“Praise the Lord”: Popular cinema and pentecostalite style in Ghana's new public sphere

TLDR

Pentecostalism and video‑films combine to articulate alternative Christian visions of modernity. The article investigates the elective affinity between Pentecostalism and Ghana’s burgeoning video‑film industry, focusing on how Pentecostal cultural style blurs religion and entertainment and transforms the public sphere. The study examines Pentecostal expressive forms and their mode of public dissemination, revealing how the pentecostalite cultural style shapes the emerging public sphere. The liberalization and commercialization of media have created a new public sphere that is increasingly indebted to Pentecostalism and beyond state control.

Abstract

ABSTRACT In this article I examine the elective affinity between Pentecostalism and the vibrant video‐film industry that has flourished in the wake of Ghana's adoption of a democratic constitution. I argue that, as a result of the liberalization and commercialization of the media, a new public sphere has emerged that can no longer be fully controlled by the state but that is increasingly indebted to Pentecostalism. Pentecostalism and video‐films come together and articulate alternative, Christian imaginations of modernity. Seeking to grasp the blurring of boundaries between religion and entertainment, I examine the pentecostalite cultural style on which these alternative visions thrive. My main concern is to investigate the specific mode through which Pentecostal expressive forms go public, thereby transforming the public sphere.