Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the role of Pentecostal churches in enabling rural-urban connections through kinship and family networks. By embracing and recasting the importance of practices such as fostering kin, they contribute to shaping processes of religious change in contexts of religious plurality

Paper long abstract:

This paper explores the role of Pentecostal churches in shaping rural-urban connections through kinship networks and family relationships in contemporary Benin. The study of Pentecostalism in Africa, predominantly in urban contexts, has been associated with processes of migration, urbanization and the emergence of new middle classes in the continent. Pentecostal rhetoric of rupture with 'tradition' has often been interpreted as fostering social disentanglements, particularly from kinship networks, thus enabling the realisation of people's aspirations to modernity. However, ethnographic evidence from a semi-rural town in the south-east of Benin suggests that Pentecostal churches play a key role in maintaining kinship relations along the rural-urban divide. In this paper, I argue that Pentecostal churches operate as 'nodes of connection' between rural and urban worlds. They do so by reframing practices such as fostering, and hosting relatives' children during school holidays, through a moral framework where generosity and hospitality become signs of being a 'good' Christian. The effect is twofold. First, it maintains relationships among non-Pentecostals and their Pentecostal kin. In a plural religious context, such as this, these practices become opportunities for the evangelisation of unconverted kin. Second, they offer opportunities for courting among Pentecostal youth, thus enabling the development of future relationships of affinity between members of the church. The paper suggests that it is important to pay attention to domestic processes and the intricate ways in which rural-urban entanglements are mediated through religious practices