The Charismatic Explosion in Africa

"Take the continent for Jesus. From Cairo to Cape Town." – Reinhard Bonnke

This quote from the late German-American Pentecostal evangelist Reinhard Bonnke (1940–2019) introduces Chapter 8 of Exporting the American Gospel by Brouwer, Gifford, and Rowe. U.S. Charismatics have successfully expanded their reach in Africa by implementing strategic mergers, hosting crusades and conferences, conducting pastors’ workshops, establishing Bible schools, and utilizing various media platforms to connect with communities.

Due to the fragile state of Africa’s economy, the authors highlight how African Initiated (or Independent) Churches (AIC) became increasingly dependent on U.S. churches for financial support. African pastors and their congregations were compelled to reach out to U.S. churches, often proposing to recast their churches as the African branches of American churches. What was most significant in these mergers was the theological impact it had on African churches. Additionally, U.S. churches showed a willingness to expand their influence by seeking to establish themselves internationally. A common approach to achieve this was to take over existing churches or movements.

U.S. fundamentalists have made a significant impact in Africa through crusades, where evangelists preached to large crowds in various cities. Notable figures such as Reinhard Bonnke, David (Paul) Yonggi Cho, and the late Billy Graham brought their unique styles of evangelism to the continent. Bonnke achieved considerable success by collaborating with local African churches to prepare and organize his crusades. Both Bonnke and Yonggi Cho also took part in workshops for pastors.

The use of conferences has significantly influenced African churches, where the impact of U.S. fundamentalists was notable. Key speakers at these conferences included Loren Cunningham (Youth With A Mission), Gloria and Kenneth Copeland, the late Wayne Meyers (educated at Moody Bible Institute), Ralph Mahoney, the late Ray McCauley (educated at Hagin’s Rhema Bible Training College in Tulsa), the late Benson Idahosa (Church of God Mission International), the late Myles Munroe (trained at Oral Roberts University), Jerry Homer (former dean of Pat Robertson’s Regent University) and the late Morris Cerullo.

Media served as a vital link between African churches and U.S. fundamentalist churches. Networks such as the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) and Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) made significant inroads into Africa, featuring programs with well-known televangelists like the late Robert Schuller and D. James Kennedy, Kenneth Copeland and even Jimmy Swaggart (in happier times), and CBN broadcast Robertson’s 700 Club. By the mid-1990s, evangelical bookstores in several African countries offered a wide range of materials, including booklets, tapes, and books by influential charismatic figures such as Kenneth Hagin, Ralph Mahoney, David (Paul) Yonggi Cho, Roberts Liarden, Watchman Nee, John Osteen (Joel’s dad), Colin Urquhart, Smith Wigglesworth, E. W. Kenyon, Fred Price, Morris Cerullo, Josh McDowell, Ed Roebert, James Dobson, Bill Subritzky, Robert Schuller, John Avancini, Reinhard Bonnke, Lester Sumrall, Kenneth and Gloria Copeland, T. L. Osborn, Oral Roberts, Gordon Lindsay, and Benny Hinn. Additionally, Brouwer, Gifford, and Rowe noted that this influence also permeated some African Catholic groups.

In the final section of their chapter, the authors explore some aspects of Africa’s Charismatic Christianity. A notable feature is its demonology. Here is an extended quote worth reading (pp. 169-70):

In African cultures, belief in spirits witchcraft, and spiritual agency of many kinds is widespread. Likewise, a highly developed demonology has evolved in Africa's modern charismatic Christianity. The best known of these is Emmanuel Eni’s Delivered from the Powers of Darkness, which recounts his story as a servant of “the Queen of the Coast,“ at whose orders he killed several people. However, in 1985 Jesus appeared to Eni and saved him, since then he has worked for Jesus. Eni’s account is from Nigeria, but a similar and almost equally famous account is Snatched from Satan's Claws: An Amazing Deliverance by Christ, by evangelist Mukendi of Zaire. Mukendi claims to have been born through magic and breastfed by a mermaid. His father initiated him into advanced degrees of sorcery. In the early 1980s Mukendi was introduced to Satan himself, who invited him to the international satanic school, where he began on January 1, 1981. … He was due to die in 1987… but just before his appointed death, Mukendi was saved by the power of Jesus. Through the help of a pastor, over a period of seven years, Mukendi was completely delivered from the power of Satan.

