allan anderson-pentecostals and apartheid in south africa

7/27/2019 Allan Anderson-Pentecostals and Apartheid in South Africa

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Pentecostals and Apartheid in South Africa

during Ninety Years 1908-1998

Allan Anderson

University of Birmingham

South Afri can Pentecostali sm and Poli tical Parti cipation

After the first Dutch settlers arrived in South Africa in 1652, Protestant Christianity (with

almost entirely European membership) through the Dutch Reformed Church held total

monopoly until the 19th

Century.1[1] Today, some three-quarters of the Black population

are members of many Protestant churches, but this figure includes a majority of African

initiated/independent churches (AICs) and Pentecostals. South Africa was one of the first

countries on the continent to receive Pentecostalism, in 1908. In less than a century,

between 10-40% of the population have become Pentecostals, depending how Pentecostal

is defined. The 10% includes Classical Pentecostals of several denominations, the largest

being the Assemblies of God (AOG), the Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM) and the Full

Gospel Church of God (FGC). It also includes various new Pentecostals and

Charismatics, churches affiliated to associations like the formerly white-dominated

International Fellowship of Christian Churches (IFCC) now led by Ray McCauley and

Mosa Sono, and many non-aligned churches. These together would be accepted as

Pentecostal/ Charismatic by their fellow Pentecostals and Charismatics in the West, with

whom they have great affinity, and most of these churches have both Blacks and Whites as

members. But the other 30% of the population consists of the almost entirely Black

Zionist and Apostolic churches, including the largest denomination in South Africa, the

Zion Christian Church (ZCC), and other significant churches like the St Engenas Zion

Christian Church, the St John Apostolic Faith Mission, and the Narareth Baptist Church

1[1]This article appears in a modified form as Public Space and Invisible Forces: Pentecostals and Politics in South

Africa, Andr Corten & Andr Mary (eds) Imaginaires Politiques et Pentectisme: Afrique/ Amrique Latine, Paris:

Karthala, forthcoming.


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(amaNazaretha).2[2] There are between 4,000 and 7,000 smaller church organizations of a

similar type, many being house churches which form socially meaningful groups both in

rural villages and especially in urban sprawls. Almost all of these churches, like all

Pentecostal churches, emphasize the power of the Spirit in the church, especially

manifested through healing, prophecy, exorcism and speaking in tongues.

These churches arose during the religious and social ferment that followed the arrival of

Zionist and Pentecostal missionaries from North America in 1904 and 1908 respectively,

and the formation of the Union of South Africa in 1910. A number of African Zionist and

Apostolic churches began to appear from that time onwards, most in striking continuity

with the fledgling Pentecostal movement. These are African forms of worldwide

Pentecostalism with their genesis in the western Pentecostal movement,3[3] which have

maintained both historical and theological affinities while developing in quite different and

distinctive directions.4[4] This analysis of Pentecostalism in South Africa is a result of my

own academic research over the past decade and my involvement in the movement there for

25 years. The Pentecostal movement, including the many African churches that have

emanated from it, is not a North American imposition but collectively one of the most

significant African expressions of Christianity in South Africa today, where at least ten

million people can be identified with a form of Pentecostalism.

South Africa differs fundamentally from other African countries on several fronts. In the

first place, it has by far the largest European settler community in Africa, about 17% of the

population in 2000, with another 9% of the population of mixed race (the so-called

Coloureds) and Indians, most either Afrikaans or English speaking. The remaining 74%

2[2] Another 30% of the population belonged to Protestant churches and 12% were Catholics. Percentages given are veryapproximate estimates, based on available statistics, and do not include the numbers of people in Protestant and Catholicchurches who wouldbe Charismatic. See Allan Anderson & Samuel Otwang, Tumelo: The Faith of African Pentecostals

in South Africa, Pretoria: University of South Africa Press, 1993, 3-9, 14-5.

3[3] Walter J Hollenweger, The Pentecostals, London: SCM Press, 1972, 120; Harvey Cox,Fire from Heaven: The Rise ofPentecostal Spirituality and the Reshaping of Religion in the Twenty-first Century. London: Cassell, 1996, 246; AllanAnderson,Zion and Pentecost: The Spirituality and Experience of Pentecostal and Zionist/ Apostolic Churches in South

Africa. Pretoria: University of South Africa Press, 2000, ch. 1.

4[4] For recent information on South African Pentecostalism as well as historical detail, see Anderson, Zion andPentecost.


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of the population are Africans of nine ethno-linguistic groups and a number of immigrants

from elsewhere in Africa. Secondly, South Africa is arguably the continents wealthiest

nation, with vast natural resources and a developed industrial and mining infrastructure. But

the other side of this scenario is that although political power has been in the hands of the

Black majority since the 1994 elections, the White minority wields economic power. Thus

the gap between poor and rich is also a gap between Black and White, and this has

repercussions for the churches.

