Kato Mivule | January 10, 2010
It used to be that Missionaries from the West traversed Africa for decades preaching the gospel through rough terrain in what was once considered the “Dark Continent”. Yet things are dramatically changing at a very fast pace that in just the next five to 10 years, the western old missionary model will totally be absolute if it’s not dead already.
Mobile Phone Phenomenon in Africa…
Telecommunication Technology is a fast growing sector in Africa and has been greatly underestimated by many missionaries and African Christian leaders, largely out of procrastination and relying on old technologies that Gospel ministers find ‘convenient’ such as Radio and TV.
According to Statistics by the International Telecommunication Union – ITU, Africa’s Mobile Phone subscription has reached 300 Million Subscribers, eclipsing the numbers in both Europe and North America. [1] Mobile Phone subscription numbers are expected to double in the next four years to a whooping 790 Million Subscribers in Africa that BBC News has decided to offer phone news updates dedicated to Africa. [2] A book has been published detailing the SMS phenomenon in Africa and the social and political implications of Mobile Phones in Africa described as “SMS Uprising: Mobile Activism in Africa”… [3]
“…As a blogger using the web as an agent of social change, I find the growth of mobile phone use in Africa offers an opportunity to look at the innovative ways this emerging technology is being used by grassroots groups and small and micro NGOs across the continent…The introduction of mobile phones in Africa transforms people’s ability to communicate. Unlike in the West, where there was already an existing network of communication through landlines, mobile phones in Africa provide communication where previously there was none…”
SMS Uprising: Mobile Activism in Africa
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/61247
Sokari Ekine
Yet the Mobile Phone phenomenon does not stop there, according to statistics released by the ITU in 2009, Africa has the fastest growing mobile phone market in the world. [4] Mobile Phones are not only used to call family and relatives in remote villages but in East Africa alone, a dazzling $4 Billion US Dollars was transacted through Mobile Phones a year.[5] Yet one London based economist seemed startled at the prospect that many Ugandans would have more Mobile Phones than they do mosquito nets…
“…Largely due to modern communications services, globalisation is changing Africa. In the poor world. Africa s now plugged into the world. Great technological change - be it the invention of electricity, the railways, electricity, the PC, the internet - seems to go through an initial stage when everyone initially recognises that the technology is important, but during which its importance is underestimated in productivity statistics and people don't always understand its true importance. Then there is a stage in which the changes due to it are profound. I think Africa is about to go through the second stage, driven by both growth of the internet and the mobile phone simultaneously. I think the effects are going to be profound, overwhelmingly good, and the continent will be barely recognisable in two decades time…As for why people in Uganda have mobile phones, and not mosquito nets, I would suggest that it is because mobile phones are cheaper. Such are the benefits of mass production and massive economies of scale. Also, second hand phones from the rich world end up in the poor countries in huge numbers - no such markets exist in mosquito nets. Also, I suspect that more people actually do have mosquito nets than Chris Moyles thinks - it's just that nets provided by informal networks do not show up in his sort of statistics…”
Mobile phones are only part of the story in Africa
Michael Jennings (London) Globalization/economics | December 10, 2009
http://www.samizdata.net/blog/archives/2009/12/mobile_phones_i.html
There is good reason to agree with those who have stated that Mobile Phones are Africa’s new PCs.[6] Yet the ramifications of the new Internet and Telecom technology sweeping across Africa cannot be ignored and are certainly a major ‘game changer’ when it comes to dissemination of information, especially the Gospel of Jesus Christ across Africa. The way the Gospel is preached across Africa and the way it is received will be greatly impacted by Mobile Technology.
Africa has had another technological advancement and that is the Fiber Optic Cable that has successfully been laid around Africa and now making inroads – inland in Africa. This development will mean High Speed Broadband Internet Access; combined with the Mobile Cell Phone Phenomenon, this will mean more information flow in Africa. No longer will Africa be cut out from the rest of the world but will be part and parcel of the robust global economy and consumer capitalism.
