CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
Christian healing represents “a specific mode of therapy which has been well cultivated since ancient times, being an offshoot of the Judaic tradition”.1 Most Dictionaries denote healing as an adjective derived from the verb, to heal, which means “to cure a disease or disorder”, “to restore to soundness”, “to make whole and healthy” (chambers 20th Cent. Dict). Thus, healing in its common sense usage would mean the removal of the factors that cause disease and infirmity.
There is the religious or the spiritual aspect of healing which both the biblical and Annang traditions so must revere (Ps 42:11; 43:5; 67:2) in spite of advance in modern technology and medical science. Both the Judeo-Christian and Annang anthropology stress the fact that a human being needs healing as a socio-religious entity for his whole being. It is perhaps, in the light of this that one can understand the overall significance of Christian healing ministry as a sign of profession of faith. Hence, it is developed in the church as an authentic sign of witness of faith, and an occasion through which God publicly manifests His glory in the situation of His people. It is a moment of distinctive profession of faith.2
Meanwhile, the search for faith healing seems to be presently dominating African Christianity. In Annangland, it has reached that magnitude whereby new churches, healing centres and prayer houses are being opened daily, all claiming the power to heal and work miracles. With the word of Udoette, “almost all the so-called prophets in the NRMs in Nigeria claim to have the gift of healing and ability to work miracle”3
The new churches, ministries and centres so founded are usually filled beyond capacity by eager seekers for God’s immediate intervention in their lives. In a bid not to lose out on membership and to attract new ones, many of the older churches have incorporated miracle healing services into their programme of activities. Thus, as observed by Umoren, “many ‘healers’ have emerged, and whether in prikate homes or at public prayer assemblies, testimonies or “reports” of miracles abound”.4
It is certainly not an exaggeration opining that most of these churches, healing centres and “healers” jostle for space in the media, at beeches, at street corners, and in abandoned buildings. They are also found at open spaces, in school halls, hotels, restaurants, rented apartments and passenger buses where they eagerly advertise their new-found power, and “make it happen” through all kinds of extraordinary manifestations. Their target groups are businessmen and women, the sick, the demon possessed, those in need of life partners and children from marriages (especially male children), pregnant women eager to have safe delivery, those who want financial breakthroughs, those who want to be delivered from sin and sinful attitudes, those who out of fear seek supernatural protection from enemies and unseen forces, the unemployed, workers who desire job security, those unjustly treated by others in need of God’s vindication, people in search of success and progress, travelers wary safety in their journey, those in search of lasting solutions to teething family, neighbourhood and communal problems. In short, people who have all kinds of need, whether spiritual or material.5
Nevertheless, of all these needs, the search for good health in mind and body receives the highest attention. A common African adage which the Annang people have adopted states that nsongidem ade imo (health is wealth). Without good health, all other human needs count as nothing. Thus, most miracle seekers are in search of God’s miraculous intervention in one bodily ailment or another. For such people, it is no harm trying “this or that healer” if “the hospital or the other healer” does not bring them expected relief from illness or even some assurance against illness. So they go in search of miraculous healing anywhere they hear “it is happening”. Aware of the seriousness of this search for good health and in view of the generally poor state of health facilities in many parts of Annangland miracle preachers have readily made the sick their special target group.