African Gift of the Spirit: Pentecostalism and the Rise of a Zimbabwean Transnational Religious Movement (review)

A number of works have been published on Pentecostalism as a new form of Christian expression in Africa. Examples are books by Alan Anderson (2004), Paul Gifford (2004), and J. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu (2005). Numerous articles on the subject have been published in journals (e.g., Journal of Religion in Africa (1998)). Not many of these works, however, have focused on Pentecostalism in Zimbabwe. Apart from Gifford (1991) and journal articles by Togarasei (2005, 2006) and Maxwell, this book breaks new ground in the academic study of Pentecostalism in Zimbabwe. Written from a historical perspective, it is a culmination of field research in Zimbabwe, mainly in 1996. A product of the author's participant-observation, use of archival material, and oral interviews, the book is "an in-depth historical account of a single African Pentecostal movement (the Zimbabwe Assemblies of God Africa—ZAOGA) that situates Pentecostalism within the broader sweep of Africa's Christian history" (p. 13).

Maxwell opens the book with an introduction that locates ZAOGA within the broader context of African and world Pentecostalism. Through a review of literature that has been produced on the subject, he highlights the objective of this book: to situate Pentecostal Christianity in the social history of southern Africa. To do so, he begins his study by tracing the global history of Pentecostal Christianity from the Azusa Street experience of 1906, which marked the beginning of the worldwide Pentecostal movement. He highlights how Pentecostalism capitalized on the cultural and theological currents of the early twentieth century and the emerging globalization characterized by printing and postages of reading material globally, for its rapid expansion.

The rapid expansion of Pentecostalism saw Africa receiving its first Pentecostal missionaries as early as 14 May 1908, in Cape Town, South Africa, hardly two years after the Azusa Street Revival. Maxwell discusses the factors that shaped South African Pentecostalism. He traces the history of its expansion northward, resulting in its entering Zimbabwe through Gwanda, capital of the province of Matabeleland South, in 1916. Maxwell identifies all the key personalities in this history of expansion. He shows how the church, initially known as the Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM) related with the state, the teething problems of the church, and the secessions that later dogged it.

ZAOGA was born out of the secessions that the AFM faced between the 1930s and the 1950s. A small group of young men and women from the African suburb of Harare (now Mbare) under the leadership of Ezekiel Guti left the AFM to form, first Assemblies of God African (AOGA) and later, ZAOGA. Maxwell locates this history within the political and religious history of not only Harare (then Salisbury), but even of the whole country. He goes as far as placing the movement's early history within the history of Pan-Africanism in the 1950s to the 1970s.

Maxwell shows how ZAOGA, early in its history, connected with American Pentecostalism. This, he says, happened through Guti's enrolment at Christ For the Nations Institute in Dallas, Texas. He narrates the story of Guti at the college, his life as a student, and how, on his return to Zimbabwe, he became the patron and prophet of AOGA. Maxwell shows the influence that American education had in the way Guti shaped and organized the movement. Maxwell describes how the church expanded within and outside Zimbabwe, even during the turbulent years of Zimbabwe's liberation struggle, and how the movement constantly borrowed and adapted its life and activities from other Pentecostal movements of the time. He describes, for example, how Guti developed networks with American Pentecostalism and how these networks benefited his movement materially.

The birth of an independent state provided ZAOGA with both threats and opportunities. The religious field was now much more open, as indicated by the rise of many born-again Christian "ministries" and "fellowships." This meant ZAOGA had to compete with these for...