It wasn’t until 1978 (after the priesthood/temple ban on Black members ended) that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints began sending full-time missionaries in earnest to sub-Saharan Africa.
Since then, though, the Utah-based faith has seen dramatic growth on the continent, and now Latter-day Saint chapels and temples can be found in a multitude of African nations.
(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) Latter-day Saints sing during a worship service in Ghana.
So, what are the appeals of this American-born faith in lands so physically and culturally distant? Why do some Africans see this patriarchal faith as a “woman’s church”? How has the Word of Wisdom helped transform African families? And why is the church’s wealth sometimes viewed as a “double-edged sword” in these countries?
(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) Latter-day Saint girls take a picture with Bonnie H. Cordon, then the Young Women general president, in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, in 2019.
On this week’s show, Laurie Maffly-Kipp, the director of Mormon studies at the University of Virginia, answers these questions after delivering her first major speech at the school. It was titled, appropriately enough, “Mormonism Through an African Lens.”
(Laurie Maffly-Kipp) Laurie Maffly-Kipp is the Richard Lyman Bushman Chair of Mormon Studies at the University of Virginia and the author of "Proclamation to the People: Nineteenth-Century Mormonism and the Pacific Basin Frontier."
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