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Imagining the Religious Other Afe
Adogame
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Ashgate Inform Series on
Minority Religions and
Spiritual Movements
Series Editor: Eileen Barker,
London School of Economics, Chair and Honorary Director of Inform
Advisory Board:
Afe Adogame, University of Edinburgh, UK,
Madawi Al-Rasheed, King’s College, London, UK,
Irena Borowik, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland,
Douglas E. Cowan, University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada,
Adam Possamai, University of Western Sydney, Australia,
James T. Richardson, University of Nevada, Reno, USA,
Fenggang Yang, Purdue University, USA
Inform is an independent charity that collects and disseminates accurate, balanced

and up-to-date information about minority religious and spiritual movements.
The Ashgate Inform book series addresses themes related to new religions, many
of which have been the topics of Inform seminars. Books in the series will attract
both an academic and interested general readership, particularly in the areas of
Religious Studies, and the Sociology of Religion and Theology.
Other titles in this series:
Minority Religions and Fraud

In Good Faith
Edited by Amanda van Eck Duymaer van Twist
Global Religious Movements Across Borders

Sacred Service
Edited by Stephen M. Cherry and Helen Rose Ebaugh
Revisionism and Diversification in New Religious Movements

Edited by Eileen Barker
Imagining the Religious ‘Other’
Edited by
Afe Adogame
University of Edinburgh, UK
© Afe Adogame and the contributors 2014
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.
Afe Adogame has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to
be identified as the editor of this work.
Published by
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:

The public face of African new religious movements in diaspora : imagining the religious other /
edited by Afe Adogame.
pages cm. — (Ashgate inform series on minority religions and spiritual movements)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4724-2010-7 (hardcover : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-4724-2011-4 (ebook) —
ISBN 978-1-4724-2012-1 (epub)
1. Africa—Religion. 2. Cults—Africa. 3. African diaspora. 4. Africans—Migrations. I. Adog-
ame, Afeosemime U. (Afeosemime Unuose), 1964– editor.
BL2400.P83 2014
200.89’96—dc23
2014006143
ISBN: 9781472420107 (hbk)
ISBN: 9781472420114 (ebk – PDF)
ISBN: 9781472420121 (ebk – ePUB)
Printed in the United Kingdom by Henry Ling Limited,

at the Dorset Press, Dorchester, DT1 1HD
Contents
List of Contributors vii
Introduction The Public Face of African New Religious Movements in

Diaspora 1
Afe Adogame
1 The Discourse about ‘Africa’ in Religious Communities in Brazil:

How Africa Becomes the Ultimate Source of Authenticity in
Afro-Brazilian Religions 29
Bettina E. Schmidt
2 Irrecha: A Traditional Oromo Religious Ritual Goes Global 45

Asebe Regassa and Meron Zeleke
3 Self-Representation by Black Majority Christianity in Britain 65

Abel Ugba
4 The Transnational Dynamics of Black Jews in France 85

Aurélien Mokoko Gampiot and Cécile Coquet-Mokoko
5 ‘Take Over Asia for God!’: The Public Face of African

Pentecostal Churches in China 105
Heidi Østbø Haugen
6 Uncovering an Alternative Story: Examining the Religious and

Social Lives of Afro-Caribbean Youth in London and New York
City 125
Janice McLean-Farrell
7 Juggling Multiple Identities to Overcome Minority Status: Young

Congolese Pentecostals in Montreal (Quebec) 147
Géraldine Mossière
vi The Public Face of African New Religious Movements in Diaspora
8 ‘Living by the Spirit’: African Christian Communities

in Sweden 163
Anne Kubai
9 ‘Penetrating the Unseen’: The Role of Religion and Spiritual

Practices in the Senegalese Boat Migration Process 191
Henrietta M. Nyamnjoh
10 ‘The Coca-Cola of Churches Arrives’: Nigeria’s Redeemed

Christian Church of God in Brazil 215
Laura Premack
11 Nigerian Pentecostals in Britain: Towards Prosperity or

Consumerism? 233
Israel Olofinjana
12 Public Perception of Witchcraft Accusations, Stereotyping and

Child Abuse: A Case Study of Britain’s Black Majority
Churches 255
Babatunde Adedibu
13 The Strangers in our Midst: Issues of Misunderstanding between

African Migrant Churches in Germany and the Mainstream
German Churches 275
Garnet Parris
Index 287
List of Contributors
Babatunde Adedibu is a Missiologist and currently the Mission and Ecumenical

Manager with the Redeemed Christian Church of God as well as honorary
Research Fellow, University of Roehampton, London. Babatunde’s research
interests cover issues of African Diasporic Christianities, identity formation
and transnational religious trends and mission. He is the author of Coat of Many
Colours: Origin, Growth, Distinctiveness and Contributions of Black Majority
Churches to British Christianity (2012).
Afe Adogame teaches Religious Studies and World Christianity at the University
of Edinburgh, UK. His most recent books are: The African Christian Diaspora:
New Currents and Emerging Trends in World Christianity (2013); and (ed.)
Religion on the Move? New Dynamics of Religious Expansion in a Globalizing
World (2013). He is a member of the Advisory Board of the Ashgate-Inform
Series on Minority Religions and Spiritual Movements.
Cécile Coquet-Mokoko is an Associate Professor of African American

and American Studies at the Université François Rabelais of Tours,
France. Her research focuses on African American religious traditions, oratory,
and oral literature. She was Visiting Associate Professor at University of Alabama
from Spring 2009–2010, pursuing research on the evolution of racial relations
in the Deep South since the election of President Obama.
Meron Zeleke Eresso is an Assistant Professor of Social Anthropology at Addis

and a postdoctoral fellow. Her areas of specialisation include religion, gender,
religious conflict and religious institutions of conflict resolution. Currently
she is the chairperson for the Eastern African chapter of the African good
governance Network.
Aurélien Mokoko Gampiot holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of

Rennes, France. He is currently a postdoctoral scholar at the CNRS (GSRL,
hosted by the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes en Sciences sociales) in Paris,
and a member of the research centre on religions and secularism. His research
and publications focus on modern African religions, interethnic relations and
migrations in Europe.
viii The Public Face of African New Religious Movements in Diaspora
Heidi Østbø Haugen is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of

Sociology and Human Geography, University of Oslo. Her ongoing fieldwork
among Africans living in China was initiated in 2009. She has studied Chinese
at Beijing Normal University and is currently a visiting scholar at Sun Yat-sen
University in Guangzhou.
Anne N. Kubai is Associate Professor of World Christianity and Interreligious

Relations. Currently she is a researcher at the Faculty of Theology, Uppsala
University. Her research interests include religion in peace and conflict,
migration, gender violence, reconciliation and social reconstruction in post-
conflict societies. In addition to teaching and research in the academy, Anne is
also involved in the work of several international networks and organisations
working with the humanitarian and development sectors.
Janice A. McLean-Farrell (PhD, University of Edinburgh) is a member of the

faculty at City Seminary of New York. Janice is co-editor of Understanding
World Christianity: The Vision and Work of Andrew F. Walls (2011) and author
of several articles on immigrant churches, and urban youth and religion.
Géraldine Mossière is Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Theology and

Religious Studies at the Université de Montréal. She has published about
religion, migration, transnationalism, and African Pentecostal churches, as well
as modern religious subjectivities and, in particular, conversion experiences.
Her current research addresses the issue of second generation immigrants in
Pentecostal churches, particularly their marriage practices.
Henrietta Nyamnjoh recently obtained her PhD from the University of

Leiden/African Studies Centre Leiden. Her research (Bridging Mobilities:
ICTs Appropriation by Cameroonians in South Africa and The Netherlands)
was focused on Cameroonian migrants in South Africa and the Netherlands
and their use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to
bridge the village and the city.
Israel Oluwole Olofinjana is a Baptist minister currently pastoring at Woolwich

Central Baptist Church. His previous pastorates include Crofton Park Baptist
Church (2007–2011) and Catford Community Church (2011–2013). He
holds a BA (Hons) in Religious Studies from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria,
and an MTh from Carolina University of Theology (CUT). Israel is one of the
directors of Centre for Missionaries from the Majority World.
List of Contributors ix
Garnet Parris holds a PhD from the University of Birmingham, where he was
Lecturer and one-time Director of the Centre for Black and White Christian
Partnership. In the last three years, he has served as Honorary Research Director
of Maisha. His current research interests include: the Integration of African
Migrant Women in the German labour market, Trafficking, Prostitution and
Violence against women.
Laura Premack is the Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Africana

Studies and Latin American Studies at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine,
USA. She holds a PhD in Global History from the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill and has received Fulbright-Hays and Gerda Henkel Foundation
Fellowships. Her research focuses on religion, globalisation and culture in Brazil,
Nigeria and the larger Atlantic World.
Asebe Regassa is a PhD Fellow at Bayreuth International Graduate School of

African Studies (BIGSAS) in Germany. His research project deals with nature-
culture relations with specific focus on state discourses of nature conservation
and local responses in Ethiopia. The author has published articles on topics such
as indigenous ecological wisdom, ethnicity and inter-ethnic conflicts and state
conservation discourses and local responses in Ethiopia.
Bettina E. Schmidt is Senior Lecturer at the University of Wales Trinity St

