Pentecostal scholarship in Uganda: trends, trajectories and challenges

Abstract

Although there is a plethora of scholarly works on African Pentecostal scholarship in Uganda, there is a notable invisibility of local Ugandan scholars in the publication pages. Prominent in Pentecostal studies in this context are the works of foreign scholars such as (in no particular order) Barbra Bompani, Ben Jones, Elizabeth Bremner, Robert Gibbs, Lars H. Williams, K.T. Zemlicka and Alessandro Gusman, among others. This triggers questions that interrogate the invisibility of indigenous Ugandan scholars in the field of African Pentecostalism. This is not to discount efforts made by the few local scholars such as Paddy Musana, Moses Isabirye, Fred Jenga and Samuel Mugisa, although the focus of their studies on the phenomenon presents a different dimension of invisibility. In this chapter we interrogate the problem of invisibility—not only exposing the quantity in scholarship but also quality of works on the phenomenon by indigenous Ugandan scholars. Efforts are made to review scholarly works/terrain in contemporary African contexts, the quality of scholarly works of the Western scholars and researchers and finally examine the scholarly situation in the local context. We have also examined the scholarly landscape that informs the limited representation of indigenous Ugandan scholars in the field of study.