One of the most significant aspects in the expansion of Charismatic Christianity and of “Charismatic Islam” in Africa is the growth of practices of deliverance and spiritual warfare and the rise of prayer camps. These spaces and deliverance practices are central to understand conceptions about spiritual insecurity and witchcraft in contemporary African societies. Deliverance from evil has also become a recurrent political theme in the speeches of African Heads of State who call for a witch-hunt (against migrants, refugees, Muslims, homosexuals) to “heal the nation”. The political discourse of mobilization against witchcraft thus aims at hiding the withdrawal of the State with the usage of rhetoric of collective victimization. Accusations of witchcraft are one of the worrying factors of this discourse because it sometimes leads to the aggression of people, and played a large part in the divisions between Christians and Muslims. Moreover, these phenomena call for a renewed attention to the role of spiritual healing in the context of medical pluralism and of “therapeutic itineraries” in the quest for therapy. In its individual and collective manifestations, deliverance calls into question the explanatory force of medical systems, and mainly of biomedicine. Against this background, this book aims at developing a reflection on the responsibilities of Pentecostal deliverance politics within the condition of “epistemic anxiety” of contemporary African societies. Far from simply being an affirmation of individualism and discontinuity, these practices shed light on complex relational dimensions in which individual deliverance is part and parcel of a wider social spiritual struggle.
Introduction: Charismatic Healers in Contemporary Africa
Gusman, A
2023-01-01
Abstract
One of the most significant aspects in the expansion of Charismatic Christianity and of “Charismatic Islam” in Africa is the growth of practices of deliverance and spiritual warfare and the rise of prayer camps. These spaces and deliverance practices are central to understand conceptions about spiritual insecurity and witchcraft in contemporary African societies. Deliverance from evil has also become a recurrent political theme in the speeches of African Heads of State who call for a witch-hunt (against migrants, refugees, Muslims, homosexuals) to “heal the nation”. The political discourse of mobilization against witchcraft thus aims at hiding the withdrawal of the State with the usage of rhetoric of collective victimization. Accusations of witchcraft are one of the worrying factors of this discourse because it sometimes leads to the aggression of people, and played a large part in the divisions between Christians and Muslims. Moreover, these phenomena call for a renewed attention to the role of spiritual healing in the context of medical pluralism and of “therapeutic itineraries” in the quest for therapy. In its individual and collective manifestations, deliverance calls into question the explanatory force of medical systems, and mainly of biomedicine. Against this background, this book aims at developing a reflection on the responsibilities of Pentecostal deliverance politics within the condition of “epistemic anxiety” of contemporary African societies. Far from simply being an affirmation of individualism and discontinuity, these practices shed light on complex relational dimensions in which individual deliverance is part and parcel of a wider social spiritual struggle.
I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
