Power sits at the center of Adelakun’s rich analysis of Nigerian Pentecostalism. Its forms, functions, and influence weave throughout the book’s topics and themes. Adelakun argues that Nigeria’s social environment has been fundamentally transformed in recent decades by the way in which Pentecostals perform their identities as “people of power.” The book holds in tension two modes of power—the social construction of identity enacted by those in power (who seek to cohere and spread dominant narratives) and marginalized people’s demand for rights through radical performances (which raise counter-narratives about established norms). Adelakun demonstrates these competing spheres across an impressive succession of chapters, which use different sources to explore variable expressions of power and performance related to topics such as ethnic identity, gender expectation, fiscal legitimacy, comedy, familial identification, and COVID-19. The book shows how Pentecostals’ attention to, and discourses about, power have infused not only their community but also wider...
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Autumn 2022
September 01 2022
Performing Power in Nigeria: Identity, Politics, and Pentecostalism by Abimbola A. Adelakun
Performing Power in Nigeria: Identity, Politics, and Pentecostalism
. By Abimbola A.
Adelakun
New York
, Cambridge University Press
, 2022
) 286 pp. $99.00
Beth Ann Williams
Beth Ann Williams
Florida State University
Search for other works by this author on:
Beth Ann Williams
Florida State University
Online ISSN: 1530-9169
Print ISSN: 0022-1953
© 2022 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and The Journal of Interdisciplinary History, Inc.
2022
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology and The Journal of Interdisciplinary History, Inc.
The Journal of Interdisciplinary History (2022) 53 (2): 378–379.
Citation
Beth Ann Williams; Performing Power in Nigeria: Identity, Politics, and Pentecostalism by Abimbola A. Adelakun. The Journal of Interdisciplinary History 2022; 53 (2): 378–379. doi: https://doi.org/10.1162/jinh_r_01862
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