Utambuzi: Journal for the Study of the Religions of Africa and its Diaspora
Utambuzi is a KiSwahili word which can be translated as ‘insight’, ‘diagnosis’ or ‘recognition’, which captures the journal’s central aim and objectives: - to provide empirical and theoretical insight into the ever-changing landscape of religion on the African continent and its global diaspora, both historically and today. - to diagnose, or critically analyse and evaluate, the complex roles of religious belief and practice in African social, cultural, political and economic spheres, examining how religion intersects with other social categories and structures of power. - to recognize the importance of African-centric perspectives, methodologies and modes of theorizing, as a contribution to global knowledge production about religion as well as about Africa and its diaspora.
The African Association for the Study of Religions
This study examines how communality is being reimagined within university Christian student organizations, focusing on the Kenyatta University Christian Union (KUCU). Against the backdrop of rapid technological change and shifting generational values, it explores how KUCU navigates the tension between traditional African communal philosophies and contemporary individualism. Historically, African societies fostered deep daily connections rooted in shared language, culture, and religion. In contrast, KUCU operates within a diverse academic environment, where students differ in ethnicity, faith, and discipline. Using Optimal Distinctiveness Theory (ODT), which balances the human need for belonging and uniqueness, the study investigates KUCU’s strategies for cultivating solidarity and inclusion. Employing ethnographic methods, including interviews, observations, and focus groups, it addresses three core questions: How does KUCU foster communality? What integrative practices support its diverse membership? And how does it draw from African communal traditions? The findings argue that communality within KUCU is dynamic and adaptive, reflecting a postmodern model of integration where individuality and collective identity are continuously negotiated.
Copyright (c) 2025 Stephen Kioko (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Fictive Kinship as Social Capital in Jubilee Christian Church Nairobi
This paper draws on fieldwork conducted at Jubilee Christian Church (JCC), Parklands, in Nairobi, Kenya. It examines how fictive kinship among the church members functions as social capital, facilitating trust, resource sharing, and mutual aid. Using data gathered through an ethnographic study of JCC, the study posits that fictive kinship offers its members spiritual, emotional, and economic benefits. The primary methods employed for data collection were participant observation and unstructured interviews. The resulting data was analyzed thematically, and the discussion is based on the fictive kinship theory by Seltzer (1993). The study found that while fictive kinship provides a sense of solidarity and belonging among members, it is possible to exploit individuals based on its principles of public acknowledgment and reciprocity. Notwithstanding, fictive kinship is reinforced by the human need for connection and belonging in a complex urban environment.
Copyright (c) 2025 Edith Kayeli Chamwama (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Research on Pentecostalism, as an emerging religious form, has often focused on its role in the public life of modern Africa, rather than its interaction with socio-cultural categories. Drawing on extended ethnographic research in three Nairobi communities, this article contributes to filling this gap by focusing on kinship within Pentecostal studies. This interdisciplinary study integrates social sciences and world Christianity methodologies to examine this aspect of lived religion. The study found that the use of familial terms in Pentecostal churches underscores the role of local actors in grounding the Christian message in the lives of adherents. This language complements the lived experiences within these communities. Community leaders engage in a continuous translation process, adapting local visions of relational bonds to better articulate the Christian experience within their cosmopolitan context. These findings contribute to the body of knowledge on agency and vectors of Christian religious experience in the non-Western world.
Copyright (c) 2025 Kyama Mugambi (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
There is a consensus that the growth of technology in Kenya facilitated the spread of religion within the country during the COVID-19 pandemic. This article investigates how technology reshaped religious practice in Kenya during the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on CITAM Ngong Church. Based on six months of ethnographic fieldwork, the study examines how religious actors created virtual spaces to sustain worship in the absence of physical gatherings. Using Rogers’ diffusion and adoption theory, it analyzes how generational access and resource availability influenced participation in online religious life. Findings show that technological adoption was a complex and inherently social process. Further, the adoption of digital platforms was a socially negotiated process, shaped by age within and across the congregation, technology access, and differing understandings of spiritual presence online. The study argues that these virtual spaces function not only as practical substitutes during lockdowns but also as emerging cultural and spiritual sites of place-making that reframe narratives of divine action, transcendent presence, and communal belonging.
