Yoruba in Diaspora: An African Church in London (review)

This is a remarkable book for two reasons. First, because it was written fully thirty-five years after the initial research started, in 1969, to be resumed only in the 1990s. Second, because the book stands out for its sensitive discussion of an important but often neglected dimension of African religiosity, namely spiritual power. This is discussed through a case study of the Cherubim and Seraphim Church in London, as founded by Nigerian immigrants in the 1960s.

The issue of spiritual power runs as a thread through the book. After an introductory chapter, the study begins with an exposition of the social conditions of young Nigerians who had originally arrived in Britain as students, and who intended to return to join the elite in their home countries. The realities of life in Europe were as little anticipated then, it appears, as they are now. It is against this background that the founding of the Cherubim and Seraphim Church in London is situated in the following chapter. In subsequent chapters various aspects of spiritual power in this particular context are explored, such as divination, revelation, possession, and prayer. Unlike many authors, Hermione Harris takes Nigerian epistemologies seriously, taking as her point of departure not existing academic theories, but the personal experiences of individual believers. Hence she explains the concepts of spiritual power as they exist in the Yoruba language and the way these are used in aladura discourse. Harris leaves ample space for believers to express their own views of both the visible and the invisible worlds and the supposed relation between the two realms, basing her subtle argument on extensive quotations from her interviewees, as well as lengthy descriptions of ritual events.

The dynamic character of spiritual power is thus an important characteristic of the Cherubim and Seraphim Church that is highlighted in Harris’s approach. This dynamism is also shown by the way in which spiritual power has been transformed over time and distance, in the physical move from Nigeria to Britain. Although an ontological continuity between C & S and “traditional” religion among the Yoruba can be demonstrated, Aladura revelation and Ifa divination, for example, are quite different, and the differences further evolve in the British context. It is the underlying principles that remain the same, and the binding element: spiritual power. Following some of her respondents, Harris uses the metaphor of electricity—perhaps not very original but certainly helpful—to discuss how spiritual power energizes those who believe in it. Her investigation of spiritual empowerment, as we might call this process of mobilizing power, is rich and insightful. It should be read by everybody interested in understanding the new forms of African Christianity.

The concluding chapter has been written in the form of an epilogue, discussing some of today’s new (mega) churches in London that are also frequented by Nigerians. Given Harris’s long years of reflecting on the early phase of the Nigerian religious “diaspora” (a term applied uncritically), it is not altogether surprising that this concluding part is not as incisive as the rest of the book. Other scholars may build further on her solid foundation, and they ought to address some of the recent literature that appears most relevant to Harris’s work. An important book is Stephen Ellis and Gerrie Ter Haar’s Worlds of Power (Oxford University Press, 2004), although this is not included in the bibliography, which contains mostly works before the year 2000 (suggesting that quite some time passed between submission of the manuscript to the publisher and its actual publication).

There is every reason to be grateful that Hermione Harris has had the courage to revive her work after so many years. This reviewer hopes that it will inform future scholars of African-initiated churches, in and outside Africa.