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1 - Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 April 2013

Richard Vokes
Affiliation:
University of Canterbury, New Zealand
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Summary

This book is an historical ethnography of the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God, and of the Kanungu fire itself. As such, it begins with an exploration of the social context from which this particular African-Initiated Church (AIC) emerged in the mid-1980s, and with an attempt to define the cultural archive which informed that process of genesis. The book's central argument is that the MRTC grew out of, and was located within, a specific – historically and geographically located – set of logics and practices related to attempts to gain redress for misfortune. Moreover, that this helps us to understand why the group later grew rapidly – during the early-mid 1990s – given that this was a period during which South-western Uganda was experiencing what was perhaps the worst social misfortune in the region's entire history: the emergent AIDS epidemic. Thus, it was as people attempted to come to terms with this new disease, and to deal with its worst effects, that they increasingly turned to the MRTC for support (and the reasons why they turned to this particular AIC, rather than to the mainstream church, or to some other sort of organization altogether, will also be elaborated upon). From here, then, the book explores what these historical dimensions tell us about life inside the MRTC, about its modes of social organization and ritual practice, about its politics and theology, and so on.

Type
Chapter
Information
Ghosts of Kanungu
Fertility, Secrecy and Exchange in the Great Lakes of East Africa
, pp. 11 - 34
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Print publication year: 2009

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  • Introduction
  • Richard Vokes, University of Canterbury, New Zealand
  • Book: Ghosts of Kanungu
  • Online publication: 05 April 2013
Available formats
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  • Introduction
  • Richard Vokes, University of Canterbury, New Zealand
  • Book: Ghosts of Kanungu
  • Online publication: 05 April 2013
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Introduction
  • Richard Vokes, University of Canterbury, New Zealand
  • Book: Ghosts of Kanungu
  • Online publication: 05 April 2013
Available formats
×