African Neo-Pentecostalism in the Face of Secularization: Problems and Possibilities

Though secularization discourse has been a consistent feature of western societies, possible manifestations of secularization in Africa have not been sufficiently accounted for because the continent is deemed to be deeply religious. This paper contests this assumption by arguing that ascriptions of Africa’s notorious religiosity may be masking secularizing influences that are
emerging in Africa, its peoples and its new religious developments. It does so by focussing on a cluster of movements that appear to be a sign of desecularization: African neo-Pentecostalism. To do so, three paths of inquiry are undertaken. First, the paper discusses the different forms of secularization in sub-Saharan Africa, arguing that these can easily go unnoticed because they
often appear in different ways. Secondly, it introduces the broad cluster of movements that are grouped under the label of neo-Pentecostalism, giving particular attention to their relationship with the traditional African worldview. Thirdly, the paper ends by arguing that neo-Pentecostal movements may be part of the answer to secularization, but are themselves in certain respects also vulnerable to secularizing processes.