The political responses of most White Pentecostals have been considerably influenced by

the Religious Right in the United States, but for Black Pentecostals, this influence is

minimal. Prominent North American televangelists Jimmy Swaggart, Pat Robertson and

Kenneth Copeland visited the country in the 1980s and were among those who seemed to

add their support to the beleaguered White government. The largest and wealthiest

congregations in the nation are predominantly White, middle class, independent

Charismatic churches in the Gauteng heartland, the best known being the Rhema Bible

Church in Randburg near Johannesburg and the Hatfield Christian Church founded by

Edmund Roebert in Pretoria and now led by Francois van Niekerk. Both churches are

White-led and both proclaim a gospel of prosperity and health, especially Ray McCauleys

Rhema with origins in the Rhema faith movement of Kenneth Hagin in Tulsa,

Oklahoma.5[5] These churches have assets worth millions, while for the vast majority of

(Black) Pentecostals such wealth is an elusive dream. The White Pentecostals live in a

totally different world from that of their Black counterparts, and this is not only true of

newer Charismatic churches but of classical Pentecostal denominations too. With few

exceptions, Black and White Pentecostals failed to overtly confront the political structures

that oppressed them, and sometimes they even supported them.

The history of South African Pentecostalism is well known and will not detain us

further, except to say that it was mainly Black, rather than White pioneers who were

5[5]Allan Anderson, The prosperity message in the eschatology of some new Charismatic churches in South Africa,Missionalia 15:2, 1987, 72-83.


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responsible for its rapid growth.6[6] It expanded initially among oppressed African people

who were neglected, misunderstood, and deprived of anything but token leadership by their

White Pentecostal masters, who had apparently ignored biblical concepts like the priesthood

of believers and the equality of humankind. The major Pentecostal denominations were

mostly created by White South Africans with a small number of foreign missionaries, but

national African leadership was not given space to emerge, eventually resulting in secessions

of independent Zionist and Apostolic churches and increasing distance between Black and

White Pentecostals in the same denomination. The secessions from the AFM marked the

beginning of the independent African Pentecostal churches, which mushroomed from some

30 churches in 1913 to 3,000 by 1970, and to over 6,000 by 1990. The percentage of the

African population comprising members of the AICs has dramatically increased from 21% in

1960 to 30% in 1980, and to 46% in 1991an extremely significant section of the South

African population.7[7]

Pentecostals, like other churches in South Africa at this time, yielded to the pressures

of White society and developed racially segregated churches.8[8] The AFM is a striking

example of the differences in outlooks of White and Black members of the same church.

From the founding of the church in 1908, power was vested in the all-White executive

council. A vice-president of the church until 1969, Gerrie Wessels, became a National Party

senator in 1955, and the wife of a government minister and later State President, Jim Fouch,

6[6] Allan H Anderson,Zion and Pentecost; Allan H Anderson & Gerald J Pillay, The Segregated Spirit: ThePentecostals, Richard Elphick & Rodney Davenport (eds), Christianity in South Africa: A Political, Social & Cultural

History. Oxford: James Currey & Cape Town: David Philip, 1997, 227-41; Allan H Anderson, Dangerous Memories for

South African Pentecostals, Allan H Anderson, & Walter J Hollenweger (eds),Pentecostals after a Century: GlobalPerspectives on a Movement in Transition. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1999, 89-107; BGM Sundkler,Zulu Zionand Some Swazi Zionists. London: Oxford, 30, 51-3; BGM Sundkler 1961,Bantu Prophets in South Africa. Oxford: Oxford,1976, 48; C Peter Watt,From Africa's Soil: The Story of the Assemblies of God in Southern Africa. Cape Town: Struik, 1992,

20-1; Chris R de Wet, 'The Apostolic Faith Mission in Africa: 1908-1980. A case study in church growth in a segregatedsociety', PhD thesis, University of Cape Town, 1989, 64.

7[7] Martin West,Bishops and Prophets in a Black City. Cape Town: David Philip, 1975, 2; JJ Kritzinger,Die OnvoltooideSendingtaak in die PWV Gebied. Pretoria: University of Pretoria, 1984, 170; Central Statistical Services, Pretoria PopulationCensus 1991. 'Summarised results before adjustment for undercount', 1992, 121-3; Allan H Anderson, Bazalwane: African

Pentecostals in South Africa, Pretoria: University of South Africa Press, 1992, 58-9.

8[8] De Wet, 34, 38-9, 161, 311; IS van der Merwe Burger, Geloofsgeskiedenis van die Apostoliese Geloofsending van Suid-Africa 1908-1958. Johannesburg: Evangelie Uitgewers, 1988, 167, 175; Allan H Anderson, The Lekganyanes and Prophecyin the Zion Christian Church,Journal of Religion in Africa, 29:3,1999, 285-312.


