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Book Reviews / Pneuma 32 (2010) 431-473
Ludovic Lado, Catholic Pentecostalism and the Paradoxes of Africanisation: Processes of Local- isation in a Catholic Charismatic Movement in Cameroon, Studies of Religion in Africa: Supplements to the Journal of Religion in Africa 37 (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2009). xii + 245 pp., $142.00 hardcover.
Ludovic Lado, a social anthropologist and Jesuit who teaches at the Catholic University of Central Africa in Yaoundé (Cameroon), deconstructs African Catholicism by relining Afri- can authentic value belief systems with charismatic movements in which witchcraft plays a significant role. This book is a study of Ephphata, a Catholic charismatic renewal move- ment established by a Catholic priest, Meinrad Hebga, in Cameroon in 1976, but which has now spread to a number of other countries in Africa and abroad.
Although Ephphata has had its share of critics, there has never been an attempt on the part of the hierarchy to suppress the movement. On the contrary, the bishops’ conference occasionally invites Hebga to speak to them about the ministry of healing and the charis- matic movement in general. Have the Cameroonian bishops accepted the healing mission- ary and is the Africanized healing movement in tune with Catholic doctrine? Lado’s treatment would have benefitted from comparative analysis between Ephphata in Camer- oon, Jando in Tanzania, and developments in Ghana and Nigeria. What, for example, are similarities and/or differences between Hebga and Emmanuel Milingo, Archbishop of Lusaka, who appeared on the charismatic scene in 1973 claiming to have been empowered by the Holy Spirit to heal?
Lado’s treatment of Cameroon as the focal point addresses issues of Pentecostalism and Africanization. Cameroon is a complex political reality with a disordered and chaotic gov- ernance system, and the mainstream churches seem to be in total disagreement with the state on many fundamental issues. How does the rise of charismatic religiosity challenge the hegemonic forces of the mainstream churches? In this context, many Christians, Prot- estant and Catholic, have opted for Hebga’s Pentecostalism. Tey are gradually making a break-through, filling the cultural and political void with charismatic religion.
A general introduction sets up the nine chapters by explicating the basic African religious context involving ancestors, life-and-forces, other important notions. Lado argues that the emergence of charismatic movements is a function of rapid sociocultural changes and its success depends on the ability of leaders to create new patterns of meaning for followers.
Chapter one discusses the advent of Christianity in southern Cameroon, the North American roots of Pentecostalism, the faces of African Pentecostalism, Archbishop Milin- go’s saga, Hebga, and the founding of Ephphata. Chapter two addresses the misfortune narratives in Ephphata, the language of distress, therapeutic itineraries, and the logic of accusation, while the third chapter looks at a typology of spirit possession, traditionalism versus rationalism, Spirit possession in Africa, charismatic demonology, and Hebga’s basic theology. Chapter four provides an ethnography of Ephphata’s charismatic prayer sessions. Te next two chapters addresses issues of therapeutic strategies — e.g., the mythical word and the biblical word, and spiritual warfare — and ritual healing, especially providing a comparative study of religious versus magical healing. Te seventh chapter discusses Ephaphata in Paris.
© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2010 DOI: 10.1163/157007410X534012
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Book Reviews / Pneuma 32 (2010) 431-473
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Te final two chapters, on the paradoxes of Africanization and on anthropology and philosophy in Africa, link back to the first by arguing for the plausibility of witchcraft beliefs as a protest against the ethnocentric arrogance of Western rationality. Hebga’s cri- tique of Western dualism is apparent. Te African cultural belief system inherently trian- gulates around religion, witchcraft, and healing. Te “paradox,” then, is that Ephaphata’s Pentecostalism generates a dualistic cosmology that undermines authentic Africanization since local deities can only be demonized as a result. But then a further dilemma arises: if Pentecostalism is practised and accepted in the west, why must witchcraft be outlawed or condemned? Shouldn’t Ephphata be given both religious and legal recognition? Lado’s book raises more questions than provides answers not only about religion locally and as a universal activity but also about the way forward for Catholicism on the African continent. Given the difficult period the Catholic Church is going through in the West, and the rise of Catholicism in Africa, should Catholic Pentecostalism be accepted as the way forward for the redemption of the African continent? Does this signify the authenticity and even legitimacy of an African cultural belief and spiritual system? Should one be sur- prised with the rise of Pentecostalism challenging the very foundation of the mainstream churches? Why should African religious belief and other similar cultural values systems be suppressed? Should one agree or disagree that Afro-centrism and all its variants are not the way forward for Africa because it is reactionary, victimising, and unproductive. Now while charismatic renewal groups by and large remain on the fringes of the mainstream churches in Cameroon, they are making serious inroads into the souls of the people. People in Cam- eroon are attracted to Ephphata by the charismatic authority of Hebga. Lado’s research on the activities of Hebga should be viewed and read within this context.
Tis is a book that cuts across many disciplines. Students of Religionswissenschaft, soci- ology, anthropology, political science, and history, as well as policy makers and leaders of various kinds of religious bodies or institutions will be engaged with it. It is informative and enlightening.
Reviewed by John W. Forje
Department of Political Science
University of Yaoundé and University of Buea, Yaoundé, Cameroon
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