Young Educated Middle Class…
Yet still another powerful factor and ‘Game Changer’ is the growing African Middle Class, made up of largely young educated and consumer (information consumption) minded population. This large and fast growing young highly educated population across the continent is well conversant with affairs outside their own continent courtesy of their Mobile Phone communication gadgets…
“…Meet Denis Ruharo, an entrepreneur with a master's degree, a man who carries a BlackBerry and two cell phones, buys organic greens at a grocery store and sometimes does business over a cold Nile beer at a club called Silk…"I have the mortgage and home improvement," he said, glancing at the budget he and his wife keep on their computer. "The car, car wash and parking tickets. Entertainment - cable TV, two movies a month. The health club. Then normally we vacation twice a year. Last time it was Nairobi (Kenya)."…"What else," he said, scrolling down on his Mac laptop. "Newspapers, charity, clothes, books and CDs ..."…In a region more often associated with grinding poverty, Ruharo is part of a modestly growing segment of sub-Saharan Africa - upwardly mobile, low- to middle-income consumers.The group includes working Africans who make as little as $200 a month, a paltry sum by Western standards, yet hardly the $1 or so a day in earnings that describe life for about half the continent's population. Perhaps a third of all Africans, or 300 million people, fall into a middle category - people struggling to put their kids through school and pay rent, but able to buy a cell phone or DVD once in a while…”According to the San Francisco Chronicle, 300 Million Africans fall in this category of the “African Middle Class”. Yet even without the purchasing power of their counterparts in the West, this demographic of young, energetic, and highly educated middle class Africans has caught the attention of global capitalists…
http://articles.sfgate.com/2008-09-07/news/17160965_1_cell-phone-industry-sub-saharan-kenya
September 07, 2008|By Stephanie McCrummen, Washington Post | San Francisco Chronicle
“…Its population has grown from 110m in 1850 to 1 billion today. …To get a sense of this kind of increase, consider that in 1950 there were two Europeans for every African; by 2050, on present trends, there will be two Africans for every European. …Yet Africa is also starting out, a little late, on a demographic transition that others have already traced: as people get richer, they have fewer children. …It is surely no coincidence that the past 15 years have seen Africa’s fastest-ever period of economic growth. Africa, exceptional in so many ways, does not seem to be an exception to the rule that, as countries get richer, they experience a demographic transition…The result is a “demographic dividend”, which can be cashed in to produce a virtuous cycle of growth...China and East Asia are the models. On some calculations, demography accounted for about a third of East Asia’s phenomenal growth over the past 30 years...”Many missionaries who visit Africa have ignored this critical demographic development to the peril of their own mission effectiveness in Africa. I remember way back in 2001, an American Missionary was really concerned that many young African Christians were getting cell phones; this particular missionary reasoned that the Cell phones might curtail the Revival in Africa. The opportunity to utilize Technology in Evangelism was not visible to this particular American Missionary.
http://www.economist.com/opinion/displayStory.cfm?story_id=14302837&source=hptextfeature
Africa's population and the “demographic dividend” |Aug 27th 2009 | Economist
Yet still many Christian Leaders in Africa are oblivious to the same technology and demographic developments that they are constantly locked up in methodologies, many times unorthodox, in reaching out to this growing large young educated population that has 24 hour access to Google, FaceBook and Twitter via their Cell Phones. These two critical factors of a young educated and tech savvy population will greatly impact the way the Gospel is preached in Africa. Is this all good for Africa’s Church?
Is it a good thing then that we are having such developments in Africa? To the old school missionary and preacher, it might be a negative that such advancements have found their way in Africa…”the revival in Africa could be lost”.
Despite the current phenomenon of mobile technology in Africa, Christian orthodoxy has been watered down and almost lost through Mass Media Technology, mainly Christian TV and Radio. The Prosperity Gospel and Dominionist Gospel for instance have been largely popularized in Africa for the last 20 years courtesy of Western Christian TV and Radio.
