David Maxwell

Historicizing Christian independency : The Southern African pentecostal movement c. 1908-60

Scholarly study of Christian independency in southern Africa began with the publication of Bengt Sundklers Bantu Prophets in 1948. A rich literature subsequently followed, much of it deploying his now classic typology of Ethiopian and Zionist Churches. Nevertheless, the historical study of independency has been limited. As one scholar has recently observed, historians have tended to focus on the Ethiopian-type churches, leaving the study of the Zionist-type to anthropologists and missiologists. The neglect of Zionist-type churches by historians meant that early studies on this form of Christianity were historically weak. Missiologists distorted the whole area of inquiry with theological concerns, at first raising the spectre of syncretistic heresy, and more recently making claims about indigenous authenticity. Anthropologists initially viewed independent churches as fascinating examples of cultural resilience. The movements were seen as sources of community, loyalty and security in the face of the atomising and anomic experience of urbanization; or as foci for ‘the process of modification and adaptation’ taking place throughout rural society. But anthropologists rarely paid attention to independencys origins. Where historians did engage with Zionist-type independency, they did so through the spectacles of nationalist historiography in order to demonstrate independencys supposed proto-nationalist character. By adopting an international and regional perspective, this article provides an account of the historical origins and early evolution of these churches. Where scholars in the past have tended to disaggregate the movement, essentializing its later racial and geographical boundaries, this paper will draw the early history of the movement together, illuminating its common origin and global character. The basic ingredients of this account have been available in the work of Walter Hollenweger, Jean Comaroff, Sundklers later book, and more recently, studies by Jim Kiernan and David Chidester. Nevertheless, the historical implication that so-called African independent churches emerged out of the global pentecostal movement continues to be ignored. The purpose of demonstrating the origins of southern African pentecostalism is not to make the now commonplace historical and anthropological critique of authenticity, although those pursuing a theological agenda which distinguishes African Independent Churches as a separate category of Christianity would do well to pay heed to that critique. Neither is it assumed that analysis of origins explains the meaning and appeal of different southern African pentecostal movements and denominations. Rather, this paper demonstrates that pentecostalism is a global phenomenon: a collection of vital and powerful idioms about illness and healing, evil and purity which make striking resonances with peoples sharing common historical experiences of marginalization from established religion and from the values of twentieth-century industrial capitalism. At the same time pentecostalism has also exhibited a remarkable capacity to localize itself, taking on very distinct meanings in different local contexts. At the heart of this paper lies a comparative analysis of the radically different responses which the movement engendered from the South African and Southern Rhodesian states.

'Catch the cockerel before dawn': pentecostalism and politics in post-colonial Zimbabwe.

Abstract The article examines relations between pentecostalism and politics in post-colonial Zimbabwe through a case study of one of Africa’s largest pentecostal movements, Zimbabwe Assemblies of God, Africa (ZAOGA). The Church’s relations with the state change considerably from the colonial to the post-colonial era. The movement began as a sectarian township-based organisation which eschewed politics but used white Rhodesian and American contacts to gain resources and modernise. In the first decade of independence the leadership embraced the dominant discourses of cultural nationalism and development but fell foul of the ruling party, ZANU/PF, because of its ‘seeming’ connections with the rebel politician Ndabiningi Sithole and the American religious right. By the 1990s ZAOGA and ZANU/PF had embraced, each drawing legitimacy from the other. However, this reciprocal assimilation of elites and the authoritarianism of ZAOGA’s leadership are in tension with the democratic egalitarian culture found in local assemblies, where the excesses of leaders are challenged. These alternative pentecostal practices are in symbiosis with radical township politics and progressive sources in civil society. Thus, while pentecostalism may renew the process of politics in Zimbabwe, it may itself be renewed by the outside forces of wider Zimbabwean society. Résumé Cet article examine les relations entre le pentecôtisme et la politique au Zimbabwe après l’époque coloniale à travers l’études d’un des plus grands mouvements pentecôtistes d’Afrique, le ZAOGA (Zimbabwe Assemblies of God, Africa). Les relations entre l’Eglise et l’Etat ont considérablement changé entre la période coloniale et la période postcoloniale. Ce mouvement était à l’origine une organisation sectaire issue des townships qui rejetait la politique mais usait de ses relations avec les Américains et les Rhodesiens blancs pour obtenir des ressources et se moderniser. Au cours de la décennie qui suivit l’indépendance, ses dirigeants adoptèrent les discours prépondérants en faveur du développement et du nationalisme culturel mais se brouillèrent avec le parti au pouvoir, le ZANU/PF, en raison de ses liens «apparents» avec le politicien rebelle Ndabiningi Sithole et la droite religieuse américaine. Au terme des années 80, le ZAOGA et le ZANU/PF s’étaient réconciliés, les deux partis se conférant mutuellement une légitimité. Cependant, des tensions s’exercent entre cette assimilation réciproque des élites et l’autoritarisme des dirigeants du ZAOGA, d’une part, et la culture égalitaire démocratique présente dans les assemblées locales au sein desquelles les excès des dirigeants sont contestés, d’autre part. Ces pratiques pentecôtistes alternatives sont en symbiose avec la politique radicale des townships et les sources progressistes de la société civile. C’est pourquoi, bien qu’il soit susceptible de relancer le processus politique au Zimbabwe, le pentecôtisme risque de connaître un renouveau sous l’influence de forces extérieures dans l’ensemble de la société zimbabwéenne.

