African New Prophetic Pentecostalism and Human Flourishing

Background to the Study

This book explores the relationship between human flourishing and the African New Prophetic Pentecostal churches. Many Africans rely on the interventions and processes of African New Pentecostal Prophets (ANPPs) to overcome poverty, and sickness and to protect their wealth. African New Prophetic Pentecostalism (ANPP) which is distinct from the traditional Classical Pentecostalism, has attracted great controversy in South Africa for its methods of healing and blessing people that include making people eat grass, drink petrol, eat snakes, having sexual relations with women members and charging exorbitant prices to pray for people or to bless them.¹ Furthermore, some ANPPs have been arrayed before courts on criminal charges that include fraud, and money laundering.² While others have been in court as a result of charges of sexual harassment including rape.³ ANPPs have engaged in dangerous faith practices, criminal cases, and sexual assaults-all committed against congregants consulting them in the name of accessing a better life. Despite well-publicized court cases of ANPPs, spirited campaigns to warn the public against these prophets, and the exposure on a public television show known as amabishop on channel 157 and other television shows, many people in South Africa continue to rely on them to overcome the impediments to their human flourishing.

Consequently, this book interrogates the question of human flourishing in African New Pentecostal prophetism in the South African context marked with high economic inequality and youth unemployment. The notion of human flourishing is treated as more than material prosperity and good health, to include a meaningful and sustainable life—or simply a life worth living. The following overarching questions require theological inquisition: How can the relationship between African New Pentecostal prophets and the African quest for human flourishing in South Africa be described, critiqued, and improved? How can we theologically make sense of the continued reliance by many poor South Africans on African New Pentecostal prophets for spiritual resources to overcome impediments to a good life, despite several insistences of abusive behavior towards congregants? What can be done to challenge African New Pentecostal prophets to respond meaningfully to the quest for human flourishing among poor South Africans? In answering the above-raised questions on the relationship between human flourishing and the African New Pentecostal Prophetic churches, this book implores different theoretical frameworks and methods. The contributors in this book are insiders to both the subject of African New Pentecostal Prophetic Churches and the South African context. Thus, they bring the necessary experience and theory to the subject of human flourishing in the South African Pentecostal context. This brings us to the next section, the definition of human flourishing to apply it to the African New Prophetic Pentecostal Churches in South Africa.

Introducing African New Pentecostal Prophetic Churches

African New Pentecostal Prophetic Churches are discussed in the context of the broader Pentecostal movement but are different from other sub-traditions.¹⁰ These churches are different from classical Pentecostal churches such as the Apostolic Faith Mission of South Africa, the Assemblies of God, and the Full Gospel church.¹¹ They are also discussed as different from other African Independent Pentecostal and Charismatic Churches and other forms of African Neo- Pentecostalism. However, they are still viewed or perceived as Pentecostal churches given their origin in the fundamental teachings of Pentecostalism such as the baptism in the Holy Spirit and the evidence of speaking in other tongues. Kgatle explains that African new Pentecostal Prophetic Churches in “South Africa do believe in the baptism of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues. In fact, most of them speak in tongues even more than many classical Pentecostals”.¹² Koschorke et al add that these churches “have a more definite Pentecostal identity in terms of history, theology, and liturgy. In addition to these churches are a great number of rapidly growing neo-Pentecostal churches”.¹³

These churches are known for one on one prophetic consultations which are done by charging their follower’s exorbitant amounts of money. Kgatle opines that the consultations “becomes a problem when after paying such exorbitant amounts followers do not see the results”.¹⁴ The African New Pentecostal Prophetic Churches are known for a new form of prophecy called forensic prophecy where the prophets reveal different personal details of their followers.¹⁵ These churches are also known for conducting prophetic deliverance instead of the traditional deliverance that seeks to help people come out of generational curses and other challenges from the spirit world.¹⁶ These churches are known for selling prophetic objects such as anointing oil, anointing water, and other products.¹⁷ Lastly, these churches are known for using prophetic titles instead of conventional titles such as reverend, pastor, priest, and so forth, they go with titles such as major 1, seer 1, and so forth.¹⁸ All these characteristics are unique to the African New Pentecostal Prophetic Churches as they are not common among classical and independent Pentecostals.

