The Nigerian State had witnessed tremendous socio-economic crises and political upheavals particularly in the 1980s and 1990s. This era of “oil doom” and successive military regimes often sparked off popular discontent and organized protests at both private and public levels. The perceived dismal failure on the part of successive civilian and military governments during the period led to the belief in some segments of the civil society that personal and collective problems can then only be resolved religiously. Thus, religious communities have provided significant channels for such expressions of frustration as well as an avenue where claims as an alternative source of problem-resolution are legitimised. Interestingly, these somewhat “dark hours” when the corporate existence of the nation was being threatened to its very foundation, a phase which witnessed an abysmal collapse of its social, economic and political institutions coincided or existed contemporaneously with an unprecedented resurgence and rapid proliferation of new religious movements, particularly new Christian movements with pentecostal and charismatic persuasion. Such a constellation leaves us as scholars pondering over the interconnectedness between religion and other aspects of the social structure. How can we account for this religious development at a time when Nigeria is confronted with immense socio-economic and political crises, an era characterized by unemployment, mass retrenchments and closure of industries, unending industrial actions by labour unions and pro-democracy groups, incessant demonstrations and closure of citadels of higher learning, organized clampdown and incarceration of political opponents and critics by the power of the day, a period of heightened armed robbery and insecurity of lives and properties. What this scenario portends is the fact that religion and economy or politics are not mutually exclusive. As integral aspects of culture, religion impacts on the economy, politics, society and it is in turn influenced and shaped by them. In other words, there exists a dialectical and interactive relationship between various ingredients of the social structure. The fact that the nature and scope of these influences could be either positive or detrimental to the corporate existence of a pluri-confessional society such as Nigeria is more a matter of conjecture.
Be that as it may, the religious geography of Nigeria assumed a more complex and diversified posture with a sudden pentecostalisation and charismatisation of the Christian religious landscape. This development marked a significant turning point in the history of Christianity in Nigeria. Their physical visibility, demographic stature and social mobility have been further enhanced by their conscious appropriation of new media technologies in the transmission and dissemination of their religious ideologies and messages. Their relative success and attraction of a huge clientele is not unconnected with how and to what extent they have successfully tuned and packaged their religious messages with hindsight of indigenous religious cosmologies and sensibilities. Their self-positioning, increasing public role and social relevance carve them out as figments of African modernity that both negotiate and challenge other modernities. A universally accepted definition of modernity has remained highly elusive and contested in academic discourse just, as there is equally no agreement about when modernity or the modern world began. It was Giddens’ The Consequences of Modernity (1990) that sparked off much of recent debate on the relation of modernity to globalization and globality. His main thesis suggesting globalization as a consequence of modernity has attracted huge criticism.[1] The definition of modernity as identical with the sociocultural changes experienced by the advanced economies of the West has also been faulted as inadequate. Linda Woodhead (2002: 4) suggests that it is more helpful to think of modernity in terms of a number of different processes which may operate together or in some combination in different parts of the world and at different times. Religious repertoires in sub-Saharan Africa establish continuities with the past as well as position themselves as part of the processes of African modernity. African Pentecostalism represents a means of engaging modernity just as it portrays a way of negotiating it.[2] Peter Berger aptly demonstrates an inherent crisis of modernity that “while modernization brings promises and tangible benefits it also produces tensions and discomforts both institutionally and psychologically”.[3]
The pentecostalisation and charismatisation of African Christianity has benefited from scholarly scrutiny and analyses as works of scholars such as Kalu (2000), Poewe (1994), Anderson (1991, 1992, 1993, 2001, 2004), Gifford (1991, 1992, 1998, 2004), Ojo (1988a, 1988b), Maxwell (1998), Meyer (1998, 1999), Adogame (1994) and Asamoah-Gyadu (2005), to mention a few, are vivid examples. One main thrust of African pentecostal religiosity is the preponderance of deliverance and spiritual warfare rituals in their cosmological tradition. The paper uses the example of the Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries (MFM), a church founded in Lagos by Daniel Olukoya in the 1980s. The MFM is also renowned for the construction of a new expansive sacred space named, Prayer City, now representing the international ritual headquarters of the church. This paper examines the belief in, and appropriation of, spiritual warfare and deliverance rituals, locating them within indigenous religious worldview. It shows how the MFM through its preoccupation with the epistemology of demons and the extensive appropriation of warfare rhetoric such as “warfare prayers”, “battle cry”, “bullets of fire”, “spiritual terrorists”, “deliverance by fire”, “sword of deliverance”, “prayer warriors”, has carved out a niche for itself in African Pentecostal discourse.
