Journal articles on the topic 'Christianity and culture Christianity Igbo (African people)'

In a quest for greater coherence between parochial identities, culture and Christianity, there exists an African consciousness which seeks to indigenise and decolonise Christianity. Africans are profoundly religious people who view their faith as part of their way of life, as strengthening their cultures and providing a moral compass for daily living. In efforts to transform society, the Christian religion has played a significant role in the path to African development. Christianity in Africa dates to the very inception of the church. Africans consequently played a crucial role in establishing the doctrines and theology of the early church. While African Traditional religion (ATR) is paramount, it is the purpose of this article to suggest that the Christian faith has and continuous to play a significant role on the African continent in its development. While there are many indigenous African beliefs, these have been to a large extent supported by Christianity in a quest to systematize novel knowledge and promote peace and tolerance across the continent. Many Africans have sought facets of Christianity that are similar to their religious and personal practices and continue to do so. Thus, while there exist numerous similarities and also differences between Christianity and ATR, it is imperative to preserve old-style regional distinctiveness and Christianity as the unifying rudiments in nation building endeavours and in efforts to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. Africans can and should come to comprehend the Triune Godhead as being consistent with their own spiritual consciousness and existential veracities. Indigenization of Christianity requires enculturation and essentially an understanding that it is indeed ecumenical and also embraces diversity and fundamentally requires viewing Holy Scriptures and the truths they propound as being applicable to any context and cultural milieu across the ages. Christians after all espouse a faith in the Ekklesia or body of Christ for all its people who are the Laos of God.

Partindo de uma perspectiva histórica, considerando a chegada dos primeiros missionários anglicanos, em meados do século XIX, entre os Igbos, na Nigéria, abordarei o impacto do cristianismo (incluindo missionários e convertidos) sobre o debate local acerca da identidade Igbo. Argumentarei que a cultura Igbo tradicional e não cristã foi definida por e em resposta aos debates da missão cristã sobre a conversão e o comportamento dos cristãos Igbos. Depois disso, vou relatar como a identidade Igbo veio a coincidir com o cristianismo e como isso resultou em uma apreciação renovada da religião "tradicional" local como herança e não como "paganismo". Além da literatura mencionada na bibliografia, esta interpretação é baseada em entrevistas que realizei na Nigéria, jornais nigerianos locais, revistas missionárias e correspondência original dos missionários da Church Missionary Society (CMS).Palavras-chave: Religião. Patrimônio. NigériaRELIGION AS HERITAGE IN NIGERIA: Igbo Christians and African traditional religion Abstract: Starting from a historical perspective, considering the arrival of the first Anglican missionaries in the mid-nineteenth century among the Igbo in Nigeria, I will address the impact of mission Christianity (including missionaries, converts, and prospective converts) upon the local debate about Igbo identity. I will argue that traditional, non-Christian Igbo culture was defined by, and in response to, the mission Christianity”™s debates on conversion and the preferred behavior of Igbo Christians. Finally, I will relate how Igbo identity came to coincide with Christianity and how this resulted in a renewed appreciation of local, ”˜traditional”™ religion as heritage rather than as ”˜paganism”™. Apart from the literature mentioned in the bibliography, this interpretation is based on interviews I held in Nigeria, local Nigerian newspapers, missionary journals, and original correspondence from the missionaries of the Church Missionary Society (CMS).Keywords: Religion. Heritage. Nigeria. RELIGIÓN COMO HERENCIA EN NIGERIA: Cristianos Igbos y Religión Tradicional africanaResumen: A partir de una perspectiva histórica, considerando la llegada de los primeros misioneros anglicanos, a mediados del siglo XIX, entre los Igbos, en Nigeria, enfocaré el impacto del cristianismo (incluyendo misioneros y convertidos) sobre el debate local acerca de la identidad Igbo. Argumentaré que la cultura Igbo tradicional y no cristiana fue definida por y en respuesta a los debates de la misión cristiana sobre la conversión y el comportamiento de los cristianos Igbos. Después de eso, voy a relatar cómo la identidad Igbo vino a coincidir con el cristianismo y cómo resultó en una apreciación renovada de la religión "tradicional" local como herencia y no como "paganismo". Además de la literatura mencionada en la bibliografá­a, esta interpretación se basa en entrevistas que realicé en Nigeria, periódicos nigerianos locales, revistas misioneras y correspondencia original de los misioneros de la Church Missionary Society (CMS). Palabras clave: Religión. Herencia. Nigeria.

This research aimed to find out the actual situation on the ground regarding what mainline Christianity is actually doing in confronting or conforming to biblical and cultural norms regarding the role and position of women in their denominations. It is based on six mainline churches. This field research reveals that it may not be enough to concentrate on gender in missionary religions such as Christianity, without paying attention to the base culture: African traditional religio-culture which informs most people who are now Christians. It also illuminates how the churches are actually acting to break free of the oppressive biblical traditions and bringing about changes regarding the status of women in their churches. In some cases women are now being given more active roles in the churches, but on the other hand are still bound at home by an oppressive traditional Shona patriarchal culture and customs. Through a hybrid qualitative research design combining phenomenology and case study, what we are referring to as phenomenological case study, we argue that Christianity is a stimulus to change, an impetus to revolution, and a grounding for dignity and justice that supports and fosters gender equity efforts.

