Kwame Bediako
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- October 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780195177282
- eISBN:
- 9780199835812
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195177282.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
This chapter describes the role of Christian churches, leaders and ideas in the democratization of Africa, with a focus on Ghana. The author argues first that African Christianity needs to be ...
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This chapter describes the role of Christian churches, leaders and ideas in the democratization of Africa, with a focus on Ghana. The author argues first that African Christianity needs to be understood on African terms. European and American assumptions about religion and politics are framed by the history of the “Christendom” cultural ideal and the current secular outlook of the North Atlantic world and thus are less relevant for African politics. There is a new public theology arising that contests the tendency in traditional Africa to vest political power with sacred authority. Recounting the election of a democratic challenger to succeed Ghana’s authoritarian president, Jerry Rawlings, Bediako sees evidence that this new Christian public theology is changing the political culture in a genuinely democratic direction.Less
This chapter describes the role of Christian churches, leaders and ideas in the democratization of Africa, with a focus on Ghana. The author argues first that African Christianity needs to be understood on African terms. European and American assumptions about religion and politics are framed by the history of the “Christendom” cultural ideal and the current secular outlook of the North Atlantic world and thus are less relevant for African politics. There is a new public theology arising that contests the tendency in traditional Africa to vest political power with sacred authority. Recounting the election of a democratic challenger to succeed Ghana’s authoritarian president, Jerry Rawlings, Bediako sees evidence that this new Christian public theology is changing the political culture in a genuinely democratic direction.
Lamin Sanneh
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- October 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780195177282
- eISBN:
- 9780199835812
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195177282.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
This essay provides the global context for the local studies that follow: the emergence of Christianity as a world religion, its rising prominence in the global south and east and its waning ...
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This essay provides the global context for the local studies that follow: the emergence of Christianity as a world religion, its rising prominence in the global south and east and its waning influence and adherence in the North Atlantic region. Sanneh highlights the cultural repositioning of African Christianity and Asian Christianity away from their old intellectual and political cradle in Europe. These new forms of “world Christianity” are expressed in more languages, cultural traditions and models of faith and practice than ever before, and they are engaged in a growing cultural conflict with European Christianity and its expressions in North America. This interdisciplinary study shows that expounding the story of world Christianity requires new combinations of scholarly skills and experience.Less
This essay provides the global context for the local studies that follow: the emergence of Christianity as a world religion, its rising prominence in the global south and east and its waning influence and adherence in the North Atlantic region. Sanneh highlights the cultural repositioning of African Christianity and Asian Christianity away from their old intellectual and political cradle in Europe. These new forms of “world Christianity” are expressed in more languages, cultural traditions and models of faith and practice than ever before, and they are engaged in a growing cultural conflict with European Christianity and its expressions in North America. This interdisciplinary study shows that expounding the story of world Christianity requires new combinations of scholarly skills and experience.
Wendy Laura Belcher
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199793211
- eISBN:
- 9780199949700
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199793211.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, 18th-century Literature, World Literature
Johnson was drawn to Voyage historique d'Abissinie, this chapter proposes, by its African Christianity. That is, translating it was a way of thinking about what it meant to be a Christian and how ...
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Johnson was drawn to Voyage historique d'Abissinie, this chapter proposes, by its African Christianity. That is, translating it was a way of thinking about what it meant to be a Christian and how differently Christianity could be imagined. That Johnson’s interest in the text was that of a religious explorer becomes clear when examining his reading, his religious beliefs, and his editing of Voyage historique d'Abissinie.Less
Johnson was drawn to Voyage historique d'Abissinie, this chapter proposes, by its African Christianity. That is, translating it was a way of thinking about what it meant to be a Christian and how differently Christianity could be imagined. That Johnson’s interest in the text was that of a religious explorer becomes clear when examining his reading, his religious beliefs, and his editing of Voyage historique d'Abissinie.
Lamin Sanneh and Joel A. Carpenter (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- October 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780195177282
- eISBN:
- 9780199835812
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195177282.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
Featuring cases from contemporary Africa and the Caribbean and from the history of Christianity in Asia, this book examines the new forms of Christianity emerging from the global south and east. ...
