Charismatic/Pentecostal Appropriation of Media Technologies in Nigeria and Ghana

CHARISMATIC/PENTECOSTAL APPROPRIATION OF MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES IN NIGERIA AND GHANA BY ROSALIND I.J. HACKETT (University of Tennessee, Knoxville.) How do religious collectivities which are predicated on the Word generate images of themselves in the highly competitive religious market- places of many African urban spaces today?' Focusing on the burgeon- ing Christian charismatic and pentecostal movements of Ghana and Nigeria,' I explore how and why these movements are increasingly favoring electronic media as suitable sites for the transmission of their teachings and erecting of their empires. I will show how this process, no more than two decades old, both concurs with and