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Tactical Creolization and the Production of Belonging in Migrant Pentecostal Churches in Post-Apartheid South Africa

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Forging African Communities

Part of the book series: Global Diversities ((GLODIV))

Abstract

South Africa is today the first destination of both regular and undocumented migration in Africa. The new migrants enter, however, a highly segregated, conflict prone, xenophobic and socio-culturally transforming host country. This ethnographic study explores how Congolese and Nigerian migrant-initiated multicultural Pentecostal churches located in such a context pursue cohesion or unity in diversity. Indeed, building a sense of belonging and community in their members is a strong component of the mission of any form of organised religion, almost as important as their primary task of proselytising. The study finds that in order to reduce the meaning-making cultural cost of diversity and produce a sense of belonging, migrant churches practice what I term tactical creolization conviviality and social cohesion strategies.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    From other racial and ethnic and national backgrounds.

  2. 2.

    There are almost daily incidents although the major ones remain the May 2008 and April 2015 xenophobic attacks.

  3. 3.

    These churches are diverse communities with constantly changing membership while playing the role of getting new migrants established in their navigation of the city (Kankonde forthcoming).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. African Centre for Migration and Society, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Peter Kankonde Bukasa

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  1. Global Development Institute, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom

    Oliver Bakewell

  2. African Centre for Migration & Society, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Loren B. Landau

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Bukasa, P.K. (2018). Tactical Creolization and the Production of Belonging in Migrant Pentecostal Churches in Post-Apartheid South Africa. In: Bakewell, O., Landau, L. (eds) Forging African Communities. Global Diversities. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58194-5_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58194-5_6

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