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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:To Pray or Not to Pray: Politics, Medicine, and Conversion among the LoDagaa of Northern Ghana, 1929-1939
Author:Hawkins, SeanISNI
Year:1997
Periodical:Canadian Journal of African Studies
Volume:31
Issue:1
Pages:50-85
Language:English
Geographic term:Ghana
Subjects:religious conversion
Christianity
missions
Dagari
Politics and Government
Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
History and Exploration
Religion and Witchcraft
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/485325
Abstract:In 1932 the Society of Missionaries of Africa witnessed one of the most dramatic waves of conversion in the history of evangelical Christianity in West Africa. The breakthrough occurred among the LoDagaa at a mission station in the village of Jirapa, in the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast (Ghana). In July 1932, drought threatened many villages in the area, and representatives came to the missionaries at Jirapa to request prayers for rain. The missionaries obliged and rain followed - and so, too, did an astounding number of converts. This article argues that history is more important for understanding conversion among the LoDagaa than theology. It examines two main areas: the first has to do with the degree to which the prevailing political malaise that colonialism had produced precipitated this unusually powerful reaction; the second relates to how the LoDagaa experienced the medical care which the missionaries offered. Looking at the missionary impact from the perspective of indigenous needs, the article concludes that conversion did not actually present a fundamental change in cultural priorities or psychological perspectives. What so many saw in this new religion was not novel, merely stronger or more powerful at times. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. in French.
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