Religious innovations of chieftaincy in Ghana: Pentecostal Christianity and the complex persistence and transformation of Akan chieftaincy
Chieftaincy is an important indigenous political system in West Africa. In Ghana–based on ancestral cult–the institution has gone through and survived the major historical epochs–precolonial, colonial, and post-independence–albeit with some changes. The institution's flexibility has been a sing...
| Published in: | Religion compass |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Wiley-Blackwell
2022
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| In: |
Religion compass
Year: 2022, Volume: 16, Issue: 1 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Ghana
/ The Church of Pentecost
/ Akan
/ Chief
/ Flexibility
/ Legitimation
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| RelBib Classification: | AD Sociology of religion; religious policy BB Indigenous religions CB Christian life; spirituality CC Christianity and Non-Christian religion; Inter-religious relations CH Christianity and Society KBN Sub-Saharan Africa KDG Free church |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Chieftaincy is an important indigenous political system in West Africa. In Ghana–based on ancestral cult–the institution has gone through and survived the major historical epochs–precolonial, colonial, and post-independence–albeit with some changes. The institution's flexibility has been a singular source of its survival. This has made it possible for Pentecostals to become indigenous chiefs. In this article, I depend on a year's ethnographic research in Ghana in 2019 and a review of literature on chieftaincy in Africa to explore how Pentecostal chiefs negotiate the complex terrain between indigenous religion and Pentecostal Christianity–as they take up chiefly office. I argue that through creative innovation and investment in social services, Pentecostal chiefs subvert chiefly rituals and also legitimize their authority. In all this, I discuss the flexibility embodied in chieftaincy and Pentecostalism. |
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| ISSN: | 1749-8171 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Religion compass
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1111/rec3.12426 |