African Christianity: Its Public Role

This text analyzes African Christianity in the mid-1990s, against the background of the continent's current social, economic and political circumstances. Paul Gifford employs concepts taken from political economy to shed light on the current dynamics of African churches and churchgoers, and assesses their different contributions in political developments since 1989. He also evaluates the Churches' role in promoting a civil society in Africa. Four detailed case-studies - Ghana, Uganda, Zambia and Cameroon - cover all strands of Christianity: Catholic, Evangelical, mainline Protestant, Pentecostal and Independent. These serve as detailed analyses of the state of the churches in each country and suggest more general patterns operating widely across sub-Saharan Africa.