ORI GIN AL PA PER

Religious Self-Beliefs and Coping Among VendingAdolescent in Harare

Samson Mhizha

� Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013

Abstract The present study sought to explore the relationship between vending child-

hood and adolescent religious self-beliefs and religious coping among vending children in

Harare, Zimbabwe. The research objectives were to investigate the nature of religious self-

beliefs and religious coping among vending children in Harare. A psychoethnographic

research design was employed in this study. This involved collection of data for a sustained

period in the context within which the participants live. A total of 20 participants took part

in this study. Key informant interviews, focus group discussions, in-depth interviews,

participant and non-participant observations were the data collection methods. Thematic

content analysis was used for analysing the data. Data analysis revealed largely negative

religious self-beliefs. Most vending adolescent children believed that they were controlled

and influenced by evil spirits. The vending children believed that faith healing and spiritual

cleansing by prophets and Pentecostal pastors could solve their spiritual, judicial and

economic problems. Religion seemed to be able to provide meaning to lives and as a viable

coping mechanism among the vending children.

Keywords Vending adolescent children � Religious self-beliefs and coping �Psychoethnographic research � Prophets � Pentecostal pastors � Ritual cleansing �Tithing � Evil spirits � Coping

Introduction

Post-independence Zimbabwe has had to grapple with the phenomenon of working street

children. Children working for their livelihoods have become an indelible mark in the

cityscape of most developing countries; Zimbabwe included (Muchini 2001). The upsurge

S. Mhizha (&)Department of Psychology, University of Zimbabwe, P.O. BOX MP167, Mount Pleasant, Harare,Zimbabwee-mail: smmhizha@sociol.uz.ac.zw; smmhizha30@gmail.com

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in children working the streets is backgrounded by a disquieting HIV and AIDS epidemic,

plus, the socio-politico-economic crisis that bedevilled Zimbabwe in the recent past.

Zimbabwe has been stalled in a staggering socio-politico-economic crisis (Murerwa 2006;

Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe [RBZ] 2005; Tibaijuka 2005). The problem under investi-

gation in the current study is whether adolescent vending children work in an eco-devel-

opmentally risky context for the development of religious self-image.

There are studies that imply that there is need for researching the phenomenon of

working children. Researchers such as Chirisa (2007, 2008), Ennew (1994, 2003), Muchini

(2001) and Rurevo and Bourdillon (2003) argue, for instance, that the street ecology poses

a risk to normal child development. Ennew (2003) argued that the contemporary world

which claims to be child-friendly should afford health development opportunities to the

working children. For working children, health development means they should have

opportunities for development of senses of independence, self-efficacy and self-esteem as

they mature (Mechanic 1991; Tudoric-Ghemo 2005). Some studies have found self-image

to be a chief determinant of child development, psychological functioning and behaviour

(Branden 1994; Harter 1990; Oosterwegel and Oppenheimer 1993a, b, 2002).

Objectives

The present study sought to:

1. Investigate the nature of religious self-beliefs among vending children in Harare.

2. Determine and describe the religious coping among vending children in Harare on

their behaviour.

Literature Review

This section reviews literature on religious functioning, self-image and vending child-

hood. The burgeoning problems in Zimbabwe of unemployment, accommodation and

transportation and cuts in government social spending have resulted in more and more

children taking to street work as survival strategy as well as helping to diversify

household sources of income (Mapedzahama and Bourdillon 2000). Children therefore

participate in income-generating activities to ensure their own and their families’

survival.

