In recent years there has been an explosion of Christianity in sub-Saharan Africa. While many other organisations have been losing their effectiveness, Christian churches and Christian-related institutions have been becoming more prominent, pervasive and wide-ranging in their activities. What is the reason for this phenomenon, and what public effects do these institutions have?
250-word summary. Christian institutions have become pervasive in many African societies today. They are not all the same. They range from traditional churches to new media ministries, from traditional development agencies like schools and clinics to prayer camps. This is a fertile field for study, yet on most questions there has yet to emerge an agreed opinion. What is the relation of the newer movements to the older? What is the relation of the various movements to African culture? In what ways have the economic difficulties of the last few decades influenced their rise? Above all, what public effects - political, social, economic, cultural - has this proliferation of Christian organisations had? Given the diversity of the institutions in question, it is likely that the effects would be equally diverse. How can these be best studied and analysed? Undoubtedly these institutions are changing the face of world Christianity and have enormous importance for the future of Christianity. Do they have similar importance for the future of Africa?
This communication deals with the process of politicisation of Pentecostalism in the Republic of Benin. From the mid of the 1990s, the expansion of Pentecostalism had growing political effects. Some religious leaders elaborated strategies to participate in the public space and to convert political elites. Moreover, M. Kerekou, the former Marxist-Leninist dictator came back as President in 1996, as a Christian born-again. Nine years later, what are the consequences of the Pentecostal expansion into the political field? And, above all, in which ways does it really affect and change politics (political imaginary and discourses, leadership, public action...)?
The paper discusses social suffering and the prosperity gospel within the charismatic revival movement in Tanzania. The appeal of this movement can partly be understood as a response to crises in the social, political, economic and religious environment of contemporary Tanzania. Various forms of socio-economic suffering are important aspects of testimonies, prayers and life histories. The paper discusses the rhetoric of the gospel and draws examples from the contemporary crusades as well as personal narratives of the born-again Christians.
Drawing on a case study of a Pentecostal church in the Teso region of eastern Uganda, the paper illustrates a type of empirical analysis which places churches alongside customary and government institutions. The article focuses on the way villagers who attend the Pentecostal church continue to participate in other local-level institutions, drawing upon their membership in a "born-again" church to strengthen political claims. Much of the literature on Pentecostalism in Africa discusses the role of churches in urban areas, taking the exclusionary doctrine of Pentecostal Christianity as indicative of the ways in which "born again" Christians disengage from politics. The examples presented in this paper show Pentecostalism taking a different form, where church members continue to engage in local-level institutions including burial societies, the village council and clan committees. Through mundane, everyday political activities, such as building up a career or managing a land dispute, Pentecostal Christians utilise their membership in church alongside their participation in other local-level institutions. The fieldwork is taken from a poor, rural area coping with a history of economic collapse and political violence. In this constrained environment Pentecostal churches provide one more place where villagers piece together political actions that promise the possibility of economic and physical security.