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Featuring cases from contemporary Africa and the Caribbean and from the history of Christianity in Asia, this book examines the new forms of Christianity emerging from the global south and east. These essays highlight the spiritual universe, communal relationships, cultural and religious creativity, and perspectives on wealth, power, and public affairs that animate contemporary world Christianity. The first six chapters investigate (1) gospel musicians and revival movements in the eastern Caribbean, (2) views of witchcraft among Christians in Nigeria, (3) the problem of sustaining missionary-founded institutions in postcolonial Zimbabwe, (4) the emergence of a Pentecostal prosperity gospel in Ghana, (5) the role of churches in the peace process in Mozambique, and (6) an emerging public theology in democratizing Ghana. Three case studies follow on the impact of Asian Christianity on Western Christian thought. They examine (7) the challenge to Western mission theory caused by the fact that Christianity in Burma grew faster in a tribal context than within the dominant civilization; (8) the ongoing debate in the theology of religion and world religions generated by the Dutch theologian and former missionary to Indonesia, Hendrik Kraemer; and (9) the creation of a postcolonial contextual theology movement by the Chinese scholar, Skoki Coe. An introduction by editor Sanneh frames these studies within the dramatic rise of Christian movements in the global south and east, their tempering through years of hardship and persecution, and their increasing clashes with liberal and worldly northern counterparts. In the book’s conclusion Sanneh argues that the centuries-old Enlightenment assumptions about how states, religions, and societies relate to each other are crumbling, and that world Christianity seems better equipped than northern Christianity to serve the age to come.Less
Featuring cases from contemporary Africa and the Caribbean and from the history of Christianity in Asia, this book examines the new forms of Christianity emerging from the global south and east. These essays highlight the spiritual universe, communal relationships, cultural and religious creativity, and perspectives on wealth, power, and public affairs that animate contemporary world Christianity. The first six chapters investigate (1) gospel musicians and revival movements in the eastern Caribbean, (2) views of witchcraft among Christians in Nigeria, (3) the problem of sustaining missionary-founded institutions in postcolonial Zimbabwe, (4) the emergence of a Pentecostal prosperity gospel in Ghana, (5) the role of churches in the peace process in Mozambique, and (6) an emerging public theology in democratizing Ghana. Three case studies follow on the impact of Asian Christianity on Western Christian thought. They examine (7) the challenge to Western mission theory caused by the fact that Christianity in Burma grew faster in a tribal context than within the dominant civilization; (8) the ongoing debate in the theology of religion and world religions generated by the Dutch theologian and former missionary to Indonesia, Hendrik Kraemer; and (9) the creation of a postcolonial contextual theology movement by the Chinese scholar, Skoki Coe. An introduction by editor Sanneh frames these studies within the dramatic rise of Christian movements in the global south and east, their tempering through years of hardship and persecution, and their increasing clashes with liberal and worldly northern counterparts. In the book’s conclusion Sanneh argues that the centuries-old Enlightenment assumptions about how states, religions, and societies relate to each other are crumbling, and that world Christianity seems better equipped than northern Christianity to serve the age to come.
John W. Catron
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780813061634
- eISBN:
- 9780813051086
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813061634.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
Christianity’s influence among Atlantic Africans began as early as the fifteenth century, and endured as a largely indigenous movement over the following three hundred years. Discovering how they ...
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Christianity’s influence among Atlantic Africans began as early as the fifteenth century, and endured as a largely indigenous movement over the following three hundred years. Discovering how they came to be Christians, how many black Christians there were in Africa during this period, how contact with African culture changed Christianity, and whether Africans brought their version of Christianity with them to the Americas when they went there as forced migrants are the objects of this chapter. Led by African Christians such as Jacobus Capitein and Philip Quaque in the 18th century, Christianity’s history in some parts of sub-Saharan Africa actually extends to the fourth century CE and over the millennia has inspired the conversion of millions of adherents. Intriguing new evidence supports the idea that many Africans in the Diaspora were not only well acquainted with Christianity in places like Portuguese Kongo and Angola, but also knew about the black Christians of Ethiopia and Egypt and therefore thought of Christianity as an indigenous faith initially independent of and not wholly dominated by white slave owners, making them more likely to embrace it once in America.Less
Christianity’s influence among Atlantic Africans began as early as the fifteenth century, and endured as a largely indigenous movement over the following three hundred years. Discovering how they came to be Christians, how many black Christians there were in Africa during this period, how contact with African culture changed Christianity, and whether Africans brought their version of Christianity with them to the Americas when they went there as forced migrants are the objects of this chapter. Led by African Christians such as Jacobus Capitein and Philip Quaque in the 18th century, Christianity’s history in some parts of sub-Saharan Africa actually extends to the fourth century CE and over the millennia has inspired the conversion of millions of adherents. Intriguing new evidence supports the idea that many Africans in the Diaspora were not only well acquainted with Christianity in places like Portuguese Kongo and Angola, but also knew about the black Christians of Ethiopia and Egypt and therefore thought of Christianity as an indigenous faith initially independent of and not wholly dominated by white slave owners, making them more likely to embrace it once in America.
