spirit and healing in africa - University of the Free State

deficiencies in medical healthcare prevailed (Anderson 2002:526). But from a socio-cultural
perspective churches also seem to offer something that hospitals lack: the majority of believers
in Southern Africa experience a direct relation between healing and religion, suggesting that
overcoming illness is not only a physical, but also a spiritual matter. In the African context,
healing is a function of religion, and spirituality and healing belong together (Asamoah-Gyadu
2005:234).
So, church-based healing in the African context is about spiritual as well as physical deficiencies
that need to be addressed by the faith community. The frame of reference is that the believer is
facing spiritual enemies (evil spirits, ancestors, demons) who generate the spiritual, mental, or
physical complaints. The only way to overcome the suppressing power of these spiritual enemies
is by countering them in the powerful name of Jesus Christ. Most churches have elaborate
healing rituals and counseling sessions accompanying the deliverance event, but the main
business of the healing ministry is the act of exorcism. Exorcism can be seen as the central
feature of church-based healing (Jenkins 2006:103-107, 111-113; Kalu 2008:263).
Exorcism as a spiritual intervention is biblically rooted, and is therefore usually perceived as a
biblical instruction for the church. The faith community has been empowered to overcome
demonic forces and to liberate people from their bondages in the name of Jesus. Such a spiritual
intervention is associated with Jesus’ own ministry: Luke 4:18f is often quoted as providing the
foundation of the deliverance ministry of a particular church. In Luke 4, two trains of thought
about release from oppression are present, namely deliverance in the charismatic sense, and
liberation as understood by social activists (Jenkins 2006:105). Both deliverance from spiritual
forces and liberation with a political notion are implied when the faith community seeks healing,
simply because it is impossible to separate physical, mental and spiritual healing. The reality of a
person’s daily life, in all its tangibility, is the starting point of exorcism. It is about the human
being who needs to be released from anything that keeps him or her away from his or her
destination.
Exorcism is based on faith in God, who intervenes very directly in people’s everyday life. God
participates in a person’s life, and the presence of God becomes tangible in the blessings He
bestows upon believers: a spouse, a job, the survival of a road accident, children and material
matters such as finances, a bike or a car. Just as concrete as God’s involvement in human life is
the involvement of the devil, whose objective is to undermine and ruin the believer’s life in
many different ways. The act of exorcism is the demonstration of the battle between the devil
and God who intervenes on behalf of his people, and who is able to overcome the evil that
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