There are other similar testimonies, including some from East Africa, among them Symons Onyango's Set Free From Demons. Those from Nigeria tend to have more local flavor. There are even booklets exclusively about local spirits, such as Victoria Eto’s Exposition on Water Spirits. This contains a full exposition of the important modern cult of “Mammy Water” spirits. “Mammy waters refers to the type of water spirits that are half fish, half human, mainly females … After Adam lost control of the earth to Satan and Satan divided the earth amongst his followers, the demon of Marine was given the seas, lakes and clear water rivers to possess and rule.” The book includes descriptions according to habitat, which lists amphibious, stone, tree, river (“the commonest marine in Southern parts of West Africa”), lake, lagoon, and sea marines. It distinguishes various kinds of marine: crown marine, marine vampire, bridal marine, celibate marine, central marine, marine witchcraft, marine Lucifer, marine Dada, and ubiquitous marine. It describes local marines, or spirits attached to landmarks in her part of Nigeria. It describes manifestations of marine, marine deposits (the things that the marine puts in the body of her victims, like beads or snakes or cowries), and gives techniques for exorcising marine possession. Numerous case studies show the overriding importance of the sexual in this scheme of things. Almost everything is subjected to a sexual interpretation.

A whole popular literature (usually pamphlets rather than books) is emerging on evil spirits or demons. Obviously, much of it is particularly African, for example, the West African Mammy Water Spirits. But U.S. charismatic Christianity also gives enormous prominence to demonic beings. This is evident in Peretti’s best-selling novels and in Rebecca Brown's books. Like its African counterpart, the U.S. demonology gives much play to the sexual, and to child murders and cannibalism.

In some circles, the U.S. demonology maybe more influential than the African belief in spirits. A pastor of Broken Yolk Foundation, of Bolgatanga in the far north of Ghana, said he felt the need to begin a new church. Each church and minister ought to have their own specialty, he explained, and his was demonology. Asked whether his demonology was similar to that of Emmanuel Eni of Nigeria, he responded quickly: “No, I don’t have that attitude so much,” and volunteered that the books he finds most helpful in this matter are books by Lester Sumrall, Kenneth Hagin or Gordon Lindsay. Another minister at Tamale in central Ghana reported a similar orientation. The resident pastor of the World Miracle Bible Church said the speciality of his church was demons. Asked if the congregation's understanding of demons was that of Emmanuel Eni, his reaction was against swift: “Some of those Nigerian books are not well based, but frightening. Some are weird an exaggerated. We don't take them as true, especially Nigerian books. We just concentrate on Frank Hammond’s [Pigs in the Parlor] book.

These two strands—the African and the Western—reinforce one another, feed off one another, and in certain circles tend to coalesce. Thus, a Kenyan Christian magazine, in advertising a forthcoming conference, could categorize Rebecca Brown and Eni as the same thing. It states simply: “The evangelist Emmanuel Eni and Rebecca Brown who were Satanists before converting to Christ, are scheduled to attend.” Undoubtedly the U.S. charismatic demonology has considerable harmony with traditional African beliefs; but the demonology of Africa's contemporary charismatic churches may well be getting its special character through the power of American literature.

Some might recall a piece I wrote in Religion Dispatches on Stella Immanuel’s references to “demon sperm.” It’s also the kind of language used by Paula White-Cain in her own warfare prayers (which I explained for RNS in a 2020 podcast). This Spiritual Warfare language is characteristic of the demonology that one finds in some of these African charismatic churches and networks.

This shows how the streams of influence are currently south-to-north. Some influential American Neocharismatic-Pentecostals (NCPs) leaders have now embraced much of the Spiritual Warfare language and worldview of Global South NCPs.

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