David. She has published extensively on Caribbean and Latin American religions,
cultural theory and migration. Her academic interests include anthropology
of religion, diaspora identity, religious experience, medical anthropology and
gender issues. Her main fieldworks were conducted in Mexico, Puerto Rico,
Ecuador, New York City and, more recently, São Paulo, Brazil. She is Director
of the Alister Hardy Religious Experience Research Centre in Lampeter.
Abel Ugba is Senior Lecturer in the School of Arts and Digital Industries,
University of East London, London. His professional and academic background
is in journalism and sociology, having obtained an MA in Journalism (Dublin
City University, Ireland) and a PhD in Sociology (Trinity College, Dublin,
Ireland). Dr Ugba’s research interests include media, immigrant religious and
media practices and media and development. He has published books, articles,
book chapters and commissioned reports on African diasporic religion, as well
as on migrant media. His most recent monograph is titled: Shades of Belonging:
African Pentecostals in Twenty-First Century Ireland (2009).
This page has been left blank intentionally
Introduction
The Public Face of African New Religious
Movements in Diaspora
Afe Adogame
The growing pace of international migration, technological revolution in media

and travel has generated opportunities for the mobility and expansion of African
new religious movements (ANRMs) and African-derived religions within Africa
and beyond. ANRMs are making steady inroads, furthering their self-assertion
and self-insertion into religious landscapes of Europe, the Americas and Asia.
Their growing presence and public (in)vincibility seem to be more robustly
captured by the popular media than by scholars of new religious movements
(NRMs), historians of religion and social scientists, a tendency that may have
probably shaped the public mental picture, opinion and understanding of the
phenomenon.
The relative neglect of ANRMs in diaspora in social science research is
immediately evident in some recent academic literature. The reasons may not
be far-fetched. Perhaps, ANRMs are considered marginal among other new
religions within the Western religious landscape. Second, researchers and
public ignorance about them may be attributed to their invincibility within
public spaces. Third, ANRMs may fall out of the definitional radar and popular
categorisations of NRMs adduced by some Western scholars. Lastly, it may seem
that ANRMs in the West are so far not deemed controversial enough; they do
not evoke scandals or pose significant public risk on a wide enough scale to be
noticed and described as such.
Philip Lucas and Thomas Robbins’ New Religious Movements in the 21st
Century (2004), a very important collection of essays on the global contemporary
political, legal and social challenges facing new and minority religions, was
structured regionally under Western Europe; Eastern Europe and Eurasia;
Africa, Asia and Australia; and North and South America. Other than one case
example on Uganda that focuses on emergent issues of religious freedom and
conflict in some other African countries, the existence of ANRMs in any other
region of the world was rarely mentioned.
2 The Public Face of African New Religious Movements in Diaspora
Peter Clarke’s New Religions in Global Perspective (2006) is undoubtedly a

monumental work, being an in-depth exploration of NRMs, and of new forms
of spirituality globally. Drawing from wide-ranging case studies from North
America and Europe to Japan, Latin America, South Asia, Africa and the
Caribbean, the book charts their cultural significance and global impact but also
explores the responses of governments, churches, the media and general public
to NRMs. Two chapters of the book capture new religions in Africa south of the
Sahara and North Africa, while some briefer sections were devoted to exploring
African-derived religions in Brazil and the Caribbean, as if to suggest the dearth
of ANRMs in Europe, North America, Asia, Australia and the Middle East.
Elisabeth Arweck’s, Researching New Religious Movements: Responses and
Redefinitions (2006) has a much narrower focus on the history and development
of NRMs, ‘anti-cult’ groups and the response of mainstream churches to these
new movements. Her book charts the growing scholarship on NRMs, although
it is largely limited to a systematic comparison of the situation of NRMs in two
European societies: Britain and Germany. Other than the stereotypical NRMs
such as Scientology, the Jehovah Witnesses and the Unification Church, the
book makes hardly any mention or reference to ANRMs in these contexts.
Nonetheless, Arweck was not simply interested in the institutional, academic,
theological and anti-cultists responses to NRMs; integral to the book was the
role played by the mass media in inventing stereotypical popular images of these
religious movements and their opponents. As she aptly remarks: ‘Minority or
non-mainstream religions and religious groups keep appearing in the limelight
of the media’s attention, usually in connection with a “scandalous” affair of some
kind or seemingly incomprehensible “bizarre” or “lunatic” behaviour’ (2006: 1).
Two decades earlier, James Beckford’s, Cult Controversies. The Social Response
to New Religious Movements (1985) aptly summarised the tendency of the mass
media to caricature NRMs as threatening, strange, exploitative and provocative.
Biased presentations of a generalising nature are sometimes rooted in cultural
stereotypes, commercial pressures and armchair journalism. The public image
of ANRMs, particularly in the European media, is controversial and suspect
in several respects. Popular media portrayal anchor movements’ activities,
especially in the face of internal conflicts, fraud, scandals or matters the public
consider problematic. Even where such accounts attempt to be balanced, exotic
and conflictual aspects often predominate.
Some instances of media sensationalism and exoticism of ANRMs and
Africa-derived religions are rather striking. They vary from recent references to
alleged torture of child witches and claims of child (human) rights abuses and
violations in the UK and France, to alleged links to the celebrated ‘Torso in the
Introduction 3
Thames’ ritual murder case involving the decapitated and limbless body of a five-
year-old boy in 2001. Others include the transnational sexual labour trafficking
in Italy, the Netherlands and Germany and identify some churches/leaders as
‘spiritual contractors’ who ensure safe delivery of girls/young women to their
various destinations in Europe. There is also the perceived ‘exotic’ ritualism and
loud worship services that make some religious groups vulnerable to public
frenzy, neighbours’ complaints and litigations, often resulting in ejection from
temporary ritual spaces by law-enforcement agencies, prosecution by local
authorities or imposition of fines generally served, in the case of Britain, under
the S.80 (4) Environmental Protection Act 1990.
Generally, public understanding of ANRMs is grossly inadequate and
speculative. Proper investigative journalism has its merit for society in
unveiling unsuspecting criminals and unwholesome activities within a religious
movement. Nevertheless, a sensationalist approach may serve to cement public
perception of ANRMs as dangerous and antisocial. Reliance on the mass
media for what they perceive as ‘uncivic’, ‘unconventional’ and ‘exotic’ religious
movements heightens public apprehension about them. The media, the public,
but also mainstream religions tend to lump NRMs together and make sweeping,
outrageous generalisations about the members, clientele, leaders, beliefs
and practices that may sometimes evoke racial, ethnic, national and gender
sentimentalities. This could also happen through religious movements engaging
in mutual demonisation as a competing strategy to garner members or followers
within the spiritual marketplace.
Thus, public responses to NRMs and their self-understanding have legal,
political, religious and social challenges for their future, locally and globally.
Scholars of NRMs need to accord sufficient attention to the consequences
of sensationalised depictions of individuals and their religious groups. The
knowledge gained by an understanding of ANRMs and African-derived
religions’ worldviews, experiences and ritual emphasis in Europe, USA (North
America) and Brazil (Latin America) and China (Asia) can help in revamping
certain public apprehensions.
In the face of dwindling economies and failing welfare systems in Europe
and the Americas, ANRMs and African-derived religions are demonstrating
increasing social relevance by redefining their public role in ways that complement
basic religious-spiritual tasks. In the UK, for instance, many religious groups exist
as ‘registered main Charities’ with varying public functions and social welfare
programmes. ANRMs and African-derived religions are growing to acquire
immense properties and real estate and provide employment opportunities for
members and the wider public.
With the proliferation of ANRMs in Africa and the African diaspora, Africa
has become fully part of a global cosmos in religious terms. The character of
ANRMs in conditions of globality will continue to be determined and shaped
by how and to what extent they negotiate continuity, identity and change. A
consideration of religious development in Africa must be seen in terms of its
relationship and links with the global context, but also in how and to what
extent it interrogates and negotiates wider external influences and global forces.
In addition, the ways in which ANRMs are contributing to the enrichment
and pluralisation of old and new geo-cultural and religious spaces becomes
significant. Africa and its diaspora provides both old and new spaces for the
contestation, reinvention and shaping of ANRM’s ethos, polity, rituals and
worldviews.
While this book has its focus on the public representation of ANRMs in
diaspora, a perception that is largely negative, NRMs in Africa are hardly
perceived in strikingly positive ways either. In actual fact, there seems a similar
global mirroring of NRMs in different local contexts that necessitates an
exploration of the contextual factors responsible but also the corresponding
impact of such critical portrayals. Nonetheless, in spite of the fact that the scope
of this book is limited to the Africa diaspora, it is however important to delineate
ANRMs, providing a brief historiography of the phenomenon in Africa, before
addressing the interesting contributions in this book.
ANRMs: Contexts of Emergence and Proliferation
The African continent, spanning more than 30 million square area kilometres and
comprising at least 50 countries with over 800 million people, is characterised
by complex historical, cultural, religious, social and linguistic affinities and
diversities. The innumerable ethnic social groupings have cultures, each different
from the other, but which together represent the mosaic of cultural diversity of
Africa. Religious vitality and revitalisation is very pronounced in sub-Saharan
Africa. African religions comprise the indigenous religions of various African
societies that share common affinities in their religious ideas, rituals and
worldviews. The emergence and expansion of Islam, Christianity and Eastern-
and Western-related spiritualities saw the introduction of new religious ideas
and practices into indigenous religions. The encounter transformed indigenous
religious thought and practice but did not supplant it; indigenous religions
preserved some beliefs and rituals but also adjusted to the new socio-cultural
milieu.
Introduction 5
Owing to social changes, aspects of indigenous beliefs and rituals were

abandoned, transformed or reinvented with the impingement of European,
Arab and Asian religious cultures. The change also led to the revivification of
other aspects of the indigenous religions and cultures. In many cases, Islam
and Christianity became domesticated on the African soil. Thus, the contact
produced new religious movements, with some appropriating indigenous
symbols and giving them a new twist.
The sustained mutual influence of and interaction between the various
indigenous and exogenous religions that characterise the religious landscape
of Africa have produced new religious constellations that continue to attract
scholars, policy makers, media and public attention. The interface of religious
cultures of sub-Saharan Africa with globalisation needs to be located against
the backdrop of the interlocking relationship and mutual enhancement of the
various old and new religions rather than in any unilateral perspective. Some
new movements have appropriated symbols and employed religious imagery
from one or the other religious tradition, giving them a novel interpretation and
producing a new kind of religious creativity.
Terminology
From a historical-descriptive point of view, ANRMs refer to the various

religious initiatives that have emerged both within and outside Africa, especially
since the dawn of the twentieth century. The groups in this category are mainly
African-led, and Africans largely dominate their membership. ANRMs cut
across Christianity, Islam and indigenous religions and include spiritual science
movements impacting on African religious landscapes. These religious formations
are hardly considered as new in terms of any novelty of their ideologies, the
originality of beliefs, practices, polity and ethos. Rather, they are groups whose
emergence is historically unprecedented in the specific local contexts where
they have emerged. For instance, within Christianity, ANRMs include newer
forms of Christianity that have succeeded mainline Christianity and have
reshaped and revitalised contemporary Christianity. Christian ANRMs include
the so-called African Initiated Churches (AICs) and the African Pentecostal/
charismatic movements. Many other ANRMs have emerged from Islam and the
indigenous African religions. The acronym fits because they are movements that
usually fall outside the gamut of mainstream religiosity in their specific local
contexts. Thus, new religious movements (NRMs) refer to non-mainstream
religions within the African context, although some have experienced vertical-
horizontal growths, increasing institutionalisation and take on public roles that