The MFM was one of the several new religious movements, Pentecostal/ Charismatic type, that emerged in Nigeria in the 1980s. Dr. Daniel Kolawole Olukoya is the founder and General Overseer of MFM (Worldwide) and The Battle Cry Christian Ministries (Worldwide).[4] He holds a first class honours degree in Microbiology from the University of Lagos, Nigeria and a PhD in Molecular Genetics from the University of Reading, United Kingdom. The founder has been described as “a prophet, evangelist, teacher and preacher of the word”; as “a researcher who has over 70 scientific publications to his credit…and over 70 Christian publications”[5]. The official website of the church displays a comprehensive list of religious literature authored by Olukoya, but more interestingly, provide links to his scientific publications.[6] A common feature that characterizes the leadership of several new Pentecostal/charismatic type churches is the social background of the founder/leader. Some of the foremost movements of this nature have been founded or led by former University professors and scientists who switched secular for religious vocations. A few examples are Enoch Adeboye of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, William Kumuyi of the Deeper Life Bible Church, David Oyedepo of the Winners Chapel.
The MFM has experienced significant demographic spread especially in the last two decades. From its international headquarters located at Onike-Yaba, a suburb of Lagos, the church oversees its branches located within and outside Nigeria geo-cultural milieu. The MFM lay claim to over 300 branches scattered around Nigeria, a context which has been divided into regions for administrative exigency. The church has expanded beyond Nigeria with several dozens of branches located in other African countries such as Ghana, Namibia, Cameroun, Benin Republic, Sierra Leone, Togo, Gambia, Senegal, Cape Verde, South Africa, Malawi, Cote d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso and Liberia. The MFM has transcended continental boundaries with branches in Europe, North America and Asia.[7] A huge percentage of branches outside Africa are located in the United States, the United Kingdom and Ireland.
As the name self-evidently suggests, MFM represents a typical example of a neo-pentecostal movement that has its epistemological thrust and doctrinal emphasis on deliverance, holiness, miracle and healing.[8] They emphasize that theirs is a ministry specialized in delivering people from the manifold evil forces that thwart well-being and success. It could perhaps be more appropriately categorized under the rubric of the “security gospel” rather than the “prosperity gospel” movement.[9] The fact that Olukoya’s writings do not target or allude to political questions and policy issues foregrounds MFM’s preoccupation with deliverance and healing ritualism. MFM’s self-recognition as “a full gospel ministry devoted to the revival of apostolic signs, Holy Ghost fireworks and the unlimited power of God to deliver to the uttermost…absolute holiness within and without, as the greatest spiritual insecticide, and a condition for heaven is taught openly. MFM is a do-it-yourself gospel ministry where your hands are trained to wage war and your fingers to fight…The vision to bring back apostolic signs involves a more precise and aggressive mode of prayer…”, best eulogizes the tendency of engaging rituals as a “military strategy” in which “an army of aggressive prayer warriors are being prepared in this end time”. This corporate affirmation of belief summarizes why, how and to what extent the rhetoric of spiritual warfare pervade their ritual cosmology. Daniel Olukoya affirms,
As God’s children, we are supposed to do all our things militantly. We read the Bible militantly, speak militantly, evangelize militantly and pray militantly because God is not a civilian but a soldier…The Lord Himself is a man of war. So when you pray, you are employing a very powerful military strategy…Militant prayer must have power and fire in it.[10]
Existing church literature and sermon genres is replete with an extensive appropriation of warfare rhetoric such as “warfare prayers”, “battle cry”, “bullets of fire”, “spiritual terrorists”, “deliverance by fire”, “sword of deliverance”, “prayer warriors”, “sword of deliverance”, “divine revolution”, military strategy, militant prayers etc. Such phrases are suggestive of how their belief structure is shaped but also how this impacts on their ritual system. This can be clearly exemplified within the context of their ritual space, written texts, and oral prayer genres and in the various prayer ritual strategies.