AbstractEncountering colonialism and Christianity, African people became intertwined with the development of a documentary culture in the Northern Transvaal. In the second half of the nineteenth century Africans, missionaries and settlers produced and read Bibles, codes of law, newspaper articles, translations of religious texts and church declarations. As a result of multifaceted social interaction, African people's attitudes were never an exclusively African business. The article shows how certain peoples cherished the technical skills of reading and writing, while others defined literacy as a subordinate instrument employable only for the attainment of religious goals. It argues that especially missionaries' and Africans' attitudes towards documents changed as a response to the broader economic and social transformations in the area. It also points out how the new Christian elite tried to use literacy as a window to the European reading public and how they produced documents of their own in which they ixed important parameters of African Christianity.

Early in 1740, actor-turned-revivalist George Whitefield journeyed to Savannah after a preaching tour that had taken him to Philadelphia and New York before heading south to Charleston, where he arrived in January that year. At the time, Charleston was experiencing communal angst. A few months before, in September 1739, an uprising occurred in this colony where African slaves were a majority—perhaps even two-thirds of the population. Around two dozen whites lost their lives, and several plantations were burned. Popular belief held that a Catholic priest inspired the revolt since apparently many involved in the uprising were Catholic Kongo people who hoped to escape to St. Augustine where Spanish Catholic authorities had promised them freedom. The assault came on a Sunday early in September. Later that month new colonial legislation that required white men to be armed at all times—even while attending Sunday worship—would become law. Whites assumed that the timing was intended to assure that the revolt occurred before that provision took effect, since most did not ordinarily carry firearms to church on Sunday.

This article discusses Aimiri Baraka‘s concern with the history of black people in his poem ―Beginnings: Malcolm‖. The writers try to shed some light on the way Baraka‘s historiography challenges the white supremecist discourses through a rewriting of the African American past that blurs the boundaries of myth and history, fact and fiction, in a postmodern manner. It is argued that through the use of the central African myth of Esu/Elegba and drawing on traditions of Christianity and Western literature/culture, Baraka‘s poem offers an uncanny insight into the past.

Nigeria is a large West African country, more than 900 000 km2 in area–nearly four times the size of the UK. Despite having a population of about 117 million people, 42% of whom live in cities, Nigeria has about half the population density of the UK. About a sixth of all Africans are Nigerian. The country has a diverse ethnic mix, with over 200 spoken languages, of which three (Yoruba, Hausa and Ibo) are spoken by about 60% of the population. The official language of government and educational instruction is English. There is a federal system of government and 36 states. Religious practice has a major role in Nigeria's culture; of the two main religions, Islam predominates in the northern part of the country and Christianity in the south. A large proportion of the population still embraces traditional religions exclusively, or interwoven with either Islam or Christianity.

AbstractFocusing on the mid-nineteenth-century encounters between missionaries from the Norddeutsche Missionsgesellschaft (NMG) and the Ewe, this essay shows that the NMG employed a romanticist, Herderian notion of culture and nationhood to establish order and impose power, and sought to prevent Ewe converts from adopting Western influences in their own way. Through an analysis of the NMG's attitude to language and the nation, its linguistic and ethnographic studies, which were devoted to turning 'scattered Ewe tribes' into one 'people', and the education of Ewe mission workers in Westheim (Germany), it is argued that, rather than denying African converts their 'own culture', attempts were made to lock them up in it. Missionary cultural politics, the essay argues, thrived on a paradoxical coexistence of appeals made to both the new notion of the nation as a marker of 'civilisation' and an 'authentic' state of being. Thus, the NMG used the notion of the nation as a means to exert power, to assert the superiority of the West and to control converts' exposure to foreign ideas.

AbstractEdward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington (1899–1974) emerged within the jazz profession as a prominent exponent of Harlem Renaissance racial uplift ideals about incorporating African American culture into artistic production. Formed in the early twentieth century's middle-class black Protestant culture but not a churchgoer in adulthood, Ellington conveyed a nostalgic appreciation of African American Christianity whenever hewrote music to chronicle African American history. This prominent jazz musician's religious nostalgia resulted in compositions that conveyed to a broader American audience a portrait of African American religiosity that was constantly “classical” and static—not quite primitive, but never appreciated as a modern aspect of black culture.This article examines several Ellington compositions from the late 1920s through the 1960s that exemplify his deployment of popular representations of African American religious belief and practice. Through the short filmBlack and Tanin the 1920s, the satirical popular song “Is That Religion?” in the 1930s, the long-form symphonic movementBlack, Brown and Beigein the 1940s, the lyricism of “Come Sunday” in the 1950s, and the dramatic prose of “My People” in the 1960s, Ellington attempted to capture a portrait of black religious practice without recognition of contemporaneous developments in black Protestant Christianity in the twentieth century's middle decades. Although existing Ellington scholarship has covered his “Sacred Concerts” in the 1960s and 1970s, this article engages themes and representations in Ellington's work prefiguring the religious jazz that became popular with white liberal Protestants in America and Europe. This discussion of religious narratives in Ellington's compositions affords an opportunity to reflect upon the (un)intended consequences of progressive, sympathetic cultural production, particularly on the part of prominent African American historical figures in their time. Moreover, this article attempts to locate the jazz profession as a critical site for the examination of racial and religious representation in African American religious history.

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.