Even before the advancement of Mobile Technology in the last decade in Africa, The Gospel of Materialism, Money, Greed, and Prosperity found its way in Africa and derailed much of the Church from Sound Biblical Doctrine and Orthodoxy. Therefore the claim of Mobile Phone Technology as curtailing the “Revival” in Africa is unsubstantiated.
Utilize Africa’s New PC to Preach the Gospel…
Rather African Christians had better utilize their “New Mobile Phone PCs” to effectively evangelize and mobilize for the Gospel. I recall a New Testament Teaching Seminar I helped organize in Uganda, Africa about three years ago; much of the mobilization was through Text Messages to the many Phone numbers given to us. Interestingly, we did not need to put up radio advertisements and posters, rather we wrote a few letters inviting Pastors and relied on SMS Text messages to the many individuals who then passed over that information to others.
Young Adult Population and Technology…
Yet still the phenomenon of mobile phone technology for young highly educated Africans opens up the door of information...access to Google is just at their figure tips and that means that information can be accessed anytime. One editorial in Nairobi, Kenya urged the Youth to use the “Mobile Revolution” for their benefit…at least positively...
“…The explosion of mobile telephony in the just-ended decade shattered the myth that Africans are slow to take up technology. …The biggest segment of the community to benefit from this technology are the youth, who have opened myriads of retail mobile-related businesses, from the sale of sets, accessories, repairs, programming and many others. …The momentum has only started and an even higher pace is expected in coming years. And this is where young people can benefit by developing real-life solutions to build around the technology…”This development alone spells trouble for many of the manipulative and exploitative Preachers and Pastors who relied on Radio and TV to preach a non interactive Gospel of Greed to their Populations. The Young highly educated African inquisitive mind will search out information related to many doctrinal topics preached by manipulative preachers and find many of them wanting.
http://allafrica.com/stories/201001040118.html
Kenya: Mobile Revolution Can Benefit Youth | 3 January 2010
As a matter of fact, many African Evangelicals are waking up to this fact and Manipulative and unorthodox preachers are finding it a little of climbing a hill as they preach the Gospel of Greed. Many Young Evangelicals in Africa are calling for accountability and honesty from Preachers and Pastors. Blogs are popping up as Africans detail their Christian experience.
This same demographic knows much more about preachers in the West. When Benny Hinn decided to visit Africa some time ago, there was a wide search about Benny Hinn and his teachings. Newspaper articles in Africa proved the point that this middle class young highly educated group of individuals in Africa was well aware of Benny Hinn and his debacles. This trend is not set to slow down or evaporate but rather this is fast becoming the ‘new normal’.
Technological Globalizing of Africa…
Yet still the same technology is helping ‘Globalize’ Africa that the young adult educated “African Middle Class” populations are embracing the Western Culture as MTV, YouTube, and FaceBook open a whole new window of access to Hollywood and Western Culture that the old generation in Africa detests. Perhaps this is what the missionary feared that the ‘Revival would be lost’ with the proliferation of Cell Phones in Africa.
On the other hand false Christian teachings and doctrines have found their way in Africa via Technology but these problems cannot shield the larger picture, which is the free access of information through Mobile Technology to the once “dark continent”. This free access of information sharing on the Telecom infrastructure should be fully utilized by Missionaries and Ministers of the Gospel in Africa. Rather than cast it away, this mobile technology should be used to preach the Gospel fully and also help hold Evangelical Leaders accountable.
It is interesting to note that many Evangelical leaders in Africa shy away from using the internet to preach the gospel because other Christians around the world will hold them accountable. If they post sermons about money and materialism, then some Christian blogger will challenge such notions. The advent of such dynamics is changing the way the Gospel is being preached across Africa but also seen across the continent in political and social spheres were politicians are held accountable.