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was a member of the church. Only Whites could be legal members until 1991, when a new

constitution allowed for two sections in the church. For the first time in eighty years, although

White churches remained separate, Blacks were legal members of the AFM.9 [9] Political

factors kept the two sections apart until the media-hyped unity celebration in 1996, when

newly elected president Isak Burger embraced vice-president Frank Chikane and apologized

for the sins of his people. The AOG, organized in 1925 and for a long time not affiliated to

the Assemblies of God in the USA, was initially a Black church controlled by White

missionaries. In 1938, when Nicholas Bhengu and his associates joined the movement, the

stage was set for the future participation of Black leaders in the national executive of the

AOG, a unique feature among Pentecostal churches at the time. In 1950 Bhengu launched the

Back to God Crusade, and the many autonomous congregations that sprung from this

movement soon constituted the AOG majority. Unlike the other major Pentecostal churches,

the AOG was not divided into separate mother (White) and daughter (Black) churches.

The division of the organization was into different autonomous associations or groups as a

result of the work of particularly gifted leaders and missionaries. These groups, however,

were mostly divided on racial lines and reflected the divisions in South African society.10 [10]

White-controlled Pentecostal denominations were at least sympathetic to the

government that guaranteed their continued dominance and privilege. The oppression of the

majority of South Africans in this political system went unnoticed and participation in

politics (other than in the politics of the White government) was sinful. Theswart gevaar

(Black danger) was thought to be everywhere present. African nationalism and Black

political aspirations were Communist inspired, evil invisible forces, and therefore part of

the Antichrist system that would destroy genuine Christianity. The glaring structural sin

of the apartheid system was unrecognized, and those Christians who dared speak against it

were at best liberals, but more often were declared to be dangerous, Communist-inspired

proponents of liberation theology, another anti-Christian ideology that amounted to the

seduction of biblical Christianity by evil forces. This was the prevalent view, and most

9[9] Anderson,Bazalwane, 78-82.

10[10] Watt, 22, 39, 57; Anderson,Bazalwane, 85-8.


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White Pentecostals preferred the status quo. Black Pentecostals were also affected by this

attitude, although they developed their own strategies for survival as the oppressed in this

abnormal and violent society. Yet AFM pioneer Elias Letwaba, like many Africans of his

time, raised no objection to racist affronts and fostered the apolitical attitude that

characterized some (but not all) Pentecostals under the apartheid system.11[11] Nicholas

Bhengu, a former African nationalist, pioneered the AOG's transformation to an indigenous

African church. He didnt often make socio-political pronouncements, but believed that

Black people would liberated from political and economic oppression through the gospel.

Bhengu didnt challenge the status quo, was described by some African nationalists as a sell-

out, and received several threats to his life. Like so many other Pentecostal leaders, Bhengu

believed that political activity was futile and forbade his members any political

affiliation.12[12] Similarly, influential Zulu AFM leader in the 1970s, Richard Ngidi, was

known for his opposition to involvement in politics, which furthered the traditional apolitical

feeling in the AFM. Ngidi would not allow any discussion on what he perceived to be

political matters. This was probably due to the prevailing view in the AFM (and, in fact, in

most Pentecostal circles) that involvement in politics was sinful.13[13] Ngidi was, therefore,

a product of his environment. Joseph Kobo, a convert of Bhengu, had to resign his church

ministry in order to join the freedom struggle, and perceived himself as having backslidden

when he did so. Although he remained sympathetic to the liberation movement after his

reconversion, he had to cease his active involvement in order to become a Pentecostal

minister again in 1983.14[14] Secretary General of the ANC turned business magnate, Cyril

Ramaphosa, who headed the ANC negotiation team in the period leading to the 1994

elections, was formerly a Pentecostal and at university was chair of the local Student

Christian Movement, but once again, his political activities were seen as inconsistent with his

Christian faith.

11[11] Anderson,Bazalwane, 38-9.

12[12] Watt, 112, 178; Allie A Dubb, Community of the Saved: An African Revivalist Church in the East Cape .Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press, 1976, 119-20.

13[13] De Wet, 69-70, 143.

14[14] Joseph Kobo, Waiting in the Wings. Milton Keynes: Nelson Word, 1994.


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Mobilizing the Invisible Powers

The creative combination of Pentecostalism with Christian fundamentalism and

African religion is characteristic of most forms of Pentecostalism in southern Africa.

