South African Pentecostalism and Political
the first Dutch settlers arrived in South Africa in 1652, Protestant
Christianity (with almost entirely European membership) through the Dutch
Reformed Church held total monopoly until the 19th Century.
Today, some three-quarters of the Black population are members of many
‘Protestant’ churches, but this figure includes a majority of African
initiated/independent churches (AICs) and Pentecostals. South Africa was one of
the first countries on the continent to receive Pentecostalism, in 1908. In less
than a century, between 10-40% of the population have become Pentecostals,
depending how ‘Pentecostal’ is defined. The 10% includes ‘Classical
Pentecostals’ of several denominations, the largest being the Assemblies of
God (AOG), the Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM) and the Full Gospel Church of God (FGC).
It also includes various new Pentecostals and ‘Charismatics’, churches
affiliated to associations like the formerly white-dominated International
Fellowship of Christian Churches (IFCC) now led by Ray McCauley and Mosa Sono,
and many non-aligned churches. These together would be accepted as
‘Pentecostal/ Charismatic’ by their fellow Pentecostals and Charismatics in
the West, with whom they have great affinity, and most of these churches have
both Blacks and Whites as members. But the other 30% of the population consists
of the almost entirely Black ‘Zionist’ and ‘Apostolic’ churches,
including the largest denomination in South Africa, the Zion Christian Church (ZCC),
and other significant churches like the St Engenas Zion Christian Church, the St
John Apostolic Faith Mission, and the Narareth Baptist Church (amaNazaretha).
There are between 4,000 and 7,000 smaller church organizations of a similar
type, many being house churches which form socially meaningful groups both in
rural villages and especially in urban sprawls. Almost all of these churches,
like all Pentecostal churches, emphasize the power of the Spirit in the church,
especially manifested through healing, prophecy, exorcism and speaking in
churches arose during the religious and social ferment that followed the arrival
of Zionist and Pentecostal missionaries from North America in 1904 and 1908
respectively, and the formation of the Union of South Africa in 1910. A number
of African ‘Zionist’ and ‘Apostolic’ churches began to appear from that
time onwards, most in striking continuity with the fledgling Pentecostal
movement. These are African forms of worldwide Pentecostalism with their genesis
in the western Pentecostal movement,
which have maintained both historical and theological affinities while
developing in quite different and distinctive directions.
This analysis of Pentecostalism in South Africa is a result of my own academic
research over the past decade and my involvement in the movement there for 25
Pentecostal movement, including the many African churches that have emanated
from it, is not a North American imposition but collectively one of the most
significant African expressions of Christianity in South Africa today, where at
least ten million people can be identified with a form of Pentecostalism.
Africa differs fundamentally from other African countries on several fronts. In
the first place, it has by far the largest European settler community in Africa,
about 17% of the population in 2000, with another 9% of the population of mixed
race (the so-called ‘Coloureds’) and ‘Indians’, most either Afrikaans or
English speaking. The remaining 74% of the population are Africans of nine
ethno-linguistic groups and a number of immigrants from elsewhere in Africa.
Secondly, South Africa is arguably the continent’s wealthiest nation, with
vast natural resources and a developed industrial and mining infrastructure. But
the other side of this scenario is that although political power has been in the
hands of the Black majority since the 1994 elections, the White minority wields
economic power. Thus the gap between poor and rich is also a gap between Black
and White, and this has repercussions for the churches.
political responses of most White Pentecostals have been considerably influenced
by the ‘Religious Right’ in the United States, but for Black Pentecostals,
this influence is minimal. Prominent North American ‘televangelists’ Jimmy
Swaggart, Pat Robertson and Kenneth Copeland visited the country in the 1980s
and were among those who seemed to add their support to the beleaguered White
government. The largest and wealthiest congregations in the nation are
predominantly White, middle class, independent Charismatic churches in the
Gauteng heartland, the best known being the Rhema Bible Church in Randburg near
Johannesburg and the Hatfield Christian Church founded by Edmund Roebert in
Pretoria and now led by Francois van Niekerk. Both churches are White-led and
both proclaim a gospel of prosperity and health, especially Ray McCauley’s
Rhema with origins in the Rhema ‘faith movement’ of Kenneth Hagin in Tulsa,
These churches have assets worth millions, while for the vast majority of
(Black) Pentecostals such wealth is an elusive dream. The White Pentecostals
live in a totally different world from that of their Black counterparts, and
this is not only true of newer ‘Charismatic’ churches but of ‘classical’
Pentecostal denominations too. With few exceptions, Black and White Pentecostals
failed to overtly confront the political structures that oppressed them, and
sometimes they even supported them.
The history of South African Pentecostalism is well
known and will not detain us further, except to say that it was mainly Black,
rather than White pioneers who were responsible for its rapid growth.
It expanded initially among oppressed African people who were neglected,
misunderstood, and deprived of anything but token leadership by their White
Pentecostal ‘masters’, who had apparently ignored biblical concepts like the
priesthood of believers and the equality of humankind. The major
Pentecostal denominations were mostly created by White South Africans with a
small number of foreign missionaries, but national African leadership was not given space to emerge, eventually resulting in
secessions of independent Zionist and Apostolic churches and increasing distance
between Black and White Pentecostals in the same denomination. The secessions
from the AFM marked the beginning of the independent African Pentecostal
churches, which mushroomed from some 30 churches in 1913 to 3,000 by 1970, and
to over 6,000 by 1990. The percentage of the African population comprising
members of the AICs has dramatically increased from 21% in 1960 to 30% in 1980,
and to 46% in 1991— an extremely significant section of the South African
Pentecostals, like other
churches in South Africa at this time, yielded to the pressures of White society
and developed racially segregated churches.