endear their visibility and social relevance.
This is a wide categorisation that is susceptible to generalisations. However,
it remains useful as a typology when our defining criteria focus on NRMs as
a recent phenomenon and based also on its positioning as a non-mainstream
religion. Our appropriation of NRMs to envelope new indigenous religious
creativities in Africa and the African diaspora marks a departure from popular
definitions as cults and sects, although it may not necessarily eliminate all the
definitional characteristics employed by anti-cultists, pro-cultists and counter-
cultists. While our definition may cover a wide spectrum of religious movements
across Christianity, Islam, indigenous religious and spiritual science movements,
we would not necessarily locate them under the same terminological corpus
with ‘cults’ and ‘sects’ as some Western scholars have done.
The Historiography of ANRMs
The historiography of ANRMs spans the colonial era, particularly from the early
twentieth century to the contemporary period. The period in which virtually
all African societies were subjugated under colonialism coincided with when
the indigenous religions (re-)encountered Christianity, Islam and Eastern- and
Western-related spiritualities in a much more dynamic way. While some new
religious movements were indigenous and homespun, others grew out of external
stimuli and influence from outside Africa. Although Islam and Christianity
were introduced to various parts of Africa much earlier, it was from the colonial
historical phase that there emerged a renewed religious encounter, interaction
and competition. The raison d’être, motivations and modus operandi of ANRMs
are diverse as the movements themselves. While it is difficult to generalise on why
these new religions are emerging, any attempt to understand this development
must take cognisance of how and where they are emerging in different historical
epochs. A multiplicity of factors is adduced by scholars to explain the emergence
and mobility of ANRMs. Certain factors may be more prominent than others
depending on the specific context and remote and immediate circumstances
surrounding their emergence and expansion.
Religious fervour, charismatic vision, religious expansion and innovation,
cultural renaissance, economic empowerment, personality clashes, land disputes
and social and religious protest combined with the desire for religious and
political self-determination have inspired a variety of NRMs throughout Africa.
Thus, an understanding of the complex identities of NRMs in Africa is central
Introduction 7
to any definition and description of their growth locally and globally. ANRMs
have been defined from a variety of perspectives. The collective identities of
NRMs also derive from each group’s self-identity.
Historians pay attention to biographies of leaders who reshaped the
religious landscape. Phenomenologists of religion look into the interior of the
phenomenon, and search for its specific features and inner spirituality. This
has produced conclusions that some of the NRMs, like the AICs, have used an
indigenous religious stamp in shaping a new version of Christianity. Missiologists
and theologians express concern about the potential of tapping into unwholesome
spirits in these movements and regard the movements as syncretistic, routes back
to tradition, heathenism, neo-traditional or post-Christianity.
Social science approaches to ANRMs explain them as products of social
change and seek to investigate how indigenous structures respond to external
change agents. To account for their emergence and spread in Africa, some
sociologists concentrate on the role of deprivation and anomie as causes of
growth. ANRMs were largely described as an urban phenomenon, the religion
of the poor, the masses, the disenfranchised and displaced persons. Cargo cults
are portrayed as the irrational quest for wealth or manifest cases of neurosis and
crisis. Some scholars regard the new religions that emerged during the colonial
era in Africa as manifestations of social or religious protest – by-products of the
struggle for political self-determination and the establishment of independent
nation-states. ANRMs are mirrored as covert protest movements to colonialism.
Ethiopian, Zionist, Aladura, Spirit, prophetic and Kimbanguist movements
that emerged and proliferated in various regions of sub-Saharan Africa in the
wake of European colonialism were interpreted as one response of Africans to
the loss of cultural, economic and political control. Some arose in reaction to
European Christianity and played a significant role in the post-colonial struggle
for independence.
The political factor in terms of social or religious protest hardly does justice
to the complex phenomenon. The resilience of the AICs in post-independent
Africa makes this explanation tenuous. Similar movements continue to emerge
that can rarely be linked to any forms of social or religious protest. These welter of
social science perspectives often undercut dimensions of new religious cultures.
The narrow emphasis on the why of conversion and recruitment undermines how
ANRMs negotiate or transform the cultures into which they are introduced.
Any causative explanation must take into consideration the internal religious
dynamic and characteristics of a specific NRM and its articulation within
external social processes. The rich, local varieties, manifestations, expressions and
experiences of ANRMs shed light on considering them as a global phenomenon.
The attempt to provide causal explanations of and to typologise ANRMs

proves daunting owing to their complex histories, cultural backgrounds and
wide permutations in their spiritualities and polities. In the early years of several
NRMs in Africa, typologies and terminologies were employed, quite often
loosely and derogatorily, to characterise the complex genre. Most of the labels
employed as a descriptive idiom for ANRMs have been abandoned owing to
the burden of monocausal explanations of origins or the overemphasis of one
characteristic feature to the detriment of their internal dynamics.
Two main phases can be identified in the evolution of ANRMs
historiography. The first era was mainly defined and dominated by Western
(European) scholarship. The second phase witnessed the emergence of African
scholars and their integration in the academic enterprise on ANRMs. Platvoet’s
(1996) historical exploration of the study of the religions of Africa as a shift from
two overlapping phases ‘Africa as object’ to ‘Africa as subject’ is illuminating in
comprehending the evolution of ANRM scholarship. The earlier refers to an
epoch when ANRMs were studied virtually exclusively by scholars, and other
observers, from outside Africa; and the latter, when the religions of Africa had
begun to be studied also, and increasingly mainly, by African scholars. Although
the second phase is still largely dominated by Western scholars, African scholars
have further enriched the field, bringing rich insights and fresh perspectives.
Africa as Object
One of the earliest ANRMs that has attracted the robust scholarly gaze and
interpretation of several Western scholars is what became known as the African
Independent Churches (AICs). Amateur ethnographers, colonial and academic
anthropologists, liberal Christian missionaries, historians, political scientists,
sociologists, psychologists, missiologists, theologians and others took their
fair share in presenting and representing ANRMs in the colonial years and the
immediate post-independent period in the 1950s and 1960s. The indigenous
religious creativity crystallising in the acronym, AICs represents one profound
development in the transmission and transformation of African Christianities.
AICs started to emerge from the 1920s and 1930s under similar but also
remarkably distinct historical, religious, cultural, socio-economic and political
circumstances particularly in the western, southern, central and eastern fringes of
the continent. The AICs have received considerable scholarly attention since the
1940s. Available literature reveals the dominance of theological, missiological
and sociological perspectives. While the earliest historical developments,
theologies and hierarchical structures of these churches have been largely
Introduction 9
documented, their growth process in contemporary times has been left largely
under-investigated.
The acronym “AICs” is used variously by scholars to refer to ‘African Initiated
Churches’, ‘African Indigenous Churches’, ‘African Independent Churches’
and ‘African Instituted Churches’. There is no consensus as to which phrase is
most appropriate. This classification in its narrow sense refers to the indigenous
churches that emerged and succeeded the mission churches in different parts
of Africa especially from the dawn of the twentieth century. The explanations
offered by scholars for their emergence vary from religious to cultural, political
to economic and social to psychological factors. Examples of pioneering work
carried out by scholars in this field include Bengt Sundkler (1948), Christian
Baeta (1962), Victor Hayward (1963), Harold Turner (1967a), John Peel
(1968), David Barrett (1968), and Gerard Oosthuizen (1968).
Sundkler was one of the pioneer scholars who engaged in systematic
exploration of what later partly became popularised as AICs. His pivotal study
ended in a monograph, Bantu Prophets in South Africa, published in 1948. He
conducted research in rural KwaZulu during the mid-1940s. Sundkler took a
terminological leap more than a decade later by opting for Bantu Independent
Churches as against the official appellation of Native Separatist Churches. The
labels Native, Separatist and his own appropriation of Bantu were considered
offensive baggage and thus attracted a critical uppercut in the very tensile racial
and political atmosphere that characterised apartheid South Africa.
With the limitations of “Bantu” as more of a linguistic rather than a racial
category, “African” appeared as a more-embracing replacement that took
cognisance not only of the partly racial sense but also of religious manifestations
elsewhere within the continent. The categorisation of these indigenous religious
initiatives as independent, separatist, syncretistic, protest, nativistic, tribal,
neo-pagan, spiritist, sectarian, nationalist, Hebraic, cultic, messianic or post-
Christian, at different levels of their histories, reveals the ideological, political
and religious orientations and climate that pervaded scholarship as well as
the public sphere at the time. Although most of the labels are now obsolete,
some contemporary scholars still continue to appropriate these loaded terms or
their variations. In spite of the criticisms, ‘African Independent Churches’ has
received a more popular acclamation as a working definition, as a provisional
terminology that was perceived to be far less nuanced.
Some of the early AIC typologies are provided by Sundkler (1948);
Oosthuizen (1968); Barrett (1968); and Turner (1979). One of the less-
polemical categories adopted to aggregate a large genre of independent churches
in South Africa was Zionist (Sundkler 1976). AICs in South Africa have received
significant scholarly attention, and the existing literature is quite extensive. These
include: Oosthuizen (1968, 1992); West (1975); Daneel (1987); Oosthuizen
and Hexham (1992); and Kiernan (1990). Sundkler popularised his broad
distinction between two types of South African Independent churches, which he
described as Ethiopian and Zionist (1948:53). In Zimbabwe, Marthinus Daneel
made the same distinction between the “Spirit-type” and “Ethiopian-type”
churches. “Zionist” or “Spirit-type” corresponds to the term “prophet-healing”
and distinguishes ‘prophetic movements which emphasize the inspiration
and revelation of the Holy Spirit, from the non-prophetic church groups’
(Daneel 1971:285). In West Africa, Christian Baeta dealt extensively with this
phenomenon to be later popularised in Ghana as “Spirit” or “Spiritist” churches
(Baeta 1962). Harold Turner (1967a) and John Peel (1968) popularised AICs
with their seminal works on the Aladura phenomenon in western Nigeria. The
scenario in pre-independence Kenya was not any different as Welbourn and
Ogot studied AICs in western Kenya (Welbourn 1961, Welbourn and Ogot
1966). An earlier significant work that dealt on the AICs in Kenya was that of
Jomo Kenyatta (1962 [1938]).
David Barrett’s Schism and Renewal in Africa: An Analysis of Six Thousand
Contemporary Religious Movements (1968) was based on three years’ research
in Africa to compile data on these movements and to elaborate the theory of
independency. He applied a rudimentary cross-cultural methodology to show
that these movements of renewal and independency emerge spontaneously
from a well-defined background of social and religious tension, whose strength
is assessed for any particular ethnic group on a scale of eighteen variable factors
that account for the presence or absence of independency in that ethnic group.
He covers ‘the widespread phenomenon in which large numbers of former
adherents of mission churches have seceded in order to assert their right to
freedom from a larger ecclesiastical control, and in which others have founded
new movements and organizations independent of direct or indirect control
from the Western world.’ Barrett’s research methods were heavily criticised for
generalisations in a broad study of the one single phenomenon of independency
among so many African ethnic groups, instead of an in-depth study of one
single society. In spite of the criticisms, Barrett highlighted series of parallels in
movements of independency from one part of Africa to another. The book also
demonstrates how the dynamic nature of African religious creativity produced
a phenomenon in some respects unique in the history of religious movements.
The whole movement is shown in the conclusion to represent one of the most
remarkable achievements of the African genius for religion.
Introduction 11
It was perhaps Harold W. Turner who popularised and gave AICs a distinctive
identity marker as ANRMs by launching them into global academic discourse.
Turner researched in Nigeria and wrote an ethnographic description of a
significant new religious movement, The Church of the Lord Aladura (Turner
1967a). From this previous intensive study, Turner employed phenomenological,
(sometimes theological) perspectives and developed a comparative framework
for studying what he called NERMS (New Religious Movements in Primal
Societies). According to Turner, the African religious landscape was so varied
and distinctive that the particular movements found there had to be designated
by different names. But more important, what Turner points out is that the
impact of Western culture and missionary domination has changed African
traditions, offering new forms of religion in what he called ‘Modern African
Religious Movements’.
In an attempt to bring definitional clarity to the expanding phenomenon,
Turner adduced a provisional definition of African Independent Churches in
the late 1960s as “churches founded in Africa, by Africans and for Africans”.
While this definition may appear to hold water especially when located within
the specific milieu within which Turner first wrote, contemporary demographic
profiles and the expanding geographies of these churches now render his
definitional gaze suspect and short-sighted. Turner’s suggestion that AICs were
intended to be primarily for Africans or that those movements have all African
membership is hardly tenable. Even the appropriateness of “Independent” was
revisited by several scholars.
The resilience and dynamism that characterised these churches in post-
independence Africa, coupled with their rapid proliferation and splinter
formations, reified the politics and inherent polemics that galvanise such a
terminological construct. This opened the floodgate to alternative terminologies
such as “African [Initiated, Indigenous, Instituted, International] Churches”.
There is as yet no scholarly consensus as to which of these phrases is most
appropriate to delineate the phenomenon. The revolving abbreviation “AIC” in
all of them may lend credence to the fact that the designations do not necessarily
suggest varied connotations beyond their semantic variations.
In addition to providing an extensive history and phenomenology of
the Church of the Lord Aladura, Turner devoted much of his research life
contributing and sometimes championing theoretical, typological and
methodological debates about ANRMs (1967a, 1967b, 1977, 1979). The subject
that attracted his research interest since the late 1950s, and in fact throughout
his academic career, led to his personal collection of primary/secondary data
on these movements while teaching in universities in West Africa in the
1960s. His rich collection on ‘New Religious Movements in Primal Societies’