The snail-pace of social and economic development within sub-Saharan Africa is of major concern not only to the development community, but to all who have the continent’s well-being at heart. Various attempts (many rather elusive) at diagnosis and prescription of the right antidotes to the problem have been made for decades. This paper, however, shares Jeffrey Sachs’s optimism in End of Poverty with the point of departure being that organised religion holds the key to a reversal of the trend. The paper explores the impact of religious beliefs on the development of some communities in the past and the present before concluding that Christianity could unlock the prospects to sub-Saharan Africa’s economic fortunes. In the view of this researcher, African theological reflections, in response to the challenges of endemic corruption, nepotism, superstition, and bad work ethics on the continent, must be grounded in the language, traditional beliefs, values and practices (i.e. culture) of the people as grounds for integration with the modern scientific and technological advancement that confronts the continent. This underscores the need for Christianity itself to become that culture which is willing to accommodate a consciously reconstructed past as the pathway to a developed future.

This essay explores the cultural phenomenon of globalization ushered in through worldwide economic market expansions, international travel, technological advances, and rapid Internet communications. These transformations are influencing and changing not only cultures and individual nation-states; they are also impacting religious meaning and faith everywhere. By examining the case study of the Sakalava people of Madagascar, who practice an indigenous religion known as tromba spirit possession, we can learn how this specific cultural and religious context copes with external economic, political, cultural, and religious forces. The research also explains how Christianity needs to interact with the Sakalava religion in reconstructing the Sakalava culture and discovering gospel values already present and active. This has worldwide implications for a Christian mission of evangelization. The article concludes by outlining some consequences for Christian evangelization that attend to the local and the universal impact of the gospel vision.

The present paper discusses the question of missiology in an African context and raises the following questions: What has been the prevailing missiology in Africa? What can Africans say about missiology in the new century? Have Africans something to contribute in missiology, or should they continue to be consumers of the mission theology and the version of Christianity developed overseas? Can African churches be fully participant in the evangelization of the continent and of the world? And finally, what kind of contribution can African theologians make in order to promote the inculturation of the Christian faith and of human promotion in the continent? In exploring these issues, the author has chosen to emphasize the importance of a new language for missiology in Africa1 and the need to correct the inaccuracies of the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries' foreign missionary accounts of the culture and people of the continent, which are still very much with us and are not about to go away. The paper underlines the irreplaceable role of African intellectuals and gifted theologians in the development of new cultural identity and language for missiology in the continent.

The Ethiopian Orthodox Church is a fascinating study in indigenization. Its deep rootage in the lives of the people is evidenced by the way in which the Church has been preserved since the fourth century in spite of repeated threats from enemies within and outside of Ethiopia. The church has Christianized important aspects of Old Testament and Hebrew culture as well as certain remnants of primal religion. It adapted beliefs and symbols which reflected and reinforced African traditions, and either absorbed or transfigured that which suited its purposes. The Ethiopian Church is an indigenous church, not an indigenized one. The process of its indigenization is described and important lessons from this rather natural development are identified that help in understanding the importance of critical contextualization. The successes and failures of the Ethiopian Church provide perspective for contemporary attempts at contextualization. This study is significant for understanding African Christianity but also has missiological implications for the wider world.

AbstractFrancis Hall Johnson's (1888–1970) work to preserve and promote Negro spirituals places him among the twentieth century's most influential interpreters of African American religious music. Johnson was most closely associated with Marc Connelly's 1930 Pulitzer Prize-winning play, The Green Pastures, for which he served as musical arranger and choral conductor. His participation in this production, which became a lightning rod for discussions about the nature of black religious thought, made him sharply aware of the complex terrain of popular culture representations of African American religious life for the consumption of white audiences. This article examines Johnson's 1933 “music-drama,” Run, Little Chillun, through which he hoped to counter the commonly deployed tropes of African Americans as a simple, naturally religious people. Moderately successful on Broadway, the production did particularly well when revived in California in 1938 and 1939 as part of the Federal Theatre and Federal Music projects.Most critics found Johnson's presentation of black Baptist music and worship to be thrillingly authentic but were confused by the theology of the drama's other religious community, the Pilgrims of the New Day. Examining Johnson's Pilgrims of the New Day in light of his interest in Christian Science and New Thought reveals a broader objective than providing a dramatic foil for the Baptists and a platform for endorsing Christianity. With his commitment to and expertise with vernacular forms of African American religious culture unassailable, Johnson presented a critique of the conservative tendencies and restrictive parochialism of some black church members and leaders and insisted on the ability of the individual religious self to range freely across a variety of spiritual possibilities. In doing so, he presented “the secret at the root” of black culture as not only revealing the spiritual genius of people of African descent but also as offering eternal and universal truths not bound by race.

A partir da descrição do percurso histórico de consolidação do cristianismo em Portugal e do contato político, econômico e cultural dessa nação com povos africanos via expansão ultramarina e colonização, esse trabalho pretende descrever um paralelismo entre a divindade e a realeza europeia e africana pela comparação entre as coroações de rainha conga no Reinado de Nossa Senhora do Rosário, descrita em diversos trabalhos acadêmicos, e da Virgem Maria na Igreja Católica de Nossa Senhora de Fátima no bairro Tupi em Belo Horizonte, observada por essa pesquisa, por suas características e coincidências rituais e uso de objetos. Por essas relações, visa-se verificar como as trocas geradas entre o cristianismo e o banto, principalmente, e as reinterpretações de uma cultura por outra produziram uma terceira cultura religiosa, que se faz presente nas irmandades negras e festas de Congado em todo o Brasil, assim como uma terceira figura reinante, que conjuga o divino, o ancestral e o monarca.Palavras-chave: Congado. Performance. Banto. Igreja Nossa Senhora de Fátima. Transculturalidade.AbstractFrom the description of the historical course of consolidation of Christianity in Portugal and the political, economic and cultural contact this nation with African people through overseas expansion and colonization. This paper aims to describe a parallel between the deity and the European and African royalty by comparing coronation of queen conga of Our Lady of the Rosary, described in many academic papers and the coronation of Virgin Mary in the catholic church of Our Lady of Fatima in Tupi neighborhood of Belo Horizonte, observed in this research, because its characteristics and rituals coincidences and use of objects. For these relationships this paper aims to see how the exchange generated between Christianity and Bantu, mainly, and reinterpretations of one culture by another produced a third religious culture that is present in the black sororities and Congo throughout Brazil as well as a third reigning figure, which combines the divine, the ancestor and the monarch.Keywords: Congo. Performance. Bantu. Igreja Nossa Senhora de Fátima. Transculturality.