Copyright (c) 2025 Loreen Maseno (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The Bible as a Social Organizational Tool in African Urban Pentecostalism
African urban Pentecostalism has attracted growing scholarly attention for its complex social and cultural dynamics. A key factor in its development is the strong resonance between African cultural values—especially the centrality of family—and Old Testament social structures. This article examines how the Bible functions as a tool of social organization within African urban Pentecostalism, shaping communal life amid the disruptions of urbanization, industrialization, and capitalism. Focusing on Christ is the Answer Ministries (CITAM), Valley Road, and using grounded theory to analyze qualitative data, the study argues that African urban Pentecostalism emerges from a tension between the traditional extended family and the increasingly dominant nuclear family. The findings show that many urban Africans turn to CITAM to navigate these pressures, drawing on biblical interpretation to build alternative or supplementary social networks that foster cohesion and well-being. The article demonstrates that the Bible is not merely a spiritual authority but a vital cultural resource that enables African Pentecostals to reconstruct supportive social structures in an otherwise fragmented urban environment.
Copyright (c) 2025 Paul N. Mwangi (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Where Is Our God?: African Christianity and Responses to the Pandemic edited by J. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu, Mark S. Aidoo, and Esther E. Acolatse
Copyright (c) 2025 Chammah J. Kaunda (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Resilience of African Kinship Values amidst COVID-19 Pandemic Disruptions in Masvingo and Bikita Districts, Zimbabwe
This article sought to explore the extent to which African kinship values remained resilient amidst COVID-19 pandemic disruptions in the Masvingo and Bikita districts, Zimbabwe. The study was guided by the social disruption theory. Adopting a phenomenological approach, this qualitative study used key informant interviews, focus group discussions, observations, and a review of available literature to gather data. The research’s main finding was that African kinship values were disrupted, but by and large, the communities were resilient to the COVID-19 pandemic-induced restrictions from March 2020 to June 2022. The paper argues that whilst discomfort and uncertainty were a litmus test for the efficacy of African kinship values and principles, the communities in Masvingo and Bikita districts redefined their values, sense of belonging, and emotional well-being across the gender divide in temporal and spatial spheres. It can be concluded that the African kinship value system played a critical role in integrating health and social care systems in the Masvingo and Bikita districts.
Copyright (c) 2025 Fortune Sibanda , Tenson Mutyambo (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
In the post-COVID context, religious identities and practices have undergone transformation. While existing research has focused on religious institutions, there is a gap in understanding nuanced expressions of non-religious identities in the Kenyan context. In other research, Ndereba (2023b; 2024) has provided an analysis of non-religious identities, including atheism, in the Kenyan context. Grounded in an exploratory research perspective, this paper argues that digital kinship is providing a sense of identity, belonging, and expression for non-religious African youth, including those identifying as ‘spiritual but not religious’ (SBNR). The paper moves beyond traditional kinship structures to show how digital networks facilitate a cross-pollination of both religious and non-religious ideas in the pluralistic religious context of Africa. This research also shows that social media influencers provide a sense of ‘virtual communalism’ for those in a religious minority context of young Kenyans navigating the contemporary African (Kenyan) religious context. Digital kinship is foregrounded due to the capacity of social media to valorize religious and non-religious identities in societies, and it merits fresh analyses from religious scholars, theologians, and social scientists, especially those studying religion and non-religion among Africa’s digital natives.
Copyright (c) 2025 Kevin Muriithi Ndereba (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
World Christianity and Covid-19: Looking Back and Looking Forward by Chammah J. Kaunda
Copyright (c) 2025 Telesia K. Musili (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Christianity, Communality, and Resilience inthe Wake of COVID-19 in African Religious Worlds
Copyright (c) 2025 Telesia K. Musili, Chammah J. Kaunda (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
“Unmasking” the Authenticity of the Values of Communality Post the COVID-19 Pandemic in Nomiya Church- Eastleigh
In Nomiya Church, African values of commuality were refined and reshaped by the COVID-19 pandemic. The advent and subsequent growth of the internet prompted computer-mediated communication in all spheres of humanlife, including religion, where religious rituals and behaviors were transferred and practiced online. This paper unpacks the move from physical church to online church and how that redefined African values in religious practices and worship, especially in an African-instituted church, Nomiya Church Eastleigh. Nomiya is the first independent church in Kenya. The paper utilizes African Communalism theory to make sense of the shifts and postures in African value systems. African communalism theory upholds togetherness and the common good while exhibiting the values of justice, care, and mutual existence. The study found that African communality values are authentically meaningful in physical church gatherings, with virtual spaces acting as fitting substitutes in times of turmoil. Physical presence drives activeness in forming collective identity, an enhanced sense of belonging and interrelational solidarity, enhanced by language exemplified with values. African communality is thus not an inborn static philosophy/trait common to all Africans. However, it is a salient and transient value and framework of ethical decision making worth cultivating for the common good of all.
