Abstract

Since the 1990s, most African economies and public spheres have been liberalised, and new civil society actors have emerged. As mapped out by Marie Nathalie LeBlanc and Louis Audet Gosselin, in West Africa Christian and Muslim organisations have come to dominate the field of humanitarian assistance.

Moving beyond mainstream development theory, Faith and Charity brings out the crucial role of religion in the development process and the interplay of moral and political ideologies. From faith-based NGOs to individual local activists, the authors explore how each group makes sense of, and contributes to, the wider process of social development in the neoliberal era.

Based on extensive research and deploying a sophisticated and original frame of analysis, Faith and Charity will make an important contribution to the existing literature on development anthropology and the anthropology of religion in Africa.
'In this outstanding collection, familiar debates about the depoliticising effects of charity, the marketisation of civil society, and the ambiguities of religious networks are given fresh life'
Jonathan Benthall, Honorary Resarch Fellow, Department of Anthropology, UCL, author of Islamic Charities and Islamic Humanism in Troubled Times (Manchester University Press, 2016)