CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION

• Background

From the first part of the twentieth century onwards many Independent Churches and Prophetic Movements began to emerge as they broke away or seceded from the established mission churches in West Africa.1 They did so with different reasons including “doctrines, forms of worship, organization and the response they give to the problem of ‘evil’ in all as its manifestations are concerned.”2 These Independent Churches were, according to Thomas Oduro, “dissatisfied with some of the dominance of western culture and life style in African Christianity, some policies and liturgies of the western mission-founded denominations.”3 Consequently they desired to free African Christianity of western structures, ideologies and practices.4 This perception of dissatisfaction of the Independent Churches as indicated by Oduro, leads credence to Clarke’s view when he indicated that “while missionaries saw it as part of the functions of Christianity to bring about a fundamental change in the thinking, attitudes, customs and tradition of Africans, some of the latter responded by claiming that in doing this the missionaries were using religion to preserve and extend their own foreign culture and traditions at the expense of those of Africa.”5

1 Peter B. Clarke, West Africa and Christianity, (London: Edward Arnold Publishers Ltd, 1986), 160.

2 Clarke, West Africa and Christianity, 157.

3 Thomas Oduro, Church of The Lord (Brotherhood), (Ghana: SonLife Printing Press, 2016), 2.

4 Oduro, Church of The Lord (Brotherhood), 2.

5 Clarke, West Africa and Christianity, 158.

Clearly there was a clash between colonialism and its related modernization and the meaning and purpose of religion. It is precisely one of the many reasons why some African Christian preachers and writers constantly were in contention against what they perceived as an attempt by the Europeans to control and dominate Africa.6 Thus, Africans Christians saw a supposed imposition of another nation’s version of Christianity or any other religion on them.

In this regard, Africans with likeminded perception strongly advocated for a Christianity which was purely African and not a Western-cultural influenced Christianity. It is this desire for Africanizing Christianity that gave birth to the Ethiopian Church. According to Hildebrandt, a South African Pastor Mokone who “did not think the Methodist church was Africanizing fast enough, decided to break away from that church. He then established his own independent church, which he called the Ethiopian Church. This event is important for us to note because it marks the establishment of one of the first African Separatist or African Independent Churches in modern times.”7 Thus, it can be asserted that many African Independent Churches broke away from the established churches due to differences in doctrinal presuppositions. These groups according to Clarke came to be known as the ‘Ethiopian’ or African Churches. They were also sometimes called ‘Zionist’, ‘Prayer’, ‘Spiritual’, or ‘Prophet’ churches in Nigeria. In Nigeria, they are referred to as ‘Aladura’ (Praying) churches emphasizing revelation from the Holy Spirit, prayer and faith healing.8 Ogbu U Kalu affirmed that the “Ethiopians’ were ahead of their times and had started a process of reflection that perceived Christianity as a non-

6 Clarke, West Africa and Christianity, 157.

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