The Prosperity Gospel in Africa

An African Pentecostal Hermeneutical Consideration

Marius Nel

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781725266643
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Theology

Africans' prevailing interest in the prosperity gospel is not only connected to the influence of American prosperity teachers reaching a worldwide audience through their imaginative use of the media, but is also related to the African worldview and African traditional religion, and its lasting influence on contemporary Africans and the way they think about prosperity, as well as their interest in prosperity in post-colonial Africa. The research from a classical Pentecostal perspective about the impact of the prosperity message on Africa is necessary, timely, and relevant because of its influence in the African Pentecostal movement and its potential to harm the faith of believers, leading to the potential disillusionment of Christian believers who put their trust (and money) in formulas and recipes that seemingly only work for others, especially the prosperity leaders who lead by example with incredulous riches and wealth.

1

The Context

Africa, and the Rise and Popularity of the Prosperity Message

Introduction

The study is limited to the preaching and teaching of the prosperity gospel message in Africa although it is necessary to refer to other parts of the world as far as it is necessary to throw light on the popularity of the message in Africa. To begin with, it is necessary to say something about the origins of Pentecostalism in Africa to understand where prosperity theology comes from. African Pentecostalism drank insofar as the prosperity gospel is concerned from several traditions and the prosperity message consists of a culturally mediated adaptation of imported theology.

A synthesis of American materialism characterized by profligate consumption as a status symbol of wealth and self-worth1 and African spirituality with its emphasis on ministry to the holistic person explains the attraction of the prosperity gospel for Africans. The success motif fits well with Africa’s traditional religious imagination of fertility, abundance, and wholeness. Prosperity Pentecostalism thoroughly contextualized Christianity in Africa, amid poverty and marginalization of poor Africans.2

Conrad Mbewe, a prominent representative of Evangelical Reformed Christianity in Lusaka, Zambia, calls the prosperity gospel the United States’ number one export to Africa,3 and argues that the route of imported prosperity theology is mainly via Nigeria. He states that prosperity theology originated from mega-churches in the USA and then found ready soil in West Africa, and specially in Nigeria. Having given it an African flavor, it was then exported across Africa at a phenomenal rate.4 It led to a unique imbrication with African traditions.

The mechanism through which this syncretistic phenomenon came about is through its appeal to traditional African spirituality and worldview. Neo-Pentecostal pastors have in effect become the modern witchdoctors who offer spiritual protection and deliverance from bad luck, childlessness, joblessness, illness, failure to attract a suitor for marriage, to rise in a job, or get a contract, etc., according to Mbewe. That Africans are reluctant to challenge charismatic preachers who become involved in abuse of their members may stem from the age-old tradition of not speaking out against a powerful sangoma or chief. Some of the neo-Pentecostal pastors do not hold themselves accountable to anybody or any church or ministry board. At the same time, they appeal to Africa’s upwardly mobile youth by way of gifted and strong charismatic leadership; a very dynamic, expressive, and exuberant worship style with contemporary high amperage gospel music; mostly urban-centered mega-size congregations; a relaxed and fashion conscious dress code for members; and an innovative appropriation of modern media technologies, including the effective use of print and electronic media, for the dissemination of their message.5

Popularity of the Prosperity Message in Africa

The popularity of the prosperity teaching is illustrated in a 2006 survey that Pew Research undertook in various countries in Africa. The researchers asked participants if God would “grant material prosperity to all believers who have enough faith,” and an astonishing 85 percent of Kenyan Pentecostals, 90 percent of South African Pentecostals, and 95 percent of Nigerian Pentecostals affirmed the statement.6

The independent neo-Pentecostal or neo-charismatic churches responsible for preaching the prosperity message are expanding in Africa faster even than Islam, at twice the rate of the Roman Catholic Church, and at three times that of the other non-Catholic religious traditions, even considerably stemming the growth of the African Instituted Churches in West Africa.7 Paul Gifford labels the movement a paradigm shift amidst the new developments in African Christianity.8 They are characterized by their reconstruction of religious geography through their construction of religious camps consisting of buying up large expanses of land and constructing a range of facilities, including auditoriums, schools, guest houses, dormitories, banks, hospitals and petrol stations, that function as alternative cities.9 In South Africa alone, there were over 5,000 such independent denominations and groups that bore the familiar marks of pentecostal spirituality.10 They comprised ten to forty percent of the black population, depending on how Pentecostalism is defined.11 In Zimbabwe, 50 percent of all Christians belonged to such independent churches.12 In southern Africa, the independent movement have a few megachurches, mostly in the hands of white leaders (like Ray McCauley of Rhema Ministries, Ed Roebert of Hatfield Christian Church, and Fred Roberts of the Durban Christian Centre, with Mosa Sono of the Grace Bible Church in Soweto and Kenneth Meshoe as exceptions). A positive feature of these (English speaking) megachurches was that it contributed to better ethnic relations while historic political policies of separate development led to the forced segregation between races, with multiethnic congregations promoting friendship and fellowship across racial barriers.13 The megachurches for which Ghana and Nigeria are famous are few in number among South African blacks. Only when Nigerian, Ghanaian and Kenyan preachers began to visit South Africa in the 1990s, after the dismantling of apartheid, did the idea of a new Pentecostalism began to take off among South African blacks. It put a new emphasis on black consciousness and dignity and for that reason became an attractive alternative to the option presented by white charismatics, preaching about the realization of the African dream of prosperity for black people.14

In his study, Douglas Bafford draws on continuing ethnographic fieldwork with multiracial conservative evangelical congregations centered in Johannesburg, South Africa, when he investigated the trace discourses around the prosperity gospel in terms of an intertwining of theological, social, and racial arguments.15 He also looks at some of the criticism of Evangelicals toward prosperity theology and finds that it was not only based on concerns related to the textual exegesis of those who propagate prosperity theology but it also contended that prosperity preaching was a socially unjust and abusive phenomenon that exacerbates existing racial gaps in wealth, demonstrated in the unimaginably high levels of economic inequality between middle class neighborhoods and the extended squatter camps and slums that characterize the edges of black townships.

He writes that the proclamation of prosperity theology is within the context of “charismatic” worship services led by a “prophet” or “prophetess.” Prophets claim to have an extraordinary connection to and stand in a unique relationship with God, often ...

Table of contents

• Title page
• Preface
• Research Justification
• Motivation for Study
• Chapter 1: The Context
• Chapter 2: The Angle
• Chapter 3: The Project
• Chapter 4: The Challenge
• Chapter 5: The Solution
• Concluding Summary and Recommendations
• Bibliography