On Being First: Dogma,Disease and Domination in the Rise of an African Church

What might the early institutional history of an indigenous African Church reveal about the institutionalisation of religious innovation? What might findings suggest about the impact of both internal organisational processes and extra-institutional pressures on the routinization of charisma? This article addresses these questions by examining the rise of Christ Apostolic Church, an Aladura church of the Yoruba of Nigeria, and focusing on the interplay of first, the global propagation of Christianity; second, colonial domination; third, symbolic reformulation; and finally, the pursuit of well-being in the face of epidemic disease. This investigation provides a case study of how people negotiate social and natural obstacles while constructing enduring institutional structures. Furthermore, it is argued that, rather than obstructing this religious movement, epidemics, colonial domination and missionary opposition fuelled its transformation into an institutional church.