Pentecostalism, ontological (in)security and the everyday livesof international university students in South Africa

Abstract

The experience and lives of international university students studying and living in Cape Town, South Africa demonstrate the centrality of religiosity, in their case Pentecostalism in adapting to and grappling with existential perturbations wrought in a xenophobic and hostile environment. This article explores the everyday appropriation of Pentecostal religiosity and rituals by international students in navigating uncertainties and everyday anxieties and struggles of studying and living in a foreign and alienating space. Studying the mundane forms of the everyday has gained traction since Michel de Certeau’s pioneering works on the practice of everyday life. This article is based on an ethnographic study conducted with international university students to understand how Pentecostalism mediates their daily life and experiences and what it means to live and study at a foreign university. I show how Pentecostal Charismatic Churhces (PCCs) not only cater for the existential material needs of migrant students on campus, but also provide space for integration and forging convivial relationships and belonging. I argue that a Pentecostal identity and being connects and creates a sense of ontological security that pervades Pentecostal students’ everyday life.