Holy Praiseco: Negotiating Sacred and Popular Music and Dance in African Pentecostalism

Abstract

In post-colonial Africa, Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity has slowly emerged as an infl uential shaper of culture and identity through its use of music, media, and dance. Th is article gives an overview of the transitions that have occurred in African politics, identity awareness, and culture, especially as it relates to the indigenous village public and it's interface with the external Western public, and how the emergent cultural public has become the most infl uential player in shaping the African moral universe. Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity has navigated the shift from a missionary-driven avoidance of indigenous music and dance to the incorporation of indigenous elements, leading in turn to the popularization of Pentecostal music and dance that blends indigenous forms and concepts, Christian symbolism, and popular cultural expressions. Th e resulting forms have not only shaped Christianity, but also the surrounding culture and its political environment.

Evaluating the Nigerian prosperity gospel as a mixed ideology

“…The spirit world was said to control the physical world. What happened in the material world was determined by what happened in the world of the spirit (Kalu, 2010). Evil forces were said to inhabit the spirit world and were believed to possess the power to control the affairs of humanity.…”

“…The influx of audio messages, Christian tracts and books from the USA aided the stability of the charismatic renewal. Strengthened by the new wave of revivalism, students who were caught up in the fervour of the revival embarked on intensive and extensive evangelism to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ to the unreached (Kalu, 2008; Kalu, 2010). Idahosa, a university student who later became a pioneer agent of another brand of revivalism known as the prosperity gospel within the Pentecostal faith, was part of this revival campaign in the 1970s.…”

negotiating the sounds of born-again christianity: aesthetic provocations in western ethiopia

“…De Witte 2003;Asamoah-Gyadu 2005;Meyer 2010bMeyer , 2015De Witte 2012;Pype 2012). Sound and music are part of these trends, playing an important role in the "sensational appeal" and public presence of African Pentecostalism, particularly in urban locales (Kalu 2010;Meyer 2010a, 742). Loud prayers and preaching, nightly vigils and live religious music are common features of contemporary urban soundscapes in many parts of Africa, and scholars have described the tensions that often evolve between charismatic Christians and "traditionalists" or Muslims due to these interventions (Van Dijk 2001;De Witte 2008;Larkin 2014).…”

Beyond Christian perspectives: new studies of Yoruba Islam and religious coexistence

“…However, where scholars of African religion have focused on the impact of religion on the public sphere and the state, they have naturally concentrated on the religion that dominated political discourse in their specific contexts. Across West Africa, Reformist Islam has transformed politics and society in predominantly Muslim areas (Loimeier 1997;Masquelier 2001;, just as Pentecostal beliefs, aesthetics and dispositions have transformed contemporary popular culture in largely Christian areas (see especially Meyer 2004;Kalu 2008;. In the religiously mixed Yoruba region, Pentecostal Christianity has played a politically important role, first for Yoruba opposition to military rule during the 1990s (Marshall 2009;Wariboko 2014), and later for the Obasanjo and Jonathan presidencies in Nigeria (Obadare 2018).…”