The AFM is a striking example of the differences in outlooks of White and Black
members of the same church. From the founding of the church in 1908, power was
vested in the all-White executive council. A vice-president of the church until
1969, Gerrie Wessels, became a National Party senator in 1955, and the wife of a
government minister and later State President, Jim Fouché, was a member of the
church. Only Whites could be legal members until 1991, when a new constitution
allowed for two sections in the church. For the first time in eighty years,
although White churches remained separate, Blacks were legal members of the AFM.
Political factors kept the two sections apart until the media-hyped unity
celebration in 1996, when newly elected president Isak Burger embraced
vice-president Frank Chikane and apologized for the sins of his people. The AOG,
organized in 1925 and for a long time not affiliated to the Assemblies of God in
the USA, was initially a Black church controlled by White missionaries. In 1938,
when Nicholas Bhengu and his associates joined the movement, the stage was set
for the future participation of Black leaders in the national executive of the
AOG, a unique feature among Pentecostal churches at the time. In 1950 Bhengu
launched the ‘Back to God Crusade’, and the many autonomous congregations
that sprung from this movement soon constituted the AOG majority. Unlike the
other major Pentecostal churches, the AOG was not divided into separate
‘mother’ (White) and ‘daughter’ (Black) churches. The division of the
organization was into different autonomous associations or ‘groups’ as a
result of the work of particularly gifted leaders and missionaries. These
‘groups’, however, were mostly divided on racial lines and reflected the
divisions in South African society.
White-controlled Pentecostal denominations were at
least sympathetic to the government that guaranteed their continued dominance
and privilege. The oppression of the majority of South Africans in this
political system went unnoticed and participation in politics (other than in the
politics of the White government) was ‘sinful’. The swart
gevaar (‘Black danger’) was thought to be everywhere present. African
nationalism and Black political aspirations were ‘Communist’ inspired, evil
invisible forces, and therefore part of the ‘Antichrist’ system that would
destroy ‘genuine’ Christianity. The glaring structural sin of the apartheid
system was unrecognized, and those Christians who dared speak against it were at
best ‘liberals’, but more often were declared to be dangerous,
Communist-inspired proponents of ‘liberation theology’, another
anti-Christian ideology that amounted to the seduction of ‘biblical’
Christianity by evil forces. This was the prevalent view, and most White
Pentecostals preferred the status quo. Black Pentecostals were also affected by
this attitude, although they developed their own strategies for survival as the
oppressed in this abnormal and violent society. Yet AFM
pioneer Elias Letwaba, like many Africans of his time, raised no objection to
racist affronts and fostered the apolitical attitude that characterized some
(but not all) Pentecostals under the apartheid system.
Bhengu, a former African nationalist,
pioneered the AOG's transformation to an indigenous African church. He didn’t
often make socio-political pronouncements, but believed that Black people would
liberated from political and economic oppression through the gospel. Bhengu
didn’t challenge the status quo, was described by some African nationalists as
a ‘sell-out’, and received several threats to his life. Like so many other
Pentecostal leaders, Bhengu believed that political activity was futile and
forbade his members any political affiliation.
Similarly, influential Zulu AFM leader in the 1970s, Richard Ngidi, was known
for his opposition to involvement in politics, which furthered the traditional
apolitical feeling in the AFM. Ngidi would not allow any discussion on what he
perceived to be political matters. This was probably due to the prevailing view
in the AFM (and, in fact, in most Pentecostal circles) that involvement in
politics was ‘sinful’.
Ngidi was, therefore, a product of his environment. Joseph Kobo, a convert of
Bhengu, had to resign his church ministry in order to join the freedom struggle,
and perceived himself as having ‘backslidden’ when he did so. Although he
remained sympathetic to the liberation movement after his reconversion, he had
to cease his active involvement in order to become a Pentecostal minister again
Secretary General of the ANC turned business magnate, Cyril Ramaphosa, who
headed the ANC negotiation team in the period leading to the 1994 elections, was
formerly a Pentecostal and at university was chair of the local Student
Christian Movement, but once again, his political activities were seen as
inconsistent with his Christian faith.
The creative combination of Pentecostalism with
Christian fundamentalism and African religion is characteristic of most forms of
Pentecostalism in southern Africa. Inheriting a form of premillenialism from its
North American roots, the worldview of this form of African Christianity was
pessimistic and escapist, and this resonated well with the African experience of
oppression, affliction and poverty— and above all, with a keen sense of
powerlessness. The White regime was controlled by invisible powers beyond the
strength of the Black majority to resist, and like Pentecostals in Latin
America, they held back from politics because they were poor and outsiders to
the political process.