Late modernity (neo-)liberal states—into which we also inscribe most contemporary African countries—are democracies or semi-authoritarian regimes, not theocracies. Demons and spiritual warfare are not terms that readily belong to this contemporary political lexicon, other than in specific contexts or studies. The study of Pentecostalism in Africa offers an advantageous starting point to the study of demons and spiritual warfare, as there is no need to first reconcile demons and spirits with modernity. The modern/unmodern tension in this field began to be addressed at the beginning of the 21st century, while other areas of enquiry (for example, Pentecostalism and Politics in the United States) remain tied up with questions concerning modernization. However, while spirits and warfare are fully recognized as part of the African political imagination, they are still to be fully integrated into political lexicon and understood in their operational logic, especially with regards to their work in national political spaces. With the rise of Pentecostal politics in the African state, there is still a need to elaborate the necessary lexicon and tools to explain in political terms how demons motivate and shape public action and how they operate within the national political space.
Copyright (c) 2025 Barbara Bompani (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Studying African Religions in the 21st Century
This Introduction offers a brief history of the journal of the African Association for the Study of Religions, and reflects on the journal's relaunch under a new name, Utambuzi, and on a new open access online platform hosted by UJ Press. It also introduces the theme of this special relaunch issue, decicated to '(Re)setting the agenda' of the study of African religions in the 21st century.
Copyright (c) 2025 Abel Ugba, Adriaan van Klinken (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The examination of a single religious tradition and the exploration of the plurality of lived practice provide two broad approaches to the study of religion in Africa. The article discusses each of these units of analysis by introducing two scholarly trends emerging in twenty-first century scholarship: the Anthropology of Christianity and the Plurality of Religion. It discusses the historical background to these trends in the contested definitions of ‘religion’ emerging in the twentieth century. It shows how the trends have been developed and discusses their usefulness in the author’s own work. The article demonstrates that the definition of ‘religion’ matters and the unit of analysis influences the research trajectory and the findings. Researchers are encouraged to consider whether their subjects conform to or challenge their working definitions. The article concludes by asking for reflections on these trends by African scholars and looking forward to further discussions on approaches to the study of religion from insider perspectives.
Copyright (c) 2025 Emma Wild-Wood (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
A Geopolitical Intervention in African Religious Studies
The study of Islam in Africa is undergoing significant transformation as global geopolitical dynamics influence local religious landscapes. The geopolitics of religion between Saudi Arabia and Iran has led to a flow of international students and ideas from the Middle East to Africa, including northern Nigeria. The extension of the Middle Eastern religious soft power on the African religious landscape has generated new trends in the study of Salafism, political Islam, religious extremism, Salafi transnational media, digital Salafism, religious conflicts, and the rise of Shiism in the region. This article reviews relevant scholarship on this subject and explores the impact of these interventions on religious identities in the Anguwan Rogo neighbourhood of Jos. By examining how these transnational Islamic ideologies shape local communities, the article highlights the complexities of religious identity formation in a context marked by both global influences and local realities. The article indicates how these global movements are appropriated, adapted, and contested within the socio-political landscape of Jos. These findings underscore the importance of understanding religious identity in Africa as a dynamic interplay between global trends and local contexts, offering new insights into new trends and developments in the academic study of religion in Africa.
