If a visitor from outside Africa were to return now, after an absence of, say, 30 years, he would be surprised at the great changes that have occurred in the religious "landscape". On his first visit he would have known a traditional picture of Catholic missions and conventional Protestant churches. Now he would find charismatic and evangelical churches and chapels on almost every street corner.
Friends and foes alike admit that this type of Christianity is spreading in Africa faster than any other, and English-speaking East-Central Africa and the Great Lakes (Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda) are no exception. For example, on the block where I live in Nairobi, before the advent of covid there were four such churches competing in both number of parishioners and noise. On the outskirts of the block there are also two Catholic churches (one fairly new) and one Anglican church (also fairly new).
How did all this come about, how have these churches become so prominent, and what is their appeal?
Origins of Pentecostalism
To begin with, Pentecostalism is not new to Africa. The first Pentecostal missionary to arrive in Kenya came from Finland in 1912, when what is now Kenya was part of a British protectorate. That same year a charismatic movement emerged, called the Roho ("spirit" in Swahili), among some Anglican converts in the area. In 1918, North American missionaries established a mission that later became affiliated with the Pentecostal Assembly of Canada. In 1965, shortly after Kenya became an independent country, its churches also became independent and were renamed Pentecostal Assemblies of God. In 2002 East Africa had 5,000 such churches. Other splits of dissenting groups had taken place earlier, in the 1930s, when missionaries expressed their opposition to female circumcision and many indigenous churches emerged, including the African Independent Pentecostal Church.
Meanwhile, the East African Renaissance (a movement within the Anglican Church of East Africa), which had begun in Rwanda in 1933, came to Kenya in 1937, attracting many Protestants to evangelical and charismatic Christianity.
An explanatory parenthesis on this Renaissance: an Englishman, John Church, an English missionary doctor of the Church Missionary Society o Church Missionary Society, seeing the poor spiritual situation of the Anglican Church of Uganda, had a "conversion" and started the Revival in neighboring Rwanda, and extended it to Uganda, due to an association it had with some Ugandan evangelists. This movement spread to the Presbyterian and Methodist churches in Kenya and to the Lutheran church in Tanganyika (present-day Tanzania).
Late twentieth century
Fast forward to the 1970s and 1980s. Between 1972 and 1986, according to one study, the number of Pentecostal churches had doubled in Nairobi, faster than any other Christian denomination. In 2006, well-known American televangelist preacher T.D. Jakes succeeded in attracting nearly a third of Nairobi's population to a crusade. A Forum survey conducted that same year suggested that "Renewalists" (Pentecostals and Charismatics) accounted for more than half of the Kenyan population. At that time it was common for a young person to ask you, "Have you been born again?" or to be told, "I am saved." The "saved" and "born-again" wielded some power, for example because of their significant opposition to the introduction of abortion or the establishment of courts. kadhi (Islamic) in a 2005 referendum for a draft national constitution.
Inculturated form of Christianity
According to a report entitled Charismatic Pentecostal churches in Kenya: growth, cultureThese churches proved to be a threat to the majority churches, not least because women and marginalized groups found a "home" in these churches. This "inculturated" form of Christianity made a majority of Kenyans feel spiritually cared for, as they offered a "personal" encounter with God through the power of the spirit. They responded to an existential need: to provide healing from sickness and deliverance from all kinds of ills, all according to an African worldview.
Another study suggested that this branch of Christianity has spread rapidly in Africa because its theological and ritual emphasis on spiritual combat provides a powerful link to existing cosmologies while preserving the meaning of traditional religion. Jesus is often portrayed as a male power figure, as someone loving and caring, rather than a judgmental, punitive and authoritarian father. As if to underscore this in practice, Pentecostal/charismatic preachers dress well, speak confidently and thus counter any impression or accusation that a man of God is someone soft. Their success is also due to their aggressive evangelism, mobilization of the laity and their festive character, with lively and catchy music and dancing.
And to support this even further, a very popular ten-week program for men is currently underway in Nairobi, entitled Man EnoughThe "Man Enough," instituted by a Pentecostal pastor who is attracting Protestants and Catholics alike, on how to be a good, honest, faithful, serious, etc., father and husband.
Openness to modernity
A more subtle, but very real, bait is his openness to modernity, a compelling desire to appear successful, to reflect a modern vision and to give an internet image. All this is especially attractive to the rising African youth: a lay-oriented leadership, an ecclesiastical responsibility based on a person's charismatic qualities; in addition, the innovative use of modern communication technologies and a relaxed fashion code. The youth are privileged to access these forms of modernity because of their literacy level; the "elite" youth, young professionals and frustrated graduates understand that these churches respond to their needs in a way that other institutions do not or are unable to do, reinforced and encouraged by door-to-door evangelism, home meetings, public preaching and tent crusades, all of which appeal to the African personality and lifestyle: life in the open air rather than in the privacy of the home.
The report Pentecostalization and faith in the global south summarizes it in three main characteristics: "Transformation", "Empowerment" and "Healing and liberation".
Transformation" refers to the availability of a direct and particularly intense encounter with God that brings about profound changes in the life and circumstances of the person. There is a sense of transformation at the personal and community levels, including a new dynamism in worship, inspired by the Holy Spirit. The main theological emphasis is on the transformation brought about by the encounter with God: that is, the renunciation of recourse to traditional religion and belief in God alone.
Empowerment" is the effect of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. African religion is trusted to deal with the effects of evil caused by evil spirits and witchcraft, which are responsible for sickness, failure, childlessness, etc. African Pentecostal churches provide the ritual context for prayer and exorcism to "deliver the afflicted."
"Healing and deliverance. When things are not going well, it is explained by the work of demons and witches. For the Pentecostal believer, the Gospel consists of restoration so that the transformation of the personality manifests itself in health and well-being; in other words, salvation includes spiritual and physical abundance, deliverance from sickness, poverty, misfortune, as well as deliverance from sin and evil.
Experience in Uganda
The experience in Uganda is similar, though not identical. Here, too, the emphasis is on material and financial prosperity, abundance, and physical health: the Prosperity Gospel (a late 19th century movement in the United States that preached the "gospel" of success, faith in oneself, etc.), in which congregants tithe to the Church with "the promise and expectation of receiving great gifts from God in return". Abundant wealth is considered a right; the reasoning goes as follows: Jesus overcame the suffering of this world, including poverty; therefore, wealth is a blessing. I remember once following a car with a sticker on the rear window that said, "I saw it. I prayed. I got it."
A Pew report in 2006 stated that Pentecostalism was then followed by 20 percent of the Ugandan population. In fact, in the last decade the majority churches have lost a considerable number of adherents. For example, national censuses show that Anglicans have gone from 37 % of the population in 2002 to 32 % in 2014; and the Catholic Church has also lost adherents to Pentecostalism, though fewer.
As elsewhere, but in a special way and very much integrated into the Ugandan culture and way of being, Ugandan Pentecostals in Uganda make much use of radio, television and movies, and have several radio stations. Ugandans have no qualms about externalizing their culture, and if they are Pentecostals, the flashier and louder the better. In addition to radio and television, lunchtime worship services on weekdays are popular for their supposed healing powers. In Kampala they are building their "cathedral", the Alpha Tabernaclewith capacity for 6,000 people.
While in Uganda, the Established Church was unofficially Anglican since at first the Church Missionary Society (mostly Anglican) practically invited the British to Uganda, and the Anglican bishop was third in order of precedence (after the governor and the king of Buganda, the Kabaka) at official functions, Anglicanism did not come to Rwanda until World War I, from Uganda. Less than 10 % of Rwandans are Anglicans and, due to the influence of the Church of Johnhad been a church of the balokole (the saved), as mentioned earlier in this article.
In Rwanda, the most Catholic
Rwanda was known as possibly the most Catholic nation in Africa, with about two-thirds of the population baptized as Catholics. The faith came to the country in the late 1880s, when it was under German and then Belgian rule. However, the Church's prestige suffered a blow during the 1994 genocide, when Catholic leaders failed to condemn the violence and some clergy went along with it. In 2006, the percentage of Catholics was 56 % of the population. In addition, many Tutsis who had fled before or during the genocide and returned had been exposed to Protestantism in other East African countries or in the Western world and had abandoned Catholic practice, bringing instead a form of worship that could appeal to a traumatized population. However, on Sundays the Catholic churches are full to overflowing, with very many male worshippers; even the weekday masses are very well attended. In Rwandan towns and villages, Sundays are characterized by the joyfulness of those attending mass; by contrast, other churches, including Pentecostal churches, are more low-key.
Southern Kenya, Tanzania
In Tanzania, Pentecostalism grew substantially in the 1980s and charismatic groups soon emerged in the Catholic and Lutheran churches, although it had been present since the early 1900s. Tanzania has a fairly large Muslim population, about one-third of the total of nearly 60 million people; Christians make up the remainder, and Catholics are about 25 % of the total national population.In an 18-year study in Iringa, a typical region in the center of the country, Martin Lindhart of the University of Southern Denmark concluded that the main concern of Pentecostal congregations was deliverance from evil spirits and witch attacks, a conception of illness and healing as a crucial space of communication between humans and spirituals, since, in traditional societies and communities, illness is seen as the effect of a curse. The main rivals of Pentecostals are traditional healers, who confuse believers about the powers of God and the "powers" of Satan. A similar conflict is very common among less educated believers in other parts of this region.
Among the Pentecostal faithful in the cities, the same expectations apply as in the more sophisticated environments of other East African countries. Pentecostalism appeals because lay people are more directly involved; women feel empowered to seek out men with modern family values and bring them to church; men convert because they see in Pentecostalism an opportunity to turn the page and combat sinful inclinations, caused, they reason, by demonic influences, and exercise self-control, and bring order and greater contentment to their lives.
Pentecostalism may be doctrinally deficient, but despite this, or perhaps because of it, its "quick fix" solution seems to fill a void at many levels of society.
The so-called majority churches in these Great Lakes countries-Catholic, Anglican and Lutheran-are facing a serious challenge. In many places, they are rising to the challenge and making more effective use of modern technology. But the temptation remains to water down essential Christian teachings, liturgy and practices in order to attract more of the faithful.
Is Pentecostalism in Africa here to stay? After all, it fulfills the social functions that the mainstream churches helped introduce in these regions: education, health care, dignified treatment of marginalized groups, etc., and it also has a "modern touch and flavor." Or will the more serious believer or convert cease to be attracted by its emphasis on the "external" and yearn instead for something deeper and more lasting?