Unlike Black Christians in ‘mainline’ denominations, they were often
excluded from the forum of the South African Council of Churches with the
support of the worldwide ecumenical movement. As a result, their voice was
seldom heard in international circles, and the impression was thus created that
they were supporters of the system. Despite tendencies towards escapism, the
power of the Spirit enabled them to cope in a hostile environment and to assert
their human dignity in an inhuman world. The Spirit gave them confidence and
authority to work for God, and bypassed the restrictive laws of the Whites,
affirming their humanity against a system that denied it. The Spirit also
enabled the poor and excluded, including Black women, to be leaders in the only
community where the exercise of such leadership was possible. It may be
idealistic to suggest that paramount in the minds of Black Pentecostals were
issues of socio-economic or political liberation. This, as Jean Comaroff has
pointed out, was usually implied rather than expressed.
Some African Pentecostals established cities of ‘Zion’, meccas for spiritual
pilgrimage and centers of ritual power. The leader of the church becomes a
liberating Moses figure who leads his (and rarely, her) people out of bondage
into the promised land, the ‘new Jerusalem’, where freedom from sickness,
evil spirits, sorcery, oppression and all kinds of affliction is achieved. There
too, in effect, is created an alternative ‘government in exile’ in
microcosm. In theological terms, this is a ‘realized eschatology’, where the
distinction between the ‘not yet’ and the ‘already’ is blurred, and
where people are urged to take their eyes off ‘worldly’ things like
politics, poverty and social oppression.
But this is not the whole
story. As in Latin America, in South Africa most African members of all
varieties of Pentecostalism are poor and until recently, marginalised. Without
access to the corridors of political power, they retreated to an escapist
spirituality where their symbolic protest of cultural resistance was all that
was available. After the unbanning of political parties and the release of
Nelson Mandela in 1990, however, Pentecostals began to discover their political
clout and to realize their potential to change the public space with their
massive vote. At the same time in neighboring Zambia, Pentecostal President
Chiluba’s proclamation of Zambia as a ‘Christian
nation’ in 1991 heartened their resolve that by the power of the Spirit they
could substantially mobilize the invisible forces of the Spirit to occupy and
bring the kingdom of God to this public space.
The benefits began to outweigh the disadvantages of such participation. Black
Pentecostals, frustrated and angered by the non-involvement and complicity of
their White counterparts, began to seek new ways of invading the public space.
The paramount example of the
tensions in the disparate elements of the apartheid society is the Zion
Christian Church. Since being registered with the South African government in
1943, the ZCC enjoyed the favour of the ruling regime. The apartheid government
from 1948 adopted a policy of ‘non-interference’ in the affairs of Black
churches, which in effect meant encouraging the development of churches totally
‘independent’ of what were sometimes seen as troublesome mission churches.
The development of these separate churches was seen as in complete harmony with
the apartheid ideology, which opposed any sort of social mixing, including
integrated churches. Matthew Schoffeleers suggests that African churches in
South Africa may have gone through ‘a process of progressive depoliticisation’.
Most African church leaders, including the ZCC bishop, generally took a
‘neutral’ stance and forbade members active participation in structured
political activities. But the realities were a little more complex. During
research in the northern Pretoria satellite township of Soshanguve in 1991-95,
although there was certainly evidence of depoliticization among Pentecostals, an
even greater degree of political awareness was emerging among ordinary South
Africans at that time, after decades of press censorship, propaganda,
institutionalized violence and banned political organizations. A few African
Pentecostals said that Christians should not take part in politics, but should
pray for the political situation. It appeared that Black Pentecostals expressed
their political convictions at that time more by their participation in trade
unions and civic associations (alternative local authorities) than in structured
political parties. In a survey in 1992, 45% of ‘classical’ and ‘new’
Pentecostals would have voted for the African National Congress (ANC), the
ruling party since 1994, and 43% of African Zionist and Apostolic churches. In
total, over half of all Pentecostals were supporters of African nationalist
organizations, especially the ANC. This percentage is likely to be much higher
today after two democratic national elections, as the depoliticization of
ordinary African people is less of a restricting factor.
of the intense involvement of Pentecostals in their church communities, this is
potentially one of the most dynamic forces for the mobilization of the political
imagination. The approaches of the apartheid regime to the ZCC during the 1980s
culminating in the visit by South African
President PW Botha to the Easter Festival in 1985, reinforced the popular
perception that the ZCC was a supporter of the apartheid system. It is true that
ZCC leaders generally took an apolitical stance and forbade their members
participation in structured political activities. Yet the ZCC attempted to play
a role in the changes that took place in the early 1990s. One ZCC member wrote,
‘All the ZCC bishops through all the generations of the church have
consistently preached racial harmony and reconciliation’, and this has become
a prominent emphasis in the church’s mass gatherings.
visit of the nation’s three most significant political leaders to the ZCC’s
Easter Festival in 1992 (Mandela, de Klerk and Buthelezi) at the invitation of
Bishop Barnabas Lekganyane was surely a manifestation of the changing attitudes
sweeping over all South Africans. This was a
pragmatic effort on the part of the ZCC bishop to play a constructive role in
the negotiations then being conducted, and thereby to help promote peace during
a time of violent strife. Each politician was keen to seem supportive of
this enormous African church and to solicit the ZCC vote, and each was invited
to address the assembled throng. None had ever spoken at such a large gathering
of hundreds of thousands. Most significantly,
Mandela received the greatest ovation and made reference in his speech to
prominent ANC officials who were members of the ZCC. And yet, the afternoon’s
pageant belonged to Bishop Barnabas Lekganyane, the real focal point of the
proceedings, rather than any of the three political leaders present. The
politicians were on his turf and had to take careful note of what he had to say.