While it may be characterized as the inception of freedom for the colonizing and imperial-minded European, America represents a great tribulation for the enslaved African, kidnapped and sold an ocean away from his homeland, and it can be characterized as an all-out assault on African peoples’ bodies, culture, and minds. Though the economic interest of Europeans was the impetus for the African Holocaust, European Christian theology has consistently offered religious justification for the inhumane practices of the oppression of Black people—making the fight for freedom, in part, a religious battle. Insomuch, White supremacy is held together by a version of Christianity that venerates whiteness as its most divine ideal. This study explores the religious conundrum that Black people face by reexamining biblical text to connect the sacred and secular experiences of Black people to their social predicament. Apostle Paul’s idea of mortification in Colossians 3:5 and the theory of mortification as intrinsic to the idea of order are connected in order to critique the complex system of religious racism and illustrate the impossibility of freedom under current circumstances. In addition, the theory of social death and the theory of the death-bound-subject are utilized to interpret the Black experience in America, in part, as a battle for spiritual survival in an anathematic state of being. Ultimately, this study concludes that it is the formulation of White supremacy, and not the execution of White supremacy, that places Blacks in confrontation with death (physically and spiritually), and this confrontation has deeply religious underpinnings.

Although one of the existing studies on Nigerian or African kinship terms has argued that semantic expansion of such words constitutes an absurdity to the English society, none has argued for the necessity of a specialized dictionary to address the problem of absurdity to the English society, the custodian of the English language. This is important especially now that the language has become an invaluable legacy which non-native speakers of the language use to express their culture as well as the fact that the English people now accept the Greek and Hebrew world-views through Christianity. This paper provides additional evidence in support of semantic expansion of kingship terms like ‘wife’ and ‘husband’ not only in a Nigerian or an African language but also in Greek and Hebrew languages. The paper argues that if English is to play its role as an international language, it will be desirable if our lexicographers can publish a specialized dictionary that will take care of kinship terms, as it is the case in some other specialized dictionaries on the different professions such as medicine, nursing, linguistics and agriculture, to mention but a few, so as to guide against ambiguity or absurdity that may arise in language use in social interactions.

The quest for a contextual African Christianity is one that theological scholarship in Africa should be keen to formulate and construct if the Christian message is to gain the much-needed impact and transformational agenda that will facilitate the process of evangelization of the continent. This is because our theological discourse must be incarnational in theology and methodology. Our study endeavours to submit a contribution in this solemn expedition through an emphasis on the necessity of a contextualized Christology that is cognizant of the African realities and heritage to make the message of Christ be at home to the indigenous African audience. This calls for a paramount understanding of the history of the African people, the African primal religions and most importantly the African culture. The Understanding of these critical issues that together construct the identity of the African will enable the presenter of the Christological message to present the person of Christ that is relevant and addresses the perennial problems that are faced by African communities. This will in the long run make the African to be persuaded to the need to establish a relationship with Christ who is to him a friend or family, Mediator or Ancestor per excellence, Life giver or Healer, and Leader per excellence. These are the realities that Africans would be quick to identify and associate with. To accomplish this, the study observed the significance of the doctrine of Christology in the theological framework; it explored the means with which Christology was administered in Africa in the past. We were able to tackle the subject of Christological Contextualization by observing matters sources and methodology of African Christology and building on the same towards the models that are favourable to Christology in Africa

Purpose: This article looks at the role played by agents: the people responsible for articulating and implementing inculturation in Africa. The article asks the simple question of are these agents useful or a hindrance in the process of inculturation? The article begins by identifying these agents then discusses the challenges they face in the process of inculturation. The article concludes by giving a way forward and that is an integrated approach in inculturation.Methodology: This study will review the available literature on the subject with a view to examining what previous research says concerning the role of the agents, that is human beings, in the process of inculturation. This was done with the main objective of examining the challenges that he agents of inculturation face, and concluding by exploring an integrated approach to inculturation, where all the agents are brought on board. Findings: This study found out that if inculturation is to truly take root in African Christianity, it must bring on board all actors, not just Church leaders, and trained theologians, but also the laity. All these actors also need to overcome some of the challenges that have hindered the prospects of inculturation which include but not limited to fear of syncretism, lack of enthusiasm by some Church leaders, answering the question of culture in a post-modern and globalized world.Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: This paper will offer unique contributions to policies and practices governing the attempts to make the Church in Africa truly African by proposing a re-evaluation of the way inculturation has been carried out in the past. This has tended to be spearheaded by professional theologians and some church leaders, neglecting the biggest constituency in the entire process, and that is the consumer of inculturational processes; the laity.

