HISTORICISING PENTECOSTAL CHRISTIANITY IN ZIMBABWE

Abstract

This paper is a first attempt to systematically present a history of Pentecostal Christianity in Zimbabwe. The paper first discusses the introduction of the Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM) in Zimbabwe before moving on to discuss some of the Pentecostal churches born out of the AFM. This is followed by a discussion of the 1980s and 1990s explosion of American type Pentecostal churches and the current Pentecostal charismatic churches that seem to be sweeping the Christian landscape in the country. The paper acknowledges the difficulty of writing a history of Pentecostalism in the country due to a lack of sources. It identifies AFM as the mother church of Pentecostal movements in Zimbabwe, but also acknowledges the existence and influence of other earlier movements. It has shown that the current picture of Zimbabwean Christianity is heavily influenced by Pentecostalism in mainline churches, African Initiated Churches (AICs) and the various Pentecostal movements.