Temporality, ethics, and contingency in the African post-colony: waiting for God in Ghana

Abstract

This article investigates the entanglements between Pentecostal and post-colonial temporalities in contemporary Ghana through an ethnographic journey to a “prayer mountain”. Atwea is a mountain of hope, visited by pilgrims expecting to “wait for the Lord” through fasting and prayers. I argue that waiting for God is an ethical modality of dwelling and navigating a temporality of crisis, rather than a sterile reaction to it. Analogous to most popular Pentecostal converts’ lives in Ghana, this practice is not governed by a single temporality. It oscillates across and strives to orchestrate multiple chronotopes, especially the times of salvation, miracles, and demonic opposition. By doing so, waiting for God becomes a technology of endurance and steadfastness infused by the faithful power of anticipation. It allows Ghanaian Pentecostals to engage with post-colonial contingency as a context of emergency and temporal closure as well as an environment pregnant with emergent futures.