The chieftaincy and traditional rulership institution is dynamic and one of the most enduring legacies from traditional African societies. Until the coming of the colonialists, the traditional institution led by chiefs, emirs, obas, Ezes, etc performed legislative and judicial functions as well as political, religious, social and economic roles etc. The chieftaincy and traditional rulership institution among the Tiv was not organised in a systematic manner until the creation of the Tor Tiv stool in 1946. With several reformations, the chieftaincy institution has taken a definite stage in Tiv society. However, the problem of the study has to do with the fact that there has arisen in the Tiv chieftaincy scene; the ator a zan adua (Christian traditional rulers) who rather than protect and preserve Tiv cultural heritage are in the vanguard of the corrosion of a culture they had taken an oath to protect and preserve. If prompt action is not taken by the Tiv, their culture would soon disappear as these ator a zan adua have “churchmentised” and Christianised Tiv culture. As scholars of Tiv History, Religion and Culture, the researchers are alarmed at this cultural imperialism being perpetrated by Tiv traditional rulers. The study adopts the historical, descriptive and evaluative methods. In data collection, the primary and secondary methods have been adopted. In the primary source, oral interviews and the observation methods have been used; whereas in the secondary sources of data collection, documented sources from books, journal articles, newspapers and e-sources have been employed. The study established that by the orientation of ator a zan a dua as Christians, they are on the verge of completely supplanting Tiv culture with a foreign one. The study noted that culture gives an identity to a group of people and without it, they cannot be defined. In view of this challenge, the study made various suggestions as means of preserving and sustaining Tiv cultural heritage for generations yet unborn. One of these suggestions is that traditional rulers in Tiv be made to take their oath of office by Swem (the Tiv symbol of justice) so that when they renege on their oath, they would immediately bear the consequences (death by swollen stomach, limbs and severe headache). The study concluded that Tiv culture must not be sacrificed on the altar of Christianity by anybody not even the ator (traditional rulers).

Globalization and the Po st-Creole Imagination: Notes on Fleeing the Plantation,by Michaeline A. Crichlow with Patricia Northover (reviewed by Raquel Romberg)Afro-Caribbean Religions: An Introduction to their Historical, Cultural, and Sacred Traditions, by Nathaniel Samuel Murrell (reviewed by James Houk) Africas of the Americas: Beyond the Search for Origins in the Study of Afro-Atlantic Religions, edited by Stephan Palmié (reviewed by Aisha Khan) Òrìṣà Devotion as World Religion: The Globalization of Yorùbá Religious Culture, edited by Jacob K. Olupona & Terry Rey (reviewed by Brian Brazeal) Sacred Spaces and Religious Traditions in Oriente Cuba, by Jualynne E. Dodson (reviewed by Kristina Wirtz) The Coolie Speaks: Chinese Indentured Laborers and African Slaves of Cuba, by Lisa Yun (reviewed by W. Look Lai) Cuba and Western Intellectuals since 1959, by Kepa Artaraz (reviewed by Anthony P. Maingot) Inside El Barrio: A Bottom-Up View of Neighborhood Life in Castro’s Cuba, by Henry Louis Taylor, Jr. (reviewed by Mona Rosendahl) On Location in Cuba: Street Filmmaking During Times of Transition, by Ann Marie Stock (reviewed by Cristina Venegas) Cuba in The Special Period: Culture and Ideology in the 1990s, edited by Ariana Hernandez-Reguant (reviewed by Myrna García-Calderón) The Cubans of Union City: Immigrants and Exiles in a New Jersey Community. Yolanda Prieto (reviewed by Jorge Duany) Target Culebra: How 743 Islanders Took On the Entire U.S. Navy and Won, by Richard D. Copaken (reviewed by Jorge Rodríguez Beruff) The World of the Haitian Revolution, edited by David Patrick Geggus & Norman Fiering (reviewed by Yvonne Fabella) Bon Papa: Haiti’s Golden Years, by Bernard Diederich (reviewed by Robert Fatton, Jr.) 1959: The Year that Inflamed the Caribbean, by Bernard Diederich (reviewed by Landon Yarrington) Dominican Cultures: The Making of a Caribbean Society, edited by Bernardo Vega (reviewed by Anthony R. Stevens-Acevedo) Chanting Down the New Jerusalem: Calypso, Christianity, and Capitalism in the Caribbean, by Francio Guadeloupe (reviewed by Catherine Benoît) Once Jews: Stories of Caribbean Sephardim, by Josette Capriles Goldish (reviewed by Aviva Ben-Ur) Black and White Sands: A Bohemian Life in the Colonial Caribbean, by Elma Napier (reviewed by Peter Hulme) West Indian Slavery and British Abolition, 1783-1807, by David Beck Ryden (reviewed by Justin Roberts) The Children of Africa in the Colonies: Free People of Color in Barbados in the Age of Emancipation, by Melanie J. Newton (reviewed by Olwyn M. Blouet) Friends and Enemies: The Scribal Politics of Post/Colonial Literature, by Chris Bongie (reviewed by Jacqueline Couti) Nationalism and the Formation of Caribbean Literature, by Leah Reade Rosenberg (reviewed by Bénédicte Ledent) Signs of Dissent: Maryse Condé and Postcolonial Criticism, by Dawn Fulton (reviewed by Florence Ramond Jurney) The Archaeology of the Caribbean, by Samuel M. Wilson (reviewed by Frederick H. Smith) Crossing the Borders: New Methods and Techniques in the Study of Archaeological Materials from the Caribbean, edited by Corinne L. Hofman, Menno L.P. Hoogland & Annelou L. van Gijn (reviewed by Mark Kostro)

