Pentecostals moving South-South: Brazilian and Ghanaian transnationalism in southern Africa

By looking at Ghanaian Pentecostalism in Botswana and Brazilian Pentecostalism in Mozambique, the authors of this chapter show that Pentecostalism is not necessarily part of a globalizing Western modernity. Its southern forms contribute to and shape processes of globalization in specific ways. Analysing the transnational features of South-South Pentecostalism makes clear that it is not only the global aspects of Pentecostalism that render the faith relevant for its followers, but the faith’s position toward the nation-State and national cultural projects as well. The specific ways in which southern Pentecostalism fosters identities that transcend national borders and cultural projects, like those of Botswana and Mozambique, points to the role of southern Pentecostals in raising a critical awareness of and reflective attitude toward certain local cultural practices. Thus, South-South links show how Pentecostalism shapes globalization, as well as being a response and reaction to it. Bibliogr., notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract]