New Media and Religious Transformations in Africa

Description

New Media and Religious Transformations in Africa casts a critical look at Africa's rapidly evolving religious media scene. Following political liberalization, media deregulation, and the proliferation of new media technologies, many African religious leaders and activists have appropriated such media to strengthen and expand their communities and gain public recognition. Media have also been used to marginalize and restrict the activities of other groups, which has sometimes led to tension, conflict, and even violence. Showing how media are rarely neutral vehicles of expression, the contributors to this multidisciplinary volume analyze the mutual imbrications of media and religion during times of rapid technological and social change in various places throughout Africa.

Acknowledgments

Foreword
Francis B. Nyamnjoh

Introduction: New Media and Religious Transformations in Africa
Rosalind I. J. Hackett & Benjamin F. Soares

Part I. "Old" Media: Print and Radio
1. A History of Sauti ya Mvita ("Voice of Mombasa"): Radio, Public Culture, and Islam in Coastal Kenya, 1947-1966
James R. Brennan
2. Between Standardization and Pluralism: The Islamic Printing Market and its Social Spaces in Bamako, Mali
Francesco Zappa
3. Binary Islam: Media and Religious Movements in Nigeria
Brian Larkin
4. Muslim Community Radio Stations: Constructing and Shaping Identities in a Democratic South Africa
Muhammed Haron

Part II. New Media and Media Worlds
5. Mediating Transcendence: Popular Film, Visuality, and Religious Experience in West Africa
Johannes Merz
6. The Heart of Man: Pentecostalist Emotive Style in and beyond Kinshasa's Media World
Katrien Pype
7. Islamic Communication and Mass Media in Cameroon
Hamadou Adama
8. "We Are on the Internet:" Contemporary Pentecostalism in Africa and the New Culture of Online Religion
J. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu
9. Conveying Islam: Arab Islamic Satellite Channels as New Players
Ehab Galal
10. Religious Discourse in the New Media: A Case Study of Pentecostal Discourse Communities of SMS Users in South-western Nigeria
'Rotimi Taiwo

Part III. Arenas of Exchange, Competition, and Conflict
11. Media Afrikania: Styles and Strategies of Representing "Afrikan Traditional Religion" in Ghana
Marleen de Witte
12. Senwele Jesu: Gospel Music and Religious Publics in Nigeria
Vicki L. Brennan
13. Managing Miracles: Ambiguities in the Regulation of Religious Broadcasting in Nigeria
Asonzeh Ukah
14. Living across Digital Landscapes: Muslims, Orthodox Christians, and an Indian Guru in Ethiopia
Samson A. Bezabeh
15. Zulu Dreamscapes: Senses, Media, and Authentication in Contemporary Neo-shamanism
David Chidester

List of Contributors
Index

Sujets

• African Studies
• Philosophie et théologie
• Religión
• Political science of religion
• State
• Freedom of religion
• Politics
• Religion

Informations

• Publié par: Indiana University Press
• Date de parution: 21 janvier 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 2
• EAN13: 9780253015303
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