It has been said that the missionaries came to Africa with the mindset that Africans were without culture or at best, they had an evil culture that must be completely eradicated. They rejected anything African so as to introduce the Western culture which they considered enlightened. However, whatever teaching that the then missionaries and church leaders later introduced, would have to be processed through African cultural lenses. By that, the people applied their own cultural concepts to the teachings they received. This paper examines how cultural concepts of the authority of leadership help the African Christian to situate and interpret the teachings and practices of the universal church from their own perspectives. Authority is defined and examined from the perspectives of legitimacy and functionality. The question of who has the final authority in the church is also discussed to strengthen the corporate leadership practised and offer some solutions to challenges of in-fighting within the leadership of congregations. Keywords: authority, legitimacy, functionality, consent

This paper seeks to determine whether the presence of powerful women in African religious tradition allowed for the existence of similarly powerful women in their society while the apparent absence or disregard for powerful women in Western Christianity resulted in the exclusion of women from the political and social realms. Since many pre-19th century African and European governments were heavily influenced by religion, it was a significant tool of socialization in both contexts. Therefore, the gender dynamics modeled in these belief systems were likely reflected by their respective societies. This paper compares and contrasts women’s positions in African civilization and women’s positions in Europe, drawing on historical accounts and formal research to determine the extent to which religion influenced the governance of the associated countries and how this, in turn, impacted their social structures. Prominent women in African religious tradition such as Aset will be juxtaposed with female rulers such as Hatshepsut and the “male daughters” of the Igbo as examples of the flexibility and respect inherent in African womanhood. To the contrary, the lack of prominent women in Western Christianity will be compared with the historical marginalization of European women and the resulting necessity for feminism. Ultimately this paper argues that the flexibility of gender roles within African spiritual systems resulted in a similar versatility in African politics and societies while the subordination of women in Western Christianity led to the subordination of women in European culture.

Christianity, from its inception, has always demonstrated a conscious effort to communicate the gospel in ways that engender transformation. Yet the undying presence of African indigenous religious practices amongst evangelised African communities continues to be a worrisome enigma. The goal of this article is to examine the contextualisation practices, successes and failures of early western missionaries, using literary critical analysis of contemporary literature and cultural phenomenological analysis, and to propose approaches to a biblical inculturation of Christianity in contemporary indigenous societies. We focus on the over 100 years of Christianity in northern Nigeria, with particular emphasis on the Tiv of central Nigeria. The author’s research has shown that the relatively long presence of Christian mission work in Nigeria (especially amongst the Tiv) has not significantly altered the world view of the professed adherents of Christian faith, as it remains largely traditional rather than biblical. Consequently, we proposed the adoption of ethno-hermeneutic and community theologising to make for critical contextualisation of Christianity amongst indigenous people. The proposed critical contextualisation, is essential for rooting Christianity in native populations without uprooting them from their cultures, and for ensuring neither the gospel truth claims nor the Christian world view is surrendered to native cultures in the process of indigenising the gospel.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This article highlights the importance of a holistic interdisciplinary approach to evangelisation, requiring the interplay of anthropology, missiology, hermeneutics, and dogmatic and exegetical theology.

The belief in Africa is multifaceted and has been a major influence on art, culture and philosophy. Today, the continent's various populations and individuals are mostly adherents of Christianity, Islam, and to a lesser extent several traditional African religions. In Christian or Islamic communities, religious beliefs are also sometimes characterized with syncretism with the beliefs and practices of traditional religions. However, a close look at African people shows that they are largely rooted on other sort of beliefs that we intend to scrutinize throughout this study. Thus, this paper aims not only at identifying existing beliefs in African culture but also at showing their sacredness in the life of people based on the writings of the African woman writer, Buchi Emecheta.

The book of Psalms is the best known, most discussed and most cited book of the Old Testament. Psalm 23 especially is the most loved book of the Psalms. That must have been the reason why it was named ‘an American icon’ and the ‘nightingale of the Psalms’. Two major ways of reading this Psalm are: as a shepherd to a sheep and as God to a human. The author of this article reads Psalms 23 Africentrically, that is, as God to a human. This means that Psalms 23 is read for the purpose of protection, provision, healing and success in all aspects of life, which are the main concerns of African people. It means reading Psalm 23 existentially with African life interest.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This article is concerned with biblical studies, African Traditional Religion and culture and African Biblical Hermeneutics. It seeks to challenge the traditional Eurocentric approaches for its methodological approaches that do not make biblical studies adequately relevant to African Christianity. The book of Psalms is used as a perfect example of how it can be interpreted relevantly in Africa. Further implication is that there will be reduction of the Bible and Christianity looking like a foreign book and religion.

Christianity is mediated through culture and people’s cultural practices. One such cultural practice is African kingship. African kingship conveys on the ruler sovereignty, power, authority and supremacy over people under one’s jurisdiction. Intricately linked to respect for elders and those in power, African church leaders are at an intersection of the African kingship leadership style and the biblical kingship leadership style. Consciously or unconsciously, church leaders tend to embrace the African kingship approach to leadership and to a lesser extent biblical servant leadership. In such a situation, what God-image of biblical leadership could be discerned for constructive church leadership? In response, the God-image of Servant King as all powerful God, although vulnerable and serving, provides the framework for a transformative approach to church leadership in Africa.

