27.2. Päivi Hasu

Africa at prayer looks for a miracle; it is a
daily appeal for the ultimate solution to
illness, poverty, and misery. That is Africa
of the night, of Saturdays and Sundays.
Africa of the week and of the day
“manages”, and corrupt and corrupting
individuals die between the two worlds,
struggling to survive.
Kabongo, Revue Canadienne des Études Africaines 18(1),1982, p.18.
Task:
• In what ways can Pentecostalism possibly
be interpreted as an empowering /
emansipatory religion?
• In which ways does it possibly (re-)
produce the dominant economic and
social power structures?
Public Role of the Christian Churches in
Post-Independent Africa
I Introduction
1. General remarks about this lecture
2. Significance of Christianity and Christian churches in Africa
over the past few decades historical overview
Definitions: Mainline churches, AIC = African Initiated Church,
Fundamentalism, Evangelicalism, Pentecostalism, neoPentecostalism, Charismatic Christianity
Three central features
•
Faith Gospel
•
Deliverance theology
•
Christian Zionism
3. Three transitions to democracy: the role of Christian churches
1) Churches had a limited role in the independence struggles
2) Second democratic transition, multiparty democracy
3) Third democratic transition, third term debates
II Christian churches in democratization
1. Domestic and external factors in the demands for
democratization
•
•
•
Domestic factors
a) The role of religious leaders
b) Political importance of ‘popular’ and ‘mainline’
religions
Church – State relations, a comparative model
Francophone Africa
Anglophone countries
Popular religions
III Religious NGOs and faith based
organizations in development
• Recent developments
• The role of the USA?
• Some analytical aspects and
challenges for future
1
2
Three generations of Christian
churches in Africa
Pentecostals and charismatics in Africa
1) mission churches
2) African Independent churches that
flourished in the 1960s
3) the contemporary charismatic churches
• PC is fastest growing sector of Protestant
Christianity
• Urban and rural areas - emerging middle
classes and the poor
• Transnational networks
Proportion of PCs in different countries
INTRODUCTION
• Pentecostals and charismatics > 20% of the
national population: Zimbabwe, South Africa,
Ghana, Congo-Zaire, Nigeria, Kenya, Angola,
Zambia and Uganda
10% - 20% : Congo-Brazzaville, the Central
African Republic, Malawi, Rwanda, Burundi,
Liberia and Mozambique
<10% of the population: Ivory Coast, Tanzania,
Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Cameroon, Madagascar
and Sudan
General developments
Factors in Pentecostalism's flood of public activism
1) Democratization
2) "Top-down" mobilization
3) Muslim activism
General social, cultural and economic features and characteristics
of Pentecostals and Pentecostalism
Globalization, modernity, media culture, diaspora, tradition
Theology
1) Deliverance
2) Christian Zionism
3) Prosperity gospel
KENYA
KENYA
• Christ Is The Answer Ministry
• http://www.citam.org/
• Video 8 min:
http://www.citam.org/images/stories/video/video.html
• News clips
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GHANA
Religious superstars in Ghana
(Paul Gifford, Birgit Meyer)
• Bishop Nicholas Duncan-Williams, Action Chapel International
http://www.actionchapel.org.uk/main/bishop.htm
• Pastor Mensa Otabil, International Central Gospel Church
http://www.centralgospel.com/about/index.php
• Bishop Charles Agyin Asare, Word Miracle Church International
http://www.wordmiracle.com/php/index.php?accesscheck=%2Findex.php
• Bishop Dag Heward-Mills, Lighthouse Chapel International
http://www.daghewardmills.org/
Ghana 18 million inhabitants, Greater Accra Region 5 million
Waves of development in Accra’s new
Christianity
• Winners’ Chapel International (Living Faith Church Worldwide)
http://winnerschapelintgh.org/wcig/testimonies/read.php
NIGERIA
1) Faith gospel wave: 1979 Duncan-Williams
2) The wave with preaching – Otabil
3) Miracle healing - Agyin Asare
4) The prophetic wave - gifts of particular anointed men
Some generalizations:
1) This Christianity is about success
2) Deliverance theology
Nigeria demography
• Christian 52%
– Pentecostal 11%
– Anglican 11%
– Roman Catholic 13%
– African Christian 18%
• Ruth Marshall-Fratani
• Redeemed Christian Church of God
• http://home.rccg.org/home.html
• Muslim 41%
• Largest ethnic groups Hausa & Fulani
Muslim), Igbo (Christian), Yoruba Christian
and Muslim)
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In pictures: Nigerian Pastor Power (BBC)
In pictures: Nigerian Pastor Power (BBC)
• Enoch Adeboye
• Leader of the
Redeemed Christian
Church of God which
is a worldwide
ministry that started in
Nigeria in 1952.
