The Historical Sociology of Independent Churches in South East Africa

Ritual healing and political acquiescence: the case of the Zionist Churches in southern Africa

“…Indeed, in at least two cases he found that submission to the government of the country and to one's European employers was being explicitly enjoined on the faithful (Pauw, 1960: 231). Similar observations are made by Fogelqvist (1988) with regard to a Zionist Church in Swaziland, by Dubb (1976) with regard to the East Cape, and by Etherington (1979) with regard to the Cape Province as a whole for the post-1900 period.…”

“…Ethiopian Churches lay no claim to special manifestations of the Holy Spirit, and they share some of the political interests of the African nationalists. The Zionist/Ethiopian typology under that or a different name is-despite certain reservations-still held to be a useful and valid distinction as far as southern Africa is concerned (Daneel, 1971: Etherington, 1979Kiernan, 1981: 142-3). 6 A critical review of their theories is to be found in Buijtenhuijs (1976).…”

Transplanting institutional innovation: comparing the success of NGOs and missionary Protestantism in sub-Saharan Africa

“…Like most NGOs, World Vision's involvement is mainly in providing financing for specific projects, establishing a committee that is supposed to provide governance, and providing modest funding, much of it for training the myriad committees that spring up to access the opportunity for training with its potential for per diems and travel. This contrasts with the total transformation involved for early converts to mission life, who were schooled and ordained, and then often left much of their village life behind them (Etherington 1979).…”

A Historiographical Overview of Mission and Politics in Twentieth-Century Angola and Mozambique

“…Of much interest to researchers has been the Tokoist church in Angola. Following Bengt Sundkler's typology, we can call this church 'Ethiopian' in that it emerged from a split of a missionary organization, the Baptist church (Etherington 1979;Sundkler 1948). Early authors such as Alfredo Margarido and F. James Grenfell explored the history and nature of this institution and its leader as well as its relation to colonialism (Margarido 1972;Gonçalves 1984;Grenfell 1988).…”

“…Victor Agadjanian (1999) presented a panorama of Zion churches in the country in the 1980s and 1990s. In Sundkler's typology referred to above, Zion churches are a subgroup of African independent institutions, Pentecostal and faith-healing in nature, deriving from a movement born in Zion, Illinois, in the United States (Sundkler 1948;Etherington 1979). Today they constitue a legally recognised religious category in Mozambique.4 In 2000 anthropologist Peter Fry (2000) explored the interplay between African independent churches and beliefs in spirits.…”