To see the other types of publications on this topic, follow the link: African Religion.
Journal articles on the topic 'African Religion'
Create a spot-on reference in APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, and other styles
Consult the top 50 journal articles for your research on the topic 'African Religion.'
Next to every source in the list of references, there is an 'Add to bibliography' button. Press on it, and we will generate automatically the bibliographic reference to the chosen work in the citation style you need: APA, MLA, Harvard, Chicago, Vancouver, etc.
You can also download the full text of the academic publication as pdf and read online its abstract whenever available in the metadata.
Browse journal articles on a wide variety of disciplines and organise your bibliography correctly.
1
Gobo, Prisca A. "Rethinking Religion and Sustainable Development in Africa." East African Journal of Traditions, Culture and Religion 2, no. 1 (October 1, 2020): 60–71. http://dx.doi.org/10.37284/eajtcr.2.1.219.
Full textAbstract:
This article suggests religion as a viable option for sustainable development in Africa. The focus will be on the three major religions in Africa, namely, African Traditional Religion (ATR), Islam and Christianity. The crux of this paper is on the areas of strength and similarities in the three religions which could foster development. Approaching this topic from within the African and African diasporic context, the nexus between the religions will be established. We will be historical in our interrogation of facts. By analysing the different historical sources and adherents of these religions, proper interpretation would be given to this topic using the interdisciplinary approach to historical writing. Conclusions would be drawn after careful examination of the facts which would clearly indicate that religion could aid sustainable development in more ways than one.
2
Chireau, Yvonne. "Looking for Black Religions in 20th Century Comics, 1931–1993." Religions 10, no. 6 (June 25, 2019): 400. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rel10060400.
Full textAbstract:
Relationships between religion and comics are generally unexplored in the academic literature. This article provides a brief history of Black religions in comic books, cartoons, animation, and newspaper strips, looking at African American Christianity, Islam, Africana (African diaspora) religions, and folk traditions such as Hoodoo and Conjure in the 20th century. Even though the treatment of Black religions in the comics was informed by stereotypical depictions of race and religion in United States (US) popular culture, African American comics creators contested these by offering alternatives in their treatment of Black religion themes.
3
Wijsen, Frans. "Are Africans Incurably Religious?" Exchange 46, no. 4 (October 26, 2017): 370–97. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1572543x-12341457.
Full textAbstract:
Abstract This article analyses the debate on the invention of African Religion and the notion that Africans are incurably religious. It uses critical discourse analysis as a form of ideology critique to demonstrate how advocates and opponents of the ‘invention of African Religion’ theory construct their own social realities. Drawing on a conversation between members of the African Association for the Study of Religions the article concludes that the dilemma between the myth and reality of African Religion is false. The fact that African religion was invented does not signify that it does not exist.
4
Smith, Katherine. "African Religions and Art in the Americas." Nova Religio 16, no. 1 (August 1, 2012): 5–12. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/nr.2012.16.1.5.
Full textAbstract:
This print symposium of Nova Religio is devoted to African religions and arts in the Americas, focusing specifically on devotional arts inspired by the Yoruba people of West Africa. The authors presented here privilege an emic approach to the study of art and religion, basing their work on extensive interviews with artists, religious practitioners, and consumers. These articles contribute an understanding of devotional arts that shows Africa, or the idea of Africa, remains a powerful political and aesthetic force in the religious imagination of the Americas.
5
Nweke, Kizito Chinedu. "The Renaissance of African Spiritualities vis-à-vis Christianity: Adopting the Model of Mutual Enrichment." Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses 48, no. 2 (June 2019): 237–57. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0008429819830360.
Full textAbstract:
Christianity has been dominant in many parts of Africa especially since its colonial contact. Recently, however, there is a surge of interest in reviving indigenous spiritualities among Africans, both in Africa and in the diaspora. In Lagos, Nigeria, for example, shrines compete with churches and mosques for adherents and positions. Among the Igbos, a form of convenient interreligiousness has been developed in the society. When issues of practical expediency arise, the Christian would have the option of referring back to his/her traditional religion. Beyond Africa, the rise of African spiritualities has become conspicuous. For various reasons, ranging from Afrocentrism to anti-religious tendencies to the popular religions, from racial animosity to politico-economic ideologies, a lot of people, Africans and non-Africans, are embracing the neo-African spiritualities. This article is a study addressing this revival, by critically analyzing the reasons for its re-emergence, the challenges that have accompanied the revival and the implications of it in the Christian–African spirituality relationship. Can this renaissance in African spirituality bring forth or support a renaissance in Africa? Africa has about 450 million Christians, about 40% of the continent’s population. People of African origin equally make up a good number of Christians outside Africa. In other words, Christianity is decisive, ideologically and structurally, not just as a religion but also in the socio-political life of Africans. Finding a way to harmonize Christianity and African spiritualities, especially in the face of this renaissance, for the growth of Africa, is the aim of this article. Hence, it suggests the model of “Mutual Enrichment.”
6
Oyekan, Adeolu Oluwaseyi. "John Mbiti on the Monotheistic Attribution of African Traditional Religions: A Refutation." Filosofia Theoretica: Journal of African Philosophy, Culture and Religions 10, no. 1 (June 3, 2021): 19–34. http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/ft.v10i1.2.
Full textAbstract:
John Mbiti, in his attempt to disprove the charge of paganism by EuroAmerican ethnographic and anthropological scholars against African Traditional Religions argues that traditional African religions are monotheistic. He insists that these traditional religious cultures have the same conception of God as found in the Abrahamic religions. The shared characteristics, according to him are foundational to the spread of the “gospel” in Africa. Mbiti’s effort, though motivated by the desire to refute the imperial charge of inferiority against African religions ran, I argue, into a conceptual and descriptive conflation of ATRs with monotheistic faiths. In this paper, I challenge the superimposition of Judeo-Christian categories upon African religions. I argue that monotheism is just a strand, out of many, that expresses belief in God(s), and that it differs substantially from the polytheistic pre-colonial African understanding of religion. I provide a panentheistic paradigm using traditional Igbo ontology and religion to refute Mbiti’s generalization.
Keywords: Monotheism, African Traditional Religion, Igbo, Paganism, Theology.