Writing the History of African Christianity: Reflections of an Editor

This article reviews the literature on African Christian Studies from the 1990s onwards and suggests new directions for research. The field has drawn great impetus from a series of historical/anthropological debates over conversion and the relative significance of missionary imperial hegemony and African agency. But there is a great need for work on twentieth-century missionaries and their contribution to colonial science. And there are too few studies of African leaders within mission churches, particularly in the era of decolonisation. Research on Pentecostalism has flourished but needs to be historicised. New areas for research are: African Christian diaspora and its impact on host communities; the impact of development and human rights agendas on the church; the effects of the AIDS pandemic. As the African Church becomes a more prominent part of World Christianity, scholars need to assess how African moral sensibilities are recasting the theology and politics of the historic mission churches.

The Soul of the Luba: W.F.P. Burton, Missionary Ethnography and Belgian Colonial Science

This article examines the motivations, institutions and processes involved in colonial knowledge formation through a study of the missionary William Burton. It considers Burton’s work on the Luba of Katanga in relation to the practices of Belgian colonial science and Anglo‐Saxon social anthropology. The essay discusses why missionaries engaged in ethnographic research when they were so intent on changing the customs and beliefs they described and why Burton in particular did not get the recognition he deserved as an authority on his subject. The article charts Burton’s shifting attitude toward the Luba, showing how he moved from an aggressive intrusive mode of research to a position of greater sympathy as he came to consider their cultural riches through study of language, proverb and folklore. Consideration of the second phase of Burton’s research opens up discussion of the missionary origins of the disciplines of African theology and African religious studies.

Freed slaves, missionaries, and respectability: the expansion of the Christian frontier from Angola to Belgian Congo

This article extends the history of freed slaves from the well-studied areas of West Africa to the frontier between Angola and Belgian Congo. Originally enslaved by Ovimbundu traders in what became south-eastern Belgian Congo, these enslaved people became Christians through contact with Euro-American missions while labouring in Angola. Following the abolition of slavery in the Portuguese Empire in the 1910s, they returned to their home areas as Christian evangelists. In Belgian Congo, they helped to spread Christianity but clashed with missionaries over authority and respectability. Some struggled with the trauma of enslavement while others sought alternative routes to status and authority through participating in Independent Christian movements or assuming positions of traditional leadership.

The creation of Lubaland: missionary science and Christian literacy in the making of the Luba Katanga in Belgian Congo

This work was supported by the Nuffield Foundation and the Economic and Social Research Council [RES-00023-1535].

THE MISSIONARY MOVEMENT IN AFRICAN AND WORLD HISTORY: MISSION SOURCES AND RELIGIOUS ENCOUNTER

This article is a revised and expanded version of my inaugural lecture as Dixie Professor of Ecclesiastical History at the University of Cambridge, delivered on 12 March 2014. It highlights the evolution of Ecclesiastical History to include the study of Christianity in the global south and shows how recent developments in the study of African and world history have produced a dynamic and multi-faceted model of religious encounter, an encounter which includes the agency of indigenous Christians alongside the activities of missionaries. Investigating the contribution of faith missionaries to the production of colonial knowledge in Belgian Congo, the article challenges stereotypes about the relations between Pentecostalism and modernity, and between mission and empire. Throughout, consideration is given to the range of missionary sources, textual, visual, and material, and their utility in reconstructing social differentiation in African societies, particularly in revealing indigenous African criticism of ‘custom’.

The Spirit and the Scapular: Pentecostal and Catholic Interactions in Northern Nyanga District, Zimbabwe in the 1950s and Early 1960s

This paper seeks to advance local level studies of African Christianity. It focuses on the missionary encounter with the Katerere chiefdom of north east Zimbabwe, during the 1950s — a period not usually associated with pioneer missionary activity. During this decade there was such a rapid conversion to the new churches that they took on the appearance of a religious movement. Africans rapidly adhered to Elim Pentecostalism as it legitimated itself in local terms, re‐sacralising the landscape in Christian fashion, pitting itself against local demons, and making resonances with local concepts of illness. Likewise, the Catholic hierarchy literally followed a movement of popular Catholicism north, as Manyika migrants evicted from the south, following the implementation of the Land Apportionment Act, arrived with their medals, scapulars and village schools, demanding mission facilities. The consequent patterns of Christianisation were not, however, just the result of local appropriation of the missionary packa...

New perspectives on the history of African Christianity

John Baur, 2000 Years of Christianity in Africa. An African History (Paulines Press, Nairobi, 1994), 560 pp.,

What makes a Christian?: Perspectives from studies of pneumatic Christianity

10 pbk, ISBN 9966–21–110–1. Harvey J. Sindima, Drums of Redemption. An Introduction to African Christianity (Greenwood Press, Westpont, 1994), xiv + 211 pp., £49.50 hbk, ISBN 0–313–29088–1. Elizabeth Isichei, A History of Christianity in Africa. From Antiquity to the Present (SPCK, London, 1995), xi + 420 pp., £25 pbk, ISBN 0–281–04764–2. Adrian Hastings, The Church in Africa 1450–1950 (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1995), xiv + 706 pp., £65 hbk, ISBN 0–19–826921–8.