Emerging Streams of Dissent in Modern African Christianity

By the end of the twentieth century, Africa had emerged as a major heartland of global Christianity, defying European missionary prognosis a century earlier. This chapter makes the case that that the prospects of African Christianity were poorly diagnosed in part because such assessments failed to take the African Christian capacity for ‘dissent’ into account. Though rooted in evangelical Protestantism that spread to Africa from the late eighteenth century, the streams of dissent that surged within African Christianity were fomented by experiences and aspirations that were radically different from the British heritage. Not least because the indigenous environment provided primary impetus for their emergence and formation. These ‘dissenting’ movements, which were greatly shaped by indigenous elements, included religious protest and resistance as well as initiatives marked by religious revival and innovation. They have acted as major catalysts for the growth of African Christianity and its transformation into an African religion.