was first housed at the University of Aberdeen until 1981, when it moved to
the Central Library of Selly Oak Colleges. On his retirement, he donated his
unique, extensive documentation to the Selly Oak Colleges Library, where he
set up the Study Centre for New Religious Movements in Primal Societies,
with himself as its first Director until retirement in 1986. During this time he
continued to add new materials to the collection. The Harold Turner Collection
became an internationally renowned centre with approximately 27,000 items.
It is a unique and specialised collection, comprising documents from journals,
books, unpublished papers, newspapers, original material from the movements
themselves and dissertations.
The Centre metamorphosed under different names as: The Study Centre for
New Religious Movements in Primal Societies, 1981–84; The Centre for New
Religious Movements, 1984–91; INTERACT Research Centre, 1991–95;
The Centre for the Study of New Religious Movements, 1996–99; and finally
Research Unit for New Religions and Churches, the name change necessitated
by the transfer to the University of Birmingham in August 1999. By the 1990s,
NRMs in primal societies had come to be recognised alongside the so-called
world religions – Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Judaism and Christianity.
Turner’s phenomenological perspective brought to light the diversity of ANRMs
in contemporary world.
Africa as Subject
The legacies and foundational works of earlier scholars on ANRMs was

enlivened by a sustained interest of a new generation of African and Western
scholars. Omoyajowo’s Cherubim and Seraphim: The History of an African
Independent Church (1982), Friday Mbon’s Brotherhood of the Cross and Star: A
New Religious Movement in Nigeria (1992), and Adogame’s Celestial Church of
Christ: The Politics of Cultural Identity in a West African Prophetic-Charismatic
Movement (1999) were some of the notable monographs emanating from West
Africa. Other works on NRMs in Nigeria included Hackett’s (ed.) New Religious
Movements in Nigeria (1987); and Olupona’s ‘New Religious Movements in
Contemporary Nigeria’ (1989) and ‘New Religious Movements and the Social
Order in Nigeria’ (1991). Some significant works that dealt with the AICs in
Kenya include Hoehler-Fatton’s Women of Fire and Spirit: Faith and Gender in
Roho Religion in Western Kenya (1996) and Githieya’s The Freedom of the Spirit:
African Indigenous Churches in Kenya (1997).
Introduction 13
While we have focused above solely on ANRMs with Christian extraction,

there are numerous Christian-related ANRMs such as the diverse African-led
Pentecostal/charismatic movements that have further diversified the religious
landscape of Africa and the African Diaspora (for an overview, see Adogame
2010). The most recent development within African Christianity is the
emergence and proliferation of Pentecostal/charismatic churches, especially
from the 1950s and 60s onwards. There have been two waves of Pentecostal
movements, the indigenous Pentecostal groups such as the Redeemed Christian
Church of God, the Deeper Life Bible Church and Winners Chapel; and
those such as the Four Square Gospel Church, the Full Gospel Businessmen
Fellowship International, Campus Crusade for Christ, Youth with a Mission
and Christ for all Nations, which exist as branches or missions of Pentecostal
organisations outside Africa.
At the same time, the genre is even more diverse with new religious
collectivities related to and emanating from Islam and the indigenous religions
alike. It would appear that the literature on Christian-related NRMs is fairly
more extensive than that on Islam, indigenous religions and Eastern esoteric and
Western-related spiritual science movements in Africa. This only suggests that
the former are more extensively studied and written about than the latter. On
the whole, Africa remains and represents one of the most dynamic religious/
spiritual laboratories of the world. In the following paragraphs I shall draw briefly
on examples of new religious developments within Islam and the indigenous
religions in Africa and the African diaspora.
Islam-Related ANRMs
Islam penetrated sub-Saharan Africa in the eleventh century, long before the
advent of European Christianity in the fifteenth century. Islam spread through
North Africa by conquest, but the situation differed considerably in sub-Saharan
Africa, where it took on the insignia of trade and commerce. Islam pursued
a conversion policy that became successful in several sub-Saharan countries
over the centuries. Its spread to sub-Saharan Africa revealed its commercial
and sometimes military outlook. Until about 1450, Islam provided the major
external contact between sub-Saharan Africa and the world. The Islamisation
process also served to link sub-Saharan Africa more closely internally through
trade, religion and politics (Trimingham 1968; Brenner 1993).
New religious, economic and political patterns developed in relation to the
Islamic surge, but great diversity remained. Thus, there is now a considerable
variety of Islamic-related NRMs in Africa. The dynamics of contemporary
Muslim communities could be expressed as ‘African Islam’ and ‘Islam in Africa’

(Rosander and Westerlund 1997). The former refers to Muslim beliefs and
practices that Africans have contextualised over the years, often under the
guidance of Sufis, and the latter refers to the ideology of religious reform, usually
articulated in the Islamist call for greater implementation of the Sharia.
Islamic influence upon Africa is largely confined to the Sunnis and their Sufi
traditions, groups that have interacted with African cultures to produce varied
Islam-related NRMs. Islamic Sufi Orders (Brotherhoods) such as the Qadiriyya,
Tijaniyya, Ahmadiyya, Muridiyya and Yan Izala emerged in sub-Saharan
Africa, thus creating several Muslim identities. The Qadiriyya and Tijaniyya
movements are most prominent in West Africa, with the latter spreading across
Nigeria, Senegal, Mali, Guinea, Chad, Cameroon and Ivory Coast. In eastern
and central Africa, their expansion was much more recent (Trimingham 1968:
78). Muridiyya (Muridism) is claimed by its members as the first Brotherhood
in sub-Saharan Africa founded by a Wolof (Senegal) Sufi, Sheikh Ahmadu
Bamba, who was a former member of the Qadiriyya Brotherhood. Political
Islam has also gained firm roots among Muslim communities and has become
intricately connected to global discourses and networks. The Islamic reformist
movement Al-Muwahhiddun (Wahhabism), also known as Salafis, has spread
across African countries such as Ivory Coast, Mali and Guinea. A few Islamic-
influenced spirit-possession movements that appealed to women and marginal
groups include the Zar in Ethiopia and Sudan in the nineteenth century, the
Kitombo of the Kamba in Kenya in the 1890s, the Maouka of the Songhay in
Niger in the 1920s, the Lebu in Senegal and the Bori movement among the
West African Hausas in the twentieth century.
Turner (1993) chronicles NRMs in ‘Islamic West Africa’, focusing on NRMs
such as the Láye Fraternity of Seydina Limamu in Cape Verde and Senegal;
the Mourides of Amadou Bamba – the Muridiyya Brotherhood in Senegal
and whose influence extended to Mauritania, Ivory Coast and Zaire; and the
Hamallism or Reformed Tijaniyya Islamic movement founded by Shaykh Sidi
Muhammed in Mali. The diversity and complexity of Islamic movements in
Nigeria is partly exemplified by the Sufi Orders. Two major movements involved
in the Islamisation process in Nigeria were the Qadiriyya and Tijaniyya. The
former is much older and has spread widely in northern Nigeria since the
nineteenth century. The Qadiriyya emphasises intellectual pursuits more than
the Tijaniyya (which was introduced in the same century).
Other Islamic organisations oppose these brotherhoods on the basis of
doctrine. Thus, Yoruba Muslims have formed various societies whose task
is to provide Muslims with a modern education that does not conflict with
Introduction 15
Islamic values. The Ahmadiyya Brotherhood considers itself as followers of