Copyright (c) 2025 Murtala Ibrahim (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Climate, Security, and the Study of Religion in Africa
How the security risks associated with climate change, such as social instability and conflicts over dwindling resources, impact the study of religion in Africa has received limited attention from scholars of African religions, despite the need to determine how these impacts influence how religion is conceptualized. However, climate-related security risks intersect with religious beliefs and practices. This article draws on participatory methodologies and an ethnographic study of the security risks stemming from climate change in northern Mozambique. It demonstrates that the emergence of security challenges related to climate change provides religious studies with new data and, therefore, new challenges in rethinking the meaning of African religions. It also shows the significance of attributing religion to climate disasters among religious communities, exposes the epistemological assumptions and conflicts over the role of religion in social challenges, and demonstrates the transcendence of religious differences in times of widespread social crises. The article thus contributes to setting the stage for future studies that aim to understand how climate-driven vulnerabilities change the conception of and engagement with religion in Africa.
Copyright (c) 2025 Joram Tarusarira, Gracsious Maviza (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Charting New Paths of Religion in African Migration
Since the 1990s, research on religion and migration from Africa and its diasporas has focused on outcomes in destination countries, often neglecting the generative conditions shaping mobility and immobility. This article advances a new research agenda centred on migration aspirations, capabilities, and integration, expanding the scope to include aspiring migrants and non-migrants. Drawing on Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity in Ghana and the experiences of Ghanaian Christian immigrants in Canada, it argues that religion is not merely a facilitator of migration but a transformative force that redefines migration itself. Religious ideas, rituals, and networks shape who migrates, who remains, and how migrants integrate into new societies. Beyond physical movement, African migration encompasses emotional, psychological, and spirited mobilities shaped by dreams, prophecies, and divinely attributed intuitions. Overall, this article moves beyond traditional congregational studies of ‘immigrant religion’ to highlight a broader spectrum of religious phenomena in migratory and diasporic contexts.
Copyright (c) 2025 James Kwateng-Yeboah (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Decolonizing the Study of Africa-Related Religions
This article examines the ongoing process of decolonizing the study of Africa-related religions, which has been shaped by the Anglicizing civilizing mission in sub-Saharan Africa and the current state of English-language academic research. It highlights the importance of understanding researchers’ positionality and the power asymmetries involved in the negotiation of Africa, religion, and education. The first part of the article presents a historical example from Liberia around 1900, illustrating the role of agency and language in the institutionalization of religious studies. The second part emphasizes the significance of translocal entanglements and the differentiation of positionalities for academic collaboration. The article argues that the Christian-European civilizing project continues to influence the field, making the decolonization project and efforts to localize knowledge production about Africa an ongoing and unfinished task. Finally, it offers three theses to inspire future research and discussions on Africa, religion, and coloniality.
Copyright (c) 2025 Diana K. Lunkwitz (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The Future of the Study of Religions in Africa
There is a theoretically intractable argument about what we might mean by ‘Africa’. The origin and knowledge about ‘Africa’ as an identifier or a construct have continued to dictate the agenda for Africa, religions in Africa, and African Studies in Africa and the diaspora. Although ‘religions in Africa’ are receiving profound empirical and methodological attention, this article argues that they have continued to be approached from the theoretical question of what Africa might mean. It further states that the three main religions in Africa—African Indigenous Religion, Christianity, and Islam—are locked in this theoretical hole, but scholars have continued to navigate the threshold through thematic studies dictated by the names of the continent. It concludes by stating that the study of religions in Africa, though complexified, both now and in the past, will still follow the trajectories dictated outside Africa. But the article also suggests that a decolonial-pluriversal approach could help to appreciate the African worldviews in tension with other worldviews.
Copyright (c) 2025 Benson Ohihon Igboin (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Peeping into the Sacralisation of Marijuana in Urban Slums
The smoking of marijuana is considered a criminal act in many parts of the world. In Ghana, marijuana is a criminalized substance. However, the disclosure by the Narcotic Drugs Control Board (NACOB) that Ghana places first and third in the consumption of marijuana in Africa and the world respectively has sustained the debate about the criminalization of the substance. The arrest and prosecution of a popular hip-hop musician, Emmanuel Botchwey, for publicly smoking marijuana has further deepened the debate. This essay seeks to contribute to the debate on the use of marijuana in urban slums, focusing on the sacralisation of marijuana by Muslim youth in Maamobi. The paper argues that, while the consumption of marijuana pre-dates colonialism, the criminalization of the substance in Ghana is a recent phenomenon, largely influenced by the colonialists’ conceptualization of marijuana as a substance that is only smoked for recreational purposes.