The Prayer City located on the outskirts of Lagos, along the Lagos-Ibadan motorway, in South-west Nigeria represents the largest and perhaps most significant sacred space of the MFM worldwide. The huge expanse of land that has come to represent the international ritual headquarters and pilgrimage centre has camping facilities and an auditorium claimed to play host to over 100,000 congregants at a single meeting. Inscribed on an imposing billboard at the major entrance to the camp and, mounted conspicuously in a way that captures the glance of passersby and motorists, is a self-revealing advertorial “Prayer City – Where Fervent Prayers Goes on 24 Hours Daily”. This encased ritual space is thus the venue for crusades, open night vigils, church conferences, festivals and other wide ranging rituals that draw the patronage of members and non-members alike. The phenomenon of religious camp grounds is a growing feature that has continued to paint the Nigerian religious landscape particularly from the 1990s. Most remarkable in this reconstruction of space is the rapid proliferation of religious camps on the over 100 kilometres stretch of land between Lagos and Ibadan cities. The ecological, social, economic and religious import of this scramble and resacralization of space needs to be further investigated.
One recurring feature in most of the religious traditions in human history is the phenomena of prayer, a term which has come to be used generally and loosely to designate a variety of human acts, primarily speech acts, a pattern of words, images and behaviour relating and linked to religious praxis. Such acts are commonly understood as forms of human communication with incorporeal and superhuman entities. Prayer is widespread, and it is characterized by commonality as well as diversity in its meaning, understanding and appropriation. Since prayer is understood as inter-communication between the human and superhuman domains, the text of this communication will refer to the specific oral and written words involved in this process. Thus, prayer can be considered as a text, an action and instrument in MFM religious cosmology. Oral and written text, words, speech and non-speech acts constitute one of the most evident prayer performances. A consideration of prayer as action and instrument includes not only the utterance of words but the performance elements of the speech acts itself. Language and other forms of human action not only say things, they also do things. Thus, a prayer act necessarily requires the active engagement of elements in order to become effective and empowered. Such elements may include certain body postures and genuflections, ritual actions and the use of concrete objects, designated sacred spaces and time, as well as specified moods, attitudes or intentions.
In the MFM, prayer is not only words recited or sung, but action enacted as well. Since most or all of their rituals are assumed to have an efficacious aspect, prayers and offerings not only say things, they are supposed to do things. Through the performative force of ritual speech and action, benevolent forces are attracted, while malevolent forces are repelled. Oral prayer texts are more conspicuously used in the MFM ritual world. Oral prayer texts are spontaneous, free, impromptu and improvised in character. A characteristic of MFM rituals is the rendition of extemporaneous prayers with prodigious enthusiasm and avidity, sometimes with such verbosity as if the supersensible entities are being forced to grant their petitions and requests. The import and performative power of prayer and members’ ritual attitude suggests that MFM members do not rely on a faith that is abstract and recondite. Members pay immense attention to the techniques of prayer because it is regarded as an instrument or mechanism of spiritual power.
Two plains of spiritual warfare – horizontal and vertical axis, are clearly marked out for the encounter (cf. Meer 2001). Members are charged to enact intensive prayer rituals as a potent tool for deliverance from this “spiritual warfare zone” and “Satan’s strongholds”. The discourse on spiritual warfare alluded to here is therefore an integral aspect of MFM theology of spiritual forces. Such features as the belief in spiritual forces demonstrate how prayer texts become a source and reservoir of MFM theology. In a sermon titled “Prayer as a Military Strategy”, the Overseer Olukoya highlighted “militant prayer points” which he claimed members “must pray fervently, effectually, and with spiritual violence to enable them avail for them”.[11] A few stanzas will suffice here to illustrate this kind of invocatory ritual:
I paralyze every evil hand pointing at my blessing, in the name of Jesus.