7
West, Gerald O., and Tahir Fuzile Sitoto. "Other Ways of Reading the Qur'an and the Bible in Africa." Postscripts: The Journal of Sacred Texts, Cultural Histories, and Contemporary Contexts 1, no. 1 (April 28, 2005): 47–76. http://dx.doi.org/10.1558/post.v1i1.47.
Full textAbstract:
This article explores how religion possesses and is possessed by Africans. It does this by recognising both the power of religion to configure and of Africans as agents who reconfigure what they encounter in their African contexts. The central question of this article is how placing African agency and context in the forefront reconfigures talk of Islam and Christianity in Africa. The question is taken up through an analysis of two African religious leaders, Shaykh Ahmadu Bamba from West Africa and Isaiah Shembe from South Africa.
8
Tamarkin, Noah. "Religion as Race, Recognition as Democracy." ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 637, no. 1 (July 25, 2011): 148–64. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0002716211407702.
Full textAbstract:
Apartheid South Africa enacted physical, structural, and symbolic forms of violence on racially marked South Africans, and postapartheid South Africa has enacted ambitious—though also limited—laws, policies, and processes to address past injustices. In this article, the author traces the South African political histories of one self-defined group, the Lemba, to understand how the violence they collectively experienced when the apartheid state did not acknowledge their ethnic existence continues to shape their ideas of the promise of democracy to address all past injustices, including the injustice of nonrecognition. The Lemba are known internationally for their participation in DNA tests that indicated their Jewish ancestry. In media discourses, their racialization as black Jews has obscured their racialization as black South Africans: they are presented as seeking solely to become recognized as Jews. The author demonstrates that they have in fact sought recognition as a distinct African ethnic group from the South African state consistently since the 1950s. Lemba recognition efforts show that the violence of nonrecognition is a feature of South African multicultural democracy in addition to being part of the apartheid past. The author argues that the racialization of religion that positions the Lemba as genetic Jews simplifies and distorts their histories and politics of race in South Africa.
9
Sanni, John Sodiq. "RELIGION: A NEW STRUGGLE FOR AFRICAN IDENTITY." Phronimon 17, no. 1 (December 1, 2016): 71–83. http://dx.doi.org/10.25159/2413-3086/1986.
Full textAbstract:
Looking at most African countries, one realises that the social imaginaries which make us who we are, continue to be an issue in every society. It is even more rampant when we think of the role religion plays in determining who we are, what we believe and how we should act and react. This article seeks to look at the nature of religion and how religion over the years played a significant role in African identity. This article proposes that African identity has been endangered by religion; that there is a need to rethink our conceptualisation of religion and to move away from the understanding of religion as the basis of identity. This is because our shared lives should and must be the basis of identity. In other words, imported religions have their own origin and this origin cannot be disassociated from the belief inherent in the religions. There is a need to free the mind of its conditionings that give priority to religion and may therefore serve to exclude other sources of identity derived from collective histories and collective experiences. The illusion which religion plunges us into is often the reason for the problems of identity which most African societies struggle with today. An awareness of this illusion and a new understanding of identity as derived from a shared African experience, will go a long way in resolving the problem of identity in Africa.
10
Salau, Mohammed Bashir. "RELIGION AND POLITICS IN AFRICA: THREE STUDIES ON NIGERIA." Journal of Law and Religion 35, no. 1 (April 2020): 165–77. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/jlr.2020.15.
Full textAbstract:
Until the second half of the twentieth century, the role of religion in Africa was profoundly neglected. There were no university centers devoted to the study of religion in Africa; there was only a handful of scholars who focused primarily on religious studies and most of them were not historians; and there were relatively few serious empirical studies on Christianity, Islam, and African traditional religions. This paucity of rigorous research began to be remedied in the 1960s and by the last decade of the twentieth century, the body of literature on religion in Africa had expanded significantly. The burgeoning research and serious coverage of the role of religion in African societies has initially drawn great impetus from university centers located in the West and in various parts of Africa that were committed to demonstrating that Africa has a rich history even before European contact. Accordingly scholars associated with such university centers have since the 1960s acquired and systematically catalogued private religious manuscripts and written numerous pan-African, regional, national, and local studies on diverse topics including spirit mediumship, witchcraft, African systems of thought, African evangelists and catechists, Mahdism, Pentecostalism, slavery, conversion, African religious diasporas and their impact on host societies, and religion and politics. Although the three works under review here deal with the role of religion in an African context, they mainly contribute to addressing three major questions in the study of religion and politics: How do Islam and other religious orientations shape public support for democracy? What is the primary cause of conflict or religious violence? What strategies should be employed to resolve such conflicts and violence?
11
Pinn, Anthony B. "Introduction: African American Religion Symposium." Nova Religio 7, no. 1 (July 1, 2003): 7–10. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/nr.2003.7.1.7.
Full textAbstract:
This essay introduces five articles in a Nova Religio symposium focusing on African American Religion. The essays provide some means for re-imagining the study of African American religion in ways that allow for a much better understanding of African American participation in traditional and new religious movements.
12
Kroesbergen, Hermen. "Religion without Belief and Community in Africa." Religions 10, no. 4 (April 25, 2019): 292. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rel10040292.
Full textAbstract:
Religion in Africa is in many respects becoming religion without belief and community again, I will argue in this article. Europeans arriving in Africa did not recognize African religion, because Africans did not have the kind of belief and community characteristic of European concepts of religion. Pentecostalization brings back this African concept of religion without worship groups defined by an adherence to a particular picture of the world, and I will show what this means at grassroots level. What matters in this concept of religion is whether something works rather than some implied truth-claims about the world. Instead of forming groups, Neo-Pentecostal ministries are more often organized around the vertical relationship between the man/woman of God and his/her client. The Pentecostalization of Christianity in Africa has led to a form of religion in which beliefs and community are not of central importance.
13
Lugira, Aloysius M. "Africism. a Response To the Onomastic Plight of African Religion." Religion and Theology 8, no. 1-2 (2001): 42–60. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/157430101x00035.