Lekganyane, who was playing a significant role in the negotiation
politics of the time, was clearly the most influential personality on this
occasion and the moment was supremely his. His followers hung on his every word
as he admonished the political leaders for their ‘warmongering’
and inflammatory speeches, saying that leaders had responsibility to stop the
carnage in South African townships. His members would support those
leaders who stood for peace and reconciliation, he declared, for the ZCC was
pre-eminently a church of peace.
Mandela was patently the leader closest to this ideal, and subsequent events
have placed most ZCC members squarely behind the ANC government.
The historic Truth and
Reconciliation Commission (TRC), held between 1996 and 1998, was chaired by
Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu. This unique event was also a watershed for the
Pentecostal and Zionist churches, especially as their significance in the
national life was recognized by an invitation to address the TRC in November
1997. The ZCC in the person of Bishop Barnabas Lekganyane attended, although as
expected, Lekganyane did not address the Commission himself. Unlike other church
leaders, the bishop’s spokesman did not confess past failings, but expressed
concern about the violence and crime in the nation and asked for the temporary
return of the death penalty. Both the IFCC and the AFM made representations to
the TRC on behalf of Pentecostal and Charismatic churches. Ray McCauley,
representing the IFCC, confessed the ‘shortcomings’ of White Charismatics
who ‘hid behind their so-called spirituality while closing their eyes to the
dark events of the apartheid years’. The AFM was represented by both Isak
Burger and Frank Chikane. After showing a video of the historic unity
celebration earlier that year, they confessed that they ‘jointly accepted
responsibility for the past’ and had ‘helped maintain the system of
apartheid and prolong the agony’.
The representations of the IFCC and the AFM indicate that a significant change
of view had taken place, and that the apartheid government was now seen as part
of the evil invisible forces that had been overcome by good forces of
reconciliation and truth.
The scenario of a country
where a political elite control the public space and where ordinary people do
not have access to corridors of political power is probably still true of the
new South Africa. But this is one of the world’s newest democracies, still
recovering from the effects of centuries of unjust minority domination and
oppression, and it is still too early to say which way the Pentecostal influence
will go. As a whole, the South African Pentecostal movement, in spite of its
witness to spiritual freedom, acquiesced in the midst of the social evils in
South Africa. The original integrated fellowship was short-lived, and Africans
were denied basic human rights in the very churches where they had found freedom
in the Spirit. White Pentecostals either became active supporters of the regime
or considered any involvement in political structures as ‘worldly’ and
therefore, sinful. Many African Pentecostals silently withdrew to the
independent church movements or to their newfound Pentecostal spirituality that
remained otherworldly for the most part or used ritual as a form of cultural
resistance. There was a certain tension between this spirituality, based on
democratic principles of human freedom and equality offering participation to
all in the life of the community, and the view of politics as part of a
‘sinful’ universe that could not be resisted. The acceptance of the status
quo, of social segregation and political elitism is still a feature of South
African Pentecostalism in the 21st Century, with its roots in a
marginalised and underprivileged society struggling to find dignity and
identity. Pentecostalism was often felt to be politically immature and
conservative, and therefore irrelevant. But more fundamental was the question of
how the Pentecostals imagined the public space. For most of them, the public
space was occupied by evil forces that needed to be overcome by weapons like
prayer, speaking in tongues and ‘spiritual warfare’. With the dawning of
democracy in 1994, Pentecostals began a paradigm shift. Those conservative
Whites who had seen the old order as a ‘good force’ now saw the ANC
government as an ‘evil’ force, while for the majority, the good had overcome
the evil and Christian principles had prevailed in the public space. It was now
a short step to active participation by Pentecostals like Frank Chikane and
Kenneth Meshoe in the public space itself. The public space was on the road to
becoming a place where the good forces could dominate.
Because of its ability to
adapt to and fulfil African religious aspirations and to utilize popular
cultural artifacts, and its doctrine of the Spirit which encourages full
participation in the life of the community for those of any social background,
Pentecostalism has become the major
force in South African Christianity. Through its often-egalitarian structures it
has become a potent force in the establishment of democracy, even though the
vast majority of its members remain marginalized and outside the public space.
Nevertheless, Pentecostal churches are rapidly gaining in strength and their
influence on the public space far outweighs their numbers. In spite of a
prevalent tendency towards political elitism, Pentecostals have found themselves
being wooed by ‘secular’ politicians and are themselves beginning to occupy
significant positions among the political elite.
The rapid increase in urbanization and the
socio-political oppression of Black South Africans between 1960 and 1990 may be
one reason for the remarkable growth of Pentecostalism during this time. The
insecurities inherent in rapid urbanization provide strong incentives for people
separated from their roots to seek new, culturally and socially meaningful
religious expressions, especially in a society where there was no access to the
instruments of social and political power. The increasing disillusionment
experienced by Black people in South Africa's political matrix resulted in a
rejection of European values and religious expressions such as those found in
‘mainline’ churches. As Jean Comaroff has demonstrated, the Zionist churches
were ‘a more radical expression of cultural resistance’ for those
dispossessed by colonialism than that of the more orthodox Protestant churches.