I withdraw every satanic instruction targeted against me…
Every evil river dry up, every evil shrine working against me, be roasted…
I refuse to be subdued by the forces of darkness…
I nullify every night arrow fired against me …
Devil, you are a liar, you cannot capture my destiny…
I break every agreement made between my parents and satan on my behalf…
I break every covenant formed between my enemies against me…
Every stronghold of wickedness fashioned against me, let the fire of God burn them to ashes…
Every ritual and sacrifice working against me, be neutralized…
Every evil bird delegated against me, fall down to the ground and die…
I refuse to dwell in the building constructed for me by my enemies…
I paralyze every spirit of wastage, I shall not borrow…
I command confusion and disagreement between my hardened enemies…
The aggressiveness and literal militancy with which prayer rituals are enacted and targeted against enemies suggests a somewhat total defiance to the biblical injunction that Christians should love and pray for their enemies (Matt. 5: 44f). However, to this critique, Olukoya would respond that the target of the verbal, spiritual war is the Devil (Satan) and not human beings, although Satan could also manifest through humans themselves. Thus, there is considerable use of militaristic language and imagery in the battle against Satan and his troops.[12] MFM’s extensive prayer repertoire indicate the import of invoking God, the name of Jesus, Holy Ghost, and angels in order to demolish and claim victory over Satan and its cohort. Such phrases as, ‘Fire of God’, ‘the blood of Jesus’, ‘Holy Ghost Fire’, and ‘Angels of God’ therefore assume spiritual weaponry.
The Do-It-Yourself ritual strategy of the MFM has implications for the clergy and laity. It serves as a source of spiritual empowerment to the laity in the acquisition and retention of spiritual power, and plays down on the interlocutory role of the clergy as the bridge between members and the spiritual entities. As Ayegboyin (2005) aptly remarks,
Olukoya has been able to pull a large crowd of worshippers because of his power in effective prayers and spiritual warfare. He has inculcated in the minds of the worshippers that there is a demon or two to fight in every human problem on earth. To this end, he has de-emphasized the dependence on pastors by worshippers in preference for a “do-it-yourself-prayer sessions.
While this tendency does not drastically diminish the role and place of the clergy, the process and ministry of personal deliverance which is emphasized by the church becomes complementary. The import of personal deliverance strategies from malevolent forces was expressed as follows:
When you understand self deliverance, you will keep yourself from being demonized; you will keep yourself healthy, physically and spiritually and be free from demonic pollution. Everyday, you will enjoy divine health and will not be spending your money on drugs and hospital bills. Sometimes, there may be no minister who is anointed and knowledgeable about deliverance to help you. Sometimes, you can be heavily attacked in your dream and the next service is about four days away. What do you do? You should never allow evil spirits to reside in your life. If you lack adequate time to do a self-deliverance in the mornings, after your quiet time, then, when you are having your bath, you could do it…Our environment is such that there are many evil spirits moving around and if you are not regularly cleaning your house, they may lodge there; your level of education not withstanding…[13]
No situation or condition is given off to chance and contingency. Physical and spiritual problems require spiritual panacea which could be obtained through fervent prayers to the supramundane entities. They believe that all prayers are answered by these benevolent forces. Unanswered prayers are usually attributed to a number of impediments such as sin, praying without the pre-requisite faith, or if the request is not right and the subject of the prayer will not be totally favourable to the petitioner, or still if the petitioner has committed a grievous offence for which he/she has not shown repentance or an offence which will require more elaborate prayer rituals.
The MFM prescribes eight different stages in the enactment of personal/self deliverance rituals and members are enjoined to practice this ritual in the privacy of their homes.[14] The first two steps comprise praise worship and loud confession of scriptures promising deliverance (2 Tim. 4:18). The next two steps concerns the breaking of covenants and curses, and the binding of spirits associated with those covenants. The fifth and sixth stages mark a prelude to the expulsion stage or the exorcising of the spirits. Hands are to be placed on different parts of the body and rendering “Holy Ghost fire, burn from the top of my head to the sole of my feet, in the name of Jesus”. The swaying and staggering which characterizes this state symbolize for members the entrance of the Holy Spirit. The next two stages signify the climax of the self-deliverance ritual when exorcism takes place. At this stage, the individual is expected to request the in-dwelling malevolent spirits to be ejected “in the name of Jesus Christ, in the power of the Holy Ghost”.
This inherent structure of the personal deliverance strategy is akin to the rite of exorcism in indigenous religious context. I would argue that indigenous epistemology makes sense in MFM’s ritual sensibilities. There is an observable resilience in belief in the reality of, and ritual attitude towards the supra-sensible powers. The belief in the reality of benevolent and malevolent spiritual forces; the ritual attitude towards them are features of continuity with the indigenous religious worldview. Basically, members of MFM share a similar mentality in their belief tradition, employing an indigenous hermeneutic of spiritual power but casting it within new conceptual frames of reference. Members believe that the physical world is populated by a multiplicity of incorporeal entities. However, a remarkable change lies in the constitution of this spiritual repertoire, as well as the agency and strategies through which ritual enactments are authenticated. MFM members are not strangers to the reality of enemies, the devil, witches, wizards, demons to which Olukoya alluded in his prayers. In fact, these forces are believed to be legion. The manifold existential problems such as of joblessness, illness, barrenness, unstable marital relationships, lack of accommodation are largely situated along the contours of ‘explanation, prediction and control’ (Horton 1975, 1993). It is therefore out of these existential predicaments that members seek deliverance in the ensuing spiritual warfare. The bedrock of their belief system is the pre-eminence of benevolent powers - God, Jesus Christ, Holy Spirit and the angels. The preponderance of prayer rituals among MFM members is thus a way out of this spiritual quagmire.
The functions of the MFM organ “C.A.R.E[15] Ministry” which serves as a point of contact to help members and families may be likened, in some sense, to the divinatory system in indigenous cosmology. Three action points on which the C.A.R.E revolves around are Consultation (opportunity to talk through to the core of the problem), Assessment (identification of the problem and the development of a plan of action to deal with it) and Referrals (if necessary, a capable and concerned care-giver to be recommended). These points of action can be likened to what Horton described as “explanation, prediction and control” in African ontology where the diviner and his/her client traverses three successive stages of symptoms, diagnosis, and then climaxing in cure, control or prevention.
Olukoya likes to identify the main problems in people’s lives and then proceed to analyzing their causes, before prescribing appropriate remedies and projecting expected results.
‘In ways similar to that of the traditional diviner or babalawo, modern scientist Dr. Olukoya, speaking with the authority of well-honed scientific knowledge as well as spiritual insight, diagnoses and prescribes the causes of suffering, offering enough flexibility for people to draw on their “knowledges” and construct their own courses of action.[16]
As Hackett aptly argues, Olukoya’s theories of affliction and healing are predicated on traditional systems of thought and practice, as well as earlier Christian initiatives to negotiate new boundaries and identities. One largely pitches tent with her conclusion that the demonological strain in African Pentecostal Christianity is sustained both by local understandings of human misfortune and spiritual agency but also less (emphasis mine) through access to foreign religious literature. Our explication of MFM’s demonology and deliverance rhetoric in this paper therefore foregrounds the prevalence and continuity of local epistemology of spiritual constitution and agency in MFM’s Christian ritual cosmology and accounts for its popularity and swelling clientele particularly within Nigeria religious milieu.
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Anderson, Allan, Bazalwane: African Pentecostalism in South Africa. Pretoria: University of South Africa, 1992.
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Gifford, Paul, ‘The Complex Provenance of some Elements of African Pentecostal Theology’, in A. Corten and R. Marshall-Fratani (eds.) Between Babel and Pentecost: Transnational Pentecostalism in Africa and Latin America, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001, pp. 62-79.
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Rosalind Hackett, ‘“Is Satan Local or Global”? Reflections on a Nigerian Deliverance Movement’, in Afe Adogame (ed.), Pentecostalism and Globalization, Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press (forthcoming)
Horton, Robin, Patterns of Thought in Africa and the West: Essays on Magic, Religion and Science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993.
Horton, Robin, ‘On the Rationality of Conversion’. I&II, Africa 45, 3, 1975, pp. 219-235 and 45, 4, 1975, pp. 373-399.
