African Pentecostalism: An Introduction

by Ogbu Kalu

Across Africa, Christianity is thriving in all shapes and sizes. But one particular strain of Christianity prospers more than most -- Pentecostalism. Pentecostals believe that everyone can personally receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit such as prophecy or the ability to speak in tongues. In Africa, this kind of faith, in which the supernatural is a daily presence, is sweeping the continent. Today, about 107 million Africans are Pentecostals -- and the numbers continue to rise. In this book, Ogbu Kalu provides the first ever overview of Pentecostalism in Africa. He shows the amazing diversity of the faith, which flourishes in many different forms in diverse local contexts. While most people believe that Pentecostalism was brought to Africa and imposed on its people by missionaries, Kalu argues emphatically that this is not the case. Throughout the book, he demonstrates that African Pentecostalism is distinctly African in character, not imported from the West. With an
even-handed approach, Kalu presents the religion's many functions in African life. Rather than shying away from controversial issues like the role of money and prosperity in the movement, Kalu describes malpractice when he sees it. The only book to offer a comprehensive look at African Pentecostalism, this study touches upon the movement's identity, the role of missionaries, media and popular culture, women, ethics, Islam, and immigration. The resulting work will prove invaluable to anyone interested in Christianity outside the West.

Genres: Christian

359 pages, Paperback

First published March 31, 2008

Reviews

[Martin Navarro]

Ogbu Kalu covered a significant amount of African Pentecostal history. The book is great, but has some issues with foot notes. There were words that probably made sense for Ethiopians, but does not make sense to an English speaker.
Kalu is a historian and his approach is strongly focused on African Pentecostal identity. The author drifts away from the missionary enterprise of the west, and argues that Pentecostals existed before the western missionaries arrived to Ethiopia. The book challenges the reader to do further research on African Pentecostalism, because of it syncretism with local traditions. Overall this book is aimed to an audience who is interested in history, mission and Pentecostalism.

[Christopher Smith]

Ogbu Kalu's grasp of the English language is not perfect, and apparently the editors at Oxford University Press edit while drunk. I can't think of any other way to explain the glaring typos, misspellings, sentence fragments, and other grammatical issues in Kalu's latest book, African Pentecostalism: An Introduction. After about the fifth time the word "implode" was used to mean "explode", I had to restrain myself from writing a nasty letter to the people at Oxford revoking their English language privileges. Once I got over that, however, I was able to appreciate the extraordinary amount of research and thought that Kalu clearly put into this book. It was a monumental effort, and one that Kalu executed flawlessly from start to finish.

Perhaps because he is not interested in the debate over whether missions constitute cultural imperialism, Kalu avoids polemic and manages to paint a subtle portrait of the tensions between externality and internality in African Pentecostalism. The interesting thing about this argument is that it does not hinge upon indigenization. He is uninterested in AICs that have adapted Christianity to fit African belief and ritual. Rather, he seeks to demonstrate that when Pentecostalism arrived in Africa it already had within it powerful resonances with "the African map of the universe." In Kalu's words, Pentecostals offer "new realities" that, "though seemingly from outside, come in to fulfill aspirations within the tradition and, then, to offer quite significantly the basis of self-understanding within the tradition" (186).