She sees the symbols of Zionist ritual as an enduring form of resistance to
White hegemony, ‘returning to the displaced a tangible identity and the power
to impose coherence upon a disarticulated world’.
Comaroff’s study suggests that the forms of socio-political protest exhibited
by this ‘cultural resistance’ are implicit rather than explicit, but are
nevertheless all-pervasive. This is true of all kinds of African Pentecostalism,
which have not yet adjusted to the new political freedom, but this preoccupation
with ‘cultural resistance’ may be one of the reasons why the ZCC could not
contribute much more than to protest about violence to the TRC. The prolongation
of this ‘cultural resistance’ mindset, although not as escapist as the
‘evil forces’ mindset of the White Pentecostals, nevertheless may be out of
touch with the new political realities.
Stereotypes, such as that of ‘apoliticism’, are difficult to maintain. A survey
conducted in 1992-3 during my research in Soshanguve indicated that although
there might have been slightly more apoliticism among Pentecostals than among
the general population, a significant number of Pentecostals interviewed were
supporters of the ANC and other nationalist organizations. When members were
asked if the church or its members should involve themselves in political
matters, there was no clearly discernible pattern linking one or other church
with a particular political stance. Many felt that the church should be
involved, as the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Others were just
as adamant that the church should keep out of politics— mostly because the
church leader had said so and not for any particular reason. Some were concerned
by the seeming lack of political awareness in their church and especially among
their pastors. One member was disturbed by the fact that an event of such
enormous import as the release of Nelson Mandela was not even mentioned in his
church at the time. He felt that the church should keep abreast of what was
happening in the public world, because the church was not an island. Pentecostals
expressed their political convictions quite freely during these interviews. One
felt that Christians should involve themselves in political matters so that a
just government could be established based on ‘the laws of God’. The
Christians alone had the answers to bring peace and security to the land.
Although he made this appeal to a ‘politics of the Spirit’, he said that the
ANC was the best government to bring this about. If the ANC stuck to the
principles of the Freedom Charter then the country would be in safe hands.
Another said that the church should be involved in political matters after the
pattern of Frank Chikane and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. If the church didn’t get
involved, people could easily be deceived. This was an oft-expressed view.
Pentecostals felt that by allowing Christians to participate in political
activity, the church was thereby able to exert its influence on the world. The good ‘invisible forces’ were able to invade and
eventually subjugate the evil ones.
African Pentecostal churches
of all kinds are concerned to provide for holistic needs in many different ways,
especially in helping their poor members and thereby assisting in the creation
of a transnational middle class in more recent years. Therefore, some churches
form funeral societies, maintain bursary funds for the education of their
children, and provide assistance for members in financial distress. Some
churches have ‘welfare committees’ responsible for feeding and clothing the
poor and destitute. The ZCC has a nation-wide ‘ZCC Burial Assurance Fund’
and a ‘ZCC Literacy Campaign’ with adult education centres scattered
throughout the country. As Martin West pointed out concerning African churches
in Soweto, so Pentecostal churches ‘meet many of the needs of townspeople
which were formerly met by kin groups on a smaller scale in rural areas’.
West’s observation of ways in which the social needs of church members are met
in an urban setting is still appropriate. The church as a ‘voluntary
association’ provides its members with a sense of family, friendship
(providing support groups in times of insecurity), protection in the form of
leadership (and particularly charismatic leadership), social control (by
emphasizing and enforcing certain norms of behavior), and in practical ways like
employment, mutual aid in times of personal crisis, and leadership
opportunities. The churches thus provide for their members ‘new bases for
The result of this on the social life and the public space is much greater than
the church leaders have anticipated, and certainly goes far beyond their
individual pronouncements and moral platitudes on these issues.
In the Soshanguve survey, Pentecostals were asked what
they thought was the most urgent national problem needing a solution, and their
answers revealed an awareness of social issues involved at that time. People
spoke about the violence in the country, the need for political leaders to talk
to each other and negotiate for peace, the problems of education, the shortage
of housing and the rampant unemployment. The issue of the prevalent violence was
probably uppermost in people’s minds. Christians interviewed from all churches
said that there needed to be a real and lasting peace. Some felt that the church
had a responsibility to bring peace about. Most members felt that the church
should not be involved in violence as a means of political protest, as there
were certain boundaries that could not be crossed by Christians. People
wanted to see the government provide more houses for the homeless and for those
inadequately housed. The problem of unemployment also raised the issue of
unequal opportunities between Blacks and Whites— Blacks should receive equal
pay for equal work, said one respondent. One said that apartheid must be done
away with ‘in practice and not just in theory’. On the
question, ‘What sort of government would you like to see in the new South
Africa?’, answers were varied. Most Pentecostals
wanted a government that would serve the interests of the people first and
foremost, where everyone would have the right to vote and would be free from
oppression, and where people would be accorded equal value in the eyes of the
authorities. Most members said that they would like all the different political
parties to come together and be represented in a future government ¾ clear support for the ‘government of national unity’ created in 1994.
Some people didn’t want to see a situation arising where a new form of
oppression would result, with one political group oppressing the others. The
research showed that members of Pentecostal churches were no less aware of or
involved in political issues than members of other churches were. It appears
that in South Africa, members of African Pentecostal churches have shared to
some extent in the struggle for liberation.