Full textAbstract:
AbstractFor many centuries the autochthonal religion of African peoples have been subjected to a variety of misnomers. This has resulted in the fact of the marginalization of the religions ofAfricans. This paper aims at sensitizing the reader about the issue in order to help check the perpetuation of such marginalization of the religion ofAfrica. In our time, notable personalities and institutions interested in world religions and interreligious dialogue, have expressed the need of an appropriately consolidated and objective designation for the autochthonal religion of Africa. This paper submits that an objectively and creatively established name can be arrived at by a geo-ontological approach. As we turn a new leaf in a new millennium, Africism is hereby submitted as the appropriately consolidated and objective name of the essence and manifestations of the autochthonal religion of Africa.
14
Sanni, John Sodiq. "In the Name of God? Religion, Silence and Extortion." Filosofia Theoretica: Journal of African Philosophy, Culture and Religions 10, no. 1 (June 3, 2021): 71–86. http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/ft.v10i1.5.
Full textAbstract:
This article critically analyses the role religion (I refer here to Islam and Christianity) has played in promoting silence and extortion in Africa with particular reference to Nigeria. In my philosophical analysis, African and Western literatures will guide my reflection on religion, the role it played in advancing the colonial agenda and its use in today’s African societies. This analysis seeks to present a case for the position that the colonial debris of disempowerment, injustices, manipulation, and extortion are still very much part of African society. They have only assumed new outlooks and language, thus plunging many Africans into silence in the face of what is often presented as sacred and unknown. The desired aim of this article is to present a philosophical critique of religion by comparing it with existing use of religion in Africa, especially Nigeria.
Keywords: Religion, Christianity, Extortion, Silence, Nigeria, Injustice
15
Balcomb, Anthony Oswald. "Primal or Indigenous?" Religion and Theology 28, no. 1-2 (July 27, 2021): 64–82. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15743012-bja10015.
Full textAbstract:
Abstract Indigenous religions have been demonised, eclipsed or ignored ever since the advent of modernity. However, in the wake of the decolonial turn they are enjoying a revival of interest and restoration. In Africa this has led to a renewed interest in African Religion. Five approaches are made to the topic by its non-practitioners – that it does not exist, that it is evil, that it is inadequate, that it is preparation for the Christian gospel, or that it is a form of indigenous religion and has integrity in its own right. A particular debate has emerged over the past twenty years concerning nomenclature. How should African Religion be understood and what should it be called? Two possibilities have emerged, the primal and the indigenous. The primal discourse emphasises the role that African Religion plays in the shaping of religion generally and Christianity particularly. The indigenous discourse has developed in opposition to this and emphasises the particularity and uniqueness of African Religion as a species of indigenous religion to be understood in its own right.
16
Michael A. Gomez. "Africans, Religion, and African Religion through the Nineteenth Century." Journal of Africana Religions 1, no. 1 (2013): 78. http://dx.doi.org/10.5325/jafrireli.1.1.0078.
Full text
17
Amoah, Jewel, and Tom Bennett. "The Freedoms of Religion and Culture under the South African Constitution: Do Traditional African Religions Enjoy Equal Treatment?" Journal of Law and Religion 24, no. 1 (2008): 1–20. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0748081400001910.
Full textAbstract:
On Sunday, January 20, 2007, Tony Yengeni, former Chief Whip of South Africa's governing party, the African National Congress (ANC), celebrated his early release from a four-year prison sentence by slaughtering a bull at his father's house in the Cape Town township of Gugulethu. This time-honored African ritual was performed in order to appease the Yengeni family ancestors. Animal rights activists, however, decried the sacrifice as an act of unnecessary cruelty to the bull, and a public outcry ensued. Leading figures in government circles, including the Minister of Arts and Culture, Pallo Jordan, entered the fray, calling for a proper understanding of African cultural practices. Jody Kollapen, the Chair of the Human Rights Commission, said: “the slaughter of animals by cultures in South Africa was an issue that needed to be dealt with in context. Cultural liberty is an important right. …”That the sacrifice was defended on the ground of African culture was to be expected. More surprising was the way in which everyone involved in the affair ignored what could have been regarded as an event of religious significance. Admittedly, it is far from easy to separate the concepts of religion and culture, and, in certain societies, notably those of pre-colonial Africa, this distinction was unknown. Today in South Africa, however, it is clearly necessary to make such a distinction for human rights litigation, partly because the Constitution specifies religion and culture as two separate rights and partly because it seems that those working under the influence of modern human rights seem to take religion more seriously than culture.
18
SZYMCZYCHA, KAZIMIERZ. "Dialog z tradycyjnymi religiami Afryki w nauczaniu papieża Pawła VI, Jana Pawła II oraz w liście kardynała Francisa Arinze." Annales Missiologici Posnanienses, no. 17 (December 15, 2010): 71–87. http://dx.doi.org/10.14746/amp.2010.17.05.
Full textAbstract:
The letter of pope Paul VI Africae terrarum is the first official Church document consecrated to Africa. It was issued on 29th of October 1967. It shows a positive perspective on African Traditional Religion. The second important group of texts regarding the attitude towards ATR are different texts said by John Paul II during his travels to Africa. Special attention should be paid also to the letter of card. F. Arinze consecrated to the pastoral care of the followers of African Traditional Religion.
19
Boakye, Ebenezer. "Decoupling African Traditional Religion and Culture from the Family Life of Africans: Calculated Steps in Disguise." International Journal of Multidisciplinary: Applied Business and Education Research 2, no. 3 (March 15, 2021): 202–12. http://dx.doi.org/10.11594/ijmaber.02.03.04.
Full textAbstract:
Even though African Traditional Religion and Cultural family life seem to have been detached from the indigenous Africans, with many reasons accounting for such a detach, the attempts made by the new wave of Christianity is paramount, under the cloak of salvation and better life. The paper focuses on the steps taken by Pentecostal-Charismatics in Africa to decouple African Traditional Religion and Culture from the family life of Africans in a disguised manner. The paper begins with the retrospection of African Traditional Religion as the religion with belief of the forefathers concerning the existence of the Supreme Being, divinities, Spirit beings, Ancestors, and mysterious powers, good and evil and the afterlife. It then walks readers through the encounter between Christianity and ATR and come out that Christianity from its earliest history has maintained a negative attitude toward ATR. The paper again explores that the traditional understanding of the African family system is portrayed in the common believe system and the functions of the family com-ponents. Again, the paper further unravels decoupling measures such as reaching the masses for audience, demonization of African the world of the spirit, demonization of African elders, pastors as-suming the traditional position of elders of African families are the factors that are being taken to ensure the taking away of African traditional religious and family life from Africans. The paper again discusses the adverse effects of these decoupling factors on Africans. The paper concludes that Traditional African family patterns are slowly but progressively being altered as a result of the process of the decoupling strategies.