Some of the African New Pentecostal Prophets include Prophet Shepherd Bushiri of the Enlightened Christian Gathering which used to have a branch in Pretoria.¹⁹ But Bushiri has since left South Africa in 2020 and is now operating in his country of birth, Malawi and the South African government is struggling to extradite him. What is interesting about this book is that Bushiri continues to have the support of his followers in both Malawi and South Africa. Another prophet in these churches is Pastor Alph Lukau of Alleluia International Ministries which also used to operate in Randburg.²⁰ The third prophet is Pastor Motsoeneng of Incredible happenings who pastors a church the east of Johannesburg, Katlehong. Another prophet of note is Pastor Daniel Lesego of Rabboni ministries who also has many other “mprophetic”? sons like him.²¹ There are also numerous prophets of these churches in South Africa located in different towns and cities across all the provinces of the country. Thus, the departure of the likes of Prophet Shepherd Bushiri, Alph Lukau, and others should not be perceived as the end of these churches in South Africa as they continue to grow in the country.

Another unique feature of these churches as discussed in the preceding sections is that most of these prophets have been involved in one controversy after the other such as dangerous faith acts. Some of these controversies are criminal in their nature such as money laundering, fraud, and so forth. The African New Pentecostal Prophets are also involved in allegations of sexual assault including the rape of minors. However, even with these controversies the followers of these prophets still believe that they will be able to rescue them from poverty and usher them to human flourishing. The followers seem to follow the logic that the controversial prophets remain God’s powerful instruments despite their unholy conduct. The controversial prophets project their unholy acts within the scheme of demonstrating God’s power and will, for example, sex is demanded from women on the pretext of making God’s servant happy so that he releases God’s blessings on them. Thus, challenges of dangerous faith act, criminal acts, and allegations of sexual assaults do not deter these followers from their faith and hope for human flourishing through prophets. The rationale behind the support for these pastors will be discussed in detail by contributors in this book. In the next section, we look at the different theories that will be used in studying this rationale in the relationship between human flourishing and the African New Pentecostal Prophetic Churches.

Theorizing Human Flourishing in Pentecostalism

The contributors in this book will utilize various theories to address the relationship between human flourishing and African New Pentecostal Prophetic Churches. The first theory that will be used in the book is the black liberation theological perspective that is close to black liberation theologies such as Black theology and contextual theology. In defining black liberation theology, a leading scholar, James Cone says that theology is always done in a particular time and a particular context. Therefore, black liberation theology is concerned with the liberation of black people in different contexts. According to Cone “it is a rational study of the being of God in the world in light of the existential situation of an oppressed community, relating the forces of liberation to the essence of the gospel, which is Jesus Christ”.²² Hopkins adds that Black liberation theology “is an effort [by black people] to claim blackness and freedom as people of God. Freedom comes when black poor folk, led by the church, live out their freedom because God helps them in their daily struggle against personal pain and collective oppression”.²³ The black liberation theological perspective in this book is used to understand the quest to attain human flourishing in the context of blackness and liberation of the black people.

The second theory to be used in this book is the decoloniality theory which seeks to decolonise the western epistemologies to be relevant to African contexts.²⁴ Decoloniality theory recognizes that knowledge in Africa has been developed by using western epistemologies. To change this, the decoloniality theory seeks to identify knowledge systems in an African context to develop knowledge and make it relevant to Africans. In the context of this book, the decoloniality theory is used to understand the concept of human flourishing in African New Pentecostal Prophetic Churches from an African perspective.

Human flourishing in the African New Pentecostal Prophetic Churches shall be discussed through the Ubuntu worldview. Ubuntu has been discussed as a theoretical framework that is captured in the African worldview of believing that a person exists because of others. Alfano et al explain:

The notion umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu/ motho ke motho ka batho ba bangwe [a person is a person through other persons] which also implies that during one’s lifetime, one is constantly challenged by others, practically, to achieve self-fulfillment through a set of collective social ideals. Group solidarity, conformity, compassion, respect, human dignity, a humanistic orientation, and collective unity have among others been defined as key social values of ubuntu.²⁵

In this context, it is used to reflect on human flourishing in the context of communal belonging and communal sharing which contrasts with the western concept of individualism as embraced by some of the prophets in these churches. This approach will be helpful here when determining how the prophets in African New Pentecostal Prophetic Churches have deviated from the life of communal sharing to individual accumulation of wealth.

