Dreams and purposes: an analysis of dream narratives in an independent African Church
Simon Charsley
Africa July 1, 1987 DOI: 10.2307/1160715 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 95 |
| Population | Dream reports and visions collected from services of an Independent African Church |
| Duration | Five months' study |
| Citations | 1 |
| Key points | The author revisits an earlier analysis of 95 dream reports and a handful of visions from an Independent African Church, where dreams were categorized by teller, named persons, church activities, and location, and explained through leadership interests and dream-telling as 'bidding' for status. The article states it moves beyond that earlier account but does not describe its new argument or findings. |
Abstract
Opening Paragraph Sampling provided the rationale of my previous account of ‘Dreams in an Independent African Church’ (1973). I took a set of ninety-five dream reports, and a handful of visions, as individual events which could be summed and categorised in a variety of ways. I had been able to garner these over a period of five months' study, from the services of this ‘Independent African Church’ (IAC). Beyond considering in general terms the part played by dream-telling and its accompaniments in the services of the Church and in its life more generally, in that article I worked out patterns, categorising the individual dreams in relation to their tellers, to the way they might implicate other named people, to whether they depicted IAC activities, to their apparent location, and so on. I sought to explain the patterns in terms of leadership and its interests, and of the idea that dream-telling was a kind of ‘bidding’, ‘to contribute valuably to the life of the group, and through this for status within it’ (op. cit.: 256). This article moves on from that analysis.