For Muzvidziwa (2000), the problem of vending among children has to be understood

properly by giving its background. Muzvidziwa commented that whereas Zimbabwe was

ranked among middle-income countries in 1980, the same year marked a nosedive in

economic performance of Zimbabwe. The rapid decline was more pertinent in urban

centres and was also occasioned by increase in rural–urban migration (Chirisa 2007, 2008;

Muzvidziwa 2000). Before independence in 1980, the colonial regime had strictly observed

the Vagrancy Act and other municipal by-laws which prohibited the influx of people into

towns. Independence euphoria was marked by the laxing of these restrictive legislative

instruments (Grier 1996; Muzvidziwa 2000). Incidentally, these post-independence years

saw high unemployment rates, general decline in peoples’ standards of living, rising

inflation and the deterioration of the quality of urban social services especially housing,

health and education. The congested suburbs were originally built as sources of cheap

labour for the white minority during the colonial period. It was assumed that blacks were

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only temporary residents. Emerging class interests ensured that these high-density areas

continued to have high incidences of poverty (Chirisa 2007, 2008; Zinyama et al. 1993).

The net result of such a scenario was a rise in urban poverty hitherto unseen in Zimbabwe.

The economic poverty was foretold by Mingione (cited in Muzvidziwa 2000) to meta-

morphosise into acute, progressive and unstoppable forms of social exclusion once that

poverty crystallised in cities.

In the 1990s, the government decided to countervail the emerging socio-economic

crises by a battery of measures so termed as Economic Structural Adjustment Programme

(ESAP). ESAP was essentially designed to cut government expenditure and budget deficit

by liberalising the economy, removing price and wage controls, removing subsidies in

basic commodities like maize meal and by cutting expenditures on services like health,

education and housing (Chirisa 2007, 2008; Muzvidziwa 2000; Tibaijuka 2005). These

measures were marked by mass retrenchments that ESAP became synonymous with

retrenchments. Muzvidziwa (2000) notes that with ESAP working children became visible

in Zimbabwean cities and even in small towns. Instead of instigating an economic revival,

ESAP resulted in an increase in suffering for vulnerable groups such as the working poor

(Chirisa 2007, 2008; Gibbon 1995).

The situation worsened in from 1999 with suspension by IMF in financial support on

government, unbudgeted gratuities given to liberation war fighters, the war in the Dem-

ocratic Republic of Congo, soon-to-be embarked on land grab, rampant corruption and

human rights violations (Muzvidziwa 2000). It was natural that when these issues occurred

in a country which was within the epicentre of the HIV/AIDS scourge, women and children

bore the brunt of the socio-economic problems. The crises negatively affected children

with regard to health, education, mortality, nutritional status and basic necessities. It was

therefore logical for many children to drift into the street to eke a living through vending

whether alone or together with their parents especially mothers (Muzvidziwa 2000). The

phenomenon of children on the streets, orphans and other vulnerable children became

pronounced. Destitute women begging on the streets of Harare also increased in number

(Chirisa 2007, 2008; Chitando 2000).

Rise in Prophetic and Pentecostal Activities in Zimbabwe

The post-independence socio-economic-political crises in Zimbabwe have not eluded

scholarly attention and have also been accompanied by many variables. Some of the

variables include increase in opposition politics, rise in human rights violations and rise

in prophetic and Pentecostal activities. The latter is the subject for attention in this

section. For Chitando (2002, 2009), religiously speaking, the rising economic problems

were met with a rise in prominence in prophetic activities and in gospel music.

Chitando (2009) observed that although Zimbabwean youths were not experiencing a

physical war, they indeed encountered many psychological and economic wars which

generated anxiety, pessimism and despair among these youth. One would be tempted to

note that it would appear to the youths that they were born and bred in a wretched and

wrong time. Probably to countervail the psychological and economic challenges

bedevilling the country, Chitando (2009) reckoned that in Zimbabwe, the spiritual

market experienced a remarkable boom. This was marked by the emergence of many

new churches, ministries, fellowships and other models of religious organisations.

Perhaps more remarked was the rise in the growing army of religious entrepreneurs that

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included pastors, musicians, publishers, bible teachers and prophets (Chitando 2009).

For Chitando (2009), prophets are men and women who claim to be agents of the Holy

Spirit in alleviating human suffering, combat illness and misfortune. The prophets use

varied healing practices and symbolic objects like rods, holy cords and blessed water,

while others heal through prayer only (Chitando 2000, 2001, 2009).

