African Diaspora Pentecostals Deliverance Practices and the Lived Reality in the United Kingdom

In African diaspora Pentecostalism, spiritual warfare theology configures ‘spiritual deliverance’ as an integral aspect of healing, prosperity, and wellbeing. In the United Kingdom, deliverance practices, including exorcisms, are booming in immigrant communities, particularly the Pentecostal churches. African diaspora Pentecostals believe in a spirit-filled world consisting of the Holy Spirit, ancestors’ spirits, evil spirits, demons, and Satan. African diaspora deliverance practices proffer existential solutions in a spirit-filled world. This study used the desktop research approach to explore the lived tensions of African diaspora Pentecostal deliverance practices in the United Kingdom, where such practices are not generally part of the cultural and social worldview. The study findings were that African diaspora Pentecostal deliverance practices clash with scientific mental health approaches, and overtly can be abusive, especially around consent, ethical concerns and post-deliverance trauma. This article concluded that African diaspora Pentecostals’ spiritual deliverance therapy practices create tensions with the lived reality in the United Kingdom and recommended the need to negotiate questions about psychological well-being, dignity, and abuse on the part of the deliverance candidate. This study contributes to knowledge by highlighting the potential benefits and challenges of deliverance practices in a more scientifically grounded multicultural context of the United Kingdom.