Joseph L. Thomas and Douglas A. Sweeney
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195310566
- eISBN:
- 9780199851072
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195310566.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter offers an introductory and reflective history of American Evangelical Christianity as it wrestled with the issues of race and ethnicity. In particular, it examines the history of ...
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This chapter offers an introductory and reflective history of American Evangelical Christianity as it wrestled with the issues of race and ethnicity. In particular, it examines the history of evangelical ministry across the racial divide, accommodations made to slavery and segregation, the rise of independent of black churches, and the impact of African American Christianity on white evangelicalism. This leads to better understanding of its manifest shortcomings as well as the positive strivings that evangelicalism has made in creating a less prejudiced and more inclusive church. However, it is observed that the biblical themes of spiritual liberation and human equality have worked together in the history of evangelicalism to make the Christian church a more biblical one, if not yet a perfect one. The history of evangelicalism indicates that one needs to the spiritual resources to find a solution to the present miasma.Less
This chapter offers an introductory and reflective history of American Evangelical Christianity as it wrestled with the issues of race and ethnicity. In particular, it examines the history of evangelical ministry across the racial divide, accommodations made to slavery and segregation, the rise of independent of black churches, and the impact of African American Christianity on white evangelicalism. This leads to better understanding of its manifest shortcomings as well as the positive strivings that evangelicalism has made in creating a less prejudiced and more inclusive church. However, it is observed that the biblical themes of spiritual liberation and human equality have worked together in the history of evangelicalism to make the Christian church a more biblical one, if not yet a perfect one. The history of evangelicalism indicates that one needs to the spiritual resources to find a solution to the present miasma.
Graham A. Duncan
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- November 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198702252
- eISBN:
- 9780191838934
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198702252.003.0011
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
This chapter notes that increased pluralism, movement, and transnationalism have meant inevitable change for dissenting Protestantism. A result of experiential transculturality has been the rise of ...
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This chapter notes that increased pluralism, movement, and transnationalism have meant inevitable change for dissenting Protestantism. A result of experiential transculturality has been the rise of religious practice marked by hybridity, and scholarship intended to explain it. This chapter unpacks the meanings of terms such as ‘inculturation’ as ‘adaptation’, ‘innovation’, and ‘reflexivity’, and explores the ways in which these emerge in the intercultural settings of Protestant Christian mission in the Majority World. A result of this analysis is to point to the ways in which secularity and transnationalism actually ‘manufacture’ dissent from dominant orthodoxies, sparking religious revitalizations and new identities. The chapter quotes E. W. Blyden’s prescient observation that Africa would be the ‘spiritual conservatory of the world’. The term ‘dissent’ needs to be revalued to include growth, reinterpretation, resilience, redefinition, and revitalization. This keeps it true to the semper reformanda principle of Reformational Dissent.Less
This chapter notes that increased pluralism, movement, and transnationalism have meant inevitable change for dissenting Protestantism. A result of experiential transculturality has been the rise of religious practice marked by hybridity, and scholarship intended to explain it. This chapter unpacks the meanings of terms such as ‘inculturation’ as ‘adaptation’, ‘innovation’, and ‘reflexivity’, and explores the ways in which these emerge in the intercultural settings of Protestant Christian mission in the Majority World. A result of this analysis is to point to the ways in which secularity and transnationalism actually ‘manufacture’ dissent from dominant orthodoxies, sparking religious revitalizations and new identities. The chapter quotes E. W. Blyden’s prescient observation that Africa would be the ‘spiritual conservatory of the world’. The term ‘dissent’ needs to be revalued to include growth, reinterpretation, resilience, redefinition, and revitalization. This keeps it true to the semper reformanda principle of Reformational Dissent.
Nicholas M. Creary
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780823233342
- eISBN:
- 9780823241774
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823233342.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, History of Religion
Catholic theologians have developed the relatively new term inculturation to discuss the old problem of adapting the church universal to specific local cultures. Europeans needed a thousand years to ...
