The Sunday News
I TRUST dear reader you have heard the melodic amaZayoni sing this song which goes,
Ngibambe ngesandla
Ngingatshi emlilweni
Nhliziyo kaJesu (ngingene)
Sengizocatsha kuyona
The song is sung with such emotive melody characterised by a beautiful female contralto and a domineering baritone by the males. The singers will be in a serious prophetic mood that allows for repetitive movements in circular revolutions as if it is the earth around the sun! It continues with an accelerating vigour as the songs change to the more virulent yet continuing for a longer time as the congregants link the accelerando to a crescendo punctuated by the staccato of glossolalia as the spirit is taken by the Holy Spirit.
You may be familiar with this because it shows us the black man under a tree who we have been taught by our former colonial masters to despise as unschooled, uncivilised and therefore unable to present the spiritual and Christian example. What I have described above as related to the song that is our title aptly brings us to the next level of the dialogue about transformations within the Evangelical and Pentecostal churches we see in our day. It is the worship forms and if you would like to call it the ritual and liturgy of their faith is characterised by energetic, loud and extremely emotional singing and glossolalia makes the climax. Well we have a tendency to accept it when in the confines of a building and as long as we are using western musical instruments and we sing in the western falsetto voices but the deep seated inspiration is still that we are African.
Our Western counterparts will sing the same songs and only move in skipping formats when the spirit holds them! It cannot be explained by a philosophical understanding that refuses that we as Africans have a different cosmology or spiritual basis. Based on the aforementioned I posit that the transformations we see in the new Pentecostal is premised on the desire of the African to express spirituality in a deeply African way. It is neither quite syncretistic nor is it a case of deliberate enculturation but it is in my view an indigenisation of the Christian thought and practice.
Pentecostalism is an expression of evangelical Christianity. Coming from a protestant background, Evangelism is distinguished from more traditional Protestantism by the dominant notions of individual conversion and personal experience (“You are not born Christian, you become Christian”), and the importance attached to proselytising and activities designed to convert (“to save”) the largest number possible of people through all means possible which will include miracles. Thereby holding the person by the hand. The importance attached to the Holy Spirit distinguishes Pentecostalism from other evangelical Churches. The Spirit is supposed to manifest itself among us here and now, particularly through gifts (of healing, prophecy, and so on). The baptism by the Spirit is the outpouring of the Spirit, that is to say the descent of the Spirit on an individual. Miracles are expected; religious practice is emotional and expressive, using the body and the soul. Deliverance is practised — a spectacular process intended to extract the malicious forces possessing an individual.
Western-based Christianity does not allow for deep exuberant expression but is controlled by a secularised, liberal and individualistic practice. Ritual is short and calibrated and made in such a manner that it does not have to delve into the personal life of the worshipper. There is an emphasis of a personal relationship that does not translate to tangible visibility — it is a thing of the heart they say! The African is different he would like to have his hand held so he may not burn in this world of sin on a daily basis. Who will hold that hand if it is not the charismatic leader who has been divinely sent so to do. The leader will be referred to as a father and it is not by accident but is clear relationship. “If you are not family, clan or otherwise why would I give you my heart and allow you to impact my spirit” quips the believer even without clear articulation.
It is notable the importance of the paths followed by converts to this new Pentecostalism it is of individuals who often come into contact with Pentecostalism after long and complex personal religious journeys, where they have successively searched support from many different religious structures. Often they turn to Pentecostalism to deal with a personal problem (health, fertility, work, money etc.) that they face. Often their approach the Church individually, away from their family. As a result, these movements often contain young people without their parents, or wives without their husbands. Making contact with the church and then converting can be a form of emancipation from a familial and traditional background seen to be burdensome or useless. They are seeking that hand to hold them so they may not burn! So, alone, with neighbours or work colleagues, people will go and take part in a crusade or cross the threshold of a place of worship. The step is an individual one, sometimes explicitly calculated as a rupture with the family. Badinga ukuhlengwa emlilweni! (they seek salvation from the fire).
Churches are affected by religious mobility: there are those who convert, but also those who give up, we do not talk about it that much, as it is less spectacular. If this prophet does not answer my needs I will leave and seek another who has satisfactory solutions or answers. Life in the world is difficult and therefore they need a hand out of the pain. But the hand has to hold them in a particular manner that they can relate to and not foreign. For example it is getting to the winter now and giving the congregant a blanket makes more sense than just praying for him or her to keep warm. Hold them by the hand. The new Pentecostal is becoming more practical for the African and goes beyond just doctrine, liturgy, ritual and glossolalia to a tangible material value which the African can relate to. What is faith if it does not touch my very life — idlozi elibi liyalahliswa! (a bad spirit is exorcised). In understanding the new phenomenon we do well to recognise the basic spiritual behaviour of the African and not dismiss it by looking at it through the eyes of the suspicious non-African!
Dear reader let us escalate this discussion next week as we interrogate the issue of church as a business venture! For now God bless you, Shalom!
