Survey and theological analysis of the spiritual and Pentecostal-evangelical churches in Freetown, Sierra Leone, with special emphasis on the influences of the indigenous religious pneumatology

Abstract

Experiencing and obtaining Spiritual power is the primary goal of indigenous religious activity. The failure of evangelical missionaries to recognise and make use of this primal praeparatio evangelica, led to the development of an educated and elitist Church in Freetown from 1815 onwards. Krio Christianity failed to make accommodation for the African spiritual heritage and thus produced a very alien and exclusive form of African Christianity. The first form of Christianity to take root in Freetown was that carried across the Atlantic by the Nova Scotians in 1792. Their Christianity, born in the Great Evangelical Awakening of the seventeenth century, developed independent of White control. Enthusiasm, emotion and pneumatological manifestations were major features of their worship. Nova Scotian Christianity eventually lost its revivalistic fervour and was eventually taken over by Krio Christianity and British missionary control. Krio Christianity failed, however, to meet the Krios' own existential needs for spiritual power. Problem -solving power was sought along indigenous lines. This produced in Krio Christianity a religious dualism and an identity crises. in 1947, the Nigerian Church of the Lord (Aladura) arrived in Freetown. The "Adejobis" challenged the Krio Christian community, but by and large, having taken the evangelical Christianity of the Victorian era as their own traditional religion, they did not receive it. The Spiritual churches appealed more to the non -Krio residents of the city, and particularly to the illiterate. The style of Christianity introduced was highly indigenised. In many aspects it appeared as the indigenous pneumatology expressed in Christian forms and terms. Its main attractions lay in the areas of healing, problem- solving, and fortune -telling revelations. The Pentecostal- evangelical movement arrived in Freetown as early as 1905. The first Pentecostal church was planted among the Km in the early 1920s. After World War 2 Pentecostal- evangelical churches were begun by AOG missionaries among the Temne and Limba. However, it was not until Pentecostal -evangelicalism took root in Krio society in the late 60s and 70s with the formation of the "English- speaking Church ", Bethel Temple, that general growth on a large scale began to take place in Freetown. This Krio Pentecostal - evangelical church became the model church for other Freetown Pentecostal -evangelicals.

In the present expansion of Pentecostal -evangelicalism in Freetown - now a non -Krio movement in which the Limba are front -runners - an increasingly indigenised form of pneumatic Christianity is developing. The interaction between the evangelical Gospel and the indigenous pneumatology is producing a dynamic church that appeals to the whole spectrum of Freetown society, rich and poor, literate and illiterate, Krio and Provincials. It is apparent that as the evangelical churches need the indigenous pneumatology to enliven, revive and make relevant their worship, the indigenous pneumatology itself needs Apostolic doctrine and evangelical teaching to transform its chaotic unruly elements into powerful forces for good and the Gospel. From a positive and balanced interaction, the light of Christ and His Cross shines into the shadowy, darker side of the indigenous spirituality's pneumatic nature and subjects its turbulent powers to the yoke of Christ and then redirects them to the benefit and blessing of society. It is at this point that Krio Christianity with its heritage of evangelical teaching on the nature and character of God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit, have a significant part to play in bringing its own deep insights of a theologia crucis to bear on the popular theologia pneumatica. Krio Christianity with its unique history, African roots and evangelical heritage is well placed for making a stabilising and salutary contribution towards the New Testament, Apostolic development of the present dynamic Sierra Leonean Church.