Together with prophets has emerged another section of Independent Christians in

Zimbabwe which comprises Pentecostal churches. These Pentecostals also promise

better employment opportunities and financial security to people who utilise their

services (Chitando 2009). Newer Pentecostal churches also visit the prophets, albeit in

a clandestine manner. The Pentecostal churches are characterised by their emphasis on

faith, prosperity and modernity. These religious organisations utilise contemporary

communication strategies like the internet, radio and television (Chitando 2000). It is

interesting that some prophets and Pentecostal religionists put up posters on public

buildings, trees, bus stations, street lamps and in other strategic places, announcing the

presence of spiritual healers who promised to stop people’s suffering (Chitando 2001,

2009). The prophets have gained footholds in urban areas and became popular among

the lower classes and have become an integral part of the urban landscape in Southern

Africa, their adherents wearing distinctive attire and hairstyles (Chitando 2009). These

Zionist and Apostolic churches are highly visible in countries like Botswana, South

Africa and Zimbabwe. Members of these churches are actively involved in the informal

sector and particularly cross-border trading (Chitando 2000, 2009). All these churches

have prophets who seek to ameliorate human suffering through spiritual healing. Apart

from handling cases that are physical and spiritual, such as bad luck, prophets also

claim to have the ability to transform their clients’ economic fortunes since it is argued

that spiritual forces are responsible for urban poverty (Chitando 2000, 2001). Prophets

in Harare maintain that they can exorcise these negative spiritual forces through the

power of the Holy Spirit. Chitando (2009) also reasons that through prayer, medicated

water, spiritually charged fine stones, milk, holy threads and various mixtures, they

claim to overcome spirits bent on promoting poverty for some, and consequently,

according to this cultural logic, wealth for others. One striking example of this way of

managing uncertainty is the sanctifying of passports, to imbue them with some inde-

terminate force that would facilitate border crossing. Chitando (2009) gave interesting

cases of prophets who take their clients to sacred pools, in one of the many ‘‘River

Jordans’’, for cleansing rituals to liberate the clients who intended to travel to other

countries to liberate them from misfortune and ‘‘unprogressive lineage spirits’’ (mweya

yemadzinza) that may prevent him or her from reaching the desired destination.

Chitando (2009) further reports that the prophets may also pray over holy cords to be

worn around the waist or special sweets to be sucked just before meeting immigration

officials. Additionally, Chitando (2009) reports that to ensure a safe passage to eco-

nomic exile, some prophets in Harare sanctify passports by pray over passports and

bless them in an endeavour to ensure that the owners do not get deported. The spir-

itually charged passports give peace of mind to their bearers as they seek to get to

another country to change their economic fortunes. It goes without saying that literature

has shown that the challenges facing Zimbabwe forced people into many activities,

vending included (Chitando 2001, 2009; Muzvidziwa 2000), and that Pentecostal and

prophetic religion is so popular among Zimbabweans particularly those in informal

businesses (Chitando 2009). The current study focuses on religious self-beliefs and

coping among vending children in Harare.

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Theoretical Framework

It is indeed natural that in times of hardships people turn to religion for coping (Chitando

2001, 2002, 2009). Religious beliefs may help one’s thinking process during stressful

situations; a religious person gains a clear understanding of the world (Carone 2001), and

those with stronger religious beliefs enjoy better adjustments to life situations (Koenig

2007). Religious coping methods may encourage adaptation more thoroughly than non-

religious, traditional or general approaches (Pargament 1997). The current study is pre-

mised on a model on religious attributional meaning people use when facing unanticipated

or unfortunate situations, for instance when they face poverty. Bering (2003) stated that

there is an attributional meaning system known as the ‘‘existential domain’’ which helps to

ascertain the significance of events that happen to an individual. Bering (2003) explained

that the existential domain is an abstract ontological domain within which the subjective

narrative self is accommodated and which helps in meaning making, as a function of

developmental complexity and abstractness, one’s life events, one’s experience and one’s

existence as a whole. This existential domain is autonomous of both the physical domain,

and helps in explaining the movements and dynamics of non-living objects, and the social

domain, which helps in the comprehension of living objects and other minds. Bering

further opined that the existential domain is independent of the biological domain and

helps in explaining animate objects and their dynamics of growth and decay. Nonetheless,

the domain often involves elements of these other meaning making systems.

