Forests, Rivers, and Mountains

African Pentecostalism, Traditional Cosmologies, and Experience with Nature in Sierra Leone

Authors

  • Joseph Bosco Bangura Intercultural Theology and African Pentecostalism at the Protestant Theological University/Evangelische Theologische Faculteit

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/jsrnc.23395

Keywords:

African Pentecostalism, Pentecostalism in Sierra Leone, spiritual power, healing, deliverance, traditional cosmologies, Pentecostal eco-theology, Freetown, forests, rivers, mountains

Abstract

Although Pentecostalism is a major stream within Christianity in Sierra Leone, the first field where Protestant missionaries were active in tropical Africa, this ecclesial development remains marginally represented in research. The Pentecostalisation of Sierra Leone points to the nation’s continuous recontextualization of Christianity from its inherited missionary vestiges to meet local cultural needs. In this paper, I discuss the retreat by Pentecostal clerics to nature (forests, rivers, and mountains) from where they expect to connect with the transcendent God and receive spiritual power. To do so, I first discuss Sierra Leone’s traditional conceptualization of forests, rivers, and mountains as sites for the acquisition of spiritual power. Second, I briefly survey the emergence of Pentecostalism in Sierra Leone, probing the specific uses by Pentecostals of natural spaces. Finally, I conclude with an intercultural theological assessment of Sierra Leone’s emerging Pentecostal uses and interpretations of natural spaces.

References

Alexander, T. Desmond. 2018. The City of God and the Goal of Creation (Wheaton: Crossway).

Anderson, Allan H. 2018. Spirit-Filled World: Religious Dis/Continuity in African Pentecostalism (London: Palgrave Macmillan Ltd.).

———. 2014. An Introduction to Pentecostalism: Global Charismatic Christianity, 2nd Edition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

Archer, Kenneth J. 2007. ‘A Pentecostal Way of Doing Theology: Method and Manner’, International Journal of Systematic Theology 9.3: 301–14. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2400.2006.00244.x

Bangura, Joseph Bosco. 2020. Pentecostalism in Sierra Leone: Contextual Theologies, Theological Education and Public Engagements (Hamburg: Missionshilfe Verlag).

———. 2016. ‘The Gospel in Context: Hiebert’s Critical Contextualisation and Charismatic Movements in Sierra Leone’, In Die Skriflig 50: 1–7. https://doi.org/10.4102/ids.v50i1.2061

———. 2022. ‘Temne Dream Culture and Charismatic Churches in Sierra Leone: Probing the Limits of Contextualization’, Evangelical Review of Theology 46.2: 111–22.

Bangura, J. J. 2020. Temne of Sierra Leone: African Agency in the Making of a British Colony (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

Barrett, David B., Todd M. Johnson, and Peter E. Crossing. 2008. ‘Missiometrics 2008: Reality Checks for Christian World Communions’, International Bulletin of Missionary Research 32.1: 27–30. https://doi.org/10.1177/239693930803200108

Bediako, Kwame. 1995. Christianity in Africa: The Renewal of a Non-Western Religion (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press).

Canon-Brown, Willie. 2009. ‘Temne’, in Molefi Kete Asante and Ama Mazamaed (eds.), Encyclopedia of African Religion (Los Angeles: SAGE).

Clarke, Clifton R. 2018. Pentecostalism: Insights from Africa and the African Diaspora (Eugene: Cascade Books).

Clarke, Clifton. 2014. Pentecostal Theology in Africa (Eugene: Pickwick Publications).

The Constitution of Sierra Leone 1991. 2000. (Sierra Leone: Government Printing Press).

Conteh, J. Sorie. 2011. ‘The Role of Religion During and After the Civil War in Sierra Leone’, Journal for the Study of Religion 24.1: 55–76. https://doi.org/10.4314/jsr.v24i1.70021

Cox, Harvey. 1996. Fire from Heaven: The Rise of Pentecostal Spirituality and the Reshaping of Religion in the Twenty-First Century (London: Cassell).

Dammann, Ernst. 1969. ‘A Tentative Philosophical Typology of some African High Deities’, Journal of Religion in Africa 2.2: 81–95. https://doi.org/10.1163/157006669X00055

Finnegan, Ruth H. 1965. Survey of the Limba People of Northern Sierra Leone (London: H. M. Stationery Office).

