Development and Politics from Below: Exploring Religious Spaces in the African State

266 Pages·2010·1.347 MB·English

by  Barbara Bompani, Maria Frahm-Arp (eds.)

Development and Politics
from Below

Exploring Religious Spaces
in the African State
Edited by
Barbara Bompani
Maria Frahm-Arp
Development and Politics from Below
Non-GovernmentalPublicAction
SeriesEditor:JudeHowell,ProfessorandDirectoroftheCentreforCivilSociety,
LondonSchoolofEconomicsandPoliticalScience,UK
Non-governmentalpublicaction(NGPA)byandfordisadvantagedandmarginal-
ized people has become increasingly significant over the past two decades.
This new book series is designed to make a fresh and original contribution
to the understanding of NGPA. It presents the findings of innovative and
policy-relevant research carried out by established and new scholars working
incollaborationwithresearchersacrosstheworld.Theseriesisinternationalin
scopeandincludesboththeoreticalandempiricalwork.
The series marks a departure from previous studies in this area in at least two
important respects. First, it goes beyond a singular focus on developmental
NGOs or the voluntary sector to include a range of non-governmental public
actorssuchasadvocacynetworks,campaignsandcoalitions,tradesunions,peace
groups, rights-based groups, cooperatives and social movements. Second, the
seriesisinnovativeinstimulatinganewapproachtointernationalcomparative
research that promotes comparison of the so-called developing world with the
so-calleddevelopedworld,therebyqueryingtheconceptualutilityandrelevance
ofcategoriessuchasNorthandSouth.
Titlesinclude:
BarbaraBompaniandMariaFrahm-Arp(editors)
DEVELOPMENTANDPOLITICSFROMBELOW
ExploringReligiousSpacesintheAfricanState
JudeHowellandJeremyLind
COUNTER-TERRORISM,AIDANDCIVILSOCIETY
BeforeandAftertheWaronTerror
JennyPearce(editor)
PARTICIPATIONANDDEMOCRACYINTHETWENTY-FIRSTCENTURY
Non-GovernmentalPublicActionSeries
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Development and Politics
from Below
Exploring Religious Spaces in the
African State
Editedby
Barbara Bompani
TeachingFellow,CentreofAfricanStudies,TheUniversityofEdinburgh,UK
Maria Frahm-Arp
SeniorLecturer,SchoolofTheology,StAugustineCollege,SouthAfrica
Editorialmatter,selection,introductionandconclusion©Barbara
BompaniandMariaFrahm-Arp2010
Foreword©AndrewF.Walls2010
Allremainingchapters©respectiveauthors2010
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2010 978-0-230-23775-9
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Contents
Foreword vii
Acknowledgements ix
NotesonContributors xi
Introduction:DevelopmentandPoliticsfromBelow:
NewConceptualInterpretations 1
BarbaraBompani&MariaFrahm-Arp
Part I ‘ChallengingtheSecular:ReligionandPublic
Spaces’
1 DevelopmentandInvisibleWorlds 23
StephenEllis
2 TheMbuliuliPrinciple:WhatisinaName? 40
GerrieterHaar
3 MuslimShrinesinCapeTown:Religionand
Post-ApartheidPublicSpheres 56
AbdulkaderTayob
4 RemakingSocietyfromWithin:Extraversionandthe
SocialFormsofFemaleMuslimActivisminUrbanMali 74
DorotheaE.Schulz
Part II ‘ReligionBetweenStateandSociety’
5 Da`waandPoliticsinWestAfrica:MuslimJama`at and
Non-GovernmentalOrganizationsinGhana,SierreLeone
andTheGambia 99
DavidE.Skinner
6 Faith-basedOrganizations,theStateandPoliticsin
Tanzania 131
ErnestT.Mallya
v
vi Contents
7 BuryingLife:PentecostalReligionandDevelopmentin
UrbanMozambique 152
LindavandeKamp
Part III ‘HealthCareProvision:Reflectionson
Religion’
8 HealthandtheUsesofReligion:RecoveringthePolitical
Proper? 175
JamesR.Cochrane
9 MarshallingthePowers:TheChallengeofEveryday
ReligionforDevelopment 197
ElizabethGraveling
10 SacredStruggles:TheWorldCouncilofChurchesandthe
HIVEpidemicinAfrica 218
EzraChitando
Conclusion:ReflectionsonModernizationwithout
Secularization 240
BarbaraBompani&MariaFrahm-Arp
Index 252
Foreword
The average volume of conference proceedings is like the bag of mis-
cellaneous items often found at auctions: a collection varied in origin,
purpose and utility. The common factor is that all are of a size to fit
the bag; the attraction to the bidder usually in the desirability of par-
ticular items rather than in the contents as a whole. Not so with this
volume. Variety there certainly is: far-reaching theoretical expositions
and painstaking detailed case studies; variety of viewpoint, variety of
discipline, variety of locality (for the articles reflect the life of societies
