Paper short abstract:

Argues that the function of oral and written knowledge and practices were contingent on historical contexts. Explores writing and orality in the late colonial period by considering relationship between an indigenous Zambian church and secular agencies during the 1950s

Paper long abstract:

In colonial Africa written texts were disseminated as signs and agents of European power. By the middle of the twentieth century across northern Zambia various texts produced authority: vernacular bibles, biographies of missionaries, guides to moral living, colonial identity documents, and political party cards. This paper considers rise of the Alice Lenshina' s church (a.k.a. the Lumpa Church) in the 1950s as an engagement with these textual realms of power. The church employed various forms of writing, including passports to heaven, narratives, and "commandments," which were written by missionary-educated church members. These texts were sacred documents that underpinned the church's moral teachings, served to support its bureaucracy, and legitimized the church with respect to European missionaries, the colonial government, and the African nationalist movement. These textual practices also engaged with oral ones, however. While external signs of authority were achieved through such texts, internal authority often rested on performance. Spiritual inspiration in particular derived from hymns sung by mostly young women. These songs were revealed to Lenshina by God, disseminated through village-based choirs, and remembered by choir masters. This paper considers how gendered tensions within the church and between the church and secular authorities (including the colonial state, chiefs, and political parties) were related to these textual and oral practices. By pointing to such political factors, the paper challenges sociological and teleological versions of the nature of oral and written knowledge and practices. The paper is based on fieldwork among surviving members of Lenshina's Church and archival documentation.