Inheriting a form of premillenialism from its North American roots, the worldview of this

form of African Christianity was pessimistic and escapist, and this resonated well with the

African experience of oppression, affliction and povertyand above all, with a keen sense

of powerlessness. The White regime was controlled by invisible powers beyond the

strength of the Black majority to resist, and like Pentecostals in Latin America, they held

back from politics because they were poor and outsiders to the political process.15[15]

Unlike Black Christians in mainline denominations, they were often excluded from the

forum of the South African Council of Churches with the support of the worldwide

ecumenical movement. As a result, their voice was seldom heard in international circles,

and the impression was thus created that they were supporters of the system. Despite

tendencies towards escapism, the power of the Spirit enabled them to cope in a hostile

environment and to assert their human dignity in an inhuman world. The Spirit gave them

confidence and authority to work for God, and bypassed the restrictive laws of the Whites,

affirming their humanity against a system that denied it. The Spirit also enabled the poor

and excluded, including Black women, to be leaders in the only community where the

exercise of such leadership was possible. It may be idealistic to suggest that paramount in

the minds of Black Pentecostals were issues of socio-economic or political liberation. This,

as Jean Comaroff has pointed out, was usually implied rather than expressed. 16[16] Some

African Pentecostals established cities of Zion, meccas for spiritual pilgrimage and centers

of ritual power. The leader of the church becomes a liberating Moses figure who leads his

(and rarely, her) people out of bondage into the promised land, the new Jerusalem, where

freedom from sickness, evil spirits, sorcery, oppression and all kinds of affliction is achieved.

15[15]Edward L Cleary, Introduction: Pentecostals, Prominence, and Politics, EL Cleary & HW Stewart-Gambino(eds),Power, Politics, and Pentecostals in Latin America. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1997, 13.

16[16] Comaroff, 254, 261.


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There too, in effect, is created an alternative government in exile in microcosm. In

theological terms, this is a realized eschatology, where the distinction between the not yet

and the already is blurred, and where people are urged to take their eyes off worldly things

like politics, poverty and social oppression.

But this is not the whole story. As in Latin America, in South Africa most African

members of all varieties of Pentecostalism are poor and until recently, marginalised. Without

access to the corridors of political power, they retreated to an escapist spirituality where their

symbolic protest of cultural resistance was all that was available. After the unbanning of

political parties and the release of Nelson Mandela in 1990, however, Pentecostals began to

discover their political clout and to realize their potential to change the public space with their

massive vote. At the same time in neighboring Zambia, Pentecostal President Chilubas

proclamation of Zambia as a Christian nation in 1991 heartened their resolve that by the

power of the Spirit they could substantially mobilize the invisible forces of the Spirit to

occupy and bring the kingdom of God to this public space.17 [17] The benefits began to

outweigh the disadvantages of such participation. Black Pentecostals, frustrated and angered

by the non-involvement and complicity of their White counterparts, began to seek new ways

of invading the public space.

The paramount example of the tensions in the disparate elements of the apartheid

society is the Zion Christian Church. Since being registered with the South African

government in 1943, the ZCC enjoyed the favour of the ruling regime. The apartheid

government from 1948 adopted a policy of non-interference in the affairs of Black

churches, which in effect meant encouraging the development of churches totally

independent of what were sometimes seen as troublesome mission churches. The

development of these separate churches was seen as in complete harmony with the apartheid

ideology, which opposed any sort of social mixing, including integrated churches. Matthew

Schoffeleers suggests that African churches in South Africa may have gone through a

17[17] Paul Gifford,African Christianity: Its Public Role, London: Hurst, 1998, 197.


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process of progressive depoliticisation.18[18] Most African church leaders, including the

ZCC bishop, generally took a neutral stance and forbade members active participation in

structured political activities. But the realities were a little more complex. During research in

the northern Pretoria satellite township of Soshanguve in 1991-95, although there was

certainly evidence of depoliticization among Pentecostals, an even greater degree of political

awareness was emerging among ordinary South Africans at that time, after decades of press

censorship, propaganda, institutionalized violence and banned political organizations. A few

African Pentecostals said that Christians should not take part in politics, but should pray for

the political situation. It appeared that Black Pentecostals expressed their political convictions

at that time more by their participation in trade unions and civic associations (alternative local

authorities) than in structured political parties. In a survey in 1992, 45% of classical and

new Pentecostals would have voted for the African National Congress (ANC), the ruling

party since 1994, and 43% of African Zionist and Apostolic churches. In total, over half of all

Pentecostals were supporters of African nationalist organizations, especially the ANC. This

percentage is likely to be much higher today after two democratic national elections, as the

depoliticization of ordinary African people is less of a restricting factor.19[19]

Because of the intense involvement of Pentecostals in their church communities, this is

potentially one of the most dynamic forces for the mobilization of the political imagination.

