ABSTRACT
This chapter explores young people's engagement with Pentecostalism, a prolific expression of Christianity in Africa. Through their indigenous agency, the rising population of youth account for a truly African expression, challenging the notion that this exuberant Christianity is “something particularly North American”. The history of Pentecostalism in Kenya is in part a narrative of young people constantly negotiating their spiritual identity in a rapidly urbanizing environment. African cities began to take root and develop in the post-colonial era of the 1960s and 1970s. The growth of urban Pentecostalism in Kenya is a story about effective youth engagement with their faith. At the heart of student movements is an effective indigenous spirituality that is consistent and self-regenerating. Successive generations of students in high schools and universities sustain and rely on their home-grown organizational structures. Expressing their faith in charismatic forms, student movements enact local missions and train leaders in ways that resonate with, and catalyze the growth of, urban Pentecostal churches.