Bible Prophesy and Technological Globalization of Africa…
Some Bible Prophecy Teachers in the West have written numerous articles about how the last days and end of ages are dependent entirely on events in the West, and totally ignored the Technological advances in the Third world, particularly in Africa and Asia. Many Bible Prophecy experts see Bible Prophecy as being fulfilled in the West or through the influence of the West.
Some had declared the West in particular America as the ‘Babylon’ of Revelation 18 and Africa and Third World as this safe utopia that could even act as a safe haven during times of tribulations. Yet with the drastic demographic changes in Africa catalyzed by a Mobile Technology Revolution, such Bible Prophecy Notions seem out of place and very speculative at best.
Daniel 12:4It seems safe to say that the world is experiencing the full force of Globalization and those that view ‘Babylon’ as this Global entity in Bible Prophesy rather than limited to America or the West have a point.
(4) But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.
Many Bible Prophecy Teachers have never been to Africa and those who have visited choose to ignore these remarkable demographic and technological changes in Africa, or at least they are naïve and oblivious and thus cast false predictions when it comes to Bible Prophecy.
The Western capitalistic lifestyle and middle class consumerism combined with technological advancement have taken Africa like a flood. So, rather than ignore such developments, or demonize them, Gospel Ministers had better utilize such technological developments to preach the Gospel.
Conclusion
Interestingly Prosperity Gospel Preachers have a bit of an idea of such developments that they are fully exploiting the “African Middle Class” by preaching a gospel of greed and materialism and living a very sumptuous lifestyle at the expense of spiritually starving “African Middle Class populations. There is no reason why African Christians are not encouraged to give and help the poor among them.
Why are African Christians not encouraged to get into social activities like helping the orphans, widows and caring for the poor, etc without waiting for donations from the West? Rather Western Prosperity Gospel Preachers have used the ignorance of facts among African ministers and fully exploited the “African Middle Class”. Take for instance when Benny Hinn visited Uganda, he charged every person 50 US Dollars to attend his Healing Conference at Rubaga Miracle Center in Kampala Uganda; Creflo Dollar had the folks in Kampala pay for his Jet fuel from the USA to Uganda and back.
Lastly Western missionaries ought to understand that they are no longer dealing with an ignorant population, or a group of Africans in the Dark Continent. Rather they are dealing with folks in Africa, highly educated, with access to Google, FaceBook, Twitter, and YouTube.
Therefore the preaching of the Gospel in Africa no longer provides leverage to the Missionaries from the West to be exploitative but rather accountable; leverage is rather granted to the African Christian and the trend will not stop but continue.
These two significant changes of a robust young educated population and Technology during the last decade will totally impact the way the Gospel is being preached in Africa; it will totally change the way African Christians are viewed as technology now provides an equal playing field and no longer do Western Christians have the unquestionable ‘say’ without accountability when it comes to Evangelism, Sound Bible Doctrine, Bible Prophecy, etc in Africa.
Kato Mivule
Notes
[1] Africa Has 300 Million Mobile Phone Subscribers | ICT Statistics Newslog
June 13, 2008
http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/newslog/Africa+Has+300+Million+Mobile+Phone+Subscribers.aspx
[2] BBC to offer Africa phone news | Daily Nation | January 6 2010
http://www.nation.co.ke/News/-/1056/837588/-/vos35s/-/
[3] SMS Uprising: Mobile Activism in Africa | Pambazuka
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/61247
[4] Information Society Statistical Profiles 2009 – Africa | ITU
http://www.itu.int/publ/D-IND-RPM.AF-2009/en
Internet Mobile Stats | whiteafrican.com | December 12 2009
http://whiteafrican.com/2009/12/22/internet-mobile-stats-africa-grows-fastest-in-the-world-2009/
[5] Kenya: Mobile Phones Transfer U.S. $4 Billion a Year | All Africa | Jan 8, 2010
http://allafrica.com/stories/201001080894.html
[6] Again, Mobile Phones are Africa’s PC | Whiteafrican.com | June 25 2007
http://whiteafrican.com/2007/06/25/again-mobile-phones-are-africas-pc/
