Mediating the Gospel: Pentecostal Christianity and Media Technology in Botswana and Zimbabwe

Abstract

This article discusses how Pentecostal churches in Botswana and Zimbabwe have appropriated media technologies in their worship. It identifies which media technologies are used by the churches and considers how they are used, the theological justifications for this appropriation, and the effects of this appropriation on the Christian faith. Media technologies discussed include radio, television, the Internet, e-mail, mobile phones, and various print media. The article concludes that Pentecostal churches have fully embraced media technology, in contrast to churches like the African Independent Churches that consider such technologies as trivializing Christianity. The article argues that media technologies have allowed Pentecostal churches in Botswana and Zimbabwe to spread the gospel faster and wider. Possible negative effects of media technology appropriation, such as the commodification of the Christian religion, are also discussed.

Notes

1. Gifford talks of a ‘new’ variety of Pentecostalism that emerged in the 1970s, distinguishing it from the classical African Independent Churches which he also calls Pentecostal.

2. In Zimbabwe, the Dutch Reformed Church used its printing press at Morgenster Mission to produce the first Bible in Union Shona (Togarasei, Concept) and in Botswana, the London Missionary Society (now UCCSA) produced the first Setswana Bible (Dube).

3. For example, Guti includes such a history of Ezekiel Guti, the founder of the Zimbabwe Assemblies of God Africa (ZAOGA).

4. The testimony is quoted (verbatim, including any grammatical errors) from the flyer advertising the sermon topic of Sunday 15 October 2006.

5. FEBA radio is a UK registered Christian charity which broadcasts radio programmes to address people's physical and spiritual needs in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East (www.feba.org.uk, access date: 7 June 2008). FEBA has been broadcasting in Zimbabwe for over 15 years.

6. I observed one episode when the founders of the church, Tom and Bonnie Deuschle were planting a new branch in Gaborone Botswana, March 2007.

7. Although I use the term ‘tele-evangelism’ to describe evangelism through radio and television, I agree with Ihejirika (20–1) that this term in its American sense is not applicable to the religious media in Africa. Whereas in the American usage, televangelists are the evangelical and Pentecostal ministers whose religious ministries revolve around their television or radio programme, in Africa, tele-evangelists were first leaders of actual churches or ministries before they ventured into television or radio productions. They also do this as a way of reaching out to their members.

8. One pastor in Botswana estimated the cost of the musical instruments in his church to be over P20,000 (US$3,500). (personal interview, Gaborone, 22 January 2008)

9. Chitando and Togarasei (“Theological”) discuss the dominance of Pentecostals in the Zimbabwean gospel music industry.

10. By 2008, Zimbabwe's rate of inflation was over 1,000% per annum, the highest in the world. Politicians often blamed it for the hardship people were facing. On radio and television and in newspapers they talked about it as if it were a living thing. It thus became one of the most used words.

11. Evangelist P. D. Chiweshe is one of the well-known televangelists in Zimbabwe. His tapes and videos are sold in record shops all over the country.

12. Many Pentecostal churches have claimed to cure those infected by HIV and such claims have raised a lot of debate, as medical science has as yet no cure for the virus. It is, however, beyond the scope of this article to engage in this debate. Personally I think that claiming a cure might be problematic, but if someone claims to heal those infected by HIV, s/he must be given the benefit of the doubt, since healing can be on a physical, social, mental or psychological level.

13. These music genres originated in the Democratic Republic of Congo and they are often associated with erotic or sexually suggestive dance.

14. Such movies are sold in shops in many Southern African cities in form of DVDs and shown on Multichoice DSTV channel 114.