Copyright (c) 2016 Journal for the Study of Religion https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Christian Confrontations with Indigenous Beliefs in the Niger Delta
After centuries of deep embeddedness within macrocosmic social structures, including trade with Europeans and other communities along the Niger, the macrocosmic tiers of Brass’ and Bonny’s cosmologies were not as prominent as Robin Horton’s Intellectualist Theory would predict. Rather, this article suggests that a process of microcosmic-tiered condensation precipitated conversion in Brass and Bonny. Church Mission Society archival materials that recount cosmological confrontations between Christian and indigenous beliefs under Bishop Samuel Crowther in Bonny and Rev. Thomas Johnson in Brass are examined, arguing that for individuals that abandoned contested beliefs, the microcosmic tier of their cosmology became smaller with each belief that was disowned. A cosmological lacuna was thereby created that could be filled in a number of ways, including conversion to Christianity. This article suggests that this process of microcosmic-tiered condensation became a contributing factor in conversion in Brass and Bonny.
A Christian Construction of Domestic Violence in Electronic Media
Domestic violence is often literally used as a metaphor for power relationships and expressed in different forms and contexts. Scholarships on domestic violence focus more on medical and social aspects to the neglect of its representation in electronic media. An analysis of home video films, which forms part of the electronic media, is worthwhile in expounding the prevalence, causes and effect of this social ill in the Nigerian society. This paper explores the representation of domestic violence in Ìdààmú Ilémoṣú, a popular video film produced by Kolade Segun-Okeowo, a Nigerian Christian producer of Christian home video films. The analysis of data benefits from the sociology of religion.
This essay explores HIV and AIDS in light of Shona indigenous cultural practices in Zimbabwe. We will focus on indigenous cultural practices that facilitate the spread of the disease, the impact of the spread of the disease on society, the role of Indigenous healers and claims to curing the disease, AIDS education and research into a cure for AIDS, and problems faced by traditionalists in the fight against AIDS. This essay examines case studies of healing practices in the indigenous contexts as perceived by the Shona people, indigenous practitioners and their association ZINATHA, their clients and use of indigenous medicine. Medical specialists the world over are occupied with efforts to find a cure or vaccine for the epidemic. The elusive nature of the disease and failure to attain a cure by the international community warrants continuous efforts to grapple with the problem. Yet in the midst of this, very little in the literature on HIV and AIDS has focused on indigenous cultural practices in Zimbabwe. As a result, it is urgent that we explore the role cultural practices play in contributing or the promotion, prevention and containment of the AIDS epidemic. The essay makes use of sociological, anthropological and historical approaches to establish the role of indigenous culture and beliefs in the fight against the pandemic.
Copyright (c) 2015 Journal for the Study of Religion https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
This essay sees culture as a two-edged sword in HIV and AIDS response. It argues that while scholarly attention has mainly been on how certain cultural practices facilitate the spread of HIV and stand in the way of prevention, treatment and care, there are some ethno-cultural and religious beliefs and practices that can be used for positive HIV and AIDS response. The essay thus identifies and discusses some ethno-cultural and religious factors that contribute to the spread of HIV with the aim of ‘healing’ those that fuel the spread of HIV and promoting those that can be used for positive response.
Church’s Role in Prevention, Care and Management of HIV and AIDS in Western Kenya
The mandate of this essay is two-fold. First, it pays attention to the role of the Church in the care of persons living with HIV and AIDS and the affected. Secondly, it examines the efforts of the Church in prevention and management of HIV and AIDS in Western Kenya. The strategies used by the Church in achieving these two facets therefore forms the basis of the discussion. The viability of these approaches has been discoursed analytically as a basis for providing suggestions that might inform the church leaders and members to rethink the strategies relevant in responding to HIV and AIDS. The discussions are framed under the concept of holistic care and development for humanity. Primary data is sourced from two purposively sampled districts: Vihiga and Busia in Western Kenya. 52 randomly sampled churches provide the sample size from which examples were drawn. As a way forward, given the numerous challenges that the churches face while responding to HIV within communities, we advocate for an integrated approach where churches can borrow strategies that work best from their counterparts.