a contemporary interpretation of Sunni Islam. They are very influential in
Nigeria, Benin, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Ghana, which serves as its West
African headquarters. It has spread to the countries of Tanzania and Kenya, with
Nairobi serving as its East African headquarters. In Nigeria, the Ahmadiyya
Muslim Movement has made significant impact in the southwest, where it
is very popular. In 1923 a group broke away and formed the Ansar-ud-Deen
Society. Both movements have enhanced the development of secular education,
particularly in southwest Nigeria. The Ansar-ud-Deen was probably the most
popular of these Muslim educational organisations. By 1960 it already ran
numerous primary and secondary schools and training colleges.
The Izala (Jamaatu Izalat al-Bida) emerged in 1978, enjoining its members
to reject innovation and instead to work for the preservation of the Sunna. The
leading representative of Izala until his death in 1992 was Abubakar Gumi,
whose most important concern was to try to unite Muslims politically. However,
between 1978 and 1985, many northern Nigerian towns and cities were shaken
by the armed insurrections led by Mohammed Marwa Maitatsine and his Yan
Tatsine movement.
Maitatsine had a long history of fomenting Islamic unrest in northern
Nigeria. The source of his inspiration was the belief, especially in Sufi Islam,
that a mujaddid (reformer) will arise each century to purify and revitalise Islam.
Maitatsine’s brand of Islam seemed largely to combine traditional Muslim
conceptions with local indigenous elements.
Islam has also witnessed the emergence of NRMs like the Nasru-Lahil-Fatih
Society of Nigeria (NASFAT), founded in Lagos in 1995 by Alhaji Abdul-Latif
Olasupo to cater to the spiritual and practical needs of young, educated and
upwardly mobile Muslims and to grapple with contemporary developments
while sustaining Islamic goals. NASFAT, like other Islamic societies such as
Ansarud-Din, Ansarul-Islam, Anwarul-Islam, the Ahmadiyyah Movement,
Islahud-Din, Istijabah Group of Muslims and the Qareeb Society, now has
branches in various parts of Nigeria and abroad. One of the most recent NRMs
in Nigeria that has attracted local and global attention is the group popularly
referred to as Boko Haram. The Boko Haram uprising since July 2009 was
significant in that it not only set a precedent but also reinforced the attempts by
Islamic conservative elements at imposing a variant of Islamic religious ideology
on a secular state (Adesoji 2010).
Sufism, but also Dawah movements, have attracted scholarly attention
owing to their impact on several African societies. Adbulkader Tayob’s Islamic
Resurgence in South Africa (1995) draws attention to the proliferation of the
Muslim youth movement, Sufi Orders and Dawah movements in South Africa.
Knut Vikor’s (2000) survey of the Sufi Orders in many parts of the continent
demonstrates the vast networks they have established from the seventeenth
century. Muhammed Haron (2005) has shown how, during the last three
decades of the twentieth century, the Jama’at al-Tabligh and Dawah movements
such as the International Propagation Islamic Centre in Durban established by
Ahmad Deedat, Africa Muslim Agency and other Islamic Dawah Movements
of South Africa have dominated Dawah activities in the region. His works shed
light on the activities of contemporary Sufi Tariqahs (Orders or Brotherhoods)
such as the Chistiyyah, Murabitun, Qadriyyah, Alawiyyah and Naqshbandi.
This suggests that Islamic-related NRMs are widespread in Africa.
Indigenous ANRMs
Modernising social change has resulted in the decline of some indigenous

practices and modes of thought even as it has brought about a revitalisation
and modification of others. Any claim that Christianity and Islam have totally
outweighed indigenous religion is suspect. The indigenous religious world view,
or aspects of it, still largely pervades, consciously or unconsciously, in the outlook
of many Africans regardless of new religious convictions. The pertinence of
indigenous religions for many is evident in the resilient belief in supernatural
forces, the reality of ancestors and the growing popularity of the pantheon of
divinities. Kingship rituals, secret societies, masquerades, divination, healing,
oracle systems and the prevalent belief in the reality of witchcraft and sorcery
are avenues through which indigenous religions manifest resilience in the face
of a complex, multi-religious and rapidly changing society.
The historical and cultural significance of indigenous African religious
traditions is partly discerned in their plurality and multivocality both in Africa
and the African diaspora. In various parts of Africa, the indigenous religions
have encountered other religious forms and responded to social change leading
to revitalisation of indigenous religions and, in some contexts, synthesis,
reinvention and change. Their dynamism is exemplified by their tendency
toward growth and innovation, a development that has given birth to what is
now described as neo-traditional or neo-indigenous religious movements. A few
examples will suffice here.
West Africa has witnessed the resurgence of neo-indigenous NRMs in the
last several decades. A case in point is Ijo Orunmila, a movement founded in the
1930s that seeks to re-establish links with their traditional religious heritage.
In 1963 the Arousa Cult (Edo National Church), which developed from Bini
Introduction 17
indigenous religion, fused with another neo-traditional movement, the National

Church of Nigeria, to form Godianism. As we mentioned above, the Bori, a
neo-traditional religious movement prominent among Hausa women, draws
partly on Islamic beliefs and practices. Examples of some recent neo-traditional
religious movements include the Afrikania Mission or Sankofa from Ghana and
the Mungiki from Kenya.
ANRMs in the Diaspora
Most African migrants to Europe, America and elsewhere carried aspects of their
religion with them. ANRMs have burgeoned in these contexts owing greatly
to increasing transnational migration, improved transportation systems and
new forms of global communications networks. In the face of contemporary
religious, political and socio-cultural realities, ANRMs are increasingly engaged
in charting local-global religious networks.
The African diaspora influences cultures in Brazil, Cuba and Haiti, partly
leading to the development of African-derived religions such as Santeria,
Candomblé, Vodun and Yoruba-Orisa traditions across the Americas. In 1981
an Act of Parliament in Trinidad and Tobago raised the Yoruba religion to the
status of an official religion. In contemporary Cuba, orisa veneration exists as
part of a larger continuum of religious change in the Americas in which religious
practices, now known as Santeria but also referred to as Lukumi and regla de
ocha, have transformed the shape of orisa veneration outside of West Africa.
These religious forms are proliferating in the diasporic context, with their
practitioners and clientele widening ethnically and racially. The proliferation of
groups of orisa practitioners outside of West Africa continues to attract millions
of adherents of Yoruba and Santeria religious practices (K.M. Clarke 2004:5).
Ifa priests and devotees now include Yoruba, Africans, African-Americans and
non-Africans alike. ‘African-derived religions have entered a new phase with
the growing presence of western adepts. These have become part of an evolving
tradition’ (Bellegarde-Smith 2005:5). Santeria practitioners – some claiming
Hispanic roots, others claiming Afro-Cuban national identities, and still others
claiming American or African heritage – are active participants in the production
of Yoruba-based practices in America (K.M. Clarke 2004:17). The growth of
neo-indigenous African religions in the US and Europe has been characterised
by the proliferation of virtual-based religiosity in which most Orisha and Ifa
priests exist, operate and communicate through their Internet websites with old
and new clientele as well as with the wider public.
African Islam was spread to the diaspora through migration. Within the
context of the African diaspora, Muslims from parts of Africa brought their
religion to North America. Two such religious groups that emerged to challenge
segregation in America and colonialism in Africa were the Moorish Science
Temple (Timothy Drew) and the Nation of Islam (Wallace Fard, later known
as Farrad Mohammed). Contemporary migration has brought many African
Muslims to Europe and North America, where they have joined other Muslim
immigrants in furthering religious diversification of the host societies. For
instance, Somali, Sudanese and Senegalese Muslims have migrated to Europe
and North America, particularly in the 1980s and 1990s. Muridism, an integral
part of the Sufi Order, has spread around the multi-sited migration network and
evolved (Salzbrunn 2004:489).
This present volume seeks to provide new theoretical and methodological
insights for understanding and interpreting ANRMs and African-derived
religions in diaspora. Case studies of individual groups and movements drawn
from Christian, Islamic, Jewish and African-derived religious movements will
explore their provenance and patterns of emergence, their belief systems and
ritual practices, their public/civic roles and their group self-definition, as well
as public perception and responses to the groups, their tendencies towards
integration and segregation, their socio-economic dimensions, hierarchical
structures, organisational networks and their gender and sexual orientations. The
contributions will also focus on legal, political, religious and social implications
of interactions within and between the groups and with the host societies. The
contributions are from scholars and religious practitioners, thus offering new
insights into how ANRMs can be better defined, approached and interpreted
by scholars, policy makers and media practitioners.
This Introduction provides a useful historical backdrop to the shifting
public mental images of ANRMs and African-derived religions in diaspora. It
situates the provenance of NRMs within the local African context, exploring
terminological and historiographical issues regarding the phenomenon in
Africa. This sets the pace for exploring and understanding their mobility and the
inroads they have made into the religious landscapes of Europe, North America,
Latin America and Asia.
Drawing from her recent ethnographic research in Brazil, Bettina Schmidt
in Chapter 1 compares three distinctive religious communities in São Paulo
– one led by an Afro-Brazilian from Bahia, one led by a white Brazilian who
regularly visits Africa and one led by a Nigerian – to illuminate the different
ways in which religious communities in Brazil discuss and engage with Africa.
She underscores how Africa has assumed the ultimate source of authenticity
Another random document with
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The Project Gutenberg eBook of Op die delwerye
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Title: Op die delwerye

Vyf sketse uit die lewe
Author: P. I. Hoogenhout
Release date: November 13, 2023 [eBook #72114]
Language: Afrikaans
Original publication: Cape Town: Maskew Miller, 1925
Credits: Kobus Meyer, Emmanuel Ackerman and the Online

Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OP DIE

DELWERYE ***
OP DIE DELWERYE
VYF SKETSE UIT DIE LEWE
OP DIE DELWERYE
VYF SKETSE UIT DIE LEWE
DEUR
IMKER HOOGENHOUT
MASKEW MILLER BEPERK
KAAPSTAD
VOORWOORD.
Die Delwerye! wat roep dit voor ons oog?
Armoede! Ellende! Ontaarding! Sedeloosheid!
Dis wat die meeste mense, met g’n bekendheid daarvan, dink.
Die Delwerye! daar lê skatte begrawe—en die mense stroom van
al die dele van Suid-Afrika daarheen in die mening dat dié skatte
hulle uit hulle armoede sal red en hulle ellende sal laat ophou, dog
teleurstelling wag die meeste, en teleurstelling bring bitterheid van
gevoel teen die samelewing, teen die Kerk en soms teen God.
Die Delwerye! daar lê skatte begrawe,—skatte van menselewens,
van mensekrag, van mensemateriaal. Skatte vir die Staat, vir die
Kerk, vir die Letterkunde. Die Staat moet rekening hou met die
Delwerye, want tevergeefs sal ons die Russiese Bolsjewisme buite
ons grense probeer hou, terwyl ons die gees van daardie kwaad
kweek in ons eie midde. Die Kerk moet planne beraam om die Troos
en Krag wat die Evangelie alleen kan gee, meer gereeld en gedurig
te bring aan dié wat anders hulle troos sal soek in wêreldse middels:
brandewyn en ydel vermake. Die skrywers kan gerus hulle aandag
wy aan die opeengehoopte mensemateriaal wat skatte inhou wat
ons opbloeiende letterkunde tot groter heerlikheid sal bring.
Die Skrywer van die „Delwerysketse” doen baanbrekerswerk—
prospekteerwerk. Hier en daar, soos sy opvoedkundige werk hom
toegelaat het en in aanraking met die delwersgemeenskap gebring
het, het hy gate gemaak en orals het hy bewyse gekry van
diamanthoudende grond. Hy het gesien watter skatte daar verborge
lê en het gedronge gevoel om dit aan die wêreld van Staat en Kerk
en Letterkunde bekend te stel. Vir dié ontdekking sal ons hom altyd
dankbaar bly, en ons sal altyd sy „Ontdekkersregte” in ag neem en
respekteer.
Delwerswerk is op die oog morsig—in die stowwerige aarde en in
die morsige klei moet gegrawe word. Hope waardelose „rof” word
deur die „bebe” afgeskud voor ’n mens met die wassery kan begin.
Die wassery is ’n eentonige besigheid, en dis tog ’n kuns—nie te
vinnig nie, ook nie te stadig moet die masjien draai nie, en die
„porrel” moet steeds dieselfde dikte hou. Jou klere en gesig word
meesal vuil bespat en gee vir die meeste ’n afkeer van die werk. Al
die kante van die delwerswerk word deur die Skrywer getoon: die
„rof”—die vloeker en drinker; die „porrel”—die mengelmoes-
gemeenskap wat deur die lewensmasjien deurmekaar gedraai word,
’n ondeursigtige moddermassa; die sif, waarmee die „gravitating”
geskied en die egte diamant sy karakter bewys deur bo te lê as die
sif omgekeer word. Die egte diamant word maar hier en daar gekry;
’n geoefende oog is nodig om, as die sif omgekeer word, uit die
miljoene blink klippies die ware diamant te sien, maar as die
edelgesteente in ons hand lê en ons bewonder sy skoonheid, dan
vergeet ons die harde werk, die vuil klere en al die waardelose
weggekrapte „was” in ons blydskap oor die skat wat ons uitgehaal
het.
In die hoop dat dit die Skrywer mag geluk om deur sy sketse by
ons Volk op te wek ’n groter belangstelling in en groter liefde vir die
skatte wat begrawe lê in die delwerye, beveel ons die lesing daarvan
van harte aan by almal wat Suid-Afrika en sy Volk liefhet.
E. J. J. van der HORST.
Wolmaransstad, 26 Februarie 1925.
ANNIE LOSPER.
I.
Die taak van die onderwyser op die delwerye is seker nie een van
ongemengde genot nie. Die hele atmosfeer van die diekens, soos
die delwers sal sê, is nie juis bereken om skoolhou ’n plesier te
maak nie. Die toestande waaronder die kinders opgroei, is so
hemeltergend benard dat dit ’n wonder is dat daar nog van een iets
teregkom. Die woning bestaan gewoonlik net uit een lokaaltjie, wat
so klein is dat ’n groot man hom moeilik tussen die paar kaste en
bankies waaruit die huisraad bestaan, kan beweeg. In hierdie
kamertjie word gekook en geëet en geslaap en, moenie skrik nie,
babetjies gebore. Dat baie kindertjies dus opgroei sonder enige
gevoel van skaamte of kiesheid of reinheid, kan niemand bevreem
nie.
Maar wat die werk van die onderwyser nog die meeste bemoeilik,
is die ondervoeding waaraan so baie delwerskinders ly. As ’n mens
die bleek gesiggies en die maer beentjies sien, dan bloei jou hart vir
hulle, en in die winter gaan dit eers swaar. Ek het meisies gesien wat
net ’n dun linnerokkie aan het sonder enige onderklere, en seuns
wat byna nakend loop. En op die kaal vlaktes waar die delwerye
meesal gevind word, kan dit raak koud word.
Die sanitêre reëling is uiters primitief, en epidemies van
maagkoors of ander besmetlike siektes is glad geen uitsondering
nie. Die wonder is dat daar nie meer mense jaarliks aan aansteeklike
siektes op die delwerye omkom nie, en temeer as verder in gedagte
gehou word dat daar geen enkele hospitaal op die diekens te vind is
nie!
Toe, leer nou kinders wat so sonder tug opgroei en daarby nog
gedurig honger ly. En tog verseker die goeie onderwyser(es) my dat
die delwerskinders gou aan tug en gesag gewend word. ’n Paar
meesters beweer selfs dat hulle liewer hierdie natuurkinders van
meet af aan in hulle klas wil hê as hulle meer-bevoorregte boeties en
sussies. Hoe dit ook al sy, ek het baie respek vir die onderwyser wat
’n sukses van sy werk in die delwerskool maak en daar aanbly, en
nie die eerste die beste geleentheid te baat neem om daarvandaan
te vlug nie.
Dis opmerklik hoe gou die delwer die goeie meester van sy
swakker kollega onderskei en dan vir laasgenoemde die lewe op die
delwery onmoontlik maak.
„Waarom stuur julle hierdie nuwe onderwyser nie liewers terug
normaalskool-toe nie?” vra ’n delwer eendag aan my.
„En wat is daar dan verkeerd met hom?”
„Kyk, Meneer, ’n meester wat heeldag sy keel hees skree voor ’n
klas, kan nie alte veel beteken nie. As ek die hele liewe dag my
kaffers moet rondskree, dan sou hulle later nie na my luister as ek
ordentlik met hulle praat nie. En dis mos darem nie nodig om soos ’n
mal mens te kere te gaan as jy iets aan ’n kind wil duidelik maak nie.
Party seuns sê die meester is gek, terwyl ’n paar dogters dit weer so
op hulle senuwees kry dat hulle weier om langer skool-toe te gaan.
My kind, wat aanstaande jaar in sy klas moet kom, huil nou al as sy
daaraan dink. Julle moet die vent wegvat, anders raak hy een van
die dae goed opgedons. Ek weet van ’n hele paar delwers wat lus
voel vir sy vel.”
Nou redeneer nou met so ’n man, temeer daar hy reg is. Wat skeel
dit hom dat hy die wet sal oortree as hy vir Meester opdons? Die
natuurmens redeneer nie, hy tree handelend op, en dis wonderlik
hoe fyn sy gevoel van reg en onreg ontwikkel is.
Soms egter kry Meester dit opdraand, omdat een of ander
voorman op die diekens ’n ander sienswyse oor aanvanklike
leermetodes toegedaan is.
„Jy moet die kinders die A, B, C leer,” het ’n vader die
onderwyseres een môre in die skool-lokaal voor al die kinders kom
teregwys. „Wat vir ’n gemors is daardie klank-affêre? As ek vir my
Kosie saans laat woorde spel, kan ek hom nie volg nie. My kind
moet net soos sy pape voor hom geleer word!” En toe die
onderwyseres haar hieraan nie steur nie, moes sy voor die
skoolkommissie verskyn en wou hierdie opvoedkundige liggaam
haar met alle geweld dwing om Gert Janse se metodiek te volg en in
die toekoms toe te pas. Die kwessie is selfs na die Skoolraad verwys
en, moenie lag nie, ’n deputasie moes uitgestuur word om die
skoolkommissie tot ander insigte te beweeg.
Dieselfde onderwyseres het later deur haar ywer en toewyding so
die harte van die delwers gesteel, dat hulle stilletjies ’n paar lede van
die Skoolkommissie na die Onderwys-departement afgevaardig het
om beleefd te vra dat haar salaris met £100 per jaar sou verhoog
word, mits sy op Syferlaagte aanbly en nie binne tien jaar sou trou
nie. En toe die Departement aan hierdie vriendelike versoek geen
gehoor gee nie, het die Kommissie my „kaalkop die waarheid vertel
en verseker dat beide ek en die Departement net ’n blooming wash-
out was en deur generaal Kemp moes uitgeskop word!” „En doen ou
Kempie dit nie, dan sal ons so wragtiewaar nie weer vir hom stem
nie!”
II.
Die skoolgebou op Syferlaagte was skaars geskik vir ’n koeistal; ja
ek twyfel of ’n ryk boer sou bereid gewees het om sy volbloed vee
daarin te huisves, en in so ’n lokaal moes ondervoede en onderklede
kinders aldag vyf uur deurbring. Oorspronklik was die gebou bedoel
gewees vir ’n koeliewinkel, waar so min lig en lug as moontlik vereis
word, want dit is nie in die belang van die verkoper dat sy kliënt alte
goed die ware wat hy koop, moet kan besigtig nie. Die hele gebou
het twee klein venstertjies en ’n deur gehad. Die sinkmure was van
binne nie met hout uitgevoer nie; daar was geen plafon nie, en die
vloer was van grond.
In die hartjie van die somer het die sink so warm geword dat ’n
mens dit nie met jou kaal hand kon aanraak nie; voeg nou daarby
nog die asempies van 62 leerlinge wat almal in die een lokaal
ingeprop is, en dan sal jy ’n flou denkbeeld kry van hoe die lug so
teen twaalfuur in die skoolgebou moet wees.
Buite kry ’n mens net die uitgegrawe kleims en die hope dooie
grond en gruis. ’n Boom is ’n onbekende iets. Maar stof, as die wind
waai, hang soos ’n bruin sluier oor die delwerye en verpes die
atmosfeer in die skool nog meer. En, leser, hierdie beskrywing is nie
uit die duim gesuie nie; dis getrou aan die waarheid.
Onder sulke omstandighede moet die onderwyseres onderrig gee
en moet die kinders opgevoed word!
En die outoriteite is nie altoos te blameer nie, want ’n delwery is
iets wat dikwels in ’n dag se tyd ontstaan en soms binne ’n jaar se
tyd verlate is. Inteendeel, dis prysenswaardig dat daar tog ’n poging
aangewend word om onderwys te verskaf aan die honderde
kindertjies wat anders vir kwaadgeld sou rondloop.
„Toe, begin maar,” sê ek aan die onderwyseres by die aanvang
van die skool, „en gaan voort net soos gewoonlik.”
Sy open met gebed en laat toe sing: „Heer, waar dan heen” en wat
daar op volg, wat my nogal as heeltemal treffend voorgekom het. Ja,
ek weet nie van nog ’n gesang wat so toepaslik is vir die delwerye
nie.
Daarna het sy die sondvloed met die leerlinge behandel; en al het
sy dit nou nie juis altyd streng ortodoks gedoen nie, tog het sy
meesterlik daarin geslaag om dit interessant voor te dra en die
kinders se aandag te boei.
Na afloop van die les sê sy: „Nou, kinders, kan julle vrae stel oor
enigiets wat julle nie duidelik is nie.”
„Juffrou,” en agter in die klas gaan ’n vuil handjie omhoog, „het
Noag vlieë en vlooie ook in die ark geneem?”—Hierdie insektetjies is
vreeslik lastig op die diekens.
„Ek dink seker, Kosie,” antwoord die onderwyseres.
„Maar hoor dis jammer dat die ding nie vergaan het nie,” weer van
Kosie.
„Maar, Kosie, dan sou die mense en die diere ook mos saam
verongeluk het, en dan sou geeneen van ons mos vandag hier
gewees het nie,” herneem Juffrou.
„Ja, dis ook weer waar,” sê Kosie. Dog op sy gesiggie is ’n
onverskillige uitdrukking duidelik leesbaar, en dis nie moeilik om te
ontsyfer wat in sy breintjie omgaan nie: As die mens moes gespaar
gebly het om sy lewe op die delwerye te slyt, dan was die redding
van Noag en sy kroos ’n groot fout.
„Juffrou,” en vlak voor haar word ’n handjie omhoog gehou van ’n
meisietjie met groot blou kykers en ’n maer gesiggie wat van
ondervoeding getuig, „Juffrou, glo Juffrou alles wat in die Bybel
staan?”
„Hoekom vra jy dit, Miemie?” sê die onderwyseres sonder om
haarself te kompromiteer.
„Omdat my pa sê dis somar alles kaf, maar Mammie sê weer dis
alles die heilige waarheid. En al glo ek vir my mammie, want sy is so
goed, tog wil ek graag weet wat Juffrou dink.”
„Ek stem saam met jou mammie,” bevestig Juffrou.
Hier val ek in: „Waar is jou ouer sustertjie, Miemie?”
„Sy is siek, Meneer, baie siek. Sy laat groete weet en sal tog so
bly wees as Meneer net vir haar ’n oomblikkie wil kom besoek
voordat Meneer wegry. Sy het so vorentoe gekyk na die inspeksie,
maar nou...” en hier swem klein Miemie se oë in die trane.
„Nou goed. Sê vir Annie ek kom haar vanmiddag besoek en sy
moet gou gesond word.”
Dis snaaks dat ek vir Annie Losper so goed onthou het. Ek kon
sedert my vorige besoek nooit haar gesiggie uit my geheue verban
nie. Uit ’n allerarmoedigste huisgesin, het tog haar oë en die soet
uitdrukking van die gesiggie somar dadelik ’n mens getref. In haar
klas was sy maklik nommer een in elke opsig, en die onderwyseres,
iemand van lang ervaring, het my verseker dat sy nog nooit van te
vore so ’n kind in haar klas gehad het nie. Haar opmerking verlede
jaar was dan ook snaaks genoeg: „Ek glo nie sy is vir hierdie wêreld
nie!”
Eindelik was die inspeksie afgeloop en kon die skool vir die dag
sluit. Die werk was baie bevredigend, en die juffrou en die kinders
het ’n pluimpie gekry.
Nou wag daar nog ’n paar lede van die Skoolkommissie; maar ook
hulle moeilikhede is ten laaste opgelos, en nou was ek net haastig
om weg te kom.
Onder al die werksaamhede van die dag het ek Annie glad
vergeet.
III.
Die delwer het heelwat goeie hoedanighede, en as ’n mens geleer
het om sy minder beskaafde karaktertrekke nie raak te sien nie, dan
begin jy hom werklik liefkry.
Dit was al na drie toe ek kon vertrek, en ek het nog nie eers die
tyd kon vind om te eet nie. Ek het my derhalwe gehaas om by die
huis te kom. Voordat ek egter die delwery uit was, bars daar ’n
vreeslike onweer los wat my verplig om in die eerste die beste huisie
skuiling te soek. My gasheer was ’n man van sowat dertig somers en
ongetroud. Aan alles in die hutjie kon ’n mens merk dat hy beter dae
geken het. Sy opmerking by my binnekoms was dan ook vreemd
genoeg: „Jy het seker gedink toe jy by my deur instap:
„Man wants but little here below,

