‘Me I no go suffer’: Christian songs and prosperity gospel among Yoruba Pentecostals in Southwest Nigeria

ABSTRACT

Songs are used to enshrine social and religious ideologies among members of any society whether traditional or modern. In the Christian domain, there exist varieties of theologies and doctrines through which Christian values and virtues are taught and propagated. The prosperity gospel is one of such doctrines and it has received growing interest among scholars in African Pentecostalism, especially in Nigeria. While extant literature has focused largely on the religious, social and economic contributions to the growth and spread of prosperity gospel, the role of music, particularly songs, in the discourse of prosperity theology is yet to be explored. Hence, this paper discusses how Christian prayer songs are used to circulate the prosperity gospel among Yoruba Pentecostals in Nigeria. Data for this study were collected from selected popular Christian prayer songs in southwestern Nigeria which were then analysed. This article submits that Yoruba Pentecostals, in addition to diverse biblical engagements on prosperity themes, have always creatively employed Christian prayer songs in their hermeneutics of prosperity gospel within their cultural praxis.

KEYWORDS:

• Prayer songs
• prosperity gospel
• Nigerian Pentecostalism
• Yoruba Christian music

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Cherubim and Seraphim (C&S) is one of the well-known African initiated churches in southwestern Nigeria. The C&S Ayo ni o Choir has been vibrant in the Nigerian gospel music space since the 1990s.