The approaches of the apartheid regime to the ZCC during the 1980s culminating in the

visit by South African President PW Botha to the Easter Festival in 1985, reinforced the

popular perception that the ZCC was a supporter of the apartheid system. It is true that ZCC

leaders generally took an apolitical stance and forbade their members participation in

structured political activities. Yet the ZCC attempted to play a role in the changes that took

place in the early 1990s. One ZCC member wrote, All the ZCC bishops through all the

generations of the church have consistently preached racial harmony and reconciliation, and

18[18]Matthew Schoffeleers, Ritual Healing and Political Acquiescence: The Case of the Zionist Churches in SouthernAfrica,Africa 60 (1), 1991, 5.

19[19] Anderson,Bazalwane; Anderson & Otwang, 59, 64, 144, 152. The survey of 1992 is the latest available indicationof political preferences, as there have not, to my knowledge, been any soundings of the vote of Pentecostals in the twonational elections of 1994 and 1999.


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this has become a prominent emphasis in the churchs mass gatherings.20[20] The visit of the

nations three most significant political leaders to the ZCCs Easter Festival in 1992

(Mandela, de Klerk and Buthelezi) at the invitation of Bishop Barnabas Lekganyane was

surely a manifestation of the changing attitudes sweeping over all South Africans. This was

a pragmatic effort on the part of the ZCC bishop to play a constructive role in the

negotiations then being conducted, and thereby to help promote peace during a time of

violent strife. Each politician was keen to seem supportive of this enormous African church

and to solicit the ZCC vote, and each was invited to address the assembled throng. None

had ever spoken at such a large gathering of hundreds of thousands. Most significantly,

Mandela received the greatest ovation and made reference in his speech to prominent ANC

officials who were members of the ZCC. And yet, the afternoons pageant belonged to

Bishop Barnabas Lekganyane, the real focal point of the proceedings, rather than any of the

three political leaders present. The politicians were on his turf and had to take careful note of

what he had to say. Lekganyane, who was playing a significant role in the negotiation

politics of the time, was clearly the most influential personality on this occasion and the

moment was supremely his. His followers hung on his every word as he admonished the

political leaders for their warmongering and inflammatory speeches, saying that leaders

had responsibility to stop the carnage in South African townships. His members would

support those leaders who stood for peace and reconciliation, he declared, for the ZCC was

pre-eminently a church of peace.21[21] Mandela was patently the leader closest to this

ideal, and subsequent events have placed most ZCC members squarely behind the ANC

government.

The historic Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), held between 1996 and

1998, was chaired by Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu. This unique event was also a

watershed for the Pentecostal and Zionist churches, especially as their significance in the

national life was recognized by an invitation to address the TRC in November 1997. The

ZCC in the person of Bishop Barnabas Lekganyane attended, although as expected,

20[20]JRL Rafapa, Consistency in the ZCC, in The ZCC Messenger22, 1992, 6.

21[21]Anderson, The Lekganyanes, 294-5.


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Lekganyane did not address the Commission himself. Unlike other church leaders, the

bishops spokesman did not confess past failings, but expressed concern about the violence

and crime in the nation and asked for the temporary return of the death penalty. Both the

IFCC and the AFM made representations to the TRC on behalf of Pentecostal and

Charismatic churches. Ray McCauley, representing the IFCC, confessed the shortcomings

of White Charismatics who hid behind their so-called spirituality while closing their eyes to

the dark events of the apartheid years. The AFM was represented by both Isak Burger and

Frank Chikane. After showing a video of the historic unity celebration earlier that year, they

confessed that they jointly accepted responsibility for the past and had helped maintain the

system of apartheid and prolong the agony.22[22] The representations of the IFCC and the

AFM indicate that a significant change of view had taken place, and that the apartheid

government was now seen as part of the evil invisible forces that had been overcome by good

forces of reconciliation and truth.

Publi c Space and I nvisible Forces

The scenario of a country where a political elite control the public space and where

ordinary people do not have access to corridors of political power is probably still true of the

new South Africa. But this is one ofthe worlds newest democracies, still recovering from

the effects of centuries of unjust minority domination and oppression, and it is still too early

to say which way the Pentecostal influence will go. As a whole, the South African

Pentecostal movement, in spite of its witness to spiritual freedom, acquiesced in the midst of

the social evils in South Africa. The original integrated fellowship was short-lived, and

Africans were denied basic human rights in the very churches where they had found freedom

in the Spirit. White Pentecostals either became active supporters of the regime or considered

any involvement in political structures as worldly and therefore, sinful. Many AfricanPentecostals silently withdrew to the independent church movements or to their newfound

Pentecostal spirituality that remained otherworldly for the most part or used ritual as a form

of cultural resistance. There was a certain tension between this spirituality, based on

22[22] Piet Meiring, Chronicle of the Truth Commission. Vanderbijlpark: Carpe Diem Books, 1999, 275-7.