20
Domingos, Luís Tomás. "RELIGIÃO TRADICIONAL AFRICANA/TRADITIONAL AFRICAN RELIGION." Brazilian Journal of Development 7, no. 1 (2021): 10690–98. http://dx.doi.org/10.34117/bjdv7n1-730.
Full text
21
Brivio, Alessandra. "Notes sur le Culte des Orisa et Vodun: Pierre Fatumbi Verger and the Study of “African Traditional Religion”." History in Africa 40, no. 1 (August 6, 2013): 275–94. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/hia.2013.13.
Full textAbstract:
AbstractThis article examines Pierre Verger’s Notes sur le culte des Orisa et Vodun à Bahia, la Baie de tous les Saints, au Brésil et à l’ancienne côte des esclaves en Afrique and aims to investigate his position in relation to the study of religion, Vodun in particular, in the African context, and his contribution to the construction of an “African traditional religion” paradigm. In Notes sur le culte des Orisa et Vodun, Verger intended to make a comparative analysis of “African sources” and “Brazilian remnants” in order to ascertain what had survived the middle passage. This article seeks to highlight the innovative perspectives Verger introduced to the study of religions in Africa, perspectives that included a wide use of historical sources and a deep involvement in field research, and to point up his different methodological position on the two sides of the Atlantic. In Africa he sought pure tradition, while in Brazil he emphasized the modernity of the African religions that proved able to survive the Atlantic passage and resist the hegemonic powers of the New World.
22
Salem, Ahmed Ali. "The Crown and the Turban." American Journal of Islam and Society 15, no. 2 (July 1, 1998): 141–46. http://dx.doi.org/10.35632/ajis.v15i2.2188.
Full textAbstract:
The Crown and the Turban is a new, valuable, and controversial contributionto two debates. First, it is a part of the debate on Africa's triple heritage: Africantradition, Islam, and Christianity. Second, it contributes to the debate on "secular"versus "religious" governance.For the first debate, the author argues that Muslims in West Africa are part oftwo encounters. First, they encounter the indigenous people and societies andparticularly their traditional religions and political institutions. Second, theyencounter Europeans who colonized and still indirectJy dominate West Africa.The reason for tension, the author claims, is what he calls "Islamic politicalism"and Muslim militancy on one hand and African tolerance and European secularismon the other.However, African Muslims are in an advantaged position compared toAfrican Christians. African Muslims are indigenous and Islam is considered anAfrican religion. Moreover, African Muslims demonstrate a political confidence based on an authentic tradition and long experience of Muslim rule in precolonialWest Africa (p. 1).Nevertheless, the author argues that Africa offers a fresh opportunity to theadherents of the two missionary faiths, i.e., Islam and Christianity, vis-his thepluralist challenge of indigenous societies. Muslim and Christian Africans arealready favored relatives in the African household but without the prodigal rightor presumption to dispossess it or each other (p. 181).For the second debate, the author argues that Africa offers the promise, andthe attendant hazards, of formulating and resolving the most crucial of debatesfor religious modernization: the debate on secular versus religious governance(p. 182). In the fmal analysis, the author approves and defends the secular governanceas opposed to the religious one ...
23
Nwauche, Enyinna S. "THE RIGHT TO RITUAL SLAUGHTER IN AFRICA: A COMPARATIVE CONSTITUTIONAL ANALYSIS." Journal of Law and Religion 32, no. 3 (November 2017): 470–90. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/jlr.2017.43.
Full textAbstract:
AbstractUsing examples of ritual slaughter recognized by different religions in Africa, this paper examines the regulated and unregulated exercise of the right to ritual slaughter as a manifestation of the right to freedom of religion in three constitutional traditions in Africa.This article commences with an evaluation of the existence of the right to ritual slaughter either as a freestanding right or a derivative right from the right to freedom of religion in the bills of rights of African constitutions. The article argues that the ritual slaughter at this stage of constitutional development in Africa is at best a derivative right partly anchored on the communal dimensions of the right to freedom of religion. The article closely examines the bearers and content of the right to ritual slaughter through a brief overview of the practices of ritual slaughter recognized by African traditional religion and Islam. In addition, the syncretic nature of religious practice in Africa identified as the multiple or concurrent witness to different faiths is also considered to provide a realistic account of ritual slaughter in Africa.Since the right to ritual slaughter is identified as a derivative right from the right to freedom of religion, the article examines different constitutional traditions in Africa to determine how religion is conceived in constitutional governance that in turn affects the feasibility of the right to ritual slaughter within constitutional designs and capacity of other public interests such as animal welfare to limit the exercise of the right to ritual slaughter.Three constitutional designs of the role of religion in constitutional governance are identified in this regard. The article concludes on a number of points, including the recognition of the importance of the articulation of the human rights that underpin animal welfare concerns and the fact that a regulated right to ritual slaughter appears feasible in a number of African countries.
24
Nweke, Innocent Ogbonna. "African Traditional Religion vis-à-vis the Tackle It Suffers." Journal of Religion and Human Relations 13, no. 1 (July 22, 2021): 92–109. http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/jrhr.v13i1.5.
Full textAbstract:
African Traditional Religion is the indigenous religion of the Africans. The religion that has existed before the advent of western civilization which came with secularism as an umbrella that shades Christianity, education, urbanization, colonization and so on. These features of western civilization were impressed upon African Traditional Religion. Hence, the presence of alien cultures and practices in contemporary African traditional practice, as well as the presence of elements of traditionalism in contemporary African Christian practices. This somewhat symbiosis was discussed in this paper and it was discovered that African Traditional Religion was able to jump all the hurdles of secularism, Christianity, urbanization etc and came out successfully though with bruises. The paper used socio-cultural approach in its analysis.
25
Akitoye, Hakeem A. "Islam and Traditional Titles in Contemporary Lagos Society: A Historical Analysis." International Letters of Social and Humanistic Sciences 25 (March 2014): 42–49. http://dx.doi.org/10.18052/www.scipress.com/ilshs.25.42.
