David Maxwell's account of the origins and evolution of a Pentecostal movement in twentieth-century Zimbabwe is rich and detailed. It is also an important comment on the current shape of Pentecostal and charismatic Christianity in Africa. Charting the trajectory of Zimbabwe Assemblies of God, Africa (ZAOGA) from a local sectarian community to an authoritarian ‘orthodox global religion’, the book offers a sympathetic and critical assessment of religious leadership in contemporary Africa. Drawing on extensive participant observation, interviews, tracts and an unusual level of access to the church's documentary archive, Maxwell plots the history of the movement in Zimbabwe and its expansion into parts of the African diaspora. One of the major concerns of African Gifts of the Spirit is the transformation of ZAOGA's colourful Archbishop, Ezekial Guti, from one of a number of founding evangelists to the sole figure in what the author terms a ‘cult of leadership’, which is sustained and controlled by a heavily edited ‘canonical history’. Maxwell is also conscious of the spiritual life of the laity as he explores the rising tensions between the daily concerns of ordinary members and the global vision of the church's leadership.
The outline is largely chronological, with chapters 1 and 2 charting the spread of early twentieth-century Pentecostalism from its epicentre in the United States to its emergence in Southern Africa. Jauntily titled ‘Sects and the city’, Chapter 3 turns specifically to the growth of The Assemblies of God African (renamed Zimbabwe Assemblies of God, Africa in 1977) during the nationalist era. Although ZAOGA's relationship to the state shifts over the years, one of its original concerns remains constant: the rejection of rural traditions and the desire to associate itself with modernity.
Despite some acknowledgement of nationalist and Pan-Africanist politics, for the early part of the post-liberation period ZAOGA's priorities remained unchanged. These were marriage, family relations, social etiquette and other features of middle-class ‘bourgeois respectability’ (p. 92). In Chapter 4 the author describes Ezekial Guti's first encounter with American Pentecostalism. Guti's affinity with the USA placed him and ZAOGA on a very different path from the anti-Western and anti-imperialist war of liberation. His American encounter also marked the beginning of the increased bureaucratization of the church and its gradual transformation into a patrimonial denomination dominated by Guti's ‘cult of leadership’.
Three issues dominate the evolution of ZAOGA in the 1980s and these are the subject of Chapter 5. First is its relationship with the new Zimbabwean government led by Robert Mugabe. Second is its encounter with the global explosion of born-again Christianity; and third is the increasing authoritarianism within the church's internal structures. The chapter charts the ousting of Guti's co-founders (and potential leadership rivals), the rise to prominence of his own family members – especially his wife Eunor – and the editing of these events and tensions in a canonical history of the church, The Sacred History. The History both distinguished ZAOGA from the global born-again movement and authorized Guti's status as sole founder. The History, argues Maxwell, is a ‘spiritual biography’, which legitimizes the ‘cult of Guti’ (p. 123) and makes respectable ‘a secret history of ambition, faction and manipulation’ (p. 124). The parallels with ZANU/PF's organization and leadership are striking. Whilst ZAOGA accommodated itself to the nationalist government, ZANU/PF was always suspicious of a church with structures that so resembled a political party.
The latter half of the book charts the development of the movement through the 1990s and into the early twenty-first century. A prominent theme is the apparent contradiction between the church's corrupt patrimonial structures and its continuing expansion. Maxwell points to the pragmatism of Zimbabwe's Christians. For all its flaws, ZAOGA ‘helped ordinary Zimbabweans towards personal security and taught them how to make the best of modernity’ (p. 134). Pragmatism is a key factor in church–state relations also. By the early 1990s, when other Christian organizations were distancing themselves from the ruling party, ZAOGA began to court it. The church and Mugabe lent legitimacy to one another in a reciprocal assimilation of elites. Evangelism, however, was always the church's overriding concern, and so from the early 2000s, when state violence and economic instability threatened its mission, ZAOGA members were advised to vote MDC.
African Gifts of the Spirit tells two stories. The first is a tale of leadership, and its journey from egalitarianism to authoritarianism, patrimonialism, and personality-led Christianity, which mirrors the power dynamics that are dominant in both civil society and the state. The second tells the story of the social and spiritual lives of the citizens of a failing state who are confronted daily by the opportunities and disappointments of modernity. For all of ZAOGA's internal contradictions and complexities – which do little to advance the cause of democracy in civil society or the state – the church continues to grow because it gives hope to thousands of ordinary people. African Gifts of the Spirit is a thoroughly researched, convincingly argued and beautifully written book. It is a hugely important contribution to current debates about the public role of Christianity in Africa. Published in 2006, the book does not chronicle the most recent of Zimbabwe's struggles; nonetheless, Maxwell offers a fascinating insight into the struggles of ordinary Christians living in one of Africa's harshest regimes.
