Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T16:22:41.206Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

African Pentecostal Migrants in China: Marginalization and the Alternative Geography of a Mission Theology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 May 2013

Heidi Østbø Haugen
Heidi Østbø Haugen*
Affiliation:
Heidi Østbø Haugen is a postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Sociology and Human Geography at the University of Oslo. Her work focuses on trade and migration between African countries and China. Prior to conducting her doctoral research, she worked at the World Food Programme’s West Africa Bureau. She has studied Chinese (Mandarin) at Beijing Normal University. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

The city of Guangzhou, China, hosts a diverse and growing population of foreign Christians. The religious needs of investors and professionals have been accommodated through government approval of a nondenominational church for foreigners. By contrast, African Pentecostal churches operate out of anonymous buildings under informal and fragile agreements with law-enforcement officers. The marginality of the churches is mirrored by the daily lives of the church-goers: Many are undocumented immigrants who restrain their movements to avoid police interception. In contrast to these experiences, the churches present alternative geographies where the migrants take center stage. First, Africans are given responsibility for evangelizing the Gospel, as Europeans are seen to have abandoned their mission. Second, China is presented as a pivotal battlefield for Christianity. And finally, Guangzhou is heralded for its potential to deliver divine promises of prosperity. This geographical imagery assigns meaning to the migration experience, but also reinforces ethnic isolation. The analysis is based on in-depth interviews, participant observation, and video recordings of sermons in a Pentecostal church in Guangzhou with a predominately Nigerian congregation.

Résumé:

La ville de Guangzhou, en Chine, est le site d’une population grandissante de chrétiens étrangers, dont beaucoup continuent de pratiquer leur religion en devenant membres d’une église non confessionnelle pour étrangers approuvée par le gouvernement. Les églises africaines pentecôtistes, en revanche, opèrent dans des bâtiments anonymes sous des accords informels et fragiles avec les représentants de la loi. Bien des membres de la congrégation sont eux-mêmes des immigrants sans papiers dont les vies sont contraintes par la nécessité d’échapper aux contrôles de police, et la marginalité sociale et institutionnelle de ces églises reflètent ainsi leurs expériences au quotidien. Au sein de ces églises, ces immigrants ont cependant une place centrale et font quasiment l’expérience d’une « géographie alternative ». Dans cet article, la Chine est présentée comme un champs de bataille crucial pour la chrétienté, les Africains y ayant remplacé les Européens au front de la mission d’évangélisation. Pour les Africains eux-mêmes, Guangzhou présente un potentiel pour délivrer ses promesses divines de prospérité. Cet article soutient que l’imagerie géographique pentecôtiste, tout en donnant un sens et une signification à l’expérience des immigrants, renforce cependant une isolation ethnique. L’analyse se base sur des entretiens approfondis, des observations sur le terrain, et des enregistrements vidéo de sermons dans une église pentecôtiste à Guangzhou avec une congrégation principalement nigérienne.