Nor wants that little long!”
„Jy het reg geraai,” antwoord ek, „maar wat soek jy hier op die
delwery?”
„My naam is Fanie Renier en ek is ’n teruggekeerde soldaat wat
vir reg en geregtigheid onskadelik gemaak is,” sê hy op ’n bitter toon,
„en wat toe na die delwerye gestuur is met £20 om hier te kom
vrek!... Maar het jy al geëet?”
„Nee, ou broer, maar moenie moeite maak nie; kos is seker by jou
nie alte volop nie.”
Sonder om hom aan my te steur steek hy ’n Primus-stofie op, bak
gou ’n paar eiers, braai ’n stukkie vleis en sit vir my dit voor met ’n
stukkie droë brood en koffie.... Ek het later uitgevind dat hy my sy
laaste leeftog voorgesit het en dat hy die volgende dag sonder kos
moes bly. Vandaar dan ook die gesegde in Transvaal: „By ’n trekker
en ’n delwer is ’n mens altyd welkom.”
Die weer het eindelik opgeklaar, en na ’n hartlike dankie aan my
nuwe kennis wou ek op die moter klim.
„Kyk hier,” sê hy, terwyl hy my aan die arm vat, „kan julle dan niks
doen vir die mense wat hier langs my woon nie? Die toestand van
hierdie famielie is allerellendigs. Die vader suip soos ’n vis, die
moeder is in die bed met ’n babetjie, die oudste dogtertjie lê siek, en
die ander kinders word totaal verwaarloos. Ek glo nie daar is ’n
stukkie kos in daardie huisie te kry nie. So ver ek kon het ek gehelp,
maar op die oomblik is ek self poot-uit. Kan jy nie nog ’n oomblikkie
spaar om saam met my te gaan kyk nie?”
Om die waarheid te sê, het ek maar min lus daarvoor gevoel,
maar meer om my gasheer tevrede te stel as om enige ander rede
het ek ingewillig.
Die famielie het maar ’n paar tree van Fanie se huisie gewoon, en
ons was dus gou by ons bestemming. Nou het ek al gewoon geword
om enige pondokkie op ’n delwery as geskik vir menslike verblyf te
beskou, maar so ’n krot as waar ons nou voor staan, het ek nog
nooit gesien nie. Hoe enige persoon in so iets kan lewe, is vir my
nou nog ’n raaisel! Die hutjie het bestaan uit ’n klompie oopgevlekte
parafienblikke wat op een of ander manier aan mekaar getimmer
was, met seilsakke hier en daar tussenin om as vensters te dien.
Ons kruip hande-viervoet in, en ons oë moes eers gewoon word
aan die half-duister voor ons iets binne kon onderskei.
„Ruk daardie sak solank af asseblief,” sê ek aan Fanie, „sodat ’n
mens kan sien en asem kan skep.”
Hy doen dit op my versoek, en toe ontvou hom daar ’n toneel aan
ons oë, so hartverskeurend soos ek nog nooit van te vore gesien het
nie of hoop om ooit weer getuie van te wees nie.
In die een hoek op ’n klomp sakke wat oor droë gras gesprei is, lê
die moeder met haar babetjie, en onder by die voetenent op ’n paar
sakke die siek dogtertjie, wat niemand anders as Annie Losper was
nie. My nuwe kennis en ek kon ons met moeite omdraai in die
kamertjie.
„Die dokter was vanmôre hier,” fluister Renier in my oor, „en hy sê
daar is nie hoop vir Annie nie. Haar liggaampie is deur gedurige
ondervoeding te uitgeput om die siekte af te skud.”
Dis my later meegedeel dat Renier ses maande na hierdie voorval
nog altyd doktersrekening afbetaal het.
„Dag, Annie,” groet ek so opgewek as ek kon onder die treurige
omstandighede, „en hoe gaan dit met jou, my kind?”
„Nie alte sleg nie, Meneer, maar ek was tog so spyt dat ek nie
vandag op skool kon wees nie,” antwoord sy met ’n flou glimlaggie,
en haar stemmetjie was so swak dat ek haar amper nie kon verstaan
nie.
„Ag, moenie vir jou kwel nie, my kind; jy sal tog in ieder geval
oorgeplaas word na ’n hoër standerd. Hou maar vir jou stil sodat jy
gou kan gesond word. Aanstaande jaar hoop ek seker om jou weer
eerste in jou klas te sien staan.”
’n Hemelse glimlaggie speel om die bleek ou mondjie. Sy skud
haar koppie en nouliks hoorbaar fluister sy: „Aanstaande jaar sal ek
nie meer op skool wees nie.”
„Ag nee wat, Annie, jy is nog glad te jonk om uit die skool te gaan,”
en ek maak asof ek haar nie reg begryp het nie, „en die
onderwyseres sal dit mos nooit toelaat nie. Maar moenie meer praat
nie; dit maak jou alte moeg. Probeer liewer om ’n bietjie te rus.”
Ek moes nou my oor vlak teen haar mondjie hou om te hoor wat
sy sê. Gelukkig het Renier die moeder besig gehou en sy het dus nie
gemerk wat hier by haar plaasvind nie.
„Meneer,” en sy kyk my stip in die oë, „sal Meneer nie asseblief vir
my saggies Psalm 23 opsê nie? Ek het dit laas nog by die inspeksie
vir Meneer opgesê.”
Dis die eerste keer wat ek die rol van sieke-trooster en predikant
moes vervul, maar ek het dit gedoen so goed as ek kon. Ek het haar
uitgeteerde handjies in myne geneem en toe daardie mooi Psalm so
goed as ek kon opgesê. Toe ek klaar was, kon ek nog ’n flou dankie
hoor en daarna die woorde: „Al gaan ek ook in die dal van die
skaduwee van die dood, dan sou ek nie kwaad vrees nie.” Toe breek
die mooi blou ogies, die handjies word koud, en Annie Losper was in
’n beter wêreld oorgeplant.
Die handjies het ek eerbiedig op die borsie gekruis, ’n sagte
soentjie op die voorkoppie gedruk, en toe letterlik die pondokkie
uitgevlug. My gemoed was te vol; ek kon die droefheid en hartseer
ook nie aansien nie.
Uit die tent kom die angsgeskrei van ’n gebroke moederhart: „O,
my God! My kind! My kind!”
Buite het ek vir Renier gewag. Aan sy gesig kon ek sien dat ook
hy ontroerd was. Daar is geen woord tussen ons gewissel nie, net ’n
warm handdruk wedersyds, en toe het ek op die moter geklim en
huis-toe gery.
HENDRIK BLITS.
I.
Wat Hendrik Blits se regte naam was, kon niemand van die
delwers my vertel nie. Hierdie bynaam het hy verwerf, eerstens
omdat hy hom gereeld elke naweek dronk gedrink het aan
kafferblits, en twedens omdat sy taal dan by sulke geleenthede so
sterk gekleur was.
My kennismaking met Hendrik was nogal baie buitengewoon. Op
’n koue môre in Julie het ek my op Diamantkuil bevind, waar ek in
gesprek was met die hoof van die Goewerment-skool, toe hy die
opmerking maak: „Allewêreld, hoe mishandel so ’n Groot Lawaai
weer vanoggend die stomme donkies!”
Groot Lawaai was die naam van ’n groot, vierkantige lummel van
’n vent. Hy was ’n baster en ’n boelie so groot as wat daar te vinde
is. Om sy grootte en krag het die delwers hom met respek behandel
en verder maar so veel moontlik uit sy pad gebly. Ek kyk in die
rigting waar die hoof wys, en daar sien ek ’n waterwa met veertien
donkies bespan, krakend en waggelend die spruit se wal uitkom. Dit
was duidelik dat die donkies so skaars-skaars die wa kon uitbring.
En g’n wonder nie! Gras was daar op die hele delwery nie genoeg vir
’n paar honderd sprinkane nie, laat staan ’n paar honderd diere. En
op hierdie veld moet die arme donkies nou snags hulle pense
volvreet, na ’n dag van swaar trek en mishandeling.
’n Diamantkoper wat ook vroeër gedelf het, het eendag die
onderstaande opmerking in my teenwoordigheid gemaak: „Twee
dinge dank ek die liewe Vader dat ek nie is nie: ’n delwer se donkie
en ’n delwer se vrou!” Sedert dié tyd het ek eersgenoemde bewering
ongelukkig al oor en oor gestaaf gesien.
Wel, die veertien donkies van Groot Lawaai was g’n uitsondering
nie; die arme diere was letterlik net vel en been. Om hulle aan die
gang te hou, loop hy op en af langs die span, en terwyl hy die
gruwelikste vloekwoorde uitstoot, gésel hy die donkies
meedogenloos met ’n groot handsambok. ’n Mens kon die doef,
doef, van die houe seker ’n myl ver hoor.
„Maar is hier dan niemand op Diamantkuil om ’n stop aan sulke
wreedheid te sit nie?” vra ek, en ek voel hoe die bloed na my kop toe
bruis.
„Nee,” sê die hoof, „almal is bang vir Groot Lawaai, want hy is ’n
vreeslike woestaard.”
Al nader en nader kom die wa, en al harder en harder klink die
doef, doef van die sambok.
Ek het my al klaar voorgeneem om met die vent te gaan praat en,
as dit nie help nie, die poliesie van die mishandeling van die esels te
gaan verwittig, toe daar skielik uit ’n onverwagte oord ’n ander vir die
donkies in die bres spring.
„O magtig!” roep die hoof verbaasd uit, „wat gaan Hendrik Blits
nou maak? Groot Lawaai sal hom vermorsel. Laat ons nader stap
om, indien moontlik, die rusie te voorkom.”
Ek het nooit die persoon opgemerk wat g’n vyftig tree van ons af
onder ’n doringboom gelê en slaap het nie, voordat die opmerking
van die onderwyser nie my aandag by hom bepaal het nie. Ewe op
sy gemak staan Hendrik Blits op, rek hom uit, gooi sy flenterbaadjie
van hom af en stap reguit na Groot Lawaai toe.
„Kyk hier, jou gemene boelie, as jy nog ’n slag jou arm oplig om
die donkies te slaan, dan dons ek vir jou op. Het jy my begryp, jou
vervloekte baster?”
Die Groot Lawaai se gesig was die moeite werd om te sien. Dis
amper ongelooflik dat ’n mens se gelaatstrekke so kan verander. Die
duiwel, soos hy my in my kinderjare op sy lelikste afgeskilder is, sou
vir hierdie bakkies geskrik het.
„Jou verd...de kind!” brul Groot Lawaai woedend, „sal jy vir my
kom belet om my eie diere vrek te slaan as ek wil? Jakob! Jou
d..der!” en met hierdie vloek slaan hy die hotagter donkie oor die kop
netso hard as hy kan. Toe draai hy na Hendrik Blits en sê smalend:
„En nou gaan ek van jou frikkadel maak, jou vieslike dronklap.”
’n Mens sou nooit sulke ratheid by Hendrik gesoek het nie, maar
voor jy mes kon sê, ruk hy die handsambok uit die baster se hand uit
en gebied: „Trek uit jou baadjie; ek wil jou op gelyke voet ontmoet,
sodat jy nie naderhand behoef te vertel dat ek jou onder ’n hendikep
’n pak slae gegee het nie. Toe, maak gou as jy nie te lafhartig is nie!”
En Hendrik gooi die sambok neer en plaas sy voet daarop.
Groot Lawaai het hom nie tweemaal laat nooi nie. Hy pluk sy
baadjie uit en onder ’n stroom van die profaanste vloeke loop hy vir
Hendrik storm. Van natuur is ek nie iemand wat behae skep in rusie
en bakleiery nie, maar hierdie môre het ek die mieks-op—soos die
delwers sal sê—eerlik geniet, en my hele siel was aan Hendrik se
kant.
’n Man wat baie woedend is, kan nie goed boks nie. Groot Lawaai
was seker tweemaal so sterk as Hendrik Blits, maar waar
laasgenoemde kortgeskiet het in krag, het sy ratheid en kennis van
boks hierdie tekortkoming meer as vergoed.
Hy duik onder Groot Lawaai se arm deur, en voordat die baster sy
ewewig kan herwin, kry hy ’n opstopper op sy kinnebak wat hom
soos ’n besopene laat waggel. Arrie! maar dit het die boelie darem
nie verwag nie. Hierdie veragtelike skepsel wat hy tot stof sou
vermorsel, het hom so wrintig-waar amper onderstebo geslaan. Hy
sal nou sy taktiek verander en versigtiger te werk gaan. Soos ’n
mierkat om ’n slang begin Groot Lawaai al om Hendrik Blits te dans,
totdat hy skielik buk en die handsambok gryp en voordat Hendrik
kan keer, hom ’n hou oer sy gesig gee dat die bloed so tussen vel en
vleis wys.
„Eina! maar dis gemeen!” skree die onderwyser, en hy tel ’n klip op
wat goed ’n paar pond weeg. „Ek voel by my kool lus om die vloek
se kop hiermee te verbrysel!” en hy hef die steen dreigend omhoog.