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Catholic theologians have developed the relatively new term inculturation to discuss the old problem of adapting the church universal to specific local cultures. Europeans needed a thousand years to inculturate Christianity from its Judaic roots. Africans' efforts to make the church their own followed a similar process but in less than a century. This book provides an examination of the Catholic church's pastoral mission in Zimbabwe or of African Christians' efforts to inculturate the church. Ranging over the century after Jesuit missionaries first settled in what is now Zimbabwe, this book reveals two simultaneous and intersecting processes: the Africanization of the Catholic Church by African Christians and the discourse of inculturation promulgated by the Church. With great attention to detail, it places the history of African Christianity within the broader context of the history of religion in Africa. This work aims to contribute to current debates about the Catholic Church in Zimbabwe and throughout Africa.Less
Catholic theologians have developed the relatively new term inculturation to discuss the old problem of adapting the church universal to specific local cultures. Europeans needed a thousand years to inculturate Christianity from its Judaic roots. Africans' efforts to make the church their own followed a similar process but in less than a century. This book provides an examination of the Catholic church's pastoral mission in Zimbabwe or of African Christians' efforts to inculturate the church. Ranging over the century after Jesuit missionaries first settled in what is now Zimbabwe, this book reveals two simultaneous and intersecting processes: the Africanization of the Catholic Church by African Christians and the discourse of inculturation promulgated by the Church. With great attention to detail, it places the history of African Christianity within the broader context of the history of religion in Africa. This work aims to contribute to current debates about the Catholic Church in Zimbabwe and throughout Africa.
Akintunde E. Akinade
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- April 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780199684045
- eISBN:
- 9780191838927
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780199684045.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History
Africa has provided an auspicious context for religious reformation, renewal, and revival. Its landscape has been radically shaped by the dynamic forces of Christianity. African Christianity evokes a ...
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Africa has provided an auspicious context for religious reformation, renewal, and revival. Its landscape has been radically shaped by the dynamic forces of Christianity. African Christianity evokes a protean image that has been moulded by the interrelated processes of mission, conversion narrative, prophecy, and waves of spiritual independence. In contemporary times, Africa continues to serve as a living laboratory for creative religious movements and models. This paper analyses the importance of translation and indigenization in African Christianity and how the processes have influenced the dissenting tradition in this religious experience. Translation provided the impetus for genuine and creative appropriation of the Christian faith in Africa. The engine of faith was enabled by the conscious effort to rediscover Christian doctrines and formulas in familiar syntax, symbols, and concepts.Less
Africa has provided an auspicious context for religious reformation, renewal, and revival. Its landscape has been radically shaped by the dynamic forces of Christianity. African Christianity evokes a protean image that has been moulded by the interrelated processes of mission, conversion narrative, prophecy, and waves of spiritual independence. In contemporary times, Africa continues to serve as a living laboratory for creative religious movements and models. This paper analyses the importance of translation and indigenization in African Christianity and how the processes have influenced the dissenting tradition in this religious experience. Translation provided the impetus for genuine and creative appropriation of the Christian faith in Africa. The engine of faith was enabled by the conscious effort to rediscover Christian doctrines and formulas in familiar syntax, symbols, and concepts.
Allan Heaton Anderson
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- April 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780199684045
- eISBN:
- 9780191838927
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780199684045.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History
This chapter articulates how African Pentecostalism emerged as a form of dissent, and formed many different kinds of independent churches, new denominations, and movements of renewal within older ...
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This chapter articulates how African Pentecostalism emerged as a form of dissent, and formed many different kinds of independent churches, new denominations, and movements of renewal within older churches. In particular it traces those characteristics of dissent that are found in the independent Charismatic churches since the 1970s, and how these have impacted African Christianity as a whole, including Catholic and Protestant churches. It gives examples in turn from West Africa, East Africa, and Southern Africa, and critiques the ‘Prosperity Gospel’ that is often a central part of these churches’ appeal. It concludes with a summary of how these churches characterize new forms of dissent.Less
This chapter articulates how African Pentecostalism emerged as a form of dissent, and formed many different kinds of independent churches, new denominations, and movements of renewal within older churches. In particular it traces those characteristics of dissent that are found in the independent Charismatic churches since the 1970s, and how these have impacted African Christianity as a whole, including Catholic and Protestant churches. It gives examples in turn from West Africa, East Africa, and Southern Africa, and critiques the ‘Prosperity Gospel’ that is often a central part of these churches’ appeal. It concludes with a summary of how these churches characterize new forms of dissent.
