Spiritual brokers: African Pastors and the mediation of migratory processes

Abstract

In this article, we examine the notion of instability by engaging with migrants’ re-constructions of belonging, in both global north and south cityscapes, under the auspices of Pentecostalism. We analyse African Pastors’ life histories in order to generate insights into how they mediate the tensions of migratory processes with their evolving personas as pastors. The research is based on three years of fieldwork (2012–2015) with Pentecostal church leaders in Bilbao, Spain, and Johannesburg, South Africa. These geographically distant contexts enable us to see the ways in which pastors negotiate the instabilities of migratory processes. Along the way, they develop a sort of spiritual brokerage amongst fellow congregants which allows African Pentecostals to create spaces in which tactical forms of identity and belonging combine to accommodate the super-diversity of migrants’ lives.

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