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democratic principles of human freedom and equality offering participation to all in the life

of the community, and the view of politics as part of a sinful universe that could not be

resisted. The acceptance of the status quo, of social segregation and political elitism is still a

feature of South African Pentecostalism in the 21st

Century, with its roots in a marginalised

and underprivileged society struggling to find dignity and identity. Pentecostalism was often

felt to be politically immature and conservative, and therefore irrelevant. But more

fundamental was the question of how the Pentecostals imagined the public space. For most of

them, the public space was occupied by evil forces that needed to be overcome by weapons

like prayer, speaking in tongues and spiritual warfare. With the dawning of democracy in

1994, Pentecostals began a paradigm shift. Those conservative Whites who had seen the old

order as a good force now saw the ANC government as an evil force, while for the

majority, the good had overcome the evil and Christian principles had prevailed in the public

space. It was now a short step to active participation by Pentecostals like Frank Chikane and

Kenneth Meshoe in the public space itself. The public space was on the road to becoming a

place where the good forces could dominate.

Because of its ability to adapt to and fulfil African religious aspirations and to utilize

popular cultural artifacts, and its doctrine of the Spirit which encourages full participation in

the life of the community for those of any social background, Pentecostalism has become the

major force in South African Christianity. Through its often-egalitarian structures it has

become a potent force in the establishment of democracy, even though the vast majority of its

members remain marginalized and outside the public space. Nevertheless, Pentecostal

churches are rapidly gaining in strength and their influence on the public space far outweighs

their numbers. In spite of a prevalent tendency towards political elitism, Pentecostals have

found themselves being wooed by secular politicians and are themselves beginning to

occupy significant positions among the political elite.

The rapid increase in urbanization and the socio-political oppression of Black South

Africans between 1960 and 1990 may be one reason for the remarkable growth of

Pentecostalism during this time. The insecurities inherent in rapid urbanization provide

strong incentives for people separated from their roots to seek new, culturally and socially

meaningful religious expressions, especially in a society where there was no access to the


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instruments of social and political power. The increasing disillusionment experienced by

Black people in South Africa's political matrix resulted in a rejection of European values

and religious expressions such as those found in mainline churches. As Jean Comaroff has

demonstrated, the Zionist churches were a more radical expression of cultural resistance

for those dispossessed by colonialism than that of the more orthodox Protestant churches.

She sees the symbols of Zionist ritual as an enduring form of resistance to White

hegemony, returning to the displaced a tangible identity and the power to impose

coherence upon a disarticulated world.23[23]Comaroffs study suggests that the forms of

socio-political protest exhibited by this cultural resistance are implicit rather than explicit,

but are nevertheless all-pervasive. This is true of all kinds of African Pentecostalism, which

have not yet adjusted to the new political freedom, but this preoccupation with cultural

resistance may be one of the reasons why the ZCC could not contribute much more than to

protest about violence to the TRC. The prolongation of this cultural resistance mindset,

although not as escapist as the evil forces mindset of the White Pentecostals, nevertheless

may be out of touch with the new political realities.

Stereotypes, such as that of apoliticism, are difficult to maintain. A survey conducted in

1992-3 during my research in Soshanguve indicated that although there might have been

slightly more apoliticism among Pentecostals than among the general population, a

significant number of Pentecostals interviewed were supporters of the ANC and other

nationalist organizations. When members were asked if the church or its members should

involve themselves in political matters, there was no clearly discernible pattern linking one

or other church with a particular political stance. Many felt that the church should be

involved, as the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Others were just as adamant that

the church should keep out of politicsmostly because the church leader had said so and

not for any particular reason. Some were concerned by the seeming lack of political

awareness in their church and especially among their pastors. One member was disturbed

by the fact that an event of such enormous import as the release of Nelson Mandela was not

even mentioned in his church at the time. He felt that the church should keep abreast of

what was happening in the public world, because the church was not an island. Pentecostals

23[23] Jean Comaroff,Body of Power, Spirit of Resistance, Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press, 1985, 166.


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expressed their political convictions quite freely during these interviews. One felt that

Christians should involve themselves in political matters so that a just government could be

established based on the laws of God. The Christians alone had the answers to bring peace

and security to the land. Although he made this appeal to a politics of the Spirit, he said that

the ANC was the best government to bring this about. If the ANC stuck to the principles of

the Freedom Charter then the country would be in safe hands. Another said that the church

should be involved in political matters after the pattern of Frank Chikane and Archbishop

Desmond Tutu. If the church didnt get involved, people could easily be deceived. This was

an oft-expressed view. Pentecostals felt that by allowing Christians to participate in political

activity, the church was thereby able to exert its influence on the world.24[24] The good

invisible forces were able to invade and eventually subjugate the evil ones.