Full textAbstract:
Lagos, an area basically inhabited by the Yoruba speaking people of South Western Nigeria and by extension some other parts of West Africa where Islam, Christianity and the African Traditional Religion are still being practised side by side till date with the Africans still being converted to the new faiths without dropping their traditional religion or cultural affiliations. This ideology is very common to the average African who still believes in his culture which has always tainted his way of life or as far as his religion is concerned should not interfere with his culture as the religion as not tacitly condemned some of these practices. This paper intends to examine the extent to which the Yoruba Muslims have been involved in syncretism especially as regards the introduction of the conferment of titles into the Muslim community.
26
Igboin, Benson Ohihon. "‘I Am an African’." Religions 12, no. 8 (August 23, 2021): 669. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rel12080669.
Full textAbstract:
The question, who is an African? in the context of understanding African identity has biological, historical, cultural, religious, political, racial, linguistic, social, philosophical, and even geographical colourations. Scholars as well as commentators have continued to grapple with it as it has assumed a syncretistic or intersectional characterisation. The same applies to, “what is Africa?” because of the defined Western construct of its geography. This foray of concepts appears to be captured in ‘I am an African’, a treatise that exudes the telos of African past, present and the unwavering hope that the future of Africans and Africa is great in spite of the cynicism and loss of faith that the present seems to have foisted on the minds of many an African. Through a critical analysis, it is argued that African religion has a value that is capable of resolving the contentious identity crisis of an African.
27
van der Walt, Bennie J. "CULTURE, WORLDVIEW AND RELIGION." Philosophia Reformata 66, no. 1 (December 2, 2001): 23–38. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/22116117-90000210.
Full textAbstract:
Why is a Reformational philosophy needed in Africa? It is necessary, because something is missing in African Christianity. Most Western missionaries taught Africans a “broken” or dualistic worldview. This caused a divorce between traditional culture and their new Christian religion. The Christian faith was perceived as something remote, only concerned with a distant past (the Bible) and a far-away future (heaven). It could not become a reality in their everyday lives. It could not develop into an all-encompassing worldview and lifestyle. Because Reformational philosophy advocates the Biblical, holistic approach of a comprehensive worldview, it is welcomed on our continent. It contains a healing and liberating message to our bleeding and lost continent. What Africans, however, neither want nor can afford, is an ivory tower philosophy, playing intellectual games; a philosophy which does not do or change anything. They want a philosophy which is a “marriage” between abstract ideas and the facts on the ground. They need a Christian philosophy with compassion that may even contribute to the alleviation of their poverty!
28
Launay, Robert. "Religion and African Civil Wars." American Journal of Islam and Society 24, no. 1 (January 1, 2007): 112–14. http://dx.doi.org/10.35632/ajis.v24i1.1571.
Full textAbstract:
This volume contains an introduction and seven case studies by anthropologists,historians, and theologians. The papers were originally presented at a1999 conference on “Religion and Social Upheaval in Africa” in Denmark.As a result, some of the papers are somewhat out-of-date, although the questionsthey raise are, sadly, just as relevant as ever to the continent’s currentsituation.As Niels Kastfelt points out in his introductory essay, the authors rejectany approach that seeks to understand African civil conflicts in terms of a“New Barbarism,” an irrational manifestation of “tribal” or religious atavism.This strategy, which is perhaps most typical of journalistic accountsbut also finds some support among academics, clearly constitutes an obstacletoward any meaningful comprehension of the phenomena in question. Ina similar vein, they equally reject any notion of a “conflict of civilizations”or that African civil wars can be explained in terms of the incompatible religiousvalues of Christianity, Islam, and indigenous African religions.Rather, their papers provide a detailed account of the local context in a historicalperspective by focusing on the political, economic, and explicitlyreligious phenomena.Indeed, the lines of cleavage in many of these cases are not defined inreligious terms. As a result, the nature of the relationships between “religion”and the civil wars in question are so disparate that the volume does notquite hang together. For example, René Devisch’s paper on Kinshasa is notreally about civil war, but rather about the effects of the collapse of stateauthority and the formal economy, both of which unleashed rampant violencein the city but also led to the emergence of independent Christian healingcommunes as a sort of refuge ...
29
Van Den Heever, Gerhard. "On How To Be or Not To Be: Theoretical Reflection On Religion and Identity in Africa." Religion and Theology 8, no. 1-2 (2001): 1–25. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/157430101x00017.
Full textAbstract:
AbstractIn introducing this issue on 'Religion and Identity in Africa' the debates regarding African identity in religion here is placed within a wider theoretical framework of social constructivist theories of religion. Within the ambit of these social approaches to religion, it is argued that issues of identity and religion are essentially issues of mythmaking and social formation with a view to satisfying social interests. However, describing religion and explaining identity formation are not innocent scholarly activities, embedded as they are in the politics of conceptual manipulation and the rhetoric of identity creation. In light of this it can be argued that the contributions assembled in this issue represent both descriptions of processes, and appeals to or indicators towards the development of an African identity in conceptualising religion in the African context.
30
James, Wendy. "African Religion and Ritual." Anthropology Today 6, no. 1 (February 1990): 20. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3033188.
Full text
31
Tarpley, Margaret, and D'Anna Shotts. "Encyclopedia of African Religion." Theological Librarianship 2, no. 2 (October 3, 2009): 124–26. http://dx.doi.org/10.31046/tl.v2i2.102.
Full text
32
Beidelman, T. O., and John S. Mbiti. "Introduction to African Religion." International Journal of African Historical Studies 25, no. 3 (1992): 669. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/219036.
Full text
33
van Niekerk, A. S. "African religion and development." Development Southern Africa 3, no. 1 (February 1986): 50–66. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03768358608439207.
Full text
34
McKenzie, Peter, and Noel Q. King. "African Cosmos. An Introduction to Religion in Africa." Journal of Religion in Africa 16, no. 3 (October 1986): 226. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1581288.
Full text
35
Ogunnaike. "African Philosophy Reconsidered: Africa, Religion, Race, and Philosophy." Journal of Africana Religions 5, no. 2 (2017): 181. http://dx.doi.org/10.5325/jafrireli.5.2.0181.
Full text
36
Masoga, M. A. "Chasing the wind amidst roaring lions! Problematisation of religiosity in the current South African socio-political and economic landscape." Theologia Viatorum 40, no. 1 (July 25, 2016): 68–89. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/tv.v40i1.16.