Christian growth must not only be considered in terms of the growth of numbers. The growth in the church must also be considered in the level of depth and the quality of Christian conversion within a cultural milieu. The depth of the faith has a lot to do with how the Gospel speaks directly to the minds and hearts of its hearers. Moreover, the Gospel can speak to the hearts and minds of its hearers when the indigenous world views that condition the inner lives of the people are given serious consideration. The study is a review of the major works of Sidney George Williamson on the Christian faith and Akan culture in Ghana. As an early student of the tension between the Christian faith and Akan culture and the challenges of Christian identity, Williamson draws attention to the fact that Christianity can adequately meet Akan Christian needs when it pays attention to the cultural worldview of the people it seeks to serve. The study as a qualitative one uses both primary and secondary sources. Interviews and observations were conducted in some Akan communities on the integration of Christian faith and Akan cultural worldview. The study points to the fact that the construction of theology among Akan Christians must be done from the inside to the outside and not from outside to the inside, the approach that Western missionaries adopted. The spiritual needs of Akan Christians will be adequately met when they hear the Gospel in their own cultural understandings rather than theology done in the West offered to the Akan in European worldview. The study further calls attention to the preparedness of the churches in the Akan cultural environment for paradigm shifts in the Christian faith and Akan Cultural engagements in post-missionary African Christianity. Keywords: Akan Culture, Christian Faith, Local Theologies, Sidney George Williamson

In Basotho culture men, women, girls, and boys each have different festivities to engage in when praying for rain. Rain festivities are organised and performed during the drought months from November to January of each year. This study examines the indigenous knowledge systems embedded in the different festivities as performed by males and females, and how they are understood and practised by diverse groups in Basotho society. The practices form part of the culture of Basotho that is still fundamentally practised in the rural areas of Lesotho, in spite of the advent of western education and Christianity. The article discusses the prayer for rain festivities and weather predictions and their relevance to the contemporary climate and weather-changing phenomenon and patterns. The study adopted a qualitative approach, and a sample of 40 Basotho men, women, girls, and boys—including traditional leaders and community elders in the four rural villages in Leribe district participated in interviews and focus group meetings. The thematic analysis described the narratives and discourse of the festivities and their cultural significance. Lesotho has experienced climate change, which has affected its people over centuries—hence they continue to explore changing patterns of climate and weather conditions. In line with their cultural beliefs, Basotho believe that rain and other environmental conditions are sent by their ancestors. Thus, rain festivities and prayers form part of their indigenous knowledge and contribute to the debate on climate change and its effects on the lives of African communities and their culture, particularly those of Basotho. Thus, the study concludes that African communities in general—in this context Basotho, have been engaged in climate change discourses in their own indigenous ways over time, and for them, climate change is not a new phenomenon.

This article examines the relevance of theology in public life particularly from the Ghanaian (African) Christian experience in society. The idea of the public relevance of theology has been ably examined by Jurgen Moltmann in the perspectives of his Theology of Hope and the continuous reflections in the “Ethics of Hope”. The eschatological sacrifice of Christ’s story animates in Moltmann the understanding of what particular transformation one must experience when envisaging what the shape of Christianity is in modern society and the task it has to fulfill in the field of social ethics in the Ghanaian social and political history. Critical to the Ghanaian social- political life is to be encountered with is a sub-culture trend that the task for the socio-political and the economic development of the nation-state is the preserve of politics or political activists. The conversation on the rise to action of the Ghanaian Christian to social ethics is now due to the growing trends of poverty, violence, unemployment, corruption, dwindling social and moral order and failing institutions of state. Jurgen Moltmann develops his thoughts in the Ethics of Hope to deliberately project Christian social ethics that is focused on projecting the Bible as the gospel of hope for the people. This paper evaluates Moltmann’s understanding of modern realities of life and how Christians must relate with and what Christian character brings to bear on the positive change in the life of the people.