African Pentecostal churches of all kinds are concerned to provide for holistic needs

in many different ways, especially in helping their poor members and thereby assisting in the

creation of a transnational middle class in more recent years. Therefore, some churches form

funeral societies, maintain bursary funds for the education of their children, and provide

assistance for members in financial distress. Some churches have welfare committees

responsible for feeding and clothing the poor and destitute. The ZCC has a nation-wide ZCC

Burial Assurance Fund and a ZCC Literacy Campaign with adult education centres

scattered throughout the country. As Martin West pointed out concerning African churches in

Soweto, so Pentecostal churches meet many of the needs of townspeople which were

formerly met by kin groups on a smaller scale in rural areas. Wests observation of ways in

which the social needs of church members are met in an urban setting is still appropriate. The

church as a voluntary association provides its members with a sense of family, friendship

(providing support groups in times of insecurity), protection in the form of leadership (and

particularly charismatic leadership), social control (by emphasizing and enforcing certain

norms of behavior), and in practical ways like employment, mutual aid in times of personal

crisis, and leadership opportunities. The churches thus provide for their members new bases

24[24] Anderson & Otwang, 58-62.


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for social organisation.25[25] The result of this on the social life and the public space is

much greater than the church leaders have anticipated, and certainly goes far beyond their

individual pronouncements and moral platitudes on these issues.

In the Soshanguve survey, Pentecostals were asked what they thought was the most urgent

national problem needing a solution, and their answers revealed an awareness of social

issues involved at that time. People spoke about the violence in the country, the need for

political leaders to talk to each other and negotiate for peace, the problems of education, the

shortage of housing and the rampant unemployment. The issue of the prevalent violence

was probably uppermost in peoples minds. Christians interviewed from all churches said

that there needed to be a real and lasting peace. Some felt that the church had a

responsibility to bring peace about. Most members felt that the church should not be

involved in violence as a means of political protest, as there were certain boundaries that

could not be crossed by Christians. People wanted to see the government provide more

houses for the homeless and for those inadequately housed. The problem of unemployment

also raised the issue of unequal opportunities between Blacks and WhitesBlacks should

receive equal pay for equal work, said one respondent. One said that apartheid must be

done away with in practice and not just in theory. On the question, What sort of

government would you like to see in the new South Africa?, answers were varied. Most

Pentecostals wanted a government that would serve the interests of the people first and

foremost, where everyone would have the right to vote and would be free from oppression,

and where people would be accorded equal value in the eyes of the authorities. Most

members said that they would like all the different political parties to come together and be

represented in a future government clear support for the government of national unity

created in 1994. Some people didnt want to see a situation arising where a new form of

oppression would result, with one political group oppressing the others. The research showed

that members of Pentecostal churches were no less aware of or involved in political issues

25[25] West, 196-9.


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than members of other churches were. It appears that in South Africa, members of African

Pentecostal churches have shared to some extent in the struggle for liberation.26 [26]

The political repercussions of the rapidly changing South Africa in the 1990s were

felt throughout Pentecostal churches, manifesting in agitation for united structures and

equality of leadership opportunities. This resulted in increasing pressure for change on White

Pentecostal leaders and the gradual emergence of Black Pentecostals in church leadership and

in the political arena. One of the South African Pentecostalisms best known figures, Frank

Chikane, is an example of the few South African Pentecostals who struggled against

apartheid and unjust structures both within and outside the church. Chikane, former General

Secretary of the South African Council of Churches and president of the AFM's Composite

Division, by 1999 was vice-president of a united AFM, and had been appointed by PresidentThabo Mbeki as Director General in the Office of the President. Chikane, son of an AFM

pastor in Soweto, considers himself Pentecostal in every sense of the word. Between 1977

and 1982 he was detained without trial four timeson two occasions for over seven months,

and once he was interrogated by a White deacon in his own church. His continued

involvement in the freedom struggle and his community projects brought confrontation with

the conservative AFM leadership, who in 1981 suspended him from full-time service for

one year and did not reinstate him until 1990, after intense pressure. Ordained AFM

ministers were supposed to reject participation in political activities. In 1993, when elected

President of the new AFM Composite Division, he had come full circle from

excommunication to the churchs highest office bearer, albeit in the Black section of this

church.27[27] Since 1995, Chikane has become a high profile diplomat in the ANC

administration and one of the most influential people in the countrys political and

ecclesiastical life. This has brought him increasing criticism from conservatives in the AFM,

some even calling for his resignation at the 1999 annual church conference. Perhaps Gerrie

Wessels, National Party senator in the apartheid government and also AFM vice-president,

was forgotten.

26[26]Anderson & Otwang, 62-3.

27[27] Frank Chikane,No Life of my Own, Johannesburg: Skotaville, 1988, 49, 77, 182; Ron Sider, Interview with RevFrank Chikane, in Transformation 5(2), 1988, 9-12; Anderson,Zion and Pentecost.


