Allowing Satan in? Moving Toward a Political Economy of Neo-Pentecostalism in Kenya
In: Journal of Religion in AfricaSearch for other papers by Gregory Deacon in
Current site
Google Scholar
Search for other papers by Gabrielle Lynch in
Current site
Google Scholar
Abstract
Neo-Pentecostalism provides African elites with an avenue for legitimation of authority and wealth and, to some extent, bolsters power and authority. Simultaneously, ordinary people look for control over their lives—realities that help explain the explosion of neo-Pentecostal beliefs across sub-Saharan Africa that began in the 1980s. The political legitimacy provided is open to contestation and debate, liable to be rejected by some and questioned by others. Neo-Pentecostalism can offer defence mechanisms or strategies that assist with survival, but rarely socioeconomic or political change. Instead, it tends to detract from a class-based identification of and opposition to structural violence, inequality, corruption, and oppression, and often contributes to a general sense of uncertainty and insecurity regarding relevant and appropriate responses. The outcome is an unsteady reinforcement of unequal relations of power and wealth. This paper sets out these arguments with reference to Kenya, and more specifically the declarations and actions of both politicians and slum residents.
Purchase
Buy instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
Institutional Login
Log in with Open Athens, Shibboleth, or your institutional credentials
Personal login
Log in with your brill.com account
-
Adato Michelle et al. ‘Exploring Poverty Traps and Social Exclusion in South Africa, Using Qualitative and Quantitative Data’ Journal of Development Studies 2006 42 2 226 247
-
Anderson Alan Viggo Mortenson ‘Pentecostals in Africa: The Shape of Future Christianity?’ The Charismatic Movement and the Churches 2001 Copenhagen University of Aarhus 25 42
-
Anderson David ‘Vigilantes, Violence and the Politics of Public Order in Kenya’ African Affairs 2002 101 405 531 555
-
Asamoah-Gyadu Kwabena ‘“Christ is the Answer”: What is the Question? A Ghana Airways Prayer Vigil and its Implications for Religion, Evil and Public Space’ Journal of Religion in Africa 2005 35 1 93 117
-
Ashforth Adam ‘Reckoning Schemes of Legitimation: On Commissions of Inquiry as Power/knowledge Forms’ Journal of Historical Sociology 1990 3 1 1 22
-
Ashforth Adam ‘Reflections on Spiritual Insecurity in a Modern African City (Soweto)’ African Studies Review 1998 41 3 39 67
-
Blunt Robert Weiss Brad ‘Satan is an Imitator: Kenya’s Recent Cosmology of Corruption’ Producing African Futures: Ritual and Reproduction in a Neoliberal Age 2004 Leiden Brill
-
Bodewes Christine ‘Civil Society and the Consolidation of Democracy in Kenya: An Analysis of a Catholic Parish’s Efforts in Kibera Slum’ Journal of Modern African Studies 2010 48 4 547 571
-
Brouwer Steve , Gifford Paul & Rose Susan Exporting the American Gospel: Global Christian Fundamentalism 1996 London Routledge
-
CISA [Catholic Information Service for Africa] ‘Born-again PM now Baptized by Maverick Cleric’ 2009 May 5 Nairobi
-
Chitando Ezra Haram Liv & Yamba Bawa ‘Deliverance and Sanctified Passports: Prophetic Activities amidst Uncertainty in Harare’ Dealing with Uncertainty in Contemporary African Lives 2009 Stockholm Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
-
Comaroff John & Comaroff Jean ‘Occult Economies and the Violence of Abstraction: Notes from the South African Postcolony’ American Ethnologist 1999 26 2 279 303
-
Daily Nation ‘Is Devil Worship Real in the Country?’ 1999 July 9 Nairobi
-
Daily Nation ‘Devil Worship a Reality, Moi tells Meeting’ 1999 August 21 Nairobi
-
Daily Nation ‘A Cry of Solidarity with Poor Haitians Coming From the Heart’ 2010 January 23 Nairobi
-
Daily Nation ‘Devil Worship Rampant in Schools’ 2010 June 13 Nairobi
-
Deacon Gregory ‘Pentecostalism and Development in Kibera Informal Settlement, Nairobi’ Development in Practice 2012 22 5-6 663 674
-
