In episode one of the docu-series, the BBC gives a short history of the beginnings of SCOAN and the well-calculated strategy that TB Joshua used to market his ministry. We hear interviews from former ‘disciples’—the word TB Joshua used in referring to his most loyal followers—who reveal how they came to join the church and how they grew so devoted to TB Joshua that they gave up their lives to follow his ministry. 

TB Joshua found prominence as an evangelical pastor who claimed to be ordained by God to prophesy, heal the sick, and take care of the downtrodden. He relied on television and VCR recordings in the early stages of the church, which he would hand out in large quantities to visiting pastors from the United Kingdom and South Africa to attract white evangelical Christians to SCOAN. In an interview, Anneka, a former disciple from the United Kingdom, retells how she felt drawn to some graphic video footage from the church that depicted Joshua healing people who had visible illnesses through prayer. With his hands on the bodies of the sick and downtrodden, it seemed that TB Joshua had summoned Jesus of Nazareth and the God of the Bible to Lagos, Nigeria. ‘I was so excited,’ Anneka said, ‘it is like I was going to get on a time machine and go back to biblical times and meet Jesus’. Another interviewee, Rae, discussed feeling relieved that the God she had been unable to find in the UK had materialized through the ministry of an African man. ‘I thought that maybe this was the answer to my problems,’ Rae said. Both Anneka and Rae reiterated that they felt ‘called’ to join TB Joshua’s ministry.  

The documentary also showed how TB Joshua strategically enlisted white congregants to the church. In a snippet, for instance, a white South African congregant claimed that, ‘In the past I really hated blacks, I really hated them, when I got back over here I saw the love that we received from black people.’ However, this ‘sanctuary in the middle of the dark continent’ soon becomes exposed as a cult that used the labour of white people to bring legitimacy to the church. 

And yet, the documentary shied away from explaining the contradiction that is created when white people are exploited in the name of God. TB Joshua himself made this exclamation clear, when according to the documentary he gloated to his confidant, Agomoh Paul, about the joy it brought him to enslave white people. He saw it as revenge for what colonists did to his ancestors. 

In 1899, English writer, Rudyard Kipling, wrote the poem, ‘The White Man’s Burden’, a line from which reads: ‘The silent sullen peoples shall weigh your Gods and you.’ In the poem, Kipling argues that the conquering of native people of the world is the moral obligation and selfless duty of all white people. For a long time, many colonists believed, as do many Christians today, that bringing Christianity to nonbelievers would pave their way to the kingdom of heaven. That not only is it their moral obligation to share the word of God with non-believers but that God, also, rewards those who win souls for his kingdom. 

In his book, A History of Africa, historian, J.D. Fage, describes the racially based logic of nineteenth-century European intellectuals and missionaries. According to Fage, ‘Mid-and late-nineteenth-century Europeans were generally convinced that their Christian, scientific and industrial society was intrinsically far superior to anything that Africa had produced.’ This sentiment is reiterated in Ethiopia Coming To God, the memoirs of Daniel Flickinger, a missionary who was appointed to spread Christianity to Ethiopia. In the book, Flickinger wrote, ‘The only reason why our theological views are not as foolish and corrupting as theirs, and that we are not believers in witchcraft, devil-worship, and a thousand other foolish things, is simply because the light of Heaven shines upon us.’ 

This history is well recorded, but missionary-style Christianity is not exactly what TB Joshua proffered. He was a Pentecostal pastor, belonging to a strain of Christianity that emerged in the late 19th century and is now the fastest-growing segment of Christianity. Pentecostalism has been criticized by other evangelical sects for promoting Christianity as a way for believers to gain health and wealth in their lifetime and exalting the prophetic powers of their leaders over that of Christ. In line with this, TB Joshua believed that baptism by the holy spirit would be marked by speaking in tongues and prophetic abilities.  

In Nigeria, the Pentecostalist movement began in the early 20th century as a way to break free from Western missionary control. It then gained much support after the civil war (1967-1970), among young people, particularly the Christian Students Social Movement of Nigeria. The Christian Students Social Movement of Nigeria was established in 1977 with the aim of awakening charismatics to the social and political realities of Nigeria. Placing the growth of Pentecostalism in context is important because Pentecostalism found its stronghold in organizations like the Christian Students Social Movement of Nigeria during a time of widespread political and social suppression, where the church was one of the only ways in which young people could safely build community.  

Additionally, the church provided one of the only safe manners of organizing against the state. Many of the early adherents of Pentecostalism held the belief that activism could be carried out through spiritual forces that govern politics and hoped to bring about reform through prayer.