‘The Hour Has Come!’ Born-Again Christians and Their Influence on Democratic Zambia 1991–2002

Abstract

Mfundisi-Holloway provides a political and historical analysis of President Frederick Chiluba ’s tenure and Pentecostal involvement in matters of national interest. She demonstrates that Chiluba ’s tenure coincided with the growth of Pentecostal churches within the country and their influence on Zambia’s religious culture. She argues that it was not the correlation between Chiluba ’s political agenda and his personal beliefs that had an impact on the explosion of Pentecostal churches in Zambia and proposes that without Chiluba Pentecostal churches would have still grown due to the explosion of Pentecostal churches across the globe at that time. She highlights the growing visibility of Pentecostals in politics as well as on television as televangelists but not as much on matters of health care and social justice.