rightacrossAfrica).
But there is also coherence and direction; the various objects in the
bagarenotmiscellaneous,theybelongtogether.Theyformasetoftools
formultipleuse.
Onemajorsphereofuse,asthetitlesuggests,isinthetroubledareaof
developmentstudiesanddevelopmentpractice.Herethevolumemakes
a major contribution by demonstrating the vast range of indigenous
forcesalreadyproducingsocietalchange.Oneofthecontributorsquotes
aconversationheardbetweenthemembersofaMuslimwomen’sgroup
in Mali: ‘this is what our group is about, this is what our attempts to
practicehumanityarefor.Wewanttochangethecurrentstateofsocial
ills.’Inthiscase,asinsomanyothersinthebook,theforcesforchange
are religious. This is also a book about religion, and its place in the
public sphere; a book about religious innovation and religious conser-
vation, about old traditions and movements of renewal. It makes clear
the ineffectual nature of Western models of development that assume
thatreligionbelongsproperlytotheprivatesphere,andshouldbekept
there. The uncomfortable truth is that the ‘modern’ Western model of
theuniverseissimplytoosmallforAfrica.Forpracticalpurposes,ithas
bracketedoutofconsiderationhugeareasofexperiencethatareavital
part of the consciousness of the greater part of humanity. Meanwhile,
the student of religion will gain from the book further evidence of the
extenttowhichAfricaisbecomingamajortheatreofdynamicreligious
thoughtandactivity,vitaltothefutureofbothChristianityandIslam.
Certainly there is much here to show that African Christianity can be
equally viewed either as the African chapter of the history of Chris-
tianity or as the Christian chapter in the history of African religion;
vii
viii Foreword
whilethestudiesfromIslamiccommunitiesshowsimilarcombinations
of the historic and universal with local modes of appropriation and
transmission.
A grateful reader must thank editors and contributors for a rich col-
lection.Thisiscertainlynobagofoddments;moreasetofstonesthat
togethermakeafinenecklace.
AndrewF.Walls
UniversityofEdinburgh,LiverpoolHopeUniversity,
andAkrofi-ChristallerInstitute,Ghana
Acknowledgements
In April 2008 the Centre of African Studies at the University of
Edinburgh, and the Wits Institute for Economic and Social Research
(WISER) at the University of the Witwatersrand, hosted a joint con-
ference in Edinburgh exploring religious spaces in Africa by engaging
in a discussion on the relationship between development, politics and
religion in the continent. Three key issues emerged. The first was that
the religion, politics and development needed to be drawn together
into a conversation in which it was recognised that they impacted on
each other in quiteprofoundways. Thesecond pointwas theneed for
research to be conducted which moves beyond the teleology of scien-
tific,modern,individualismtoallowustostudyspacesfromadifferent
perspective–oneinwhichcommunity,thespiritualandfactorswithin
the human experiences such as love, death, loss, prosperity and power
canbeseennotonlythroughalensofcausal,rationalchoices.Andthe
third related issue was the new perspective on Western, secular, exter-
nally driven development that the new thinking on the relationship
betweenreligion,politicsanddevelopmentpresent.Boundupwiththis
is the question of who offers ‘development’ and how religions or gov-
ernments have and have not either helped or hindered ‘development’
programmes.
This volume brings together a unique grouping of colleagues from
universities in Europe, USA and Africa. It has been a great pleasure to
work with such a varied group of scholars from different disciplines
and with expertise in different African countries. We are grateful for
their support, hard work and patience in the production of this edited
work. In addition we would like to thank our colleagues at the Centre
ofAfricanStudiesinEdinburghUniversityandatWISER,WitsUniver-
sity,forthegeneroussupportandencouragementintheorganisationof
theconferenceandthebookproject.WeoweparticularthankstoDavid
MaxwellwhointroducedusinJohannesburgin2007,whichultimately
ledtothisfruitfulcollaboration.
Thisworkwouldnothavebeenpossiblewithoutfundingprovidedby
the British Academy Conference Grant, the ASA-UK conference grant,
the generous contribution of the Moray Endowment Fund, College of
Medicine and Veterinary at the University of Edinburgh and the Binks
ix