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There were other signs of Pentecostal resistance to apartheid. At least half of the

signatories in The Evangelical Witness, drawn up by the Concerned Evangelicals in 1986 as a

reaction to the political conservatism in Evangelicalism were Pentecostals, an important

document in the struggle against apartheid.28[28]In 1988, a group of Pentecostals drew up a

similar document called The Relevant Pentecostal Witness, which was more specifically a

Pentecostal stance against apartheid and the theology justifying the status quo or acquiescing

before it. Part of the driving force behind this movement was a reminder of the non-racial

origins of the Pentecostal movement and a theology of the Spirit motivating a preference for

the poor and oppressed. A significant number of Pentecostals were involved in the

Rustenburg Declaration of 1990 calling for an end to apartheid and the creation of a

democratic society.29[29] There were other, less public protests. An independent Pentecostal

college, Tshwane Christian College, gave shelter to students from White-dominated

theological colleges who had been expelled for political reasons in 1989-90. One of the

graduates from this college, Jan Mathibela, was chair of the Winterveld civic association and

from 1994-99, ANC mayor of Winterveld, one of the largest and poorest of the informal

housing settlements in the country.

There were other signs of Black Pentecostal participation in the public sphere. In the

1994 elections, a Pentecostal pastor, Kenneth Meshoe, leader of the newly-formed African

Christian Democratic Party (ACDP), was elected with one other representative to the national

parliament. Representation of the ACDP in parliament after the 1999 elections increased to

six, polling more votes (1,5% of the national vote) than several other opposition parties,

including the left-wing PAC and AZAPO. Although Meshoe is seen in political circles as

somewhat of a political novice and conservative moralist, the ACDP was taken seriously

enough for President Mbeki to devote part of a major parliamentary speech attacking it. It

could be said that Pentecostals dominate the ACDP, but it remains to be seen whether this

party will play any more significant role in future South African politics. Meshoe himself

returns from his parliamentary office in Cape Town every weekend to pastor his church in

28[28] J Nico Horn, `The Experience of the Spirit in Apartheid South Africa',Azusa 1(1), 1990, 31.

29[29]Rustenburg Declaration: National Conference of Churches in South Africa, Pretoria: National Initiative forReconciliation, 1990.


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Vosloorus, a Black dormitory township in east Gauteng. The former President of the

Bantustan Bophuthatswana, Lucas Mangope, is a member of the Assemblies of God, and

leader of the smaller United Christian Democratic Party, which has three seats in

parliament.30[30] These two parties undoubtedly benefit from significant, albeit a minority of

Pentecostal support, but they may be a further indication of the increasing participation of

Pentecostals in public life, albeit on the more conservative side of the political spectrum.

Many forms of African Pentecostalism have liberated Christianity from the

foreignness of European cultural forms. A sympathetic approach to African life and culture,

fears and uncertainties, and an engagement with the African world of invisible forces, have

been major attractions of these churches to people oriented to a world of both evil and good

spirits. This is accentuated in the South African Black townships today, where rapid

urbanization and industrialization have thrown people into a strange, impersonal, and

insecure world where they are left groping for a sense of belonging. Pentecostal churches,

with their firm commitment to a cohesive community and their offer of full participation to

all, provide substantially for this universal human need in a positive response to the problems

of modernity. They give solutions to basic human problems, especially healing from sickness

and deliverance from a seemingly malevolent and capricious invisible world. Above all, they

offer a baptism of power that enables a person to overcome the threatening world of

unpredictable ancestors, spiteful sorcerers and inherently dangerous witchcraft. The

spirituality of Pentecostalism was in fact a new and holistic approach to Christianity that

appealed to the African imagination more than older forms of Protestant Christianity had

done. The bestowal of spiritual power was the means by which ordinary people could

become part of an egalitarian community where social distinctions on the basis of theological

elitism became blurred, and where (in some cases) the social distinctions were further leveled

by the use of universal uniforms worn by all the faithful. The Pentecostal experience of the

power of the Spirit is a unifying factor in a still deeply divided society, the motivation for

social and political engagement, and the catalyst for change in the emergence of a new

order. It has become the means by which Pentecostals imagine the triumph of good over

30[30]How the opposition parties fared,Daily Mail & Guardian, Johannesburg, December 23, 1999[www.mg.co.za/mg/news/]


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evil in all areas of public space. But the question remains to what extent has the rather

ambiguous Pentecostal vision of equality and freedom been integrated with a concern to see

these good forces invade and subjugate the evil ones of political elitism and greed? The

future will tell, for Pentecostals in South Africa will continue to be a force to be reckoned

with.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Africa Press, 1992.

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allan anderson-pentecostals and apartheid in south africa

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