African independent churches and the State in Botswana

This study aims to illuminate the interaction between one category of churches, African Independent Churches, and the postindependent Botswana State. It does so with an emphasis on statistical and documentary data. Considering the wealth of penetrating case studies of, particularly, individual African Independent Churches in Southern Africa, there is a need for quantitative overviews, even if, for the time being, they still have to be based on incomplete data. The paper consists of two main sections: an attempt to sketch a quantitative profile of these religious organizations where earlier accounts have been limited to more or less fragmentary case studies; and, once having cleared this ground, an assessment of these churches' specific interaction with the State in one particular locus which the State has defined specifically for that purpose: the institution of the Registrar of Societies, as defined under the Botswana Societies Act of 1972