Lastly, the book also utilises the Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis. While critical linguists have used different methods to study language, power, and discourse. The Critical Discourse analysis is important in studying the relationship between all these three aspects. Machin and Mayr say that “in multimodal critical discourse analysis (MCDA) we are interested in showing images, photographs, diagrams, and graphics also work to create meaning, in each case describing the choices made by the author. The meaning from images is placed next to those found in the accompanying text”.²⁶ This theory is important here since a large content of African New Pentecostal Prophetic Churches is found within media spaces in the form of images. Thus, the authors here would be able to derive meaning from these images to understand human flourishing in these churches.

Chapter Outline

Chapter 1 introduces the relationship explored in various chapters between human flourishing and the African New Prophetic Pentecostal Churches. These churches are discussed in the context of the broader Pentecostal movement in South Africa but are different from other sub-traditions such as classical Pentecostalism. Human flourishing in Pentecostalism as discussed here refers to the quest to overcome different social ills and the quest for prosperity and acquisition of wealth. The chapter introduces different theoretical frameworks used in the book in addressing the relationship between human flourishing and African New Prophetic Pentecostal Churches. In addition, the chapter gives an outline of different chapters in the book.

Chapter 2 uses black theological liberative perspective of God’s option to the poor to examine the capacity and strength of African neo-Pentecostal prophets to foster and promote human flourishing and human dignity among poor black people in South Africa. As its main aim, the chapter critiques how neo-Pentecostal prophets engage the quest for human flourishing and human dignity among poor black South Africans. The basis of the analysis is that many poor black South Africans rely on neo-Pentecostal prophetism to overcome their poverty. The chapter describes the black liberation theological perspective and its relevance to black poverty in democratic South Africa. It further examines the nature of how neo-Pentecostal prophets function as agents of human flourishing and the accomplishments they have made in championing human flourishing in South Africa. It then evaluates the weaknesses of the neo-Pentecostal prophets in being agents of human flourishing. The chapter formulates a theological framework informed by black liberation theology to strengthen the neo-Pentecostal prophets’ engagement with human flourishing in South Africa.

Chapter 3 uses online content analysis to examine the case involving the leader of the Enlightened Christian Gathering (ECG) Church, Prophet Shepherd Bushiri, also known as Major One. Bushiri’s case is used as a case study to demonstrate how religion is being used by several prophets within the New Prophetic Churches of South Africa to avoid financial accountability through tax avoidance, money laundering, and illicit cash flow, all of which in some way contribute to weakening the economy. The chapter attempts to show the extent to which the selfish desire of some prophets within the New Prophetic Churches of South Africa for human prosperity or flourishing can lead to the weakening of the country’s economy and ultimately contribute to the lack of human flourishing in South Africa.

Chapter 4 discusses some of the Pentecostal churches’ failures to ensure human flourishing in South Africa. South Africa as a rainbow nation has seen the growth of various prophetic ministries under the pretext of offering human flourishing, however, with a closer critical and documented analysis of these ministries, people are abused, neglected, harmed, and disoriented. Located in decoloniality theory, especially within the auspices of coloniality of being and power, the chapter explores some cases presented before the CRL commission which indicate how some religious movements have contributed to human unflourishing in South Africa. The chapter argues that reimagining the role of religion is an urgent matter as it unearths various strategies such as regulation of religious practices and championing human rights which religion can contribute to human flourishing

Chapter 5 uses the Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis (MCDA) to analyse Prophet H.Q Nala’s prophetic concept of plentianity. Prophet Nala uses the concept of plentianity to preach that God expects his children to live in plenty and not in poverty. The chapter engages the implications of this new concept in reconceptualising and reimagining ideas relating to human flourishing and prosperity gospel in the South African context. The chapter argues that HQ Nala’s “plentianity concept” is the quintessential form of the prosperity gospel message but only differs in innovation and emphasis as compared to other new prophetic Pentecostal churches. The chapter critically demonstrates that Nala’s plentianity, attempts to reform mentalities, alleviate mental bondage, and ultimately decolonise and conscientize black congregants. In argues that in Nala, human flourishing, is not a personalised category but an emancipatory political necessity