D. Oliver Herbel
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199324958
- eISBN:
- 9780199353989
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199324958.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter surveys the conversion of Moses Berry and how his theological convictions remain prominent for members of the Brotherhood of St. Moses the Black. Berry sought out a Christianity that ...
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This chapter surveys the conversion of Moses Berry and how his theological convictions remain prominent for members of the Brotherhood of St. Moses the Black. Berry sought out a Christianity that included engaged multiple races and ethnicities and was open to all. Yet he also sought an otherworldly Christianity, one that looked to God’s transcendence as well as understanding that God could be present within one’s own immediate suffering. Initially, Berry joined Holy Order of MANS, a restorationist New Religious Movement, built on the supposed reincarnation of biblical personalities, that was beginning to seek a more traditional Eastern Christian expression. Here, Berry utilized the anti-traditional approach to reset his bearings. He brought together a concern for African American slave identity and an awareness of early Christianity, concluding that the Orthodox Churches were the continuation of that same ancient Christian church so shaped by its African experience.Less
This chapter surveys the conversion of Moses Berry and how his theological convictions remain prominent for members of the Brotherhood of St. Moses the Black. Berry sought out a Christianity that included engaged multiple races and ethnicities and was open to all. Yet he also sought an otherworldly Christianity, one that looked to God’s transcendence as well as understanding that God could be present within one’s own immediate suffering. Initially, Berry joined Holy Order of MANS, a restorationist New Religious Movement, built on the supposed reincarnation of biblical personalities, that was beginning to seek a more traditional Eastern Christian expression. Here, Berry utilized the anti-traditional approach to reset his bearings. He brought together a concern for African American slave identity and an awareness of early Christianity, concluding that the Orthodox Churches were the continuation of that same ancient Christian church so shaped by its African experience.
Kerry Pimblott
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780813168821
- eISBN:
- 9780813169019
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813168821.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
This introduction provides an outline of the book by discussing topics such as Black power and the Black church. Black freedom struggles in the borderland and the Black Power Movement in Cairo, ...
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This introduction provides an outline of the book by discussing topics such as Black power and the Black church. Black freedom struggles in the borderland and the Black Power Movement in Cairo, Illinois. A large emphasis is placed on the exploration of the changing relationship of the Black church and African American Christianity to Cairo Black freedom struggles. The story of Karen Rice, a Black Power activist, is also provided in order to show how stories of this kind during the Black Power Movement raised important questions about Black Power’s de-Christianization and bolstered recent calls from scholars in the emergent subfield of “Black Power Studies” to probe more deeply the relationship between the Black church, African American Christianity, and the Black Power Movement.Less
This introduction provides an outline of the book by discussing topics such as Black power and the Black church. Black freedom struggles in the borderland and the Black Power Movement in Cairo, Illinois. A large emphasis is placed on the exploration of the changing relationship of the Black church and African American Christianity to Cairo Black freedom struggles. The story of Karen Rice, a Black Power activist, is also provided in order to show how stories of this kind during the Black Power Movement raised important questions about Black Power’s de-Christianization and bolstered recent calls from scholars in the emergent subfield of “Black Power Studies” to probe more deeply the relationship between the Black church, African American Christianity, and the Black Power Movement.
D. H. Dilbeck
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781469636184
- eISBN:
- 9781469636191
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469636184.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
This chapter describes Douglass’s first years as a free man living in Massachusetts. It explains why Douglass had a difficult time remaining a member of any Christian church in the North. It also ...
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This chapter describes Douglass’s first years as a free man living in Massachusetts. It explains why Douglass had a difficult time remaining a member of any Christian church in the North. It also recounts Douglass’s initial exposure to the abolitionist movement and his early career as a paid abolitionist lecturer—culminating in the publication of his first autobiography in 1845, which succinctly captured his prophetic faith.Less
This chapter describes Douglass’s first years as a free man living in Massachusetts. It explains why Douglass had a difficult time remaining a member of any Christian church in the North. It also recounts Douglass’s initial exposure to the abolitionist movement and his early career as a paid abolitionist lecturer—culminating in the publication of his first autobiography in 1845, which succinctly captured his prophetic faith.
Britt Halvorson
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780226557120
- eISBN:
- 9780226557434
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226557434.003.0004
- Subject:
- Anthropology, African Cultural Anthropology
This chapter traces the medical materials from the U.S. agencies to their arrival in Antananarivo in the Malagasy Lutheran health department or SALFA. Operated mainly by church elites, SALFA is a ...