Hunt, Stephen, ‘Deliverance: The Evolution of a Doctrine’, Themelios 21, 1, 1995, pp. 10-13.
Hunt, Stephen, ‘Managing the Demonic: Some Aspects of the Neo-Pentecostal Deliverance Ministry’, Journal of Contemporary Religion 13, 2, 1998, pp. 215-230.
Kalu, Ogbu U., ‘Pentecostal and Charismatic Reshaping of the African Religious Landscape in the 1990s’, in Mission Studies, 20, 2003, 1-39.
Kalu, Ogbu U., ‘Preserving a Worldview: Pentecostalism in the African Maps of the Universe’, in PNEUMA: The Journal of the Society for Pentecostal Studies, 24, 2, Fall 2002, pp. 110-137.
Kalu, Ogbu U., Power, Poverty and Prayer: The Challenges of Poverty and Pluralism in African Christianity, 1960-1996. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2000.
Kalu, Ogbu U., ‘The Third Response: Pentecostalism and the Reconstruction of Christian Experience in Africa, 1970-1995’, Journal of African Christian Thought, 1, 2, 1998, pp. 3-16.
Maxwell, David, ‘'Delivered from the Spirit of Poverty?' Pentecostalism, Prosperity and Modernity in Zimbabwe’, Journal of Religion in Africa, 28, 3, 1998, pp. 350-373.
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[1] See for instance Roland Robertson, Globalization: Social Theory and Global Culture, London: Sage, 1992; and Roland Robertson, “Globalization Theory 2000+: Major Problematics”. In George Ritzer and Barry Smart, (ed.) Handbook of Social Theory, London: Sage, 2001. pp. 458-471.
[2] “Contesting the Ambivalences of Modernity in a Global Context: The Redeemed Christian Church of God, North America” in Studies in World Christianity, 10, 1, 2004a: 36f.
[3] Peter L. Berger, “From the Crisis of Religion to the Crisis of Secularity”, in Mary Douglas and Steven Tipton, (ed.) Religion and America: Spiritual Life in a Secular Age, Boston: Beacon Press, 1983, p. 15.
[4] The Battle Cry Ministries is the marketing arm of the MFM. See http://mfm-ireland.org/battle_cry.php
[5] The pre-title of this paper “Dealing with Local Satanic Technology” is actually a title of one of the over 70 books authored by Olukoya.
[6] See list of Christian publications at: http://www.mountain-of-fire.com/Publications.htm and his scientific publications at: http://www.mountain-of-fire.com/About%20DKO.htm
[7] See list of MFM branches at: http://www.mountain-of-fire.com/branches.htm . Over 500 MFM branches are estimated worldwide.
[8] See MFM’s Statement of Belief at: http://www.mountain-of-fire.com/toppage1.htm and http://www.mfm-uk.org.uk/MFM/statement.html
[9] Rosalind Hackett, ‘“Is Satan Local or Global”? Reflections on a Nigerian Deliverance Movement’, in Afe Adogame (ed.), Pentecostalism and Globalization, Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press (forthcoming).
[10] Dr. Daniel Olukoya, “Prayer as a Military Strategy”. Available at: http://www.sermoncentral.com (accessed on January 3, 2005).
[11] Dr. D.K. Olukoya, Sermon text “Prayer as a military strategy”, available at: http://www.sermoncentral.com (accessed on January 3, 2005).
[12] Rosalind Hackett, ‘“Is Satan Local or Global”? Reflections on a Nigerian Deliverance Movement’, in Afe Adogame (ed.), Pentecostalism and Globalization, Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press (forthcoming).
[13] See the process /ministry of personal deliverance at: http://mfm-ireland.org/articles.php
[15] The abbreviation C.A.R.E means Compassion, Affirmation, Restoration and Encouragement. See “We Care Ministry in Action in Ireland”, http://mfm-ireland.org/we_care.php
[16] Rosalind Hackett, ‘“Is Satan Local or Global”? Reflections on a Nigerian Deliverance Movement’, in Afe Adogame (ed.), Pentecostalism and Globalization, Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press (forthcoming).
