ABSTRACT
The term “Pentecostalism” in the Southern African context refers to divergent churches that emphasize the working of the Spirit in the church, particularly with ecstatic phenomena like prophecy and speaking in tongues, healing and exorcism. These features are characteristic of Pentecostalism throughout the world, and are widespread throughout Africa across a great variety of Christian churches. These include thousands of African initiated churches (AICs) known collectively as “prophet-healing”, “Spirit” or “spiritual” churches, and in Southern Africa as “Zion” churches after the Chicago movement of John Alexander Dowie, and “Apostolics” after the classical Pentecostal mission from which they emerged, the Apostolic Faith Mission.1 The largest denomination in South Africa is the Zion Christian Church, led by the Lekganyane dynasty, which has historical links with Pentecostalism.2 But the term also includes two other types of churches that are now growing more rapidly than the older AICs in Southern Africa: those churches of western Pentecostal origin, and the new independent Charismatic churches and “ministries” that have arisen since the late seventies. The latter two will be the subject of this chapter. I will also put most of the focus on South Africa (SA) for three main reasons. First, it is the country with which I am most familiar. Second, the context of SA is unlike any other African country and therefore has its own peculiarities. Third, South African Pentecostalism has had considerable influence on the Pentecostalism found in the rest of the Southern African region. Classical Pentecostal and new Charismatic churches are actively growing
throughout Southern Africa. This is particularly the case in Zimbabwe, where they were estimated to be about a quarter of the population in 2010; and in Zambia and SA about a tenth. If we add the African “Spirit” churches to this reckoning, then the figures would be considerably higher. More than half of Zimbabwe’s population would belong to African Pentecostal churches, 40% of
SA’s and Swaziland’s, and over a quarter of the populations of Zambia, Malawi, Botswana and Lesotho.3 There are also now considerable numbers in Namibia and the former Portuguese-ruled countries of Mozambique and Angola. Although reliable statistics are notoriously difficult to come by, impressionistic, and subject to interpretations of how “Pentecostal” is defined, these crude figures do give some indication of the undoubtedly enormous significance of Pentecostalism in Southern Africa. Considerable research has been going on for many years in other African countries, but relatively little has been written on Pentecostalism in Southern Africa.4 One of the reasons for this may be that the megachurches for which Nigeria and Ghana are famous are less numerous among Southern Africans. However, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, the significant proportion of the region’s population that is “Pentecostal” makes this an important subject. I prefer a wide definition to include those Pentecostals with historical links to worldwide Pentecostal denominations, the African initiated “Spirit” churches with historical intersections with Pentecostalism (but following a trajectory of their own), and the newer independent Charismatic and Pentecostal churches.5 The newer churches in Southern Africa exhibit very similar characteristics to those in West Africa outlined in several studies, and they appeal especially, but not exclusively, to middle-class, modernizing and upwardly aspiring young Africans.6