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This chapter traces the medical materials from the U.S. agencies to their arrival in Antananarivo in the Malagasy Lutheran health department or SALFA. Operated mainly by church elites, SALFA is a nationally-run and nationalist aid entity, emerging from the malgachisation of church institutions in Madagascar that paralleled the broader wave of African nationalisms sweeping the continent in the 1970s. Drawing upon ethnographic research in SALFA headquarters in Antananarivo, the chapter describes how SALFA administrators nurture and seek forms of spiritual and material benefit from a range of religious and professional networks in which SALFA itself is situated, such as the fifohazana, their paid employment, ties to foreign NGOs and public/private medical aid partnerships. The chapter views Malagasy acceptance of heterogeneous medical discards from the U.S. NGOs as an act of value generation itself, an actively chosen move by SALFA administrators to create ties irrespective of each castoff’s individual value. Appreciating how SALFA workers restructure the value of medical waste in Antananarivo opens up a space of Malagasy critique of the discard trade, found in a refusal to place primary value in the heterogeneous materials themselves.Less
This chapter traces the medical materials from the U.S. agencies to their arrival in Antananarivo in the Malagasy Lutheran health department or SALFA. Operated mainly by church elites, SALFA is a nationally-run and nationalist aid entity, emerging from the malgachisation of church institutions in Madagascar that paralleled the broader wave of African nationalisms sweeping the continent in the 1970s. Drawing upon ethnographic research in SALFA headquarters in Antananarivo, the chapter describes how SALFA administrators nurture and seek forms of spiritual and material benefit from a range of religious and professional networks in which SALFA itself is situated, such as the fifohazana, their paid employment, ties to foreign NGOs and public/private medical aid partnerships. The chapter views Malagasy acceptance of heterogeneous medical discards from the U.S. NGOs as an act of value generation itself, an actively chosen move by SALFA administrators to create ties irrespective of each castoff’s individual value. Appreciating how SALFA workers restructure the value of medical waste in Antananarivo opens up a space of Malagasy critique of the discard trade, found in a refusal to place primary value in the heterogeneous materials themselves.
D. H. Dilbeck
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781469636184
- eISBN:
- 9781469636191
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469636184.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
This chapter covers Douglass’ early childhood years in Baltimore. It focuses especially on Douglass’s conversion to Christianity and his secretive effort to learn to read and write. The chapter ...
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This chapter covers Douglass’ early childhood years in Baltimore. It focuses especially on Douglass’s conversion to Christianity and his secretive effort to learn to read and write. The chapter explains how both of these “awakenings” laid the foundation of Douglass’s prophetic faith.Less
This chapter covers Douglass’ early childhood years in Baltimore. It focuses especially on Douglass’s conversion to Christianity and his secretive effort to learn to read and write. The chapter explains how both of these “awakenings” laid the foundation of Douglass’s prophetic faith.
Michael Lower
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198744320
- eISBN:
- 9780191805707
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198744320.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, European Medieval History, History of Religion
By late August 1270, the Tunis Crusade was in the hands of Charles of Anjou, king of Sicily. A long‐running battle for Syria had been transposed, not only into a different region, but seemingly into ...
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By late August 1270, the Tunis Crusade was in the hands of Charles of Anjou, king of Sicily. A long‐running battle for Syria had been transposed, not only into a different region, but seemingly into a different register. Like Charles, al‐Mustansir of Tunis tended to negotiate rather than fight across religious frontiers. But that dynamic was about to change. Charles and al‐Mustansir were facing each other at the head of large and fractious armies. The temptation to use the military force at their disposal would be strong, and not only because it could help them gain a better bargaining position. On both sides, there was mounting pressure to activate the conflict. To keep their divided armies together, Charles and al‐Mustansir might just have to use them. The negotiators were now in charge, but to get the settlement they wanted, they were going to have to fight for it first.Less
By late August 1270, the Tunis Crusade was in the hands of Charles of Anjou, king of Sicily. A long‐running battle for Syria had been transposed, not only into a different region, but seemingly into a different register. Like Charles, al‐Mustansir of Tunis tended to negotiate rather than fight across religious frontiers. But that dynamic was about to change. Charles and al‐Mustansir were facing each other at the head of large and fractious armies. The temptation to use the military force at their disposal would be strong, and not only because it could help them gain a better bargaining position. On both sides, there was mounting pressure to activate the conflict. To keep their divided armies together, Charles and al‐Mustansir might just have to use them. The negotiators were now in charge, but to get the settlement they wanted, they were going to have to fight for it first.
