African Neo-Pentecostal capitalism through the lens of Ujamaa

Daniel Orogun,Jerry Pillay

doi:10.4102/hts.v77i4.6577

Abstract

This article engaged in critical analyses of the capitalistic nature of the practices of African Neo-Pentecostal leaders with a focus on a few but most popular Nigerian and South African Neo-Pentecostal leaders. Using Julius Nyerere’s African moral philosophy called Ujamaa, the article viewed and critiqued the narratives with an emphasis on how antithetical such practices are to the communitarian nature of African society which provides for people-centred servant leadership. Progressively, the article discovered that such capitalistic practices promote manipulative, exploitative and inhuman culture and therefore engenders gross socio-moral and socio-economic abuse of the rights and privileges of millions of Church adherents. It further deduced that amongst others, lack of love towards the adherents and surrounding communities is at the heart of such bankrupt practices and therefore recommended the three principles and three factors of Ujamaa’s philosophy as essential values needed for the transformation of the Neo-Pentecostal religious organisations or nations. It is the conclusive remark of this article that every leader needs to adopt Ujamaa’s philosophy as a basic leadership requirement for communitarian and people-centred service to humanity. Contribution: Aligning with HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies focus and scope, this article contributed to an interdisciplinary religious aspect of research as it brought forward the interplay of African Moral Philosophy and African Pentecostal Theology aimed at discovering pathways to improve the African Christian leaders’ socio-moral and socio-economic services to adherents and African communities at large.

Highlights

Pastoral duties are likely beyond the daily routine of liturgical and sacramental responsibilities provided by the clergies to the congregants
On the account of the detailed scholarly discussion presented in support of the principles, factors and relevance of Ujamaa in the section titled ‘The Ujamaa principles, factors, their interplay with theology and the essence for Africa,’ this article argues that Ujamaa can be adopted as a socio-moral template for people-centred social and spiritual servant leadership practices
This article revealed that African Neo-Pentecostal capitalism is nonparallel with Ujamaa as it exhibits socio-moral and socio-economic bankrupt practices

Summary

Introduction

Pastoral duties are likely beyond the daily routine of liturgical and sacramental responsibilities provided by the clergies to the congregants. Christian leadership ought to provide total wellbeing services to congregants and surrounding communities alike. To achieve people-centred social and spiritual services by Neo-Pentecostal leaders, a great deal of sociomoral obligations and expressions capable of providing spiritual, socio-moral and socio-economic benefits to the adherents are required. On the account of the detailed scholarly discussion presented in support of the principles, factors and relevance of Ujamaa in the section titled ‘The Ujamaa principles, factors, their interplay with theology and the essence for Africa,’ this article argues that Ujamaa can be adopted as a socio-moral template for people-centred social and spiritual servant leadership practices. Ujamaa can be utilised to critique the practices of African Neo-Pentecostal leaders This is the core of this article to evaluate the African NeoPentecostal leaders’ capitalistic activities through the lens of Ujamaa.

Objectives

Findings

Conclusion