African Gifts of the Spirit — 2007

Pentecostalism & the Rise of a Zimbabwean Transnational Religious Movement

“Pentacostalism has become the representative face of Christianity in Africa. David Maxwell’s African Gifts of the Spirit is one of the latest in the growing body of literature on the subject.... a historically detailed and phenomenologically sound account of ZAOGA Christianity.”

— Pneuma

“This is a pathbreaking major work tracing the tangled roots of a significant religious movement in Zimbabwe and beyond. . . . Richly documented, it explores the relation between social rupture of conversion, and links changes to the movement to historical events from the Great Depression to the rise of independence, and the impact of neo-liberalism. It is a required read.”

David Martin — Professor Emeritus, London School of Economics

“The combination of history with fascinating participatory material makes the book the best and most illuminating account ever written of an African initiated church. . . . A very important book and a remarkable work of scholarship.”

Terence Ranger — Professor Emeritus, University of Oxford

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This book considers the rise of born-again Christianity in Africa through a study of one of the most dynamic Pentecostal movements. David Maxwell traces the transformation of the prophet Ezekiel Guti and his prayer band from small beginnings in the townships of the 1950s into the present-day transnational business enterprise, which is now the Zimbabwe Assemblies of God. Zimbabwe Assemblies of God Africa claims one and a half million members in Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and South Africa and has branches in other African countries, Europe, and the United States. African Gifts of the Spirit illuminates Africa’s relations with American Christianities, black and white.

David Maxwell, past editor of the Journal of Religion in Africa, is senior lecturer at the University of Keele.