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Textbook The Public Face of African New Religious Movements in Diaspora Imagining The Religious Other Afe Adogame Ebook All Chapter PDF

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The Public Face of African New

Religious Movements in Diaspora

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Narrating the New African Diaspora: 21st Century

Religious Fundamentalism In The Age Of Pandemic Nina

The Religious Metaphysics of Vladimir Solovyov

Learning from Other Religious Traditions Leaving Room

Religious Ethics in the Market Economy Karl G.

The Handbook of Yoruba Religious Concepts Baba Ifa

Inform is an independent charity that collects and disseminates accurate, balanced

Other titles in this series:

Minority Religions and Fraud

Global Religious Movements Across Borders

Revisionism and Diversification in New Religious Movements

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:

Printed in the United Kingdom by Henry Ling Limited,

List of Contributors  vii

Introduction The Public Face of African New Religious Movements in

1 The Discourse about ‘Africa’ in Religious Communities in Brazil:

2 Irrecha: A Traditional Oromo Religious Ritual Goes Global  45

3 Self-Representation by Black Majority Christianity in Britain  65

4 The Transnational Dynamics of Black Jews in France  85

5 ‘Take Over Asia for God!’: The Public Face of African

6 Uncovering an Alternative Story: Examining the Religious and

7 Juggling Multiple Identities to Overcome Minority Status: Young

8 ‘Living by the Spirit’: African Christian Communities

9 ‘Penetrating the Unseen’: The Role of Religion and Spiritual

10 ‘The Coca-Cola of Churches Arrives’: Nigeria’s Redeemed

11 Nigerian Pentecostals in Britain: Towards Prosperity or

12 Public Perception of Witchcraft Accusations, Stereotyping and

13 The Strangers in our Midst: Issues of Misunderstanding between

Babatunde Adedibu is a Missiologist and currently the Mission and Ecumenical

Cécile Coquet-Mokoko is an Associate Professor of African American

Meron Zeleke Eresso is an Assistant Professor of Social Anthropology at Addis

Aurélien Mokoko Gampiot holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of

Heidi Østbø Haugen is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of

Anne N. Kubai is Associate Professor of World Christianity and Interreligious

Janice A. McLean-Farrell (PhD, University of Edinburgh) is a member of the

Géraldine Mossière is Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Theology and

Henrietta Nyamnjoh recently obtained her PhD from the University of

Israel Oluwole Olofinjana is a Baptist minister currently pastoring at Woolwich

Laura Premack is the Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Africana

Asebe Regassa is a PhD Fellow at Bayreuth International Graduate School of

Bettina E. Schmidt is Senior Lecturer at the University of Wales Trinity St

The growing pace of international migration, technological revolution in media

Peter Clarke’s New Religions in Global Perspective (2006) is undoubtedly a

ANRMs: Contexts of Emergence and Proliferation

Owing to social changes, aspects of indigenous beliefs and rituals were

From a historical-descriptive point of view, ANRMs refer to the various

horizontal growths, increasing institutionalisation and take on public roles that

The Historiography of ANRMs

The attempt to provide causal explanations of and to typologise ANRMs

1960s. His rich collection on ‘New Religious Movements in Primal Societies’

The legacies and foundational works of earlier scholars on ANRMs was

While we have focused above solely on ANRMs with Christian extraction,

Muslim communities could be expressed as ‘African Islam’ and ‘Islam in Africa’

Islamic values. The Ahmadiyya Brotherhood considers itself as followers of

Modernising social change has resulted in the decline of some indigenous

indigenous religion, fused with another neo-traditional movement, the National

ANRMs in the Diaspora

Title: Op die delwerye

List of Contributors vii

2 Irrecha: A Traditional Oromo Religious Ritual Goes Global 45

3 Self-Representation by Black Majority Christianity in Britain 65

4 The Transnational Dynamics of Black Jews in France 85