Performing Power in Nigeria: Identity, Politics, and Pentecostalism by Abimbola A. Adelakun

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...