Pentecostalism and the war metaphor in Africa: safeguard or springboard?

Session 2 of the "Africa" seminar of the DÉCRIPT program
Carte du monde vue de nuit avec les continents éclairés
Map monde vue de nuit © FREEPIK‎

Session 2, seminar of the Africa axis (WP5), DÉCRIPT program

Speaker: Sébastien Fath, Groupe Sociétés Religions Laïcités (UMR 8582)

Discussant: Bernard Coyault, Faculté Universitaire de Théologie Protestante

Summary: The aim of this presentation, based on existing literature - including on English-speaking Africa - and field surveys mainly in French-speaking Africa (from Madagascar to Côte d'Ivoire via Congo DRC, Burkina Faso), is to decipher the relationship to violence in African Pentecostal, neo-Pentecostal and prophetic circles since the 1990s. The first part of the presentation highlights the often considerable weight of war rhetoric, often inspired by the Bible - a privileged medium of legitimization in Pentecostal churches - in the content inculcated and disseminated by pastors and prophets. The second part analyzes the metaphorical devices that surround this rhetoric, putting them into perspective with René Girard's classic hypotheses on violence and the sacred. Finally, the third and last part will highlight the relative porosity of the dike constituted, in principle, by the process of metaphorization. Supposed to serve as an outlet and a safeguard, allowing violence to be symbolized rather than committed, this process sometimes fails in its objectives, for various reasons that will be explained: instead of serving as a safeguard, it can then operate as a springboard for a passage to the act: we then tip over from symbolic violence to physical violence, as we will illustrate from a few examples.

Date, time: Thursday, December 18, 2025, 2:00-4:00 pm (Paris time)

Location: Paris, Maison de la Recherche de l'Inalco, 2 rue de Lille, 75007 Paris (salle de Sacy)

Format: hybrid (Zoom link sent the day before)

Coordination of the Africa Axis (WP5):

  • David Ambrosetti (Sciences Po Bordeaux/LAM),
  • Raphaëlle Chevrillon-Guibert (IRD),
  • Rozenn Guérois (Inalco),
  • Margot Herman (Inalco),
  • Marième N'Diaye (Sciences Po Bordeaux/LAM),
  • Marianne Morange (Inalco),
  • Marc-Antoine Pérouse de Montclos (IRD),
  • With Zoé Quétu, postdoctoral fellow, DÉCRIPT program.

Registrations open until Wednesday, December 17 at 4:00 pm: registration form

This event has benefited from state aid managed by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche under France 2030 bearing the reference ANR-24-RSHS-0002.