Full textAbstract:
Mbiti once asserted that Africans are notoriously religious. For Mbiti, Africans are incurably religious. It becomes necessary to look intently at the current South African socio-political and economic landscape in the context of religiosity. There are vivid indications that religiosity in South Africa has become a common ‘terrain ‘of use, abuse, and misuse in processes of both politicking and moralising. Interestingly, when any political leadership asserts power, there is also a discourse of ‘religiosity’ that develops. This propensity has unfortunately equated religion or being religious (in South Africa) to political democratic legitimization, consolidation and normalization. Outside South Africa is the narrative of Prophet TB Joshua. There are claims that a number of political leaders have been to the Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN), Lagos head-quarters, in Nigeria, arguably chasing their political validity. There are other relevant narratives and accounts in South Africa which include the frequent visits to Moriya, the headquarters of the Zion Christian Church (ZCC), in Limpopo and also the Isaiah Shembe meeting place at eKuphakameni. The question is whether religion or religiosities are appropriate instruments to give political credibility. The paper aims to question how religion and religiosity affect the current South African socio-political and economic landscape. Some anecdotes and narratives of how polarized this situation is will be presented and analysed.
37
Nabofa, M. Y. "Blood Symbolism in African Religion." Religious Studies 21, no. 3 (September 1985): 389–405. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0034412500017479.
Full textAbstract:
Symbolism has found spontaneous expression in several religious and secular practices among many different peoples of Africa. These expressions can be seen in religious emblems, ideograms, rituals, songs, prayers, myths, incantations, vows, customary behaviour and personifications. The under-standing of these religious symbols lends itself to rapid comprehensive and compact use; not only that, it also helps understanding and concentration. In fact, Mary Douglas expresses the view that such symbols, especially rituals, aid us in selecting experiences for concentrated attention, creative at the level of performance, and can mysteriously help the co-ordination of brain and body (1966, p. 63). Conversely, religious symbols have their ambiguities, and these could shroud their true meaning to the unwary. A religious symbol could also represent a complex set of ideas at different levels which gives room to diverse theological, philosophical and psychological interpretations. While we may agree with Raymond Firth (1973, p. 32) that an anthropologist is concerned primarily with the public use of the symbolic, and his aim is to separate symbols from referent so that he may describe the relations between them, we are of the view that those who are in the field of psychology of religion will be most concerned with how symbols influence the mind of the believer and thus understand the faith of the devotee better. In fact, it was the non-understanding of traditional African religious symbols and ideas that partly contributed to the way in which some of the early Western and Arab scholars, investigating African thought forms, looked at the African indigenous beliefs in a derogatory manner. As a method of scholarly research, a careful and meaningful study of the religious significance of certain ritualistic elements and behaviour enables us to understand and appreciate the more why certain things are treated in some special way by the believers, and thus helps to deepen our knowledge of that very faith. It helps us to grasp the essence of the religion rather than its incidentals. In order, therefore, to help comprehend some of the practices in African traditional religion attempts will be made in this paper to discuss the central significance of blood in African belief. Although I consulted the works of some anthropologists and theologians on African religions and philosophy of life, the bulk of the ethnographic materials used in this paper are mainly drawn from my fieldwork (1975–82) among some groups of Nigerians; and a great deal of my interpretations are surrounded by the theories propounded by Mary Douglas and Raymond Firth.
38
Khan, Aisha. "American religion: diaspora and syncretism from Old World to New." New West Indian Guide / Nieuwe West-Indische Gids 77, no. 1-2 (January 1, 2003): 105–10. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/13822373-90002531.
Full textAbstract:
[First paragraph]Nation Dance: Religion, Identity, and Cultural Difference in the Caribbean. PATRICK TAYLOR (ed.). Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001. x +220 pp. (Paper US$ 19.95)Translating Kali 's Feast: The Goddess in Indo-Caribbean Ritual and Fiction. STEPHANOS STEPHANIDES with KARNA SINGH. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2000. xii + 200 pp. (Paper US$ 19.00)Between Babel and Pentecost: Transnational Pentecostalism in Africa and Latin America. ANDRÉ CORTEN & RUTH MARSHALL-FRATANI (eds.). Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001. 270 pp. (Paper US$ 22.95)Encyclopedia of African and African-American Religions. STEPHEN D. GLAZIER (ed.). New York: Routledge, 2001. xx + 452 pp. (Cloth US$ 125.00)As paradigms and perspectives change within and across academie disciplines, certain motifs remain at the crux of our inquiries. Evident in these four new works on African and New World African and South Asian religions are two motifs that have long defined the Caribbean: the relationship between cultural transformation and cultural continuity, and that between cultural diversity and cultural commonality. In approaching religion from such revisionist sites as poststructuralism, diaspora, hybridity, and creolization, however, the works reviewed here attempt to move toward new and more productive ways of thinking about cultures and histories in the Americas. In the process, other questions arise. Particularly, can what are essentially redirected language and methodologies in the spirit of postmodern interventions teil us more about local interpretation, experience, and agency among Caribbean, African American, and African peoples than can more traditional approaches? While it is up to individual readers to decide this for themselves, my own feeling is that it is altogether a good thing that these works still echo long-standing conundrums: the Herskovits/Frazier debate over cultural origins, the tensions of assimilation in "plural societies," and the significance of religion in everyday life. Perhaps one of the most important lessons that research in the Caribbean has for broader arenas of scholarship is that foundational questions are tenacious even in the face of paradigm shifts, yet can always generate new modes of inquiry, defying intellectual closure and neat resolution.
39
Almeida, Nadi Maria de. "TOWARDS A CHRISTIAN APPROACH TO AFRICA TRADITIONAL RELIGION." INTERAÇÕES 16, no. 1 (March 28, 2021): 118–31. http://dx.doi.org/10.5752/p.1983-2478.2021v16n1p118-131.
Full textAbstract:
Inter-Religious dialogue is a demand for the mission. Based on the theological investigation of scholars who explore and write on the subject, the article analyses the theological challenge of Inter-Religious dialogue especially in approaching African Traditional Religions. The discussion concerns the Christian theology of religious pluralism with the local religion in Africa looking at the theological progress, not just from the abstract world of books, but also, from connecting with the life of the people, appreciating and connecting points of convergences with the local culture and religions. Still, a long way to go on the reflection and there needs to open wider our vision concerning the action of the Spirit that has been always present in Africa.
