AASR Bulletin 35 - The African Association for the Study of Religions

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AASR Bulletin 35 (November 2011)
www.a-asr.org
Walls, Andrew F., 2011, ‘Towards a Theology of Migration’, in Ludwig & Asamoah-Gyadu 2011:
407-418
Witte, Marleen, 2011, ‘Business of the Spirit: Ghanaian Broadcast Media and the Commercial Exploitation
of Pentecostalism’, in Journal of African Media Studies 3, 2: 189-205
[This article takes a critical look at Ghana’s rapidly evolving broadcasting scene and in particular
at the expansion and popularity of religious broadcasting. Sketching the developments of
the Ghanaian media landscape, it analyses the changing politics of representing religion in this
field. The much-celebrated processes of media deregulation and democratization, and the new
opportunities for ownership, production, and participation they entail, have led to a dominance
of Pentecostalism in the public sphere. While this development has been analysed from the
perspective of churches and pastors, this article explores the intertwinement of commercial
media and Pentecostalism from the perspective of a number of private media owners and producers
in Accra. Whether these media entrepreneurs are themselves Pentecostal or not, they
all have to deal with, and commercially exploit, the power and attraction of Pentecostalism.
Their experience that commercial success is hardly possible without Pentecostalism makes
clear that the influence of Pentecostalism in the Ghanaian public sphere reaches way beyond
media-active pastors and born-again media practitioners, and invites us to rethink the relationship
between media, business and religion.]
Witte, Marleen, 2011, ‘Of Corpses, Clay, and Photographs: Body Imagery and Changing Technologies
of Remembrance in Asante Funeral Culture’, in Jindra & Noret 2011c: 177-206
Woldemikael, Tekle, & Mesghina G. Medhin 2011, ‘An Exploration into the Religious Life of Eritrean
Immigrants in the United States of America’, in Ludwig & Asamoah-Gyadu 2011: 137-
152
Wood, Felicity, 2008, ‘The Occult, the Erotic and Entrepreneurship: An Analysis of Oral Accounts
of ukuthwala, Wealth-giving Magic, Sold by the Medicine Man Khotso Sethuntsa’, in Alternation:
Interdisciplinary Journal for the Study of the Arts and Humanities in Southern Africa
15, 1; full text at: http://alternation.ukzn.ac.za/docs/15.1/16%20Wood.pdf
[This study examines the way in which the economic, the erotic and the supernatural are
brought together in the practice of ukuthwala, the Xhosa term for a dangerous, powerful procedure
for long-term wealth, widely believed to involve the ownership of a wealth-giving being,
the mamlambo, which bestows wealth upon its owner. However, the mamlambo’s owner
is required to sustain the ukuthwala pact with sacrifices that come at a great personal and moral
cost. The word mamlambo derives from the Xhosa for river, mlambo. Because u-Ma-
Mlambo, her full name in Xhosa, resides in deep water, she is known as ‘the mother of the
river’. The mamlambo is a shape-changer, who is most often envisaged as a snake, a mermaid
or a seductive woman. This study examines the genesis of the mamlambo, and discusses why
the practice of ukuthwala has become widespread in southern Africa.]
Wyk, Ilana van, 2011, 'Believing Practically and Trusting Socially in Africa: The Contrary Case of
the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God in Durban, South Africa', in Englund 2011: 189-
203
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