Gifford, Paul. 2001. African Christianity: Its Public Role (London: Hurst & Co.).

Gittens, Anthony J. 1987. Mende Religion: Aspects of Belief and Thought in Sierra Leone (Netteltal: Steyler).

Gray, Richard. 1991. Black Christians and White Missionaries (New Heaven: Yale University Press).

Grillo, Laura S., Adriaan van Klinken, and Hassan J. Ndzovu. 2019. Religions in Contemporary Africa: An Introduction (London: Routledge).

Grunner, Liz. 2008. ‘Africa and Orality’, in Abiola Irele and Simon Gikandi (eds.), The Cambridge History of African and Caribbean Literature Vol. 2 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press): 1–18.

Harris, William Thomas, and Harry Sawyerr. 1968. The Springs of Mende Belief and Conduct: A Discussion of the Influence of the Belief in the Supernatural Among the Mende (Sierra Leone: University Press).

Hock, Klaus. 1995. ‘Jesus Power – Super Power! On the Interface between Christian Fundamentalism and New Religious Movements in Africa’, Mission Studies 12.1: 56–70. https://doi.org/10.1163/157338395X00051

Hollenweger, Walter J. 2015. Pentecostalism Origins and Developments Worldwide (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic).

John, Irene. 1997. ‘Charismatics and Community’ in John Parratt (ed.) A Reader in African Christian Theology (London: SPCK): 129–37.

Kalu, Ogbu. 2008. African Pentecostalism: An Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press).

Kalu, Ogbu, Wilhelmina Kalu, Nimi Wariboko, and Toyin Falola. 2011. African Pentecostalism: Global Discourses, Migrations, Exchanges and Connections: The Collected Essays of Ogbu Uke Kalu, Volume 1 (Trenton: Africa World).

Kanu, Andrew D. 2021. Senior Pastor, Central Christians in Action Church, Freetown, Sierra Leone. Written interview submitted by email to author on Saturday 20 March 2021.

Kollman, Paul. 2010a. ‘Classifying African Christianities: Past, Present, and Future: Part One’, Journal of Religion in Africa 40.1: 3–32. https://doi.org/10.1163/157006610X493107

———. 2010b. ‘Classifying African Christianities: Past, Present, and Future: Part Two’, Journal of Religion in Africa 40.2: 118–48. https://doi.org/10.1163/157006610X498724

Komba, Moses A. 2021. Head of Mission. God Is Our Light Mission Sierra Leone. Written interview submitted by email to author on Monday 22 March 2021.

Komolafe, Sunday Babajide. 2004. ‘The Changing Face of Christianity: Revisiting African Creativity’, Missiology: An International Review 32.2: 217–38. https://doi.org/10.1177/009182960403200207

Land, Isaac, and Andrew M. Shocket. 2008. ‘New Approaches to the Founding of the Sierra Leone Colony, 1786–1808’, Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History 9.3. https://doi.org/10.1353/cch.0.0021

Lindhardt, Martin. 2015. Pentecostalism in Africa: Presence and Impact of Pneumatic Christianity in Postcolonial Studies (Liden: Brill).

Little, Kenneth Lindsay. 1998. The Mende of Sierra Leone: A West African People in Transition (London: Routledge).

Mayrargue, Cédric. 2008. The Paradoxes of Pentecostalism in Sub-Saharan Africa (Brussels: IFRI-BRUXELLES).

Mbiti, John S. 1969. African Religions and Philosophy (London: Heinemann).

Menyongar, David. 2021a. ‘Gathering of Dunamites’. Freetown, Sierra Leone: Dunamis International Christian Centre. Posted on Facebook, Saturday 13 March 2021. https://www.facebook.com/david.menyongar/

———. 2021b. Founder, Dunamis International Christian Centre, Freetown, Sierra Leone. Written interview submitted by email to author on Thursday 18 March 2021.