40
Harries, Jim. "The Glaring Gap, Anthropology, Religion, and Christianity in African Development." Exchange 42, no. 3 (2013): 232–51. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1572543x-12341273.
Full textAbstract:
Abstract Careful reading of studies on language of education in Africa reveals a gaping gap in comprehension. A careful study of the history and practice of anthropology reveals a covert concealing of large arenas of knowledge about African societies from view. The above gaps in understanding result in debate on African development frequently ignoring ‘religion’. African development seems not to be progressing on its own; great ideas on development rooted in western thinking typically collapse when handed over to African management. This article considers how the above ‘gaps’ in anthropology and linguistic studies have contributed to the dummification of academia that has in turn handicapped Africa. It considers a new engagement with ‘religion’, especially Christianity, as the way forward.
41
Contins, Marcia. "The City and African-Brazilian Religions." Vibrant: Virtual Brazilian Anthropology 11, no. 2 (December 2014): 247–67. http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/s1809-43412014000200009.
Full textAbstract:
In this article, I discuss the relationships between ethnicity and religion, based on anthropological studies of religions in the urban context. I also discuss the transformations of these studies since the 1970s. Since I have myself contributed to this field of studies, my own experience as a researcher must be taken into account. I focus on the uses of the categories of ethnicity and religion during two distinct periods in the history of Brazilian anthropology. In each of these periods, I point out significant transformations in the way Brazilian researchers describe themselves and how they conceive the relationship between their research topics and the city.
42
Bompani, Barbara. "Religion and Development from Below: Independent Christianity in South Africa." Journal of Religion in Africa 40, no. 3 (2010): 307–30. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/157006610x525435.
Full textAbstract:
AbstractMost of the literature on African independent churches (AICs) in South Africa has not paid much attention to their economic and developmental role. In contrast, this article will show how AICs are involved in important economic activities such as voluntary mutual benefit societies, savings clubs, lending societies, stokvels (informal savings funds), and burial societies that control millions of South African rand. In light of firsthand empirical research, this article investigates these kinds of activities, and analyses independent churches’ developmental role. This will allow us to better understand how these communities play a strong and supportive function among Africans in a deprived economic situation. In a period of socio-political transformation in South Africa, AICs are able to answer the needs of the people and their hunger to rebuild an identity. My major critique of classical research on AICs is the failure of the literature to address ‘social change’ in a theoretically adequate way, as something more than just descriptions of ‘traditional’ social structures away from interpretations of modernity.
43
Omenyo, Cephas N. "Man of God Prophesy Unto Me: The Prophetic Phenomenon in African Christianity." Studies in World Christianity 17, no. 1 (April 2011): 30–49. http://dx.doi.org/10.3366/swc.2011.0004.
Full textAbstract:
One of the features of African primal religions that has stood the test of time is the practice of seeking the cause of evil occurrences, power to deal with it or to avert any future reoccurrence and the search for one's destiny through divination which has been designated ‘prophetism’ in Christianity. The African Indigenous Churches were the first to build the bridge between primal religion and African Christianity by appropriating resources from the gospel to deal with this typical African religious practice. This essay looks at the phenomenon in primal religion, African Indigenous Churches (AICs), the older or Classical Pentecostalism, and contemporary Pentecostal movements. One can establish a continuum from primal religion to the current renewal movements with regards to prophetism, due to the deep-seated quest of the phenomenon in African worldview, which indeed was predicted by Professor C. G. Baëta, Ghana's foremost distinguished scholar who studied the phenomenon more than four decades ago.
44
Becker, Felicitas, and P. Wenzel Geissler. "Searching for Pathways in a Landscape of Death: Religion and AIDS in East Africa." Journal of Religion in Africa 37, no. 1 (2007): 1–15. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/157006607x166564.
Full textAbstract:
AbstractThe commonalities of eastern Africa's history from colonial occupation to the formation of nation states and their post-postcolonial decay, the region's shared experiences with the religions of the book—fist Islam and later Christianity—and its shared struggle with the physical, social, political and epistemological predicament of HIV/AIDS, make East Africa, with its cultural and historical diversity, a suitably coherent field to study the relationship between religion and the experience of AIDS-related suffering. The papers in this issue explore how AIDS is understood and confronted through religious ideas and practices, and how these, in turn, are reinterpreted and changed by the experience of AIDS. They reveal the creativity and innovations that continuously emerge in the everyday life of East Africans, between bodily and spiritual experiences, and between religious, medical, political and economic discourses. Countering simplified notions of causal effects of AIDS on religion (or vice versa), the diversity of interpretations and practices inserts the epidemic into wider, and more open, frames of reference. It reveals East Africans' will and resourcefulness in their struggle to move ahead in spite of adversity, and goes against the generalised vision of doom widely associated with the African AIDS epidemic. Finally, it shows that East Africans understand AIDS not as a singular event in their history, but as the culmination of a century-long process of changing spiritual imaginaries, bodily well-being and livelihoods. Intimately connected to political history and economic fortunes, it presents itself at present as an experience of loss and decay, yet it remains open-ended.
45
Segell, Glen. "Neo-colonialism in Africa and the Cases of Turkey and Iran." Insight on Africa 11, no. 2 (July 2019): 184–99. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0975087819845197.
Full textAbstract:
Africa is suffering from neo-colonialism for the same reasons that it suffered from colonialism. Neo-colonialism is the regressive impact of unregulated forms of aid, trade and foreign direct investment; and the collaboration of African leaders with foreign leaders to ensure that the interests of both are met with little concern for the development, sustainability and poverty reduction and wellbeing in African countries. The relationship is asymmetrical or at the cost of African states and their people, who are dependent rather that inter-dependent and do not profit through development or sustainability. They face destruction of their culture, religion and education through continued advancement of foreign culture, religion and language to supplant the African and growing radicalisation of the population. This is elaborated thematically under four headings: Africa the colonial dream, the emergence of neo-colonialism, the proponents of neo-colonialism and the element of religion. Evidence of Middle East states are shown as neo-colonialists in Africa discussed under the cases of Turkey and Iran. The motivation of the former is for the purposes of economics and the latter is for the purposes of religion. Both benefit also through status by projecting their influence as growing global actors. The breakdown of African nations rather than their positive construction and development is increasingly visible. The conclusions are that neo-colonialism is active.