The triggers for meaning making through the existential rather than the physical, social

and biological domains of mental life are events whose causes are not easily compre-

hensible through these other domains and whose origins therefore demand some form of

alternative interpretation (Bering 2003). For instance, people who have had near-death

experiences and cannot logically explain their good fortune and may make attributions

about invisible forces and intentional agents as a means of establishing existential

meaning. In addition, Bering (2003) sees this system as tied to a more general intentional

system that tends towards the attribution of teleological purpose to an abstract agency that

is envisioned to be responsible for events personal and otherwise. That system, if found,

has significant implications for religious and spiritual development during adolescence,

insofar as identity development and questions about purpose and existence become focal

during these years (Damon 2008). The current study explores how adolescent vending

children in Harare make religious attributions of their circumstances and how they cope

with these scenarios.

Methodology

The present study, being qualitative and explorative, utilised the psychoethnographic

approach. This design is important as it affords collection of valid, deep, rich and reliable

data. This is a research design involving entry into the participants’ setting for a sustained

period to collect psychological data in the contexts within which the participants live. In

psychoethnographic research, the researcher completes the study through observing, lis-

tening and asking questions. The approach was pioneered by Aptekar (1988) in a study on

Columbian street children. Aptekar (1988, 1994), a cross-cultural researcher with interests

on street children in developing countries, measured emotional and intellectual functioning

of street children using participant observations and psychological tests. Psychoethnog-

raphy combines methods rooted in both psychology and anthropology. Data collection

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methods for this study included key informant interviews, focus group discussions, in-

depth interviews, participant and non-participant observations. Data collection and analysis

were entwined to expose areas that may have been missed and shape ensuing data

collection.

Adolescent vending children numbering 10 participated in focus group discussions.

There were five female and five male vending children for the focus group discussions.

Another six adolescent street children participated in in-depth interviews. Four key

informant interviewees were interviewed in this study. The key informants were officials in

the Department of Social Welfare, the ZRP and adult vending people. The researcher felt

that the remaining final number of 20 participants was sufficient. The street children

participants were drawn from their hideouts, streets and the drop-in centre in Harare. All

participants in the study were drawn from Harare. The researcher appreciated that gaining

informed consent was a very fundamental process. No participant was coerced to take part

in the research. Subsequently, the researcher sought the informed consent of the partici-

pating children and from their gatekeepers. It has been argued that children legally have no

competence for consent (Ensign 2003; Homan 1991; Masson 2004). In Zimbabwe, a child

is considered legally a minor until 18 years, whereas vending children participating in the

current study ranged from 12 to 18 years. In the current study, the gatekeepers were the

administrators of the drop-in centres from which the street children were obtained.

Informed consent was also sought from parents, older siblings, marital partners and base

leaders, for vending children. Thematic content data analysis was used for data analysis.

Braun and Clarke (2006) argue that thematic content analysis is the most appropriate

method for psychological interpretation of data from under-researched populations.

Apart from the informed consent obtained from the gatekeepers, the researcher also

sought informed consent from the individual street children and key informants who

participated in the current study. Punch (2002) reasons that researchers must have the

informed assent of the children they are researching. All the vending children who par-

ticipated in this study consented voluntarily despite the fact that such informed consent was

also obtained from their guardians and the gatekeepers. Anonymity and confidentiality

were spelt and respected in the current study. The participants were also debriefed on the

nature and findings that emerged from the study.