• Chris Oyakhilome Chris
Oyakhilome is one of the most
popular of Nigeria's 'men of
God.'
• Operates in several countries
in Africa, Europe and US
• Oyakhilome is an
accomplished stage performer,
and a man of sartorial
excellence with a passion for
body makeover.
• He preaches material
prosperity and miracles: "My
God is not a poor God and
anybody who worships Him
truly cannot be poor"
• http://www.christembassy.org/
•
http://home.rccg.org/home.html
DIASPORA:
In pictures: Nigerian Pastor Power (BBC)
• Matthew Ashimolowo Pastor
Matthew Ashimolowo was for a
long time regarded as the
richest of Nigeria's evangelists.
• His Kingsway International
Christian Centre (KICC) in
London attracted many
Nigerians living in the city and
raked in a lot of money - until
he reportedly attracted the
attention of the British tax
authorities.
•
Kingsway International Christian Centre
(KICC), London
• Pastor Matthew Ashimolowo founded KICC in 1992 with just 200
adults and 100 children. Today they have nearly 12,000 people in
attendance at the main church every Sunday, making them the
largest independent church in the UK and Western Europe and one
of the fastest growing.
• The Church is located on a 9.5-acre site in the heart of Hackney,
London. The 4,000-seat auditorium has been acknowledged as the
largest church to be created in the UK since the start of Christianity.
Around 46 nations are represented in the congregation.
http://www.kicc.org.uk/our_church.asp
• KICC is an independent, interdenominational, international church.
Belief: “Bible is the mind of Christ and is the inspired, infallible and
authoritative Word of God”
DIASPORA:
Media
ZIMBABWE
Kingsway International Christian Centre (KICC), London
• Winning Ways is a major KICC outreach programme that
encompasses both print and electronic media
• Through our international television and radio ministry Winning
Ways, KICC is taking the Gospel to Europe, Africa, the Caribbean,
the USA, Asia and the Middle East.
• The television ministry touches millions of people’s lives with its
practical, down-to-earth, humorous, yet biblically based approach to
sharing the Word.
• Over 340 million people across the globe can watch the programme,
and our complement of stations is growing fast.
• We are committed to using timely technology for the timeless truth.
Today’s changing times has opened up Europe to strange religions
and philosophies, preparing people for a God-less eternity, so there
is no better time to take our message to this mess-age than now.
• Europe, Africa (Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Malawi, Zambia,
Southern Africa), USA, The Caribbean (Barbados, Jamaica,
Trinidad&Tobaco)
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ZIMBABWE
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
SOUTH AFRICA
David Maxwell
Zimbabwe Assemblies of God Africa, ZAOGA
Ezekiel Guti
http://www.zaoga-fif.org/
http://homepages.uel.ac.uk/u0105669/fif_history.htm
http://www.fifmi-scotland.co.uk/flags/index_2.html
ZANU / PF (Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front)
Literature
BEDIAKO, KWAME
2000“Africa and Christianity on the Threshold of the Third
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BROUWER, STEVE, GIFFORD, PAUL & ROSE, SUSAN D. eds
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CORTEN, ANDRÉ & MARSHALL-FRATANI, RUTH
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GIFFORD, PAUL
1995“Introduction. Democratization and the Churches”. The
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MAXWELL, DAVID
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MEYER, BIRGIT
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2004“Christianity in Africa: From African Independent to PentecostalCharismatic Churches”. Annual Review of Anthropology 33, 447–474.
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