46
Tayob, Abdulkader. "The Representation of Religion in Religion Education: Notes from the South African Periphery." Education Sciences 8, no. 3 (September 11, 2018): 146. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/educsci8030146.
Full textAbstract:
Scholars of Religion Education (RE) have promoted a non-confessional approach to the teaching of religions that explores and examines the religious history of humankind, with due attention paid to its complexity and plurality. In this promotion, the public representation of religion and its impact on RE has not received sufficient attention. An often hegemonic representation of religion constitutes an important part of religion in public life. Moreover, this article argues that this representation is a phenomenon shared by secular, secularizing, and deeply religious societies. It shows that a Western understanding of secularization has guided dominant RE visions and practices, informed by a particular mode of representation. As an illustration of how education in and representation of religion merges in RE, the article analyses the South African policy document for religion education. While the policy promotes RE as an educational practice, it also makes room for a representation of religion. This article urges that various forms of the representation of religion should be more carefully examined in other contexts, particularly by those who want to promote a non-confessional and pluralistic approach to RE.
47
Michello, Janet. "The Black Madonna: A Theoretical Framework for the African Origins of Other World Religious Beliefs." Religions 11, no. 10 (October 10, 2020): 511. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rel11100511.
Full textAbstract:
This review summarizes existing scholarship in order to theorize how Abrahamic religions and Hinduism were influenced by African beliefs, in order to illuminate the contributions that African beliefs have had on other world religions. The review begins with a brief historical overview of the origins of indigenous ideologies, followed by a review of classical theories of religion and a summary of contemporary religious trends, with particular attention on African beliefs. The Black Madonna, with origins in Africa, is a prominent example of how African beliefs have been integrated into other faiths in ways that are often obscured from view. The Black Madonna is compared with the characteristics and symbolism of the traditional fair-skinned Virgin Mary. It is estimated that there are hundreds of depictions of the Black Madonna, yet her identity as truly black is generally minimized. This review contributes a theoretical rationale for the lack of recognition and acceptance of the Madonna as black, contextualizing this within a feminist theoretical viewpoint and analyzing the connection to African folklore and traditional religious beliefs. The theoretical framework articulated in this paper contributes an elucidation of the ways that indigenous African religions have affected other world religions. Acknowledging this influence challenges the simplistic notion of reified distinctions between Western and non-Western religions.
48
Adogame, Afe, and Ezra Chitando. "Moving among Those Moved by the Spirit." Fieldwork in Religion 1, no. 3 (December 1, 2005): 253–70. http://dx.doi.org/10.1558/firn.v1i3.253.
Full textAbstract:
The religious maps of Europe and North America have been profoundly altered by the growing presence of African religious communities in a way that further challenges the secularization thesis. The paper situates the new African religious diaspora within ongoing processes of globalization and transnationalism. We seek to interrogate how religious repertoires in Africa and the diaspora establish continuities with the past as well as engage in self-positioning as part of the processes of African modernity. Drawing from our research experience amongst African Christian communities in Europe and the USA, the paper highlights the methodological challenges of conducting fieldwork amongst African Christians in the diaspora. These include the enduring insider/outsider problem, the politics of advocacy in the case of asylum seekers, and the charged issue of accurate representation of the ?Other?. The paper challenges the tendency to ?explain away? religion and underlines the urgency for a sustained reflection on the interface between sociological theory and fieldwork. We demonstrate, how and to what extent African Christians mobilize the resource of religion to facilitate their mostly tenuous existence in the diaspora, and contend that their experiences provide valuable perspectives into how religious and extra-religious networks and experiences might act as substitutes for socioeconomic security and a bastion for religio-cultural identity.
49
Gundani, Paul H. "Views and Attitudes of Missionaries Toward African Religion in Southern Africa During the Portuguese Era." Religion and Theology 11, no. 3-4 (2004): 298–312. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/157430104x00140.
Full textAbstract:
AbstractThis artocle focusses on the religious encounter between Portuguese missionaries and the African societies in Southern Africa. It is argued that the crusading mentality embedded in mediaeval Catltolicism and the terms of the Padruado underpinned and reinforced the views and attitudes that Portuguese missionrzries constructed around African religion and ritual. The perceptions that Christianity was superior to, and in no position to negotiate and dialogue with African religion, contributed significantly towards their failure to understand and to evangelise the societies they came in contact with. Moreover the failure to appreciate that traditional religion was a centrifugal force around which all life, not just kingship, gravitated, resulted in their disillusionment and immature abandonment of the mission field. This analysis is based on, and aided by, secondary sources zuritten on the Portuguese activities in Southern Africa.
50
Cabrita, Joel. "Writing Apartheid: Ethnographic Collaborators and the Politics of Knowledge Production in Twentieth-Century South Africa." American Historical Review 125, no. 5 (December 2020): 1668–97. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ahr/rhaa512.
Full textAbstract:
Abstract Knowledge production in apartheid-era South Africa was a profoundly collaborative process. In particular, throughout the 1930s–1950s, the joint intellectual labor of both Africans and Europeans created a body of knowledge that codified and celebrated the notion of a distinct realm of Zulu religion. The intertwined careers of Swedish missionary to South Africa Bengt Sundkler and isiZulu-speaking Lutheran pastor-turned-ethnographer Titus Mthembu highlight the limitations of overly clear demarcations between “professional” versus “lay” anthropologists as well as between “colonial European” versus “indigenous African” knowledge. Mthembu and Sundkler’s decades-long collaboration resulted in a book called Bantu Prophets in South Africa ([1948] 1961). The work is best understood as the joint output of both men, although Sundkler scarcely acknowledged Mthembu’s role in the conceptualization, research, and writing of the book. In an era of racial segregation, the idea that African religion occupied a discrete, innately different sphere that the book advanced had significant political purchase. As one of a number of African ideologues supportive of the apartheid state, Mthembu mobilized his ethnographic findings to argue for innate racial difference and the virtues of “separate development” for South Africa’s Zulu community. His mysterious death in 1960 points to the high stakes of ethnographic research in the politically fraught climate of apartheid South Africa.