Findings

Generally, the vending children in the current study seemed to have a more positive spirito-

religious self-image attended church services regularly. The churches those vending

children attended were mainly prophetic and Pentecostal church organisations in Harare.

These street-working children’s beliefs in being under the influence of evil spirits seemed

to be less strong than those by their street-living counterparts. These street-working

children appeared not to believe that their circumstances were explained by the evil spirits

that haunted as was believed by the street-living children. Some street children who were

failing in their business efforts suspected influence of evil spirits cast on them by their

relatives. These street children claimed that they were at one point in time and in their

business besieged by evil spirits and had to use religious remedies to get them back in

business. One 18-year-old male vending child averred: ‘‘Kusatengerwa zvachose mweya

yetsvina inenge ichisunga, zvinotoda Mwari’’ (Failing to find customers is a function of

evil spirits. You need God for prosperity). A 17-year-old female vending street child

claimed: ‘‘Vamwe tinonobvunza tega kuvaprofita vanotiudza kuti basa redu

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rinokanganiswa nemweya yakaipa vokuudza nzira yokuita’’ (we consult prophets who tell

you that evil spirits are affecting our businesses and offer us turnaround strategies).

The street-working children seemed to regularly attend church services not to receive

material benefits as was done by their street-living peers but for their own spiritual growth.

Some street-working children were so religious that they even paid tithes in their churches.

One 18-year-old female vending child professed: ‘‘Mweya yetsvina haizivi kuti uri

pamusika inongokutadzisa kubudirira. Tinopiwa muteuro wematombo nemvura yak-

anamatirwa tokusha stuff yedu kuti itengwe’’ (Evil spirits also affect vending businesses as

they foil our activities. We are given holy water and stones which we use to cast at our

wares to boost sales). One 17-year-old female vendor said:

Vanhu vanopopoterana kuti imi muri kungotengerwa sei isu hatisi? Midzi iyoyo kana

mvura yemuteuro. Ini ndinobvisa chegumi, changu nechemusika Mwari anotoona

kuti munhu uyu abvisa chegumi chake nechemusika zvinhu zvotofamba. Chegumi

chinobatsira kuti zvinhu zvitengwe. (It’s normal for vendors to accuse each other of

casting bad spells on others businesses so that people buy from her only. They would

allege that the accused would be using herbs or holy water. As for me, I pay tithes

both for myself and my business. God notices that I have paid those tithes and makes

my business prosper. Tithing helps to boost sales).

The vending street children also blamed the role of evil spirits and colleague’s magical

charms when their vending was not earning them satisfactory income. One 18-year-old

male street child claimed: ‘‘Musi wausingatengerwi unoti nhasi kwaita mawinds, mhepo

inenge yasimuka inosunga zvinhu, kwakadhakwa, mweya yetsvina inokonzera izvozvo’’

(On days when people do not buy your merchandise, you blame evil spirits for frustrating

your business). Some vending street children supposedly urinate on their merchandise to

increase their marketability.

Some street-working children believed that they were haunted by evil spirits cast on

them by their parents to bolster their businesses. The beliefs of being haunted by evil spirits

were also reported among street-living children. A particular 17-year-old vending male

street-working child travelled from Chitungwiza on a daily basis. This vending street child

was a child of a famous bus operator who had supposedly cast some evil spirits on him.

The father of this particular adolescent vending child was blamed for kuchekeresa (casting

bad spells that one’s business at the expense of that victim) that child. Some vending street

children believed that evil spirits were foiling their marital, academic and formal

employment prospects. Equally still, some vending street-working children said that they

were leading members of the apostolic organisations, some as prophets.

Key informant interviewees and some street-working children claimed that some street-

working children seemed to reveal evidence that they were being influenced by evil spirits.