In its preamble, The Western Australian Charter of Multiculturalism (WA) commits the state to becoming: “A society in which respect for mutual difference is accompanied by equality of opportunity within a framework of democratic citizenship”. One of the principles of multiculturalism, as enunciated in the Charter, is “equality of opportunity for all members of society to achieve their full potential in a free and democratic society where every individual is equal before and under the law”. An important element of this principle is the “equality of opportunity … to achieve … full potential”. The implication here is that those who start from a position of disadvantage when it comes to achieving that potential deserve more than ‘equal’ treatment. Implicitly, equality can be achieved only through the recognition of and response to differential needs and according to the likelihood of achieving full potential. This is encapsulated in Kymlicka’s argument that neutrality is “hopelessly inadequate once we look at the diversity of cultural membership which exists in contemporary liberal democracies” (903). Yet such a potential commitment to differential support might seem unequal to some, where equality is constructed as the same or equal treatment regardless of differing circumstances. Until the past half-century or more, this problematic has been a hotly-contested element of the struggle for Civil Rights for African-Americans in the United States, especially as these rights related to educational opportunity during the years of racial segregation. For some, providing resources to achieve equal outcomes (rather than be committed to equal inputs) may appear to undermine the very ethos of liberal democracy. In Australia, this perspective has been the central argument of Pauline Hanson and her supporters who denounce programs designed as measures to achieve equality for specific disadvantaged groups; including Indigenous Australians and humanitarian refugees. Nevertheless, equality for all on all grounds of legally-accepted difference: gender, race, age, family status, sexual orientation, political conviction, to name a few; is often held as the hallmark of progressive liberal societies such as Australia. In the matter of religious freedoms the situation seems much less complex. All that is required for religious equality, it seems, is to define religion as a private matter – carried out, as it were, between consenting parties away from the public sphere. This necessitates, effectively, the separation of state and religion. This separation of religious belief from the apparatus of the state is referred to as ‘secularism’ and it tends to be regarded as a cornerstone of a liberal democracy, given the general assumption that secularism is a necessary precursor to equal treatment of and respect for different religious beliefs, and the association of secularism with the Western project of the Enlightenment when liberty, equality and science replaced religion and superstition. By this token, western nations committed to equality are also committed to being liberal, democratic and secular in nature; and it is a matter of state indifference as to which religious faith a citizen embraces – Wiccan, Christian, Judaism, etc – if any. Historically, and arguably more so in the past decade, the terms ‘democratic’, ‘secular’, ‘liberal’ and ‘equal’ have all been used to inscribe characteristics of the collective ‘West’. Individuals and states whom the West ascribe as ‘other’ are therefore either or all of: not democratic; not liberal; or not secular – and failing any one of these characteristics (for any country other than Britain, with its parliamentary-established Church of England, headed by the Queen as Supreme Governor) means that that country certainly does not espouse equality. The West and the ‘Other’ in Popular Discourse The constructed polarisation between the free, secular and democratic West that values equality; and the oppressive ‘other’ that perpetuates theocracies, religious discrimination and – at the ultimate – human rights abuses, is a common theme in much of the West’s media and popular discourse on Islam. The same themes are also applied in some measure to Muslims in Australia, in particular to constructions of the rights of Muslim women in Australia. Typically, Muslim women’s dress is deemed by some secular Australians to be a symbol of religious subjugation, rather than of free choice. Arguably, this polemic has come to the fore since the terrorist attacks on the United States in September 2001. However, as Aly and Walker note, the comparisons between the West and the ‘other’ are historically constructed and inherited (Said) and have tended latterly to focus western attention on the role and status of Muslim women as evidence of the West’s progression comparative to its antithesis, Eastern oppression. An examination of studies of the United States media coverage of the September 11 attacks, and the ensuing ‘war on terror’, reveals some common media constructions around good versus evil. There is no equal status between these. Good must necessarily triumph. In the media coverage, the evil ‘other’ is Islamic terrorism, personified by Osama bin Laden. Part of the justification for the war on terror is a perception that the West, as a force for good in this world, must battle evil and protect freedom and democracy (Erjavec and Volcic): to do otherwise is to allow the terror of the ‘other’ to seep into western lives. The war on terror becomes the defence of the west, and hence the defence of equality and freedom. A commitment to equality entails a defeat of all things constructed as denying the rights of people to be equal. Hutcheson, Domke, Billeaudeaux and Garland analysed the range of discourses evident in Time and Newsweek magazines in the five weeks following September 11 and found that journalists replicated themes of national identity present in the communication strategies of US leaders and elites. The political and media response to the threat of the evil ‘other’ is to create a monolithic appeal to liberal values which are constructed as being a monopoly of the ‘free’ West. A brief look at just a few instances of public communication by US political leaders confirms Hutcheson et al.’s contention that the official construction of the 2001 attacks invoked discourses of good and evil reminiscent of the Cold War. In reference to the actions of the four teams of plane hijackers, US president George W Bush opened his Address to the Nation on the evening of September 11: “Today, our fellow citizens, our way of life, our very freedom came under attack in a series of deliberate and deadly terrorist acts” (“Statement by the President in His Address to the Nation”). After enjoining Americans to recite Psalm 23 in prayer for the victims and their families, President Bush ended his address with a clear message of national unity and a further reference to the battle between good and evil: “This is a day when all Americans from every walk of life unite in our resolve for justice and peace. America has stood down enemies before, and we will do so this time. None of us will ever forget this day. Yet, we go forward to defend freedom and all that is good and just in our world” (“Statement by the President in His Address to the Nation”). In his address to the joint houses of Congress shortly after September 11, President Bush implicated not just the United States in this fight against evil, but the entire international community stating: “This is the world’s fight. This is civilisation’s fight” (cited by Brown 295). Addressing the California Business Association a month later, in October 2001, Bush reiterated the notion of the United States as the leading nation in the moral fight against evil, and identified this as a possible reason for the attack: “This great state is known for its diversity – people of all races, all religions, and all nationalities. They’ve come here to live a better life, to find freedom, to live in peace and security, with tolerance and with justice. When the terrorists attacked America, this is what they attacked”. While the US media framed the events of September 11 as an attack on the values of democracy and liberalism as these are embodied in US democratic traditions, work by scholars analysing the Australian media’s representation of the attacks suggested that this perspective was echoed and internationalised for an Australian audience. Green asserts that global media coverage of the attacks positioned the global audience, including Australians, as ‘American’. The localisation of the discourses of patriotism and national identity for Australian audiences has mainly been attributed to the media’s use of the good versus evil frame that constructed the West as good, virtuous and moral and invited Australian audiences to subscribe to this argument as members of a shared Western democratic identity (Osuri and Banerjee). Further, where the ‘we’ are defenders of justice, equality and the rule of law; the opposing ‘others’ are necessarily barbaric. Secularism and the Muslim Diaