spirit and healing in africa - University of the Free State

discovering new ways to relate to oneself, to the surrounding community, to other social
relationships, to nature and to God.
Mwaura’s intention is to evaluate the meaning of healing rituals as psychological, social and
spiritual events. Acknowledging the power of manipulation and the mechanisms of
psychological factors, Mwaura concludes that the healing ritual is powerful because of its
potential to create a new or an idealized reality. The experience of healing depends on the
receptive approach of the pastoral client. Within this process, the ritual is crucial for it generates
the circumstances where the pastoral client opens up for another, better outlook on reality. And
when the pastoral client experiences the long awaited liberation, this experience is elevated to a
transcendental level (Mwaura 2006:80).
5.4 POWER
When considering the church-based healing discourse, one cannot but conclude that in the
African ecclesiological context, religion, healing and power are bound together in such a way
that each unit would lose meaning if detached from the other two. Christian religion, the quest
for wholeness and the concept of power seem to be the rudiments of the church-based healing
discourse. In his article about the New Testament theme of God’s power and its relevance to the
African context, Gräbe (2002:225f) explains that Pentecostal believers understand God’s
presence as something that is tangibly felt and may have a transformative effect on the lives of
those believers who are touched by this divine power. Accordingly, African settings involve
worldviews that are receptive to experiencing God’s power in concrete and direct ways. Gräbe
perceives the Pentecostal focus on divine power to be matching with the continuous African
desire for strength and vital force. Allen Anderson (1991:58) elaborates on the African notion of
life force, showing that all African behavior is centered on the purpose of acquiring life and
strength and vital force in order to cope with life’s uncertainties, of which ancestors and demonspirits
constitute a major threat. Consequently, one could state that the concept of power
determines the character of the church-based healing discourse in the African context: healing
and well-being are understood as the gaining or maintaining of life-giving power, while religion
is seen as the function of healing and well-being. In other words, essentially everything in the
church based-healing discourse is focused on, and being nurtured by the concept of power.
Power in the form of vitality, a divine force, an existential need, an agency for an individual
breakthrough or social transformation, protection — the ecclesiological ideas and rituals
pertaining the acquisition of healing and well-being are all permeated with notions of power.
This assertion will be further substantiated in the following paragraphs. However, it must also be
emphasized here that the identification of the concept of power as an essential constituent of the
142