Religion, History, And Politics In Nigeria Essays In Honor Of Ogbu U. Kalu

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Book Reviews / Pneuma 29 (2007) 131-178

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Chima J. Korieh and G. Ugo Nwokeji, eds., Religion, History, and Politics in Nigeria: Essays in Honor of Ogbu U. Kalu (Boulder, CO, and New York: University of America, Inc., 2005). viii + 282 pp., $37.00, paper.

This book is not fundamentally about Pentecostalism. It deals with Pentecostalism, how- ever, in so far as Pentecostalism is a major dimension of contemporary religion in Nigeria. Yet most of the contributors provide excellent bibliographic documentation on African Pentecostalism. Professor Kalu of McCormick T eological Seminary, in whose honor the essays in this book are dedicated, is an internationally acclaimed scholar of religion and Pentecostalism in Africa. In addition to being multidisciplinary in his scholarship, he always situates the study of religion at the intersection of social processes and institutions at the global and local levels. The contributions in this volume indicate that Kalu has mentored many students across Africa and in the United States who have now become successful scholars in their own right.

Religion, History, and Politics in Nigeria will be very useful for researchers in the following areas of religion in Africa in general and Nigeria in particular. First, the essayists do an excellent job of connecting the missionary enterprise and colonialism. T ey demonstrate how the racist ideology that informed colonialism in the form of the “civilizing mission” of the Victorian era was also harbored by many missionaries. Anyone working at the intersec- tion of religion and race relations in Africa will ﬁnd some of the essays very illuminating. Second, the volume will be of interest to scholars focused on the Christian-Muslim encounter in Nigeria of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In particular, some of the authors show the manner in which the Christian-Muslim encounter within the context of colonialism shaped regional inequality and national consciousness in post- colonial Nigeria.

T ird, some essayists address the issue of transnational Christianity in Africa. One chap- ter analyzes the inﬂuence of Nigerian Pentecostal churches on Kenya, while another does the same for Ghana. The two essays raise questions about the implications of transnational Christianity for its host cultures, and they explore the reactions generated by such transna- tionalism within the general public in the host culture as transnational churches increase the competition for scarce resources — for example, members and donations.

Fourth, one chapter analyzes the types of theology in African churches. The theological divide in Nigerian churches is between what the author calls “marketplace theology” devel- oped by African Independent Churches (AICs), especially neo-Pentecostals, and the theol- ogy of the mainline denominations that more often works within the theoretical parameters and research programs set by western theologians. While the latter’s theological jargon is inaccessible to the majority of African Christians, marketplace theologians are rooted in the daily existential challenges of the people, and they deploy folk language to communicate their message. Consequently, their work is less systematic but more readily accessible to the local population.

Fifth, the reader will ﬁnd this collection thought provoking regarding the role of women in ministry. Although, on the surface, neo-Pentecostal churches in Africa espouse an egali- tarian message of equality rooted in the baptism of the Holy Spirit, in reality the movement

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Book Reviews / Pneuma 29 (2007) 131-178

is signiﬁcantly patriarchal. The two chapters that deal with gender focus on ordained women in ministry and on literary works by a northern Nigerian Muslim woman, and thereby attempt to deconstruct the struggle of contemporary Nigerian Muslim women. Muslim women are shown struggling to reinvent themselves in an emerging modern society. Finally, the book provides useful insights about the role of African Independent Churches. The key issue here is the historical origin of these churches as harbingers of nationalist resistance against colonial domination.

In terms of contemporary debates, one major area invites critical questioning. Even though the book made reference to structural adjustment programs in passing, the broader implications of the elective aﬃnity between neo-Pentecostalism and neoliberalism were not systematically explored. Many neo-Pentecostal ministers in Kenya, Nigeria, and Ghana have been signiﬁcantly inﬂuenced by American Pentecostal preachers who belong to the conservative Christian Right movement. Often this movement supports the Republican Party with its aggressive foreign policy and supply-side economics. Unfortunately, most Pentecostal ministers in Africa inﬂuenced by the conservative Religious Right in America have sacriﬁced their capacity for critical reasoning to the notion of America’s Manifest Destiny and “Christian nation,” neither of which have biblical foundation. This creates a situation in which Pentecostal ministers in Africa either support neoliberal economic poli- cies by default or remain mute about such policies, while persisting in teaching people to cope with the challenges of rugged capitalism as “ordained” by God. T ey are either afraid or are theologically oblivious of the moral and ethical challenges that neoliberalism poses to all religions.

Reviewed by Samuel Zalanga

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