Advertising God: Nigerian Christian Video-Films and the Power of Consumer Culture

Pentecostalism in Nigeria is increasingly altering the way that those who are attracted in large numbers by its practices and resources perceive their relationship with local culture and material goods. One of the practices of Pentecostalism that has captured popular imagination is the production of Christian video-films. This paper discusses how these popular narratives negotiate both the local worldview and the cultural marketplace. It argues that the rhetoric of Pentecostalism as portrayed in locally produced video-films is implicated in changing consumer tastes and behaviour. Although this type of Pentecostalism speaks the language of traditional worldviews in terms of the emphasis on occultism, it is harnessed to a project of westernised system of commodity consumption.