NEW MEDIA AND RELIGIOUS TRANSFORMATIONS IN AFRICA
NEW MEDIA AND RELIGIOUS TRANSFORMATIONS IN AFRICA
Edited by Rosalind I. J. Hackett and Benjamin F. Soares
Foreword by Francis B. Nyamnjoh
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
New media and religious transformations in Africa / edited by Rosalind I. J. Hackett and Benjamin F. Soares; foreword by Francis B. Nyamnjoh.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-253-01519-8 (hardcover : alk. paper) -
ISBN 978-0-253-01524-2 (pbk. : alk. paper) -
ISBN 978-0-253-01530-3 (ebook) 1. Mass media in religion-Africa. 2. Social media-Religious aspects. 3. Social media-Africa. 4. Africa-Religion-21st century. I. Hackett, Rosalind I. J. II. Soares, Benjamin F.
BL 2400. N 47 2015
302.23096-dc23
2014021491
1 2 3 4 5 20 19 18 17 16 15
Contents
Foreword / Francis B. Nyamnjoh
Acknowledgments
Introduction: New Media and Religious Transformations in Africa / Rosalind I. J. Hackett and Benjamin F. Soares
Part I. Old Media: Print and Radio
1. A History of Sauti ya Mvita (Voice of Mombasa): Radio, Public Culture, and Islam in Coastal Kenya, 1947-1966 / James R. Brennan
2. Between Standardization and Pluralism: The Islamic Printing Market and Its Social Spaces in Bamako, Mali / Francesco Zappa
3. Binary Islam: Media and Religious Movements in Nigeria / Brian Larkin
4. Muslim Community Radio Stations: Constructing and Shaping Identities in a Democratic South Africa / Muhammed Haron
Part II. New Media and Media Worlds
5. Mediating Transcendence: Popular Film, Visuality, and Religious Experience in West Africa / Johannes Merz
6. The Heart of Man: Pentecostal Emotive Style in and beyond Kinshasa s Media World / Katrien Pype
7. Islamic Communication and Mass Media in Cameroon / Hamadou Adama
8. We Are on the Internet : Contemporary Pentecostalism in Africa and the New Culture of Online Religion / J. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu
9. Conveying Islam: Arab Islamic Satellite Channels as New Players / Ehab Galal
10. Religious Discourse in the New Media: A Case Study of Pentecostal Discourse Communities of SMS Users in Southwestern Nigeria / Rotimi Taiwo
Part III. Arenas of Exchange, Competition, and Conflict
11. Media Afrikania: Styles and Strategies of Representing Afrikan Traditional Religion in Ghana / Marleen de Witte
12. enwele Jesu: Gospel Music and Religious Publics in Nigeria / Vicki L. Brennan
13. Managing Miracles: Law, Authority, and the Regulation of Religious Broadcasting in Nigeria / Asonzeh Ukah
14. Living across Digital Landscapes: Muslims, Orthodox Christians, and an Indian Guru in Ethiopia / Samson A. Bezabeh
15. Zulu Dreamscapes: Senses, Media, and Authentication in Contemporary Neo-shamanism / David Chidester
List of Contributors
Index
Foreword
Francis B. Nyamnjoh
P RIOR TO THE CURRENT PROLIFERATION of information and communication technologies (ICTs) since the 1990s, God 1 -singular, plural, and delegated-was accessible in standardized, routinized, and predictably more conventional ways, with a clear hierarchy of credibility and infallibility. The technologies of communication available at the time were relatively tame and embodied so as to ensure and assure such a system of communication and sense of hierarchy and authority. There was face-to-face transmission of knowledge of the divine by and through priests, pastors, imams, and other religious figures from and to members of their congregations, schooled to internalize and reproduce beliefs and practices on and around salvation and its possibilities as shaped by virtue and vice. Previously, there was the conventional printed word such as books-the Bible and the Quran, for example; newspapers (popular and religious, tabloid and broadsheet) owned by or sympathetic to churches, mosques, or religious authorities; newsletters, bulletins, tracts, pamphlets, hymnals, and sermons; and music (in audio- and videocassettes). Terrestrial national radio and national television were there to ensure a measure of mass communication beyond the modesty of the loudspeaker. Places and spaces demarcated and delineated as holy and for worship (churches, mosques, shrines, sacred monuments, etc.) were understood to be where one went to pray seriously and where the spirit world, regardless of beliefs about omnipresence, omniscience, and omnipotence, was most likely to be present or accessed, to answer prayers, and to demonstrate power, benevolence, and munificence.
Today, Africa bears witness to individuals, acting alone or as part of religious groups or communities committed to various causes (often without instigation or encouragement from their religious leaders), combing the internet, downloading and sharing (via email, as cell phone text messages, Facebook postings, printouts, faxes, and word of mouth in prayer sessions or in other face-to-face contexts) prayers, inspirational spiritual texts, religious music, ringtones, photos, podcasts, and videos. Away from the church, mosques, or formal prayer grounds, ordinary Christians and Muslims are able to evoke, sense, and access the divine presence on their own terms and without always feeling that they need the enabling presence or blessings of the hierarchy of the churches, mosques, and temples. Media technologies themselves become intermediaries through which humans can experience the divine. They have provided for a greater sense of openness and interreligious conviviality as religious contents spread across digital platforms providing opportunities to interact with other religious communities, particularly among youth. Alongside the openness and conviviality is increased animosity across religious differences (which are sometimes blurred with political agendas) that are voiced on digital platforms. They have also allowed for nationals to connect and bond with diasporic communities in the celebration of religious events and in forging ecumenism. It is only by understanding modern media as enablers capable of simultaneously accelerating the pursuit of social transformation and social continuity that one is able to make sense of apparently contradictory and conflicting tendencies in how they are appropriated.
In Africa, perhaps more than anywhere else, the new does not always replace the old. Emphasis tends to be rather on accommodation, conviviality, and composite identities than in zero-sum games in which one person s gain is another person s loss. This is as true of religion as it is of media, where the old and the new not only coexist and are interdependent but are often inextricably entangled. When Africans embrace new religions such as Islam and Christianity (in their various forms) and new media forms, this is to bring the new and the old in conversation in a process of creative domestication and innovation. They may not always succeed in their bid to privilege accommodation and conviviality over conflict and dichotomies, being part of an interconnected world of hierarchical relationships-an often marginalized one at that-in which zero-sum games of power and dominance tend to prevail. Scholars who seek neat dichotomies and binary oppositions will not find it in African life-worlds. 2 This is clear in this volume.
Edited by Rosalind Hackett and Benjamin Soares-leading scholars on the intersection of the anthropology and history of religion in Africa- New Media and Religious Transformations in Africa charts a long-overdue multidisciplinary conversation about how to research and debate the changing landscapes of religion and new media in Africa. In view of the interconnections and interdependencies between various and changing media forms and different religious practices, the book highlights the conceptual and methodological terrain related to mediation and its role in understanding histories of religious pluralism in Africa. Hackett and Soares map a conceptual and methodological landscape through which to understand the interconnections and intricacies between varied religious practices and media in African societies. And this is the key contribution: the richness in themes and perspectives together with the range and breadth in religions and their geographies are explored historically and empirically in 15 case studies. The promise to the reader is clearly an intellectual adventure. New Media and Religious Transformations in Africa challenges readers to engage in systematic contemplation of religion and the media in Africa, and in turn, what Africans make of the religion and media that target them.
All of the contributors begin the process of providing a critical historical ethnographic overview of African encounters with religions and media technologies, and the mutual shaping between religions