The Materiality of Pentecostal Religious Healing: The Case of Cameroonian Migrants in Cape Town

Based on ethnographic research among Cameroonian migrants living in Cape Town, South Africa, this study looks at the use of sacred healing objects among these migrant groups. Exploring the extent to which migrants’ everyday lives are rooted in the nexus of attaining divine healing and consolidating healing gains through the use of religious sacred healing objects and the ‘word’, I interrogate how the use of these objects within Pentecostal churches fulfils the quest for divine healing among Cameroonian migrants. I argue that the sheer challenges of migration and the difficulties that goes with it, increases the tendency of migrants to look towards Pentecostal churches for healing, increases, so too does their belief in the healing powers of various healing objects that migrants buy in a bid to attain wholeness and be at peace with oneself