In this regard, working in the streets was seen as a sign of evil spirits and which degen-

erated into street-living. For example, there was an example of an 18-year-old male street

child who started working as a vendor in the city centre. This particular male street child

initially lived together with his married brother who fended for him but later slept in the

streets. The particular street child appeared to have developed mental illness as he could be

seen talking alone and wearing weird clothes. The clothes had cloth interwoven with grass

and birds furthers. Later the street child became street-living and started wearing weird

clothes. Acquaintances of this street child claimed his younger brother also developed such

mental illness in the rural areas of Chikomba district where he came from. These key

informants blamed the influence of ngozi (avenging spirits of some deceased people) on

these children’s behaviours.

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The street-working children blamed the role of evil spirits for those who engaged in

multiple sexual relationships. Some of the female street children blamed the role of

zvikwambo (goblins), while others attributed such behaviours to the spirits of their

deceased grandmothers or paternal aunts who died without getting married and influenced

them to remain unmarried as they had done. For instance, in the case of the 18-year-old

female adolescent street child who allegedly was raped by her mukuwasha (customary son-

in-law) while others had claimed that apparently, they were having an intimate relationship

secretively. This vending street child reported the case to the police, and her customary

mukuwasha was arrested and detained. This vending street child together with her niece

who was the spouse of this particular man went with holy water to the police cells to

exorcise the mukuwasha of hers and secure his release. Immediately, the mukuwasha of

this vending street child was released from custody, while the case was withdrawn and was

closed. It came out that this vending street child together with her niece blamed the role of

evil spirits in leading to the rape incident and the subsequent arrest of her mukuwasha. It

was reported that this vending child was chased away by her relatives from their home in

the rural areas for being very sexually permissive after she had aborted many pregnancies.

Some vending children believed that they were in the streets due to some mental

illnesses. The usual blame for such mental illnesses was bewitching by relatives.

Accordingly, the belief is that there is kuchekeresa (a way of casting bad spells on

someone so that your business prospers). For instance, there was a certain 17-year-old

begging street child who travelled from Chitungwiza daily. This child was believed to

be a child of a certain business owner in the transport sector who was blamed for

kuchekeresa (casting bad spells that one’s business can prosper at the expense of that

victim) that child. Apparently, that child is termed a zengenene (a person with mentally

retardation). The key informants and street children advanced the idea that business

owners have a propensity of casting bad spells on their children to maximise their

commercial fortunes.

Sometimes the psychological problems seemed to worsen among these vending

children. There was a case of a 17-year-old male street child who stopped living at

home and began working and living in the streets. This street child initially stayed with

his brother who fended for him but later slept in the streets. The psychological

problems of this particular street child seemed to have worsened when he was still a

street-working child. This street child could be seen talking and dancing alone while in

public places selling his wares. Fellow street children claimed that his relatives and

former friends visited him, but he snubbed them as if he did not know them. Later this

particular street child became street-living and started wearing weird clothes. Working

in the streets was also seen by some key informants as indicative of kutetereka (being

astray), which they associated with psychopathological symptomatology. Apparently,

this vending street child.

Interestingly, the vending children claimed that they were prophets in the apostolic

churches. Some of these children also regarded themselves as active and regular members

of their churches. Some street-working children claimed that they sprayed holy water on

their wares and paid tithes in churches that their businesses prosper. One 18-year-old

female vending child professed: ‘‘Mweya yetsvina haizivi kuti uri pamusika inongoku-

tadzisa kubudirira. Tinopiwa muteuro wematombo nemvura yakanamatirwa tokusha stuff

yedu kuti itengwe’’ (Evil spirits have no respect for vending businesses as they foil our

activities. We are given holy water and stones which we spray at our wares to boost sales).

Some vending street children claimed that they paid double tithes for themselves and for

their businesses.

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Discussion

The current study explored the religious attributions and coping among vending adolescent

children in Harare. One key finding from the current research is that the vending street

children do attend church services and seem to have high religious involvement. The

churches they attend do vary but the major churches many vending children attended are

mainly prophetic and Pentecostal churches. This seem to dovetail with the observation by

Chitando (2001, 2009) that prophetic and Pentecostal churches have been on the rise in

Zimbabwe and that these churches claimed a large following among Zimbabwean

urbanites and particularly among those in informal businesses.

