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The Practice of Secret Cult by Some NPC Prophets in South Africa

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Pentecostalism and Cultism in South Africa

Part of the book series: Christianity and Renewal - Interdisciplinary Studies ((CHARIS))

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Abstract

This chapter studies the practice of secret cults by some prophets in South Africa. There is often a tendency among prophets to visit some secret cults in order to access powers for their churches to grow to great numbers. The question is, how is a neo-Pentecostal prophet visiting a witchdoctor, for example, related to cultism as suggested by some scholars and practitioners of faith? Is the growth of some new prophetic churches in South Africa indeed related to secret cultic practices as some suggest? Chapter 4 answers these questions by looking at the benefits of visiting a witchdoctor and other secret cult practices in an African context.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Elizabeth Omotunde Egbochuku. “Secret cult activities in institutions of higher learning: lessons from the Nigerian situations.” Studies of Tribes and Tribals 7, no. 1 (2009): 17–25.

  2. 2.

    Uchenna M. Nnam. “Secret cult menace in Nigeria within the context of social structure and political economy: A critical analysis.” International Journal of Criminal Justice Sciences 9, no. 2 (2014): 171; cf. “Azoba: Cultism and the school factor: its implication for development of education in Nigeria”, Sunday Ifeanyi Okoli & Lawrance U. Ezeani (eds.), Education in Nigeria: a critical analysis (Onitsha: Lincel Publishers, 1999): 162–169.

  3. 3.

    Adesoji A. Oni. “Citadel of violence: effect and control of cult activities on students’ social adjustment in Nigeria.” African Journal of Crime & Criminal Justice (AJCJ) 1, no. 1 (2009): 257–275.

  4. 4.

    Marvin, F. Galper. “The cult phenomenon: Behavioral science perspectives applied to therapy.” Marriage & Family Review 4, no. 3–4 (1982): 141–149.

  5. 5.

    The book by Makhado Sinthumule Ramabulana. Church Mafia: Captured by secret powers: An untold African narrative (Pretoria: Khado & Sons, 2018), p. 1, is important for this chapter as the author had an experience with secret cults.

  6. 6.

    Thinandavha, D. Mashau. “Occultism in an African context: a case for the Vhavenda-speaking people of the Limpopo Province.” In die Skriflig 41, no. 4 (2007): 637–653.

  7. 7.

    Ramabulana. Church Mafia, 40.

  8. 8.

    Ibid., 44.

  9. 9.

    Ibid., 45.

  10. 10.

    Ibid., 114.

  11. 11.

    Ibid., 114.

  12. 12.

    Salome Gathoni Mwiti, Joyce W. Nderitu & Simon Nderitu Wambugu. “Innovative Christian strategies for confronting syncretic practices in selected Methodist and Pentecostal churches in Abogeta division, Meru County, Kenya.” International Journal of Social Science and Humanities Research 3, no. 1 (2015): 42–54.

  13. 13.

    A traditional healer is someone with the ability to deliver people from witchcraft or challenges they incurred as a result of witchcraft.

  14. 14.

    Makhado Sinthumule Ramabulana is a grandson of chief Ramabulana from the Venda ethnic group in South Africa. He grew up going to church and is a well-trained pastor. However, Ramabulana joined a secret cult as he experienced the pressures of ministry. He gave a testimony in a video posted on YouTube and in his book that he is no longer part of any secret cult. He soon returned to his roots, the Apostolic Faith Mission of South Africa.

  15. 15.

    Nigeria, according to Hugo Africa. Mental Slavery: The Liberation Chant (Primedia: Sandton, Johannesburg, 2012) is “home to numerous secret societies, secret cults and strange religious activities. In Nigeria, most secret societies and cults have transformed into institutions of evil against the nation and non-initiates who may be part of the society at large. Their activities range from witchcraft, voodoos and occult practices.”

  16. 16.

    Ramabulana, Church Mafia, 39–90.

  17. 17.

    The god of thunder is the spirit that gives the prophet the power to renounce negative things in their life.

  18. 18.

    The god of iron is the spirit that operates with the eating of dog meat. Hence, Ramabulana testified that those engage with the eating of dog meat are serving or worshipping the god of iron.

  19. 19.

    The water spirits work with the streams and rivers that are close to the prophet’s church. When the prophet uses water spirits, he or she is able to gather crowds.

  20. 20.

    Makhado Sinthumule Ramabulana. “Shocking truth of how I got secret powers as a fake pastor:| I’ve been through the most,| Ps Makhado” [accessed on 27 November 2019] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jH7ZTcT3ev4&t=566s.

  21. 21.

    Pastor Jay Israel used to serve and submit to the ministry of Pastor Alph Lukau and Alleluia Ministries International. He came out testifying against secret cults and how he used to manipulate Christians in churches.

  22. 22.

    Jay Israel, “Ex Occultist Testimony Of Jay Israel Now In Christ” [accessed on 5 July 2020] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuFa0iQcp-o.

  23. 23.

    Kelebogile T. Resane. “‘Simon the Sorcerer offered them money’ (Acts 8:19): some Pentecostals have gone commercial instead of evangelical”, Mookgo S. Kgatle & Allan H. Anderson (eds), The use and abuse of the Spirit in Pentecostalism: South African perspective. Routledge New Critical Thinking in Religion, Theology and Biblical Studies series (Abingdon: Routledge, 2020): 93–114.

  24. 24.

    Ramabulana, Church Mafia, 36.

  25. 25.

    Mwiti et al., “Innovative Christian strategies”, 47.

  26. 26.

    Ibid., 47.

  27. 27.

    Ibid., 47.

  28. 28.

    Lebollo, according to Lutendo, Maharaj and Rogan, is “a cultural and traditional practice that the Basotho society follows to construct the manhood identity”, see Malisha Lutendo, Pranitha Maharaj & Michael Rogan. “Rites of passage to adulthood: traditional initiation schools in the context of HIV/AIDS in the Limpopo Province, South Africa.” Health, Risk & Society 10, no. 6 (2008): 585–598.

  29. 29.

    Afe Adogame (ed.), The Public Face of African New Religious Movements in Diaspora: Imagining the Religious ‘Other’ (Abingdon: Routledge, 2016).

  30. 30.

    Victor I. Ezigbo, Re-imagining African Christologies: Conversing with the interpretations and appropriations of Jesus in contemporary African Christianity, vol. 132 (Eugene, Oregon: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2010), p. 175.

  31. 31.

    Albert J. Raboteau, Slave religion: The “invisible institution” in the antebellum South (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), p. 15.

  32. 32.

    Oni, “Citadel of violence”, 215.

  33. 33.

    Ramabulana, Church Mafia, 35.

  34. 34.

    Ibid., 35.

  35. 35.

    Emmanuel K. Twesigye, Religion, politics and cults in East Africa: God’s warriors and Mary’s saints, vol. 11 (Bern: Peter Lang, 2010), p. 25.

  36. 36.

    Ramabulana, Church Mafia, 35.

  37. 37.

    Ibid., 115.

  38. 38.

    Ibid., 116.

  39. 39.

    John S. Mbiti, The prayers of African religion (London: SPCK, 1975), p. 89.

  40. 40.

    Thomas Bremer & Ulrich Fleischmann, History and Histories in the Caribbean (Berlin: Colloquium Verlag, 2001).

  41. 41.

    Ramabulana, Church Mafia, 53.

  42. 42.

    Ibid., 96.

  43. 43.

    Ibid., 96.

  44. 44.

    Ibid., 139.

  45. 45.

    Miriam Williams Boeri & Karen Pressley. “Creativity and cults from a sociological and communication perspective: The processes involved in the birth of a secret creative self.” Cultic Studies Review 9, no. 1 (2010): 173–213.

  46. 46.

    Sansone Livio, Eliseé Soumonni & Boubacar Barry. “Africa, Brazil and the Construction of Trans-Atlantic Black Identities.” African Diaspora Archaeology Newsletter 12, no. 2 (2008): 13.

  47. 47.

    Vincent F. Biondo & Richard D. Hecht. “Religion and Everyday Life and Culture.” Religion in the Practice of Daily Life (Westport: Praeger, 2010), p. 894.

  48. 48.

    Bruce G. Trigger. Understanding early civilizations: a comparative study (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), p. 89.

  49. 49.

    It is a practice among many cultures in Africa that when there is an event in the community, a certain portion of the animal that is slaughtered will be given to the king or the queen.

  50. 50.

    John S. Mbiti, African religions & philosophy (Portsmouth, New Hampshire: Heinemann, 1990).

  51. 51.

    Sasha Newell. “Pentecostal witchcraft: Neoliberal possession and demonic discourse in Ivorian Pentecostal Churches.” Journal of Religion in Africa 37, no. 4 (2007): 461–490.

  52. 52.

    Ramabulana, Church Mafia, 139.

  53. 53.

    Ron Rhodes. The challenge of the cults and new religions: The essential guide to their history, their doctrine, and our response (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Academic, 2009), p. 303.

  54. 54.

    Maureen Nene Kemp, Family Secrets and Satanic Contract (Bloomington: Xlibris, 2012), p. 102.

  55. 55.

    Theophilus Okere, African philosophy and the hermeneutics of culture: Essays in honour of Theophilus Okere, vol. 2 (Münster: LIT Verlag Münster, 2005), p. 134.

  56. 56.

    Ramabulana, Church Mafia, 139.

  57. 57.

    Birgit Meyer. “Pentecostalism and neo-liberal capitalism: faith, prosperity and vision in African Pentecostal-Charismatic churches.” Journal for the Study of Religion (2007): 5–28.

  58. 58.

    Rosalind Shaw. “Displacing violence: Making Pentecostal memory in postwar Sierra Leone.” Cultural Anthropology 22, no. 1 (2007): 66–93.

  59. 59.

    The text has been taken from the New International Version.

  60. 60.

    Ibid.

  61. 61.

    Vagner Gonçalves da Silva. “Neo-Pentecostalism and Afro-Brazilian religions: explaining the attacks on symbols of the African religious heritage in contemporary Brazil.” Mana 3, no. SE (2007): 0–0.

  62. 62.

    Diane J. Austin-Broos. “Pentecostals and Rastafarians: Cultural, political, and gender relations of two religious movements.” Social and Economic Studies (1987): 1–39.

  63. 63.

    A number of scholars have written on the topic of the hallmarks of Pentecostalism specifically in the African context. Gerhardus Cornelis Oosthuizen, Pentecostal penetration into the Indian community in metropolitan Durban, South Africa (Publication Series, 1975), p. 375; Ogbu Kalu, African Pentecostalism: An Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), p. 25, 81; cf. Allan H. Anderson, To the ends of the earth: Pentecostalism and the transformation of world Christianity (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013); James Robinson, Divine Healing: The Years of Expansion, 1906–1930: Theological Variation in the Transatlantic World, vol. 3 (Eugene, Oregon: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2014), p. 39.

  64. 64.

    Mookgo S. Kgatle, The Fourth Pentecostal Wave in South Africa: A Critical Engagement (Abingdon: Routledge, 2019), p. 3.

  65. 65.

    Scholars interested in African Pentecostalism have written on the relationship between Pentecostalism and their use of visions and dreams as a way of confirming a call bestowed upon pastors. Allan Anderson, Spirit-filled world: Religious Dis/Continuity in African Pentecostalism (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018); cf. Marthinus Louis Daneel & Dana Lee Robert (eds.), African Christian Outreach: African Initiated Churches, vol. 1 (Pretoria: Southern African Missiological Society, 2001), p. 90; cf. Kudzai Biri, African Pentecostalism, the Bible, and Cultural Resilience: The Case of the Zimbabwe Assemblies of God Africa, vol. 24 (Bamberg: University of Bamberg Press, 2020), p. 66; cf. Gerhardus Cornelis Oosthuizen, The healer-prophet in Afro-Christian churches, vol. 3 (Leiden: Brill, 1992); cf. Bengt Sundkler, Zulu Zion and some Swazi Zionists (London: Oxford University Press, 1976).

  66. 66.

    Michael, Bergunder, The South Indian Pentecostal movement in the twentieth century (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans Publishing, 2008), p. 130.

  67. 67.

    Christopher Stephenson, Types of Pentecostal theology: Method, system, spirit (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013).

  68. 68.

    William K. Kay, Pentecostalism: A very short introduction, vol. 255 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), p. 6.

  69. 69.

    The text has been taken from the New International Version; cf. Phyllis Thompson (ed), Challenges of Black Pentecostal Leadership in the Twenty-First Century (London: SPCK, 2013); cf. Eric Nelson Newberg, The Pentecostal Mission in Palestine: The Legacy of Pentecostal Zionism (Eugene, Oregon: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2012), p. 15.

  70. 70.

    James Robinson, Divine Healing: The Holiness-Pentecostal Transition Years, 1890–1906: Theological Transpositions in the Transatlantic World, vol. 2 (Eugene, Oregon: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2013), p. 31.

  71. 71.

    Walter J. Hollenweger, The Pentecostals (Ixtheo, 1972), p. 133.

  72. 72.

    Ramabulana, Church Mafia, 104.

  73. 73.

    Ibid., 121.

  74. 74.

    The text has been taken from the New International Version.

  75. 75.

    Pius Abioje. “Critical prophecy and political leadership in biblical, African and Islamic worldviews.” Koers 75, no. 4 (2010): 787–810.

  76. 76.

    Ramabulana, Church Mafia, 45.

  77. 77.

    Gideon Tetteh. “Analysing perspectives on evil, enemy and divinatory consultation among participants in neo-prophetic movements in Pentecostal Ghana.” (Doctoral dissertation, University of Oslo, 2016), p. 12.

  78. 78.

    The word nganga is used in Africa to refer to a traditional healer and sometimes used interchangeably with “witchdoctor”.

  79. 79.

    Tarisayi Andrea Chimuka. “Pentecostalism and contested holiness in Southern Africa.” Studia Historiae Ecclesiasticae 42, no. 1 (2016): 124–141.

  80. 80.

    Samuel W. Muindi. “The nature and significance of prophecy in Pentecostal-charismatic experience: an empirical-biblical study” (PhD diss., University of Birmingham, 2012), p. 12.

  81. 81.

    Marthinus Daneel. “African independent church pneumatology and the salvation of all creation.” International Review of Mission 82, no. 326 (1993): 143–166; cf. Mookgo S. Kgatle. “Propagating the fear of witchcraft: Pentecostal prophecies in the new prophetic churches in South Africa.” Journal of the European Pentecostal Theological Association 40, no. 2 (2020): 132–143.

  82. 82.

    Daneel, “African Independent Church pneumatology”, 150.

  83. 83.

    Ibid., 150.

  84. 84.

    Ibid., 150.

  85. 85.

    Augustine Deke. “The politics of prophets and profits in African Christianity.” Politics 12, no. 1 (2015): 11–24.

  86. 86.

    Mookgo S. Kgatle. “Reimagining the practice of Pentecostal prophecy in Southern Africa: A critical engagement.” HTS Theological Studies 75, no. 4 (2019): 1–7.

  87. 87.

    Allan Anderson. “African initiated churches of the spirit and pneumatology.” Word and World 23, no. 2 (2003): 178–186.

  88. 88.

    Kgatle, The Fourth Pentecostal Wave, 31.

  89. 89.

    Mookgo S. Kgatle & Allan H. Anderson. “Introduction: the abuse of the Spirit by some New Prophetic Churches in South African Pentecostalism”, Mookgo S. Kgatle & Allan Anderson (eds.), The use and abuse of the Spirit in Pentecostalism: South African perspective. Routledge New Critical Thinking in Religion, Theology and Biblical Studies Series (Abingdon: Routledge, 2020), pp. 1–23.

  90. 90.

    Themba Shingange. “Mission as discernment of spirits in the advent of the abuse of prophecy within Newer Pentecostal Charismatic Christianity in South Africa”, Mookgo S. Kgatle & Allan H. Anderson (eds), The use and abuse of the Spirit in Pentecostalism: South African perspective. Routledge New Critical Thinking in Religion, Theology and Biblical Studies Series (Abingdon: Routledge, 2020), pp. 115–130.

  91. 91.

    Dillip Kumar Das. “Exploring Perspectives of the Information Technology Industry in a South African City.” Sustainability 11, no. 22 (2019): 6520.

  92. 92.

    Alison Gillwald, Onkokame Mothobi & Broc Rademan. “The state of ICT in South Africa.” Policy Paper no. 5, Series 5: After Access State of ICT in South Africa (2018). https://researchictafrica.net/after-access-south-africa-state -of-ict-2017-south-africa-report_04/ [accessed July 2018].

  93. 93.

    Tina James, Philip Esselaar & Jonathan Miller. “Towards a better understanding of the ICT sector in South Africa: problems and opportunities for strengthening the existing knowledge base.” Cape Town: Tina James Consulting and Miller, Esselaar and Associates. Mimeo (2001).

  94. 94.

    Das, “Exploring Perspectives of the Information Technology”, 6520.

  95. 95.

    Ramabulana, Church Mafia, 99.

  96. 96.

    Ibid., 99.

  97. 97.

    Ibid., 99.

  98. 98.

    Pentecostal scholars in southern Africa have written on the subject of “miracle money”. Kudzai Biri & Lovemore Togarasei. “But the One who Prophesies, Builds the Church”, Ezra Chitando, Masiiwa Ragies Gunda & Joachim Kügler (eds.), Prophets, profits and the Bible in Zimbabwe: Festschrift for Aynos Masotcha Moyo, vol. 12 (Bamberg: University of Bamberg Press, 2014), p. 79; cf. Ezra Chitando & Kudzai Biri. “Walter Magaya’s Prophetic Healing and Deliverance (PHD) Ministries and Pentecostalism in Zimbabwe: a preliminary study with particular reference to ecumenism.” Studia Historiae Ecclesiasticae 42, no. 2 (2016): 72–85; cf. Tabona Shoko & Agness Chiwara. “The prophetic figure in Zimbabwean religion”, Ezra Chitando, Masiiwa Ragies Gunda & Joachim Kügler (eds.), Prophets, profits and the Bible in Zimbabwe: Festschrift for Aynos Masotcha Moyo, vol. 12 (Bamberg: University of Bamberg Press, 2014), pp. 217–231; cf. Christian Tsekpoe. “Contemporary prophetic and deliverance ministry challenges in Africa.” Transformation 36, no. 4 (2019): 280–291.

  99. 99.

    Ramabulana, Church Mafia, 101.

  100. 100.

    Ibid., 101.

  101. 101.

    Ibid., 101.

  102. 102.

    Statistics South Africa, “Youth graduate unemployment rate increases in Q1: 2019” [accessed 15 May 2019] http://www.statssa.gov.za/?p=12121.

  103. 103.

    Ramabulana, Church Mafia, 101.

  104. 104.

    Damaris, Parsitau. “Praying for Husbands! Single Women Negotiating Faith and Patriarchy in Contemporary Kenya.” The Palgrave Handbook of African Social Ethics (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020), pp. 69–91.

  105. 105.

    Ramabulana, Church Mafia, 103.

  106. 106.

    Ibid., 129.

  107. 107.

    Nyasatimes, “Malawi: Bushiri’s Election Prophecies Dominates Social Media, Stirs Controversy” [accessed 5 February 2020] https://allafrica.com/stories/202002050850.html.

  108. 108.

    Ramabulana, Church Mafia, 35.

  109. 109.

    Muti is a name given to a traditional medicine normally given by the traditional doctor upon consultation.

  110. 110.

    Ramabulana, Church Mafia, 57.

  111. 111.

    Ibid., 103.

  112. 112.

    Ibid., 109.

  113. 113.

    Ibid., 139.

  114. 114.

    The text has been taken from the New International Version.

  115. 115.

    David Goodenough, Cult Awareness: A Hot Issue (New York: Enslow Pub Inc., 2000), p. 51.

  116. 116.

    Joyce Lowinson (ed.), Substance abuse: A comprehensive textbook (Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2005), p. 502.

  117. 117.

    Ibrahim Jimoh Kayode. “Secret cult and cultism: antidote to the hydra-headed monster in Nigeria’s tertiary institutions.” Ilorin Journal of Arts and Social Sciences: IJASS: A Publication of the School of Arts and Social Sciences, Kwara State College of Education, Ilorin 4, no. 1 (2006): 190.

  118. 118.

    Ramabulana, Church Mafia, 157–161.

  119. 119.

    Egbochuku, “Secret cult activities”, 20.

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  1. University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa

    Mookgo Solomon Kgatle

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Kgatle, M.S. (2021). The Practice of Secret Cult by Some NPC Prophets in South Africa. In: Pentecostalism and Cultism in South Africa. Christianity and Renewal - Interdisciplinary Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-69724-2_4

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