Type
ASR FORUM ON AFRICA AND CHINA
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 56 , Issue 1 , April 2013 , pp. 81 - 102
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adogame, Afe. 2004. “Contesting the Ambivalences of Modernity in a Global Context: The Redeemed Christian Church of God, North America.” Studies in World Christianity 10: 25–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, Allan. 2004. An Introduction to Pentecostalism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Asamoah-Gyadu, J. Kwabena. 2010. “Spirit, Mission and Transnational Influence: Nigerian-Led Pentecostalism in Eastern Europe.” PentecoStudies 9: 74–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bandurski, David. 2010. “My Father’s House.” Press Kit. Hong Kong. www.lanternfilms.com.Google Scholar
BBC News. 2009. “Nigerian Anger over China Deaths.”http://news.bbc.co.uk.Google Scholar
Burgess, Richard, Knibbe, Kim, and Quaas, Anna. 2010. “Nigerian-Initiated Pentecostal Churches as a Social Force in Europe: The Case of the Redeemed Christian Church of God.” PentecoStudies 9 (1): 97–121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carlson, Eric R. 2005. “China’s New Regulations on Religion: A Small Step, Not a Great Leap, Forward.” Brigham Young University Law Review 3: 747–97.Google Scholar
Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. 2008. “Cong chuzuwu guanli rushou jiaqiang dui zai Sui juliu waiguoren de guanli” (Strengthening the management of foreigners living in rented houses in Guangzhou). www.gzzx.gov.cn.Google Scholar
Coleman, Simon. 2006. “When Silence Isn’t Golden: Charismatic Speech and the Limits of Literalism.” In The Limits of Meaning: Case Studies in the Anthropology of Christianity, edited by Engelke, M. and Tomlinson, M., 39–62. New York: Berghahn Books.Google Scholar
Engelke, Matthew, and Tomlinson, Matt. 2006. “Meaning, Anthropology, Christianity.” In The Limits of Meaning: Case Studies in the Anthropology of Christianity, edited by Engelke, M. and Tomlinson, M., 1–38. New York: Berghahn Books.Google Scholar
Freston, Paul. 2010. “Reverse Mission: A Discourse in Search of Reality?” PentecoStudies 9: 153–174.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haugen, Heidi Østbø. 2011. “Chinese Exports to Africa: Competition, Complementarity and Cooperation between Micro-Level Actors.” Forum for Development Studies 38: 157–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haugen, Heidi Østbø. 2012. “Nigerians in China: A Second State of Immobility.” International Migration 50: 65–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hunt, Stephen, and Lightly, Nicola. 2001. “The British Black Pentecostal ‘Revival’: Identity and Belief in the ‘New’ Nigerian Churches.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 24: 104–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jeannerat, Caroline. 2009. “Of Lizards, Misfortune and Deliverance: Pentecostal Soteriology in the Life of a Migrant.” African Studies 68: 251–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kao, Chen-Yang. 2009. “The Cultural Revolution and the Emergence of Pentecostal-Style Protestantism in China.” Journal of Contemporary Religion 24: 171–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knibbe, Kim. 2009. “‘We Did Not Come Here as Tenants, But as Landlords’: Nigerian Pentecostals and the Power of Maps.” African Diaspora 2: 133–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knibbe, Kim, and van der Meulen, Marten. 2009. “The Role of Spatial Practices and Locality in the Constituting of the Christian African Diaspora.” African Diaspora 2: 125–30.Google Scholar
Koning, Danielle. 2009. “Place, Space, and Authority: The Mission and Reversed Mission of the Ghanaian Seventh-Day Adventist Church in Amsterdam.” African Diaspora 2: 203–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krause, Kristine. 2011. “Cosmopolitan Charismatics? Transnational Ways of Belonging and Cosmopolitan Moments in the Religious Practice of New Mission Churches.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 34: 419–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuang, Emmanuel Ma Mung. 2008. “The New Chinese Migration Flows to Africa.” Social Science Information 47: 643–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lyons, Michal, Brown, Alison, and Li, Zhigang. 2008. “The “Third Tier” of Globalization: African Traders in Guangzhou.” City: Analysis of Urban Trends, Culture, Theory, Policy, Action 12: 196–206.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marshall, Ruth. 2009. Political Spiritualities: The Pentecostal Revolution in Nigeria. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Massey, Doreen. 1991. “A Global Sense of Place.” Marxism Today 35: 24–29.Google Scholar
Meyer, Birgit. 2004. “Christianity in Africa: From African Independent to Pentecostal-Charismatic Churches.” Annual Review of Anthropology 33: 447–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meyer, Birgit. 2008. “Religious Sensations: Why Media, Aesthetics, and Power Matter in the Study of Contemporary Religion.” In Religion: Beyond a Concept, edited by de Vires, H., 704–23. New York: Fordham University Press.Google Scholar
Miller, Donald, and Yamamori, Tetsunao. 2007. Global Pentecostalism: The New Face of Christian Social Activism. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oblau, Gotthard. 2005. “Pentecostals by Default? Contemporary Christianity in China.” In Asian and Pentecostal: The Charismatic Face of Christianity in China, edited by Anderson, A. and Tang, E., 411–36. Oxford: Regnum Books.Google Scholar
Pew Research Center. 2011. “Global Christianity: A Report on the Size and Distribution of the World’s Christian Population.” Washington, D.C.: The Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion and Public Life.Google Scholar
Potter, Pitman B. 2003. “Belief in Control: Regulation of Religion in China.” The China Quarterly 174: 317–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rennie, Namvula. 2009. “The Lion and the Dragon: African Experiences in China.” Journal of African Media Studies 1: 379–414.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sassen, Saskia. 1991. The Global City: New York, London, Tokyo. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Sommers, Marc. 2001. “Young, Male and Pentecostal: Urban Refugees in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.” Journal of Refugee Studies 14: 347–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van der Meulen, Marten. 2009. “The Continuing Importance of the Local: African Churches and the Search for Worship Space in Amsterdam.” African Diaspora 2: 159–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wielander, Gerda. 2009. “Bridging the Gap? An Investigation of Beijing Intellectual House Church Activities and Their Implications for China’s Democratization.” Journal of Contemporary China 18: 849–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Xinhua, . 2012. “New Law Targets Foreigners’ Illegal Presence.” China Daily, July 26. www.chinadaily.com.Google Scholar
Xu, Jiang, and Yeh, Anthony G. O.. 2005. “City Repositioning and Competitiveness Building in Regional Development: New Development Strategies in Guangzhou, China.” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 29: 283–308.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ying, Fuk-Tsang. 2006. “New Wine in Old Wineskins: An Appraisal of Religious Legislation in China and the Regulations on Religious Affairs of 2005.” Religion, State & Society 34: 347–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar