The Global Portability of Pneumatic Christianity: Comparing African and Latin American Pentecostalisms

This article argues that Pentecostal Christianity is able to spread so quickly across the globe because it provides its adherents with the conceptual tools to deal with desire and materialism in a world of limited means and lack. It thus offers adherents an authentic belonging that is located globally as well as in the afterlife, rather than bound by geographical territory. This is particularly relevant for poor migrants – such as the African migrants in South Africa – who are faced with misfortune and lack of success. The Pentecostal imagination of what it means to be human offers them tools by which to remake their self and on which to build their hopes for a better future. It allows adherents to deal with the tension of a globalised world economy that imposes systems of exclusion and lack in third world areas. Keywords: MigrantsPentecostal ChristianityPneumatic Christianitypneumatic materialismtransnationalism Notes On the UKCG, see Freston Citation(2001) and Kramer Citation(2005). The RCCG was founded in 1952 by Yoruba-speaking Josiah Akindayomi, whose parents were reputed to be devotees of Ogun, the Yoruba god of iron and war. Akindayomi emerged out of the Aludura (‘praying people’) Christian movement, which began in the 1920s in West Africa. The movement combines elements of animism, ritual healing, and charismatic Christianity. The RCCG is now led by former university math professor Enoch Adeboye. See Adeboye Citation(2007); Gornik Citation(2008); and Hunt Citation(2002). Contemporary Pentecostals see themselves as heirs of the early Christian community, as characterised in Acts of the Apostles. More specifically, Pentecostals trace their roots to Pentecost. Fifty days after Jesus Christ's ascension to heaven, the Apostles received the Holy Spirit, which manifested itself in a rushing wind and tongues of fire. Thereupon, the Apostle began to preach in various languages and perform miracles, including healing and exorcism of possessing spirits. From then on Christianity spread very quickly through the Mediterranean, Asia Minor, and North Africa (see Walls Citation2002). On the connection between Pentecostalism, a movement that originated in the US in places as diverse as Azusa Street, Los Angeles, CA and Topeka, Kansas in the early 1900s, and indigenous African religions, see Olupona (Citation2000). In Latin America, the struggle over the ancestors is not so central as in Africa, except among indigenous communities in places such as southern Mexico, Guatemala, the Andes, and the Amazonian lowlands. In these places, pneumatic Christianity has alternatively clashed and cross-fertilised with shamanistic practices, often producing sharp divisions among indigenous leaders that have made collective mobilisation more difficult. Nevertheless, just as in Africa, in Latin America, pneumatic Christianity is re-articulating solidarity and collective authority, agency, and voice among subaltern groups.