Meyer, Birgit. 2004. ‘Christianity in Africa: From African Independent to Pentecostal-Charismatic Churches’, Annual Review of Anthropology 33: 447–74. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.anthro.33.070203.143835

Moscicke, Hans. 2017. ‘Reconciling the Supernatural Worldviews of the Bible, African Traditional Religion, and African Christianity’, Missionalia 45.2: 127–43. https://doi.org/10.7832/45-2-162

Mwaura, Philomena Njeri. 2004. ‘African Instituted Churches in East Africa’, Studies in World Christianity 10.2: 160–84. https://doi.org/10.3366/swc.2004.10.2.160

Ntreh, Benjamin Abotchie, and Mark S. Aidoo. 2019. Essays on the Land, Ecotheology, and Traditions in Africa (La Vergne: Wipf and Stock Publishers).

Ohlmann, Philipp, Wilhelm Grab, and Marie-Luise Frost (eds.). 2020. African Initiated Christianity and the Decolonisation of Development: Sustainable Development in Pentecostal and Independent Churches (Abingdon and New York: Routledge).

Ojo, Matthews. 2006. The End Time Army: Charismatic Movements in Modern Nigeria (Trenton: Africa World Press).

Ola, Joseph and Harvey Kwiyani. 2021. ‘God in Oral African Theology: Exploring the Spoken Theologies of Afua Kuma and Tope Alabi’, Conspectus: The Journal of the South African Theological Seminary 31.1: 54–66. https://doi.org/10.10520/ejc-conspec-v31-n1-a5

Olupona, Jacob. 2014. African Religions: A Very Short Introduction (New York: Oxford University Press).

Omenyo, Cephas. 2011. ‘Man of God Prophesy Unto Me: The Prophetic Phenomenon in African Christianity’, Studies in World Christianity 17.1: 30–49. https://doi.org/10.3366/swc.2011.0004

Osinulu, Adedamola. 2017. ‘A Transnational History of Pentecostalism in West Africa’, History Compass 15.6: 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1111/hic3.12386

Robbins, Joel. 2004. ‘The Globalization of Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity’, Annual Review of Anthropology 33: 117–43. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.anthro.32.061002.093421

———. 2003. ‘On the Paradoxes of Global Pentecostalism and the Perils of Continuity Thinking’, Religion 33: 221–31. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0048-721X(03)00055-1

Sawyerr, Harry, and John Parratt. 1996. The Practice of Presence: Shorter Writings of Harry Sawyerr (Grand Rapids: W.B. Eerdmans Pub. Co.).

Shaw, Rosalind. 2008. ‘Mami Wata and the Sierra Leone Diamonds: Wealth and Enslavement in Men’s Dreams and the State Economy’, in Henry J. Drewal (ed.), Sacred Waters: Arts for Mami Wata and Other Divinities in Africa and the Diaspora (Bloomington: Indiana University Press): 19–25.

Shaw, Rosalind. 1991. ‘Splitting Truths from Darkness: Epistemological Aspects of Temne Divination’, in Philip M. Peek (ed.), African Divination Systems: Ways of Knowing (Bloomington: Indiana University Press): 133–36.

Sigg, Michèle Miller, Eva M. Pascal, and Gina A. Zurlo. 2016. ‘Indigenous and Vernacular Christianity’, in Lamin O. Sanneh and Michael J. McClymond (eds.), The Wiley Blackwell Companion to World Christianity (Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.): 664–81.

Thomas, Douglas E. 2015. African Traditional Religion in the Modern World (Jefferson: McFarland & Company Publishers).

Togarasei, Lovemore. 2006. ‘Cursed be the Past! Tradition and Modernity Among (Modern) Pentecostal(s) Charismatics’, Boleswa Occasional Papers in Theology and Religion 1: 109–18.

Turay, Abraham M’Bompa. 2021. ‘Things God is Going to Do for Us – Prophetic Prayers 2021’. Posted on Facebook on 12 January 2021. Reign of Fire Ministries International | Facebook.

Walls, Andrew F. 1996. The Missionary Movement in Christian History: Studies in the Transmission of Faith (Maryknoll: Orbis).

Published

2024-01-08

Issue

Section

Special Issue - Religion + the Experience of Nature

How to Cite

Bangura, J. B. (2024). Forests, Rivers, and Mountains: African Pentecostalism, Traditional Cosmologies, and Experience with Nature in Sierra Leone. Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, 18(1), 95–112. https://doi.org/10.1558/jsrnc.23395