This volume contains articles that were developed from a study contacted in Botswana to establish how religious beliefs impact health seeking and health provision behaviours among Batswana and, from the findings, to propose review of theological, medical and health education for the purposes of promoting holistic health through the integration of medical, traditional and faith healing. The study was conducted between July 2018 and 30 September 2019. The editors and the whole team of researchers are grateful to the Templeton Religion Trust for funding the project and to the Nagel Institute of Calvin University, Michigan, United States of America for administering the funds and the general running of the project.
Copyright (c) 2023 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
The Role of Religious and Traditional Beliefs on Botswana Medical Practitioners’ Health Provision Behaviours
Religious and traditional belief systems have a bearing on health care provision and vice versa. Faith healing is a crucial component of health care provision. Holistic care should be intertwined within both medical practice and religious and traditional belief systems in order to attain optimal patient care. Using qualitative methodology, this study explores the role of religious and traditional beliefs on medical practitioners’ health provision behaviours. Medical professionals who informed the health provision behaviour were purposively sampled from medical facilities. The results from the study emphasize that a peoples’ religious belief system is a crucial component of delivery of health care. The religious beliefs of the medical practitioner play an important role in optimising patient care. The healing power of science needs to be linked to the dynamics of curing and caring that is derived from religious and traditional contexts. Further research related to religionmedicine interrelationships is recommended.
“When Are You Going to Change Those Stones to Phones?”
On May 15th 2016, the Southern Africa Zone 5 Pastor of Christ Embassy (CE), Pastor Rita, appeared on a live stream service that was broadcast to all the churches in the region to talk about the visit to the Holy Land in Jerusalem by Pastor Chris and his delegation. She later announced that the entire visit can be viewed on Love WorldSat Super User and King’s Chat and encouraged the use of the app to encourage viewership. Following the concept of mediatisation and looking at Pastor Rita’s communiques, this paper explores the appropriation of Social Media (SM) by Pentecostal churches (PCs) in Cape Town, South Africa. It seeks to understand how and to what extent innovation and competition propels PCs’ appropriation of SM to disseminate information, position themselves to attract the desired audience and maintain relevance in the face of mounting competition. Acknowledging the premise that the church is fast eroding and peoples’ lives are increasingly on the move, PC understand that the success of church depends on how they stay connected with Christians and evolve with the times. SM thus becomes the tool onthe- get-go, a way for accessing the church, and for PCs to stay connected with Christians, given their accessibility on mobile phones.
Copyright (c) 2019 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Religious Innovation and Competition amidst Urban Social Change
We are a group of 9 researchers curious to explore how local churches in two specific regions of Pretoria – Pretoria Central and Mamelodi East – respond to urban change and vulnerability, whether there are signs of religious innovation and competition, and whether there is evidence of churches in these regions contributing to the healing, or perpetuation, of urban fractures. In the article we engage critically the concepts of innovation, competition, vulnerability and urban change, recognizing that these are by no means neutral terms. We approach the research in a trans-disciplinary manner, outlining our specific research methods – mapping, surveys, focus groups, and the World Café – in a self-critical manner. We then describe the face of the locality, as well as the face of the broader context, identifying emerging themes surfacing from our research engagements. These include the different faces of migration; church members as distant consumers or vested contributors; ecclesiologies under construction; informality, innovation and the church; and youth agency. We reflect critically on both innovation and competition as we encountered it in these communities, appreciating the dynamism and fluidity of many of the churches but concluding that these churches held largely unfulfilled potential as agents of urban social change.
‘Battling for Souls: Contesting for Space’?
There is no doubt of the existence of religious competition and conversion in Africa. Pentecostalism has become one of the fastest growing forms of Christianity that has created a major competition for African traditional religions. This study concurs with the idea that diversity and competition are often vehicles, if not drivers, of creative change, and such innovation creates more competition. It is the thrust of this study to analyse how contemporary Pentecostalism in Harare has been forced to create innovations from African Traditional Religion as experienced through ‘rituals, symbols and practices that are usually forms of communication with the divine as well as through more contemplative practices that enhance one’s awareness of the presence of God’ (Mwaura 2008:2).