The political repercussions of
the rapidly changing South Africa in the 1990s were felt throughout Pentecostal
churches, manifesting in agitation for united structures and equality of
leadership opportunities. This resulted in increasing pressure for change on
White Pentecostal leaders and the gradual emergence of Black Pentecostals in
church leadership and in the political arena. One of the South African
Pentecostalism’s best known figures, Frank Chikane, is an example of the few
South African Pentecostals who struggled against apartheid and unjust structures
both within and outside the church. Chikane, former General Secretary of the
South African Council of Churches and president of the AFM's Composite Division,
by 1999 was vice-president of a united AFM, and had been appointed by President
Thabo Mbeki as Director General in the Office of the President. Chikane, son of
an AFM pastor in Soweto, considers himself ‘Pentecostal’ in every sense of
the word. Between 1977 and 1982 he was detained without trial four times— on
two occasions for over seven months, and once he was interrogated by a White
deacon in his own church. His continued involvement in the freedom struggle and
his community projects brought confrontation with the conservative AFM
leadership, who in 1981 suspended him
‘from full-time service’ for ‘one year’ and did not reinstate him until
1990, after intense pressure. Ordained AFM ministers were supposed to reject
participation in political activities. In 1993, when elected President of the
new AFM Composite Division, he had come full circle from excommunication to the
church’s highest office bearer, albeit in the Black section of this church.
Since 1995, Chikane has become a high profile diplomat in the ANC administration
and one of the most influential people in the country’s political and
ecclesiastical life. This has brought him increasing criticism from
conservatives in the AFM, some even calling for his resignation at the 1999
annual church conference. Perhaps Gerrie Wessels, National Party senator in the
apartheid government and also AFM vice-president, was forgotten.
There were other signs of
Pentecostal resistance to apartheid. At least half of the signatories in The
Evangelical Witness, drawn up by the Concerned Evangelicals in 1986 as a
reaction to the political conservatism in Evangelicalism were Pentecostals, an
‘important document in the struggle against apartheid’.
In 1988, a group of Pentecostals drew up a similar document called The
Relevant Pentecostal Witness, which was more specifically a Pentecostal
stance against apartheid and the theology justifying the status quo or
acquiescing before it. Part of the driving force behind this movement was a
reminder of the non-racial origins of the Pentecostal movement and a theology of
the Spirit motivating a preference for the poor and oppressed. A significant
number of Pentecostals were involved in the Rustenburg Declaration of 1990
calling for an end to apartheid and the creation of a democratic society.
There were other, less public protests. An independent
Pentecostal college, Tshwane Christian College, gave shelter to students
from White-dominated theological colleges who had been expelled for political
reasons in 1989-90. One of the graduates from this college, Jan Mathibela, was
chair of the Winterveld civic association and from 1994-99, ANC mayor of
Winterveld, one of the largest and poorest of the informal housing settlements
in the country.
There were other signs of
Black Pentecostal participation in the public sphere. In the 1994 elections, a
Pentecostal pastor, Kenneth Meshoe, leader of the newly-formed African Christian
Democratic Party (ACDP), was elected with one other representative to the
national parliament. Representation of the ACDP in parliament after the 1999
elections increased to six, polling more votes (1,5% of the national vote) than
several other opposition parties, including the left-wing PAC and AZAPO.
Although Meshoe is seen in political circles as somewhat of a political novice
and conservative moralist, the ACDP was taken seriously enough for President
Mbeki to devote part of a major parliamentary speech attacking it. It could be
said that Pentecostals dominate the ACDP, but it remains to be seen whether this
party will play any more significant role in future South African politics.
Meshoe himself returns from his parliamentary office in Cape Town every weekend
to pastor his church in Vosloorus, a Black dormitory township in east Gauteng.
The former President of the ‘Bantustan’ Bophuthatswana, Lucas Mangope, is a
member of the Assemblies of God, and leader of the smaller United Christian
Democratic Party, which has three seats in parliament.
These two parties undoubtedly benefit from significant, albeit a minority of
Pentecostal support, but they may be a further indication of the increasing
participation of Pentecostals in public life, albeit on the more conservative
side of the political spectrum.
Many forms of African
Pentecostalism have liberated Christianity from the foreignness of European
cultural forms. A sympathetic approach to African life and culture, fears and
uncertainties, and an engagement with the African world of invisible forces,
have been major attractions of these churches to people oriented to a world of
both evil and good spirits. This is accentuated in the South African Black
townships today, where rapid urbanization and industrialization have thrown
people into a strange, impersonal, and insecure world where they are left
groping for a sense of belonging. Pentecostal churches, with their firm
commitment to a cohesive community and their offer of full participation to all,
provide substantially for this universal human need in a positive response to
the problems of modernity. They give solutions to basic human problems,
especially healing from sickness and deliverance from a seemingly malevolent and
capricious invisible world. Above all, they offer a baptism of power that
enables a person to overcome the threatening world of unpredictable ancestors,
spiteful sorcerers and inherently dangerous witchcraft. The spirituality of
Pentecostalism was in fact a new and holistic approach to Christianity that
appealed to the African imagination more than older forms of Protestant
Christianity had done. The bestowal of spiritual power was the means by which
ordinary people could become part of an egalitarian community where social
distinctions on the basis of theological elitism became blurred, and where (in
some cases) the social distinctions were further leveled by the use of universal
uniforms worn by all the faithful. The
Pentecostal experience of the power of the Spirit is a unifying factor in a
still deeply divided society, the motivation for social and political
engagement, and the catalyst for change in the emergence of a new order. It has
become the means by which Pentecostals imagine the triumph of good over evil in
all areas of public space. But the question remains to what extent has the
rather ambiguous Pentecostal vision of equality and freedom been integrated with
a concern to see these ‘good’ forces invade and subjugate the evil ones of
political elitism and greed? The future will tell, for Pentecostals in South
Africa will continue to be a force to be reckoned with.
Allan, ‘The prosperity message in the eschatology of some new Charismatic
churches in South Africa’, Missionalia
15:2, 1987, 72-83.
Anderson, Allan, Bazalwane:
African Pentecostals in South Africa, Pretoria: University of South Africa
Allan & Otwang, Samuel, Tumelo: The
Faith of African Pentecostals in South Africa, Pretoria: University of South
Africa Press, 1993.
Allan & Pillay, Gerald J, ‘The Segregated Spirit: The Pentecostals’,
Richard Elphick & Rodney Davenport (eds), Christianity in South Africa: A Political, Social & Cultural History.
Oxford: James Currey & Cape Town: David Philip, 1997, 227-41.
Anderson, Allan, ‘The
Lekganyanes and Prophecy in the Zion Christian Church’, Journal of Religion in Africa, 29:3, 1999, 285-312.
Allan, ‘Dangerous Memories for South African Pentecostals’, Allan H
Anderson, & Walter J Hollenweger (eds), Pentecostals
after a Century: Global Perspectives on a Movement in Transition. Sheffield:
Sheffield Academic Press, 1999, 89-107.
Allan, Zion and Pentecost: The
Spirituality and Experience of Pentecostal and Zionist/ Apostolic Churches in
South Africa. Pretoria: University of South Africa Press, 2000.
Burger, IS vdM, Geloofsgeskiedenis
van die Apostoliese Geloofsending van Suid-Africa 1908-1958. Johannesburg:
Evangelie Uitgewers, 1988.
Central Statistical Services, Pretoria,
Population Census 1991.
'Summarised results before adjustment for undercount', 1992.
Chikane, Frank, No
Life of my Own, Johannesburg: Skotaville, 1988.
Edward L, ‘Introduction: Pentecostals, Prominence and Politics’, EL Cleary
& HW Stewart-Gambino (eds), Power,
Politics, and Pentecostals in Latin America, Boulder, CO: Westview Press,
Jean, Body of Power, Spirit of Resistance,
Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press, 1985.
Harvey, Fire from Heaven: The Rise of
Pentecostal Spirituality and the Reshaping of Religion in the Twenty-first
Century. London: Cassell, 1996.
De Wet, Chris R, 'The Apostolic Faith Mission in Africa:
1908-1980. A case study in church growth in a segregated society', PhD thesis,
University of Cape Town, 1989.
Dubb, Allie A, Community
of the Saved: An African Revivalist Church in the East Cape. Johannesburg:
Witwatersrand University Press, 1976.
Paul, African Christianity: Its Public
Role, London: Hurst, 1998.
Walter J, The Pentecostals, London:
SCM Press, 1972.
Horn, J Nico, `The Experience of the Spirit in Apartheid
South Africa', Azusa 1(1), 1990, 31-6.
Joseph, Waiting in the Wings. Milton
Keynes: Nelson Word, 1994.
Kritzinger, JJ, Die
Onvoltooide Sendingtaak in die PWV Gebied. Pretoria: University of Pretoria,
Meiring, Piet, Chronicle
of the Truth Commission. Vanderbijlpark: Carpe Diem Books, 1999.
Rafapa, JRL, ‘Consistency in the ZCC’, The
ZCC Messenger 22, 1992, 6-7.
Rustenburg Declaration: National
Conference of Churches in South Africa, Pretoria:
National Initiative for Reconciliation, 1990.
Matthew, ‘Ritual Healing and Political Acquiescence: The Case of the Zionist
Churches in Southern Africa’, Africa
60 (1), 1991, 1-25.
Sider, Ron, ‘Interview with Rev Frank Chikane’, in Transformation
5(2), 1988, 9-12.
Sundkler, BGM, Bantu
Prophets in South Africa. Oxford: Oxford, 1961.
Sundkler, BGM, Zulu
Zion and Some Swazi Zionists. London: Oxford, 1976.
Watt, C Peter, From
Africa's Soil: The Story of the Assemblies of God in Southern Africa.
Cape Town: Struik, 1992.
West, Martin, Bishops
and Prophets in a Black City. Cape Town: David Philip, 1975.
11 September, 2000
, Allan H Anderson
 This article appears in a modified form as ‘Public Space and Invisible
Forces: Pentecostals and Politics in South Africa’, André Corten &
André Mary (eds) Imaginaires
Politiques et Pentecôtisme: Afrique/ Amérique Latine, Paris: Karthala,
Another 30% of the population belonged to Protestant churches and 12% were
Catholics. Percentages given are very approximate estimates, based on
available statistics, and do not include the numbers of people in Protestant
and Catholic churches who would be ‘Charismatic’. See Allan Anderson
& Samuel Otwang, Tumelo: The Faith
of African Pentecostals in South Africa, Pretoria: University of South
Africa Press, 1993, 3-9, 14-5.
Walter J Hollenweger, The
Pentecostals, London: SCM
Press, 1972, 120; Harvey
Cox, Fire from Heaven: The Rise of Pentecostal Spirituality and the Reshaping
of Religion in the Twenty-first Century. London: Cassell, 1996, 246;
Allan Anderson, Zion and Pentecost:
The Spirituality and Experience of Pentecostal and Zionist/ Apostolic
Churches in South Africa. Pretoria: University of South Africa Press,
2000, ch. 1.
For recent information on South African Pentecostalism as well as historical
detail, see Anderson, Zion and
Allan Anderson, ‘The prosperity message in the eschatology of some new
Charismatic churches in South Africa’, Missionalia
15:2, 1987, 72-83.
Allan H Anderson, Zion and Pentecost; Allan
H Anderson & Gerald J Pillay, ‘The Segregated Spirit: The
Pentecostals’, Richard Elphick & Rodney Davenport (eds), Christianity
in South Africa: A Political, Social & Cultural History. Oxford:
James Currey & Cape Town: David Philip, 1997, 227-41; Allan H Anderson,
‘Dangerous Memories for South African Pentecostals’, Allan H Anderson,
& Walter J Hollenweger (eds), Pentecostals
after a Century: Global Perspectives on a Movement in Transition.
Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1999, 89-107; BGM Sundkler, Zulu Zion and Some
Swazi Zionists. London: Oxford, 30, 51-3; BGM Sundkler 1961, Bantu
Prophets in South Africa. Oxford: Oxford, 1976, 48; C Peter Watt,
From Africa's Soil: The Story of the
Assemblies of God in Southern Africa. Cape Town: Struik, 1992, 20-1;
Chris R de Wet, 'The Apostolic Faith Mission in Africa: 1908-1980. A case
study in church growth in a segregated society', PhD thesis, University of
Cape Town, 1989, 64.
Martin West, Bishops
and Prophets in a Black City. Cape Town: David Philip, 1975, 2; JJ
Kritzinger, Die Onvoltooide
Sendingtaak in die PWV Gebied. Pretoria: University of Pretoria, 1984,
170; Central Statistical Services, Pretoria
Population Census 1991.
'Summarised results before adjustment for undercount', 1992, 121-3; Allan H
Anderson, Bazalwane: African
Pentecostals in South Africa, Pretoria: University of South Africa
Press, 1992, 58-9.
De Wet, 34, 38-9, 161, 311; IS van der
Merwe Burger, Geloofsgeskiedenis van
die Apostoliese Geloofsending van Suid-Africa 1908-1958. Johannesburg:
Evangelie Uitgewers, 1988, 167, 175; Allan H Anderson, ‘The
Lekganyanes and Prophecy in the Zion Christian Church’, Journal
of Religion in Africa, 29:3, 1999,
Anderson, Bazalwane, 78-82.
Watt, 22, 39, 57; Anderson, Bazalwane, 85-8.
Anderson, Bazalwane, 38-9.
Watt, 112, 178; Allie A Dubb, Community of the Saved: An African Revivalist Church in the East Cape.
Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press, 1976, 119-20.
De Wet, 69-70, 143.
Joseph Kobo, Waiting in the Wings.
Milton Keynes: Nelson Word, 1994.
Edward L Cleary, ‘Introduction: Pentecostals, Prominence, and Politics’,
EL Cleary & HW Stewart-Gambino (eds), Power,
Politics, and Pentecostals in Latin America. Boulder, CO: Westview
Press, 1997, 13.
Comaroff, 254, 261.
Paul Gifford, African Christianity:
Its Public Role, London: Hurst, 1998, 197.
Matthew Schoffeleers, ‘Ritual Healing and Political Acquiescence: The Case
of the Zionist Churches in Southern Africa’, Africa
60 (1), 1991, 5.
Anderson, Bazalwane; Anderson
& Otwang, 59, 64, 144, 152. The survey of 1992 is the latest available
indication of political preferences, as there have not, to my knowledge,
been any soundings of the vote of Pentecostals in the two national elections
of 1994 and 1999.
JRL Rafapa, ‘Consistency in the ZCC’,
in The ZCC Messenger 22, 1992, 6.
Anderson, ‘The Lekganyanes’, 294-5.
Piet Meiring, Chronicle
of the Truth Commission. Vanderbijlpark: Carpe Diem Books, 1999, 275-7.
Jean Comaroff, Body of Power, Spirit
of Resistance, Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press, 1985,
Anderson & Otwang, 58-62.
 Anderson & Otwang, 62-3.
Frank Chikane, No
Life of my Own, Johannesburg: Skotaville, 1988, 49, 77, 182; Ron Sider,
‘Interview with Rev Frank Chikane’, in Transformation
5(2), 1988, 9-12; Anderson, Zion and
J Nico Horn, `The Experience of the
Spirit in Apartheid South Africa', Azusa
1(1), 1990, 31.
Rustenburg Declaration: National
Conference of Churches in South Africa, Pretoria: National Initiative
for Reconciliation, 1990.
‘How the opposition parties fared’, Daily
Mail & Guardian, Johannesburg, December 23, 1999 [www.mg.co.za/mg/news/]