Evelyn Joshua took the stage after more than four hours of singing and testimonies of divine healing. A 45-foot banner above her bore a huge image of Evelyn and her late husband while Emmanuel TV cameras showed her “laying on hands” for hundreds of people wanting medical cures. Some held printed and hand-written posters describing ailments like HIV/AIDS, epilepsy, diabetes, asthma, difficulty walking, broken bones and tumours.
An announcer trumpeted the pastor’s talents as Evelyn prayed. “Through the hands of the Woman of God, pastor Evelyn Joshua, and the Evangelists [senior church leaders who are allowed to preach], people are receiving that instant healing in their lives,” he declared.
A rapturous attendee at the Moi International Sports Centre, who was interviewed by Emmanuel TV, said what many others were feeling: “I know the legacy of TB Joshua continues.”
With more than nine million followers on social media, Emmanuel TV last month announced plans to cease broadcasting on cable channels in Africa in January 2024 and move to a purely satellite and digital distribution model, through apps for Apple TV, Android, Roku and Amazon.
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By the time the newly constituted Emmanuel TV YouTube Channel started streaming, SCOAN had stiff competition among audiences looking for evangelical prayer and healing. Televangelism remains big business in Nigeria and beyond – but SCOAN could no longer corner the market on TB Joshua content.
Many of Joshua’s disciples have been building ministries that trade on his public image, making similar claims that they could perform miracles. None, however, has replicated his legacy in scale and structure as thoroughly as John Chi – a Cameroonian national who broke away from Joshua in 2013.
Both the physical exterior and interior of his Ark of God’s Covenant Ministry in Buea, Cameroon, resemble the mother church in Lagos. So do Chi’s sermons and live-streamed services.
Like SCOAN, Chi's ministry has incorporated multiple British entities with Companies House, the UK government’s official company register.
One of these, the Ark of God’s Covenant Ministry, established a London branch in September 2022. Led by Caster Mpangi, the church broadcasts its Sunday services live on Facebook from a community centre in Forest Gate. About 50 people turned up to a recent service attended by openDemocracy, where a queue for “deliverance” through prayer lasted over an hour with multiple women undergoing lengthy exorcisms.
One of those members, Lungile Nyavi (also known as Geraldine), and her husband Samuel Nyavi, who is a registered doctor in the UK, regularly make claims of having been healed at the church from problems as wide-ranging as eating disorders, chest pain, knee issues, compulsive nail biting, fertility problems and sexual dysfunction, claiming all were caused by demons.
Lungile Nyavi’s LinkedIn profile lists her as a cognitive behavioural therapist treating in-patients at Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust. The trust confirmed it was looking into the allegations but declined to comment further.
In one video, she advised people struggling with eating disorders to “seek the face of God” and said people struggling with addictions should pray. The Nyavis had not responded to openDemocracy’s requests for comment as this story went into production.
Chi has also developed upon his former mentor’s global media model. Ark of God TV has a satellite channel, a YouTube presence with close to 50 million views, and Apple, Android and Roku apps from which his followers in Europe, North America and the rest of Africa can receive his spiritual messages and witness his purported miracles in real time.
Chi’s YouTube channel spreads misinformation and disinformation about illnesses like cancer, liver and kidney disease, as well as claims that Chi has resurrected dead foetuses. Ark of God TV also amplifies conspiracy theories about the Illuminati, “human lizards” and snakes, and mermaids. One video is titled: “IF YOU DON'T BELIEVE THERE IS A DEMON BEHIND HIV/AIDS, WATCH THIS!!!”
In multiple interviews in his own Ark of God broadcasts and on his church websites, Chi credits his success as a global megachurch leader to TB Joshua. “If not for my mentor prophet TB Joshua, I would not be what I am today,” he told openDemocracy, “Without prophet TB Joshua, you would not have heard about apostle John Chi.”
Chi, it appears, has not spoken publicly about the multiple allegations of sexual abuse by his mentor against former SCOAN members. In 2016, after Chi had set up his own church, three former SCOAN disciples met with Chi and his wife in Cape Town and told them about abuse they had suffered, including explicit details of sexual assault by Joshua.
One of these former disciples who met with Chi told openDemocracy that – although Chi acknowledged their abuse and Joshua’s predatory behaviour – he told them he would continue to honour Joshua publicly. This was confirmed by a witness present during the whole of the 2016 discussion with Chi.
Chi did not respond to openDemocracy’s requests for comment.
At his Buea church compound in November, Chi’s affiliation with Joshua was part of the attraction for hundreds of men and women who queued in the pre-dawn darkness for a chance to see the self-styled prophet in person.
The lights of passing cars revealed people in wheelchairs, or the infirm with wrapped bandages carried in the arms of family members, each hoping for a miracle cure during what would be a 12-hour Sunday service.