The vending adolescent children believed that some of the hardships in their lives are

due to bewitching by prosperity-seeking relatives of theirs. A case was when a certain

vending child who believed to be a son to a certain popular businessman was bewitched by

his father to have his business prosper indeed many vending children while wallowing in

poverty believed that those prosperous people use muti to have their businesses prosper.

This tally with what was reported by Chitando (2009) that some people believe that

poverty is engineered by wealth people who seek to prosper at the expense of others.

It was also interesting to note that many vending children, adolescents as they were,

consulted prophets who helped them to interpret their unfortunate circumstances and also

help them to get solution on their problems. These vending children approached prophets

for (kuyereswa) cleansing and were given various objects for their salvation. These objects

included holy stones and holy water. These prophets were reported to spiritually divine the

source of the vending children’s problems and to identify the appropriate remedy.

Some vending children also claimed to attend churches regularly and to lead proper

religious lives which endeared them to church leaders and to God for their prosperity.

Some of the vending children claimed to tithe both for themselves and for their businesses

to endear themselves to God and to obtain prosperity. Indeed, these children were taught at

churches that they could never prosper without tithing.

The street-working children blamed the role of evil spirits for those who engaged in

multiple sexual relationships. Some of the female street children blamed the role of

zvikwambo (goblins), while others attributed such behaviours to the spirits of their

deceased grandmothers or paternal aunts who died without getting married and influenced

them to remain unmarried as they had done.

Religion had even a role on judicial proceedings. An example was the case of an

18-year-old female adolescent street child who allegedly was raped by her mukuwasha

(customary son-in-law), while others had claimed that apparently they were having an

intimate relationship secretively. This vending street child reported the case to the police,

and her customary mukuwasha was arrested and detained. This vending street child

together with her niece who was the spouse of this particular man went with holy water to

the police cells to exorcise the mukuwasha of hers and secure his release. Immediately, the

mukuwasha of this vending street child was released from custody, while the case was

withdrawn and was closed.

The street-working children seemed to regularly attend church services not to receive

material benefits as was done by their street-living peers but for their own spiritual growth.

Some street-working children were so religious that they even paid tithes in their churches.

One 18-year-old female vending child professed: ‘‘Mweya yetsvina haizivi kuti uri

pamusika inongokutadzisa kubudirira. Tinopiwa muteuro wematombo nemvura yak-

anamatirwa tokusha stuff yedu kuti itengwe’’ (Evil spirits also affect vending businesses as

they foil our activities. We are given holy water and stones which we use to cast at our

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wares to boost sales). Current research shows that as Bering (2003) does in attributing

meaning to events and circumstances in one’s life and also in coping with the challenges

encountered.

Conclusion

The current research which focuses on religious self-beliefs and coping among vending

adolescents in Zimbabwe has been significant and has revealed many significant findings.

This research has revealed that adolescent vending children have high religious involve-

ment and that they regularly attend religious services. Many believed that their lives were

besieged by evil spirits which needed equally powerful spiritual forces to thwart. The evil

spirits included goblins, ancestral spirits, spirits of deceased people demanding revenge

and the bewitching effect of their relatives. The children believed that the evil spirits were

so powerful that they could affect a person’s health, entrepreneurship success, judicial

decisions, marriage, employment prospects and fertility.

To countervail these evil spirits, the vending children believed that Pentecostal and

prophetic spiritualists could help. The vending children believed that they received help

through tithing, cleansing rituals like spraying holy water on their bodies and on their

vending staff and by being prayed on by the prophets. Most participants believed that the

Pentecostal and prophetic assistance were so efficacious as they could identify both the

origin and remedy for the problems. It appeared that religious beliefs helped the vending

children in attributed meaning to their lives and also in coping with the challenges they

faced.

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