Faith in Flux: Pentecostalism and Mobility in Rural Mozambique, by Devaka Premawardhana

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In this book, anthropologist Devaka Premawardhana documents the outcomes of his research on Pentecostalism among the Makhuwa people of northern Mozambique. He made a purposeful decision to explore the dynamics of religious conversion in a place that is still largely immune to the much-touted “global explosion” of Pentecostalism. To explicate the Makhuwa’s experience of Pentecostalism, Premawardhana meticulously documents the everyday lives of selected converts, particularly those of Jemusse and the members of his family, and he digs deep into the community’s sociocultural and political history. The two chapters following the introduction depict this history and cultural background accessibly and provide an insightful and solid contextual frame that helps the reader to situate and interpret the biographical and family accounts in subsequent chapters.The book consists of six chapters divided into three parts. There is an introduction that provides relevant theoretical insights and a description of the researcher’s motivation. In his thoroughly articulated conclusion, the author restates the need to qualify triumphalist narrations of Pentecostalism as an all-conquering global religion. He also demonstrates that the adoption and adaptation of the new—Pentecostalism in this case—happens against the background of the old and present realities. The conclusion is followed by a helpful and comprehensive notes section (173–91) that provides additional insights into methods, methodologies, culture, language, history, and citations. The notes are followed by the bibliography and the index, both of which enhance the accessibility and the overall intellectual quality of the book.Although the narrow theme is Pentecostalism among the Makhuwa of northern Mozambique, this book examines broader questions about modernity, globalization, and mobility. Pentecostalism, as a global religion, has perched on the wings of mass migrations to reach far-flung places, but Premawardhana demonstrates in this book that mobility—even if just for existential reasons—can influence how people receive, resist, or rearticulate a global religion such as Pentecostalism.The author draws strong parallels between the Makhuwa people’s ambivalent interaction with Pentecostalism and their reaction to major political developments and historical epochs such as colonialism, postcolonialism, and interregional migrations motivated by unexpected and traumatic family or societal events. His analysis—woven through many chapters—leads to a conclusion that many analysts would concur with—that the pasts and several aspects of the present matter in most religious conversion experiences and the supposed rupture with the past can sometimes translate into continuities in various complex ways.Premawardhana set out to challenge extant theories about Pentecostalism—mainly that it is spreading like a harmattan wildfire globally. He achieved this aim as the book shows Pentecostalism struggling to put down roots in this province of Mozambique. Through lucid prose and vivid descriptions, this book not only paints an intricate and fascinating picture of the lifeworld of the Makhuwa, but also pulls the reader into this world effortlessly and irresistibly. I had to remind myself, again and again, that this work is not a fiction concocted by an imaginative twenty-first-century literary genius or the well-crafted diary of a seventeenth-century European adventurer, but the account of a modern-day people derived through solid and reliable socioscientific methods. Such is the excellent quality of the narration!Some of the conclusions reached by the author are less novel than others. For example, his idea that Pentecostal conversion is less of a rupture with the past but more of a continuity has been articulated by many scholars. Also, studying Pentecostalism as a minority and struggling faith is not entirely new, although I agree that many researchers have tended to focus mostly on places where the “explosion” has been profound. However, many studies of African-led Pentecostalism in diaspora spaces in the West could fit into this category of a minority and struggling religion. I also agree that focusing disproportionately on where the explosion is happening could give a distorted picture of the scale and impact of Pentecostalism as a global religion.This book, no doubt, adds new, unique, and refreshing insight to the ever-growing research and publications on Pentecostalism. Not only does it examine Pentecostalism in a place where it had not been studied extensively, it does so by means of time-tested anthropological methods and theoretical frameworks. This unique approach and the vivid and enthralling narrative style make this book a must-read for students, scholars, and practitioners of Pentecostalism everywhere.