‘The memory of persecution is in our blood’: documenting loyalties, identities and motivations to political action in the Ugandan Pentecostal Movement Barbara Bompani
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Date
2023-03-09
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Cambridge University Press
Abstract
Much attention has been paid to the growth of Pentecostal-charismatic Christianity
in Uganda and the way it has shifted over the past decades from being a minority
religion to influencing and shaping the Ugandan public and political spheres.
Most of the literature, however, associates the Pentecostal-charismatic dynamic
public action with its motivation to promote conservative Christian values,
especially around issues of sexuality, HIV/AIDS, reproduction and family values.
This article extends this literature by providing a fuller explanation for the
reasons behind its public transformation and its relation to power, in particular its
loyalty to and support for President Museveni. Drawing on participant observation
and interviews conducted over several years, this article argues that along with theological and moral explanations, it is important to understand how local and contextual dynamics interplay. Indeed, the uncertainties and memories of the difficult
origins of the Pentecostal-charismatic movement and the lack of legal recognition
as fully registered churches, still impact on the present and motivate them to be catalytic socio-political actors in need of forging strong connections with centres of
power in Museveni’s Uganda.
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Keywords
Pentecostal-charismatic Christianity; Uganda; sexuality; HIV/AIDS; reproduction; family values; public transformation; power
Citation
Bompani B, “‘The Memory of Persecution Is in Our Blood’: Documenting Loyalties, Identities and Motivations to Political Action in the Ugandan Pentecostal Movement” (2022) 60 The Journal of Modern African Studies 479