“We are all children of God”: a Charismatic church as space of encounter between township and suburb in post-apartheid Johannesburg

Abstract

Twenty years after the first democratic election in South Africa, Johannesburg is still marked by the legacy of apartheid. This makes it difficult for residents of former townships and of suburban middle classes to interact in everyday life. Nevertheless, urban dwellers create or use spaces with the intention of living up to the ideal of a non-racist post-apartheid society. The case study of a Charismatic church in Linbro Park, in the north-east of Johannesburg, analyses how the white, middle class church leadership conceives of the church as a public space of the Christian rainbow nation. The experiences of township dwellers show, however, that subtle processes of exclusion are at work. The article argues that this post-apartheid space of encounter is fraught with contradiction, tension and ambivalence, a space where urban dwellers transgress, but also reproduce racial and class-based boundaries.

Keywords:

• Charismatic churches
• Johannesburg
• Lefebvre
• segregation
• spaces of encounter
• township-suburb
• urban diversity