BENJAMIN KIRBY, JOSIAH TARU AND TINASHE CHIMBIDZIKAI SINCE the emergence of COVID-19, a number of media commentators and academics have reflected on the “spiritualisation” of the pandemic among responses in different African settings. There’s been particular interest in the influence of prominent Pentecostal pastors on public health messaging. Some have expressed concern about the possible consequences of their invocations of spiritual warfare. We’ve examined how idioms of (spiritual) warfare have been deployed in response to the coronavirus pandemic and wish to bring a broader perspective to recent debates about these dynamics. We consider examples from Tanzania and Zimbabwe, drawing on…

HASSAN JUMA NDZOVU, Senior Lecturer of Religious Studies, Moi University RAMADAN is a period during which Muslims across the world are deeply immersed in worship and are particularly attuned to exhortations by religious scholars. In Kenya, Islamic public sermonising has traditionally been the domain of male clerics. However, according to my recent study, there is an emerging clique of female preachers engaging in this form of public participation through Muslim radio stations. What explains this development? First, due to media liberalisation in the 1990s, numerous local FM radio stations were allowed to operate. These include those inclined to religious content.…

STAFF REPORTER There was calm before the proverbial storm. Three months ago, when what is thought to be Africa’s first Satanic Church opened its doors, it was met with relative calm that bordered on no reaction at all.  However, three months after the South African daily newspaper The Citizen, broke news and the South African Satanic Church church opened its doors, South Africans have woken up, at least on Twitter, where a Twar of biblical proportions erupted. Co-founders Adri Norton and Riaan Swiegelaar told Independent Online (IOL) that they are not devil worshippers and that, despite what many believe, the…

UNTIL the end of apartheid in 1994, only civil marriages concluded under the Marriage Act were legally recognised in South Africa. Post 1994, the new Constitution enabled the recognition of different forms of marriages, including traditional and religious marriages. WAHEED AMIEN But these rights haven’t been translated into law for all marriages. To date, apart from civil marriages, only customary marriages and same-sex unions are legally recognised. Laws have not been passed to recognise religious marriages as legally valid. There was some hope that progress had been made in 2010 when the Muslim Marriages Bill was approved by Cabinet. But…