De Smedt Johan ‘“No Raila, no Peace!” Big Man Politics and Election Violence at the Kibera Grassroots’ African Affairs 2009 108 433 581 598
-
Ehrenreich Barbara Smile or Die: How Positive Thinking Fooled America and the World 2009 London Granta
-
Ellis Steven & ter Haar Gerrie ‘Religion and Politics in sub-Saharan Africa’ Journal of Modern African Studies 1998 36 2 175 201
-
Ellison Christopher ‘Religious Involvement and Self Perception Among Black Americans’ Social Forces 1993 71 4 1027 1055
-
Englund Harri ‘Pentecostalism Beyond Belief: Trust and Democracy in a Malawian Township’ Africa 2007 77 4 477 499
-
Englund Harri & Leach James ‘Ethnography and the Meta-narratives of Modernity’ Current Anthropology 2000 41 2 225 248
-
Ferguson James Global Shadows: Africa in the Neoliberal World Order 2006 Durham, NC Duke University Press
-
Gifford Paul ‘Prosperity: A New and Foreign element in African Christianity’ Religion 1990 20 4 373 388
-
Gifford Paul Gifford Paul ‘Reinhard Bonnke’s Mission to Africa and his 1991 Nairobi Crusade’ New Dimensions in African Christianity 1992 Nairobi All Africa Conference of Churches
-
Gifford Paul Christianity and Politics in Doe’s Liberia 1993 Cambridge University Press
-
Gifford Paul Ghana’s New Christianity: Pentecostalism in a Globalising African Economy 2004 London Hurst
-
Gifford Paul ‘Trajectories in African Christianity’ International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church 2008 8 4 275 289
-
Gîjhînji M. ‘Income Distribution and Dualism: The Case of Kenya’ Review of Development Economics 2000 4 3 326 339
-
The Guardian ‘Kenya “in Grip of Devil Worship”’ 1999 August 12 London
-
Gusman Alessandro ‘HIV/AIDS, Pentecostal Churches, and the “Joseph Generation” in Uganda’ Africa Today 2009 56 1 67 86
-
Hackett Rosalind ‘Discourses of Democratization in Africa and Beyond’ Diogenes 2003 50 3 61 75
-
Hann Chris & Hart Keith Economic Anthropology: History, Ethnography, Critique 2011 Cambridge Polity
-
Hearn Julie ‘The “Invisible” NGO: U.S. Evangelical Missions in Kenya’ Journal of Religion in Africa 2002 32 1 32 60
-
Kagwanja Peter ‘Facing Mount Kenya or Facing Mecca? The Mungiki, Ethnic Violence and the Politics of the Moi Succession in Kenya, 1987-2002’ African Affairs 2003 102 406 25 49
-
Kenya, Republic of Report of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry into the Cult of Devil Worship in Kenya 2000 Nairobi Government Printers
-
Kenya, Republic of Commission of Inquiry into Post-Election Violence 2008 Nairobi Government Printers
-
Lévi-Strauss Claude The Savage Mind 1966 Letchworth Garden City Press
-
Lonsdale John ‘Agency in Tight Corners: Narrative and Initiative in African History’ Journal of African Cultural Studies 2000 13 1 5 16
-
Lynch Gabrielle ‘Durable Solution, Help or Hindrance? The Failings and Unintended Implications of Relief and Recovery Efforts for Kenya’s Post-election IDPs’ Review of African Political Economy 2009 36 122 604 610
-
Lynch Gabrielle Schwarzmantel John & Kraetzschmar Hendrik ‘Democratisation and “criminal” violence in Kenya’ Democracy and Violence: Global Debates and Local Challenges 2011a London Routledge
-
Lynch Gabrielle I Say to You: Ethnic Politics and the Kalenjin in Kenya 2011b Chicago, IL University of Chicago Press
-
Marshall Ruth Political Spiritualities: The Pentecostal Revolution in Nigeria 2009 London University of Chicago Press
-
Martin David Pentecostalism: The World Their Parish 2002 Oxford Blackwell
-
Meyer Bergit ‘“If You are a Devil, You are a Witch and if You are a Witch, You are a Devil”: The Integration of “Pagan” Ideas into the Conceptual Universe of Ewe Christians in Southeastern Ghana’ Journal of Religion in Africa 1992 22 2 98 132
-
Meyer Bergit ‘“Delivered from the Powers of Darkness”: Confessions of Satanic Riches in Christian Ghana’ Africa 1995 65 2 236 255
-
Meyer Bergit ‘Pentecostalism and Neo-liberal Capitalism: Faith, Prosperity and Vision in African Pentecostal-Charismatic Churches’ Journal for the Study of Religion 2007 20 2 5 28
-
Mitullah Winnie & Gitau Kirarah Nairobi Situation Analysis 2000 Nairobi UN-HABITAT
-
Ogembo Justus ‘Cultural Narratives, Violence and Mother-son Loyalty: An Exploration into Gusii Personification of Evil’ Ethos 2001 29 1 3 29
-
Osborn Michelle ‘Fuelling the Flames: Rumour and Politics in Kibera’ Journal of Eastern African Studies 2008 2 2 315 327
-
Parsons Timothy ‘“Kibra Is Our Blood”: The Sudanese Military Legacy in Nairobi’s Kibera Location, 1902-1968’ The International Journal of African Historical Studies 1997 30 1 87 122
-
Phiri Isabel ‘President Frederick J.T. Chiluba of Zambia: The Christian Nation and Democracy’ Journal of Religion in Africa 2003 33 4 401 428
-
Riddell Barry ‘Structural Adjustment Programmes and the City in Tropical Africa’ Urban Studies 1997 34 8 1297 1307
-
Sabar-Friedman Gabar Church, State and Society in Kenya: From Mediation to Opposition, 1963-1993 2002 London Frank Cass
-
Schatzberg Michael Political Legitimacy in Middle Africa: Father, Family Food 2001 Bloomington Indiana University Press
-
Scott James C. Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance 1985 New Haven, CT Yale University Press
-
Smith Daniel ‘The Arrow of God: Pentecostalism, Inequality and the Supernatural in South Eastern Nigeria’ Africa 2001 71 4 587 613
-
Smith James ‘Buying a Better Witch Doctor: Witch-finding, Neoliberalism, and the Development Imagination in the Taita Hills, Kenya’ American Ethnologist 2005 32 1 141 158
-
Smith Neil ‘The Satanic Geographies of Globalization: Uneven Development in the 1990s’ Public Culture 1997 10 1 169 189
-
Anyangu Susan Standard Digital ‘Raila’s Plunge into a Pool Stirs Political Ripples’ n.d. Nairobi <http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?id=%201144013469&cid=159&story=Raila’s%20plunge%20into%20a%20pool%20stirs%20political%20ripples&articleID=1144013469>
-
The Standard ‘Judge frees girl who killed stepfather over TV programme’ 2010 September 28 Nairobi
-
The Star ‘Kibera Electrocution’ 2011 February 15 Nairobi
-
The Star ‘ICC Monitoring Uhuru, Ruto “Prayer” Rallies’ 2012 February 3 Nairobi
-
Stavrou Aki Crime in Nairobi: Results of a Citywide Victim Survey 2002 Nairobi UNDP and UN-Habitat
-
Time ‘Why is Pat Robertson Blaming Haiti?’ 2010 January 14 London
-
Throup David Hansen B. & Twaddle M. ‘Render Unto Caesar the Things that are Caesar’s: The Politics of Church-state Conflict in Kenya, 1978-1990’ Religion and Politics in East Africa 1995 London James Currey
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 3735 | 320 | 22 |
| Full Text Views | 268 | 9 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 184 | 13 | 0 |
Allowing Satan in? Moving Toward a Political Economy of Neo-Pentecostalism in Kenya
In: Journal of Religion in AfricaSearch for other papers by Gregory Deacon in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Search for other papers by Gabrielle Lynch in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Abstract
Neo-Pentecostalism provides African elites with an avenue for legitimation of authority and wealth and, to some extent, bolsters power and authority. Simultaneously, ordinary people look for control over their lives—realities that help explain the explosion of neo-Pentecostal beliefs across sub-Saharan Africa that began in the 1980s. The political legitimacy provided is open to contestation and debate, liable to be rejected by some and questioned by others. Neo-Pentecostalism can offer defence mechanisms or strategies that assist with survival, but rarely socioeconomic or political change. Instead, it tends to detract from a class-based identification of and opposition to structural violence, inequality, corruption, and oppression, and often contributes to a general sense of uncertainty and insecurity regarding relevant and appropriate responses. The outcome is an unsteady reinforcement of unequal relations of power and wealth. This paper sets out these arguments with reference to Kenya, and more specifically the declarations and actions of both politicians and slum residents.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 3735 | 320 | 22 |
| Full Text Views | 268 | 9 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 184 | 13 | 0 |
