Pan-Africanism and Pentecostalism in Africa

Abstract

The author of this article argues for a blending of Pan-Africanism and African Pentecostalism so as to produce a new political theology. While lauding the nineteenth- and twentieth-century Pan-African Black scholars, thinkers, and theologians for their efforts and accomplishments, the author lays bare their Western enlightenment worldview which, he argues, crippled their ability to speak to and empower Africans at the grassroots of society. The solution to this problem is to re-contextualize Pan-Africanism. The author argues that the perfect vehicle for this renewal is African Pentecostalism, which is already suited to the African worldview and has been appropriated by masses of Afri-cans at the grassroots. As Pan-Africanism’s political agenda and theology is redeveloped through the use of the African-Pentecostal language, images, idioms, and tools, then this political theology can be transformed in such a way so as to empower the African people.