Who Will Tend the Vine? Pentecostalism, Parenting and the Role of the State in 'London-Lagos'

We explore the tensions evident among Nigerian Pentecostals in London between social and ideological insularity on the one hand, and a more outward-oriented, expansive orientation on the other. Analysis of these stances is complemented by the exploration of believers' actions within a material but also metaphorical arena that we term “London-Lagos.” Such themes are developed specifically through a focus on believers' relations with Nigerian and British state systems in relation to child-rearing—an activity that renders parents sometimes dangerously visible to apparatuses of the state but also raises key dilemmas concerning the proper and moral location of socialisation into Christian values. We show how such dilemmas are embodied in a play, written by a Nigerian Pentecostalist, termed “The Vine-Keepers.”