Aliliki

Abstract

This chapter examines charismatic flares in Africa during the 1970s. This period witnessed a sudden surge in influence of young puritan preachers in Africa. This signified a new cycle of revivalism that swept through the continent in the post-independence period, and they brought with them a religious tradition whose face has changed drastically in every decade since and whose full import is still in the making. This is illustrated in this chapter with two brief sketches of the rise of charismatic movements in western and eastern Africa (Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania) between the years 1966-86. It is argued that this form of pneumatic response to the gospel bore deep resonance to the earlier phases as a “setting work” of missionary preaching; a recovery of the old evangelical spirit that had catalyzed mission; a seepage to the surface of the type of charismatic Christianity that appealed to Africans; and the new missionary opportunities unleashed by the process of decolonization. The case studies show that an indigenous missionary impulse has been central in African Christianity and that the quest for African identity in religious power has taken different routes.