Religion, Media, and Marginality in Modern Africa
Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press (2018), ix, 320 pp.
Contains bibliogr. pp. 281-306, index
Series: Cambridge Centre of African Studies Series
ISBN 978-0-8214-2303-5 (hbk); 978-0-8214-4624-9 (ebook)
"Religion, Media, and Marginality in Modern Africa is one of the first volumes to put new media and old media into significant conversation with one another, and also offers a rare comparison between Christianity and Islam in Africa. The contributors find many previously unacknowledged correspondences among different media and between the two faiths. In the process they challenge the technological determinism-the notion that certain types of media generate particular forms of religious expression-that haunts many studies. In evaluating how media usage and religious commitment intersect in the social, cultural, and political landscapes of modern Africa, this collection will contribute to the development of new paradigms for media and religious studies." (Publisher description)
Introduction: Religion, media, and marginality in modern Africa / Felicitas Becker and Joel Cabrita, 1
PART I: ENGAGEMENTS WITH STATE POWER IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD AND BEYOND
1 Formal care: Islam and bureaucratic paperwork in the Gold Coast-Ghana / Sean Hanretta, 38
2 Provincializing representation: East African Islam in the German colonial press / Jørg Haustein, 70
3 A tin-trunk Bible: the written word of an oral church / David M. Gordon, 93
4 Photography as unveiling: Muslim discourses and practices on the Kenyan coast / Heike Behrend, 112
PART II: CLAIMS TO TRADITION AND PARTICULAR IDENTITIES IN THE SHADOW OF THE STATE
5 Vernacular media, Muslim ethics, and "conservative" critiques of power in the Niger Bend, Mali / Bruce S. Hall, 133
6 "The angel of the sabbath is the greatest angel of all": media and the struggle for power and purity in the Shembe church, 2006-12 / Liz Gunner, 154
7 Charisma as spectacle: photographs and the construction of a pentecostal urban piety in Nigeria / Asonzeh Ukah, 175
PART III: RELIGIOUS COMMUNITY BUILDING ON THE MARGINS
8 Nzete Ekauka versus the Catholic church: religious competition, media ban, and the Virgin Mary in contemporary Kinshasa / Katrien Pype, 202
9 Exploring youth, media practices, and religious allegiances in contemporary Mali through the controversy over the zikiri / Andrø Chappatte, 229
10 Pentecostal charismatic Christianity and social media in South Africa: mitigating marginality, prosperity teachings and the emergence of a black middle class / Maria Frahm-Arp, 256
PART I: ENGAGEMENTS WITH STATE POWER IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD AND BEYOND
1 Formal care: Islam and bureaucratic paperwork in the Gold Coast-Ghana / Sean Hanretta, 38
2 Provincializing representation: East African Islam in the German colonial press / Jørg Haustein, 70
3 A tin-trunk Bible: the written word of an oral church / David M. Gordon, 93
4 Photography as unveiling: Muslim discourses and practices on the Kenyan coast / Heike Behrend, 112
PART II: CLAIMS TO TRADITION AND PARTICULAR IDENTITIES IN THE SHADOW OF THE STATE
5 Vernacular media, Muslim ethics, and "conservative" critiques of power in the Niger Bend, Mali / Bruce S. Hall, 133
6 "The angel of the sabbath is the greatest angel of all": media and the struggle for power and purity in the Shembe church, 2006-12 / Liz Gunner, 154
7 Charisma as spectacle: photographs and the construction of a pentecostal urban piety in Nigeria / Asonzeh Ukah, 175
PART III: RELIGIOUS COMMUNITY BUILDING ON THE MARGINS
8 Nzete Ekauka versus the Catholic church: religious competition, media ban, and the Virgin Mary in contemporary Kinshasa / Katrien Pype, 202
9 Exploring youth, media practices, and religious allegiances in contemporary Mali through the controversy over the zikiri / Andrø Chappatte, 229
10 Pentecostal charismatic Christianity and social media in South Africa: mitigating marginality, prosperity teachings and the emergence of a black middle class / Maria Frahm-Arp, 256
