Ghana's New Christianity: Pentecostalism in a Globalising African Economy. Paul Gifford. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2004. 216 pp. $24.95 paper.
Over the last twenty five years or so there has been a remarkable transformation in global Christianity, the growth of vast numbers of churches which are variously described as charismatic or neo-Pentecostal (though speaking in tongues, central to traditional pentecostalism, is not a major aspect and is often not present at all). In Nigeria, their members call themselves the Born Again. These churches have flourished remarkably in the Two-Thirds World, especially in Latin America and Africa. Paul( David) Yonggi Cho's neo-Pentecostal church in Seoul is thought to be the largest single church in the world. This remarkable phenomenon is sometimes understood as an aspect of globalisation, and of an American dominance which is cultural as well as military, economic and political.
Gifford describes a pattern in Ghana which is equally true elsewhere in Africa. "Recent years have seen the collapse of the older AICs [African Initiated Churches, called Spirit Churches in Ghana, Aladura in Nigeria and Zionist in Africa] the relative decline of the mainline churches, and the explosion of the charismatics." (p.38)
Paul Gifford was the first academic to realise the importance of the Born Again churches in Africa. He has written both books and articles on the subject, beginning with The Religious Right in Southern Africa (Harare: Baobab, 1988) and including Christianity and Politics in Doe's Liberia (1993). Gifford has always been critical of these churches. His pioneering role, and the volume of his publications, mean that academics have tended to see them through his eyes. They have often been very sympathetic to the deeply indigenised AICs, and hostile to the Born Again churches.
It is important to realise that other scholars who have studied them have described them more sympathetically. They include Ruth Marshall-Fratani, writing of Nigeria, David Maxwell, writing of Zimbabwe, and Nigerian Matthews Ojo's accounts of the Deeper Life Ministry in Nigeria. These take the form, not of books, but of articles or contributions to symposia, and therefore are harder for the general reader to track down. (There is a bibliographic discussion, with details, on pages 374-5 of my own recent book, The Religious Traditions of Africa, A History).
Some attempts have been made to group the AICs and Born Again churches together, as Churches of the Spirit, but the Born Again are critical of Aladura style churches. AICs are deeply indigenised, using a local language, and rejecting only limited aspects of "tradition" which seem clearly incompatible with Christianity. Born Again churches follow international worship patterns, and tend to be critical of traditional cultures as a whole. They appeal to the young, and worship partly or entirely in English (or French, in francophone states). Their music is international gospel pop, often performed by professionals, and they use sophisticated sound systems. They draw their converts from other churches.
Both in Africa and America, there has been a great deal of criticism of what its supporters call the Faith Gospel and its opponents call the Gospel of Prosperity, which is central to most of these churches. It relies on highly selected biblical texts and emphasises the importance of tithing (which goes to the pastor and local church). There is a promise that giving in this way will lead to a magical prosperity, which is clearly attractive in societies where poverty is rife and there seem to be few ways of escaping it. Sometimes, the tithes of the poor support a pastor in a high flying lifestyle. (This was true of the Bakkers in the United States and of the late Archbishop Benson Idahosa in Benin, Nigeria.)
The Gospel of Prosperity undoubtedly entered Africa from America. One of its leading proponents was the late Kenneth Hagin, whose Rhema church and ministry was based in Oklahoma. Idahosa studied under Hagin and went on to found a large Bible school, attended by the founders of two of the six churches in Greater Accra, which Gifford studies in detail. One of these Accra churches, part of a large network founded by a Nigerian, is popularly called Winners' Chapel.
Members of these churches were sometimes urged to borrow money, if necessary, in order to give to the church and thus qualify for a supernatural monetary blessing. Like their American mentors, and Idahosa, pastors are forced to fundraise by the financial demands of their ambitious projects, which often include a television program. It is often alleged that people become pastors in search of a good livelihood, and this is probably true at times. But as Gifford points out, a leading Ghanaian church founder, Dag Heward-Mills, was originally a doctor. He explains that Kenneth Hagin is the religious teacher who influenced him most. William Kumuyi, founder of Nigeria's Deeper Life Ministry, was a former maths lecturer. Far from stressing prosperity, his teachings were so austere that for a time his followers had to avoid TV and soft drinks. His church finances a network of missions in many African countries.
Gifford points out, here and elsewhere, that the Gospel of Prosperity is inimical to development. There is no concern for society as a whole, or the realisation of a greater degree of social or economic justice. Poor individuals are to be enriched by quasi-magical means-a "solution," of course, which is only available to the Born Again.
This book is probably Gifford's most valuable contribution to the study of the Born Again churches to date. He is at pains to point out the differences between them- including the different social classes attending various churches. He has often lamented a tendency to attribute social problems, sickness, poverty and so on, to demons. Thus, he quoted a speaker at Liberian prayer breakfast, who attributed food scarcity to a demon of rice shortages!
"Deliverance" from (Satan/demons/witches) has been a key theme in these churches, but here, Gifford provides much interesting detail. Deliverance ministries, he says, have been in decline since 1995, and the emphasis on demonic agency varies greatly- central in Prophet Elisha Amoako's Alive Chapel, and scarcely mentioned by the influential Pastor Mensa Otabil. As Gifford points out, Otabil is a universally respected figure, praised even by those who condemn Born Again churches in general. He sees himself above all as a teacher, rejecting magical formulae for wealth or visas and with a real concern for the problems of society as a whole. This example - like that of Kumuyi in Nigeria - shows that any generalisation about the Born Again and their pastors has exceptions.
It is important to realise that these churches have many local critics, and that, as both Marshall-Fratani and Maxwell point out, there also has been an increasingly vocal critique of money making pastors from within.
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Gifford has been extraordinarily productive over the last fifteen years or so. He has also written or edited important studies of the public face of African Christianity and its interface with politics. He edited Christian Churches and the Democratisation of Africa, published in 1995, and wrote African Christianity, Its Public Role, which appeared three years later. I found this book, based on nineteen months participant observation in Accra and the study of these churches' vast output of pamphlets, videos, tapes and so on, fascinating.
He sees their teachings, to a large extent, as a form of false consciousness. Marshall-Fratani, however, points out in her various papers that they give their members confidence and community in difficult times, and that it is patronising to think of church goers as dupes. Maxwell's studies remind us that these churches are not necessarily recent foreign imports; they often grew out of older Pentecostal missions, such as the Assemblies of God, which had long been staffed by Africans. (In Nigeria, both Idahosa and Kumuyi had been members of such churches.)
Gifford is now sixty. Since his mid forties he has produced more books and articles than many scholars do in their whole adult lifetimes. I admire his work, and, over the years, have learned a great deal from it.
Elizabeth Isichei has been Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand since 1992. She taught in African universities for many years and has written more than a dozen books on African history and religion. They include A History of Christianity in Africa (SPCK/Eerdman, 1995), Voices of the Poor in Africa (University of Rochester Press, 2002) and The Religious Traditions of Africa (Praeger2004).
