head of John the Baptist to her on a silver platter, there and then (cf. Mk 6:25).

Three main themes appear from reports and various documents regarding youth and politically motivated violence in Zimbabwe: (1) Politically motivated violence as a means of retaining power (2) Young people and politically motivated violence; (3) Youth vulnerability and manipulation by political powers.

Earlier on, we reviewed literature that focused on the relationship between power and vulnerability in Mark 6:14–29. Guided by the ‘youth bulge theory,’ we interpreted the dynamics of power and vulnerability in this biblical story in the context of politically motivated violence in Zimbabwe. In particular, parallels and differences were drawn between the biblical characters and those found in the Zimbabwean political story. We also established similarities between the corridors of power, namely, Herod and Herodias, and political bigwigs and parties in Zimbabwe. In our comparison of the vulnerable κοράσιον (little girl – that is, Herodias’ daughter) with the Zimbabwean youth, we observed that Zimbabwe’s power-hungry politicians have often abused their power by manipulating poor youth to engage in politically motivated violence.

This article has established that the majority of cases of politically motivated violence in Zimbabwe is perpetrated by young people. This involvement of youth in politically motivated violence in Zimbabwe confirms the ‘youth bulge theory’ that the youth bulge poses a threat to political stability. The article has liked the youth who committed acts of politically motivated violence to the vulnerable κοράσιον (little girl – that is, Herodias’ daughter,) because of their economic and social vulnerability characterised by poverty, unemployment and fear. It has also been established that like Herod and Herodias who abused their power by manipulating the little girl for their own selfish interests, selfish and power-hungry political leaders in Zimbabwe have also attempted to attain or retain power by manipulating the youth such that they engaged in politically motivated violence. However, unlike Herod who took responsibility for beheading John the Baptist (Mark 6:16), manipulative political leaders in Zimbabwe do not, apparently, accept their involvement in acts of politically motivated violence.

The re-reading of Mark 6:14–29 in the context of politically motivated violence in Zimbabwe has given us the opportunity to reflect on the dynamics between power and vulnerability. This article has also shown that Mark 6:14–29 confirms the view of Punt (2017) that the New Testament texts are politically loaded documents whose political narratives need to be studied in their proper context. Mark contrasts the power that Herod and Herodias wielded with that of the ‘nameless’ daughter of Herodias, such that the reader sympathises with the daughter who is presented as vulnerable in the face of the royal power. Scholars also revealed that both Herod and Herodias abused their power by manipulating the vulnerable daughter in order to fulfil their own selfish egos. This article has applied this interpretation to the context of Zimbabwe’s politically motivated violence. Findings from documents show that this violence mainly occurred in periods of elections and had, therefore, to do with power struggles. Those with power roped in party militias to perpetrate politically motivated violence on their behalf. Notorious in this engagement were reported to be the ZANU-PF aligned members of the National Youth Service and state agents who tortured many members of the opposition party, and especially in 2008. We have also established that most of the party militias and members of the National Youth Service were manipulated by their parties because of their poverty, unemployment and fear. We have argued that similarities do exist between the story in Mark and that of Zimbabwe. While youth still remained responsible for the violent atrocities they committed, the commissioning powers were also considered as answerable for manipulating the vulnerable youth. However, when the youth finally conquer this fear in them, the inevitable will happen – Zimbabwean ‘youth bulge will burst’, to borrow the words of Reeler (2015).