Chasing Money: Tourist-Induced Labor Migration and Pentecostal Teachings of Success in Zanzibar

Abstract

Abstract This article explores the role of Pentecostal-Charismatic teachings of growth and success in the context of Christian labor migrants’ efforts to “make it” in the predominantly Muslim society of Zanzibar. The study ethnographically assesses how dreams of making money and accumulating wealth in the islands’ growing tourist economy are addressed in teachings on how to mature spiritually through a combination of classic holiness living and ideas of how to reach and maximize people’s inner potential. Tracing the different theological ideas behind the promise of successfully attaining the good life suggests that the view of how prosperity is communicated within Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity in Africa needs to be nuanced in light of its diversity as well as in relation to local contextual circumstances. Thus, the case underlines how neo-Pentecostal ideas of realizing potential mingle with classic Pentecostal teachings emphasizing striving and hard work which, in Zanzibar, stress time and endurance in order to become a successful migrant in both material and spiritual terms.