Bishop Bakare wins human rights award

November 6, 2008

Rt Rev Dr. Sebastian Bakare

By Our Correspondent

HARARE – Zimbabwe ’s Anglican Bishop, the Right Reverend Dr Sebastian Bakare, flew to Stockholm, Sweden, Thursday to receive a US$18,900 human rights award for his fight against oppression in the Anglican Church in Zimbabwe.

Bishop Bakare is set to receive the Swedish human rights award for his work to promote “freedom of speech and of opinion in a difficult political situation”.

He was due to accept the 2008 Per Anger prize at a ceremony in Stockholm on November 10. Bakare has been honoured by the Swedish government agency, Living History Forum.

He told The Zimbabwe Times on the sidelines of a meeting held on Wednesday at ambassador James McGee’s Chisipite home to discuss the US elections that he was flying to Sweden Thursday, where he was also slotted to be keynote speaker at a human rights conference in Lulea, northern Sweden.

“I am humbled by this award,” Bakare told The Zimbabwe Times. “It amply demonstrates that good will always reign over evil.”

The Swedish agency, in its citation said Bakare was an important voice who had “received threats as a result of his open and clear criticism of the government, his condemnation of local police brutality and his defence of human rights” in Zimbabwe.

The award, worth 150,000 kronor (US$18,900), was created in 2004 in honour of Swedish diplomat Per Anger and honours people and organizations that risk their own safety to defend the rights of the individual against oppression and inhumanity.

Bakare has waged a fierce fight against renegade defrocked Anglican bishop Nolbert Kunonga, a close ally of President Robert Mugabe, who has refused to share dozens of churches in Harare , the Zimbabwean capital, with Bakare’s followers.

The number of parishioners attending Kunonga’s Sunday Mass has successively collapsed since Kunonga preached pro-Zanu-PF sermons from the pulpit, earning him the condemnation of the Anglican Communion’s 77 million members worldwide.

The majority of church officials and parishioners who have rallied behind Bakare have been harassed and locked out of the bulk of the city’s Anglican churches by State security agents reportedly requested by Kunonga.

Despite open harassment and threats against him, Bakare has continued to rally his flock for church services every Sunday.

Bakare has widespread support of Anglicans in Zimbabwe, mainly because of his message of hope and his outspokenness against the brutality of the Mugabe regime and the use of State security agents to persecute and assault Anglicans in an attempt to stop them from worshipping.

Bakare has told his flock in sermons to pray for a stop to the political interference in the Anglican church, instigated by Kunonga and asserts the police were “getting orders from above”.

Bishop Kunonga has been excommunicated from the church as a result of the stand-off, with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Phillips, describing Bakare as “a deeply respected and courageous elder Statesman of the Zimbabwean church”.

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Comments

2 Responses to “Bishop Bakare wins human rights award”

1

Muriel Che says:

November 7, 2008 at 9:20 am

Editor, does this strike you the same way it hit me; as Zimbabweans, we have only come to focus on bad news. Even if something good happens, we are so distressed that we do not see it any more. Anyway, it’s just an observation and I could not think of anyone else to share this with.

May Rev Bakare’s good works continue to be showered with blessings!
2

moms says:

November 7, 2008 at 11:18 am

Kunonga and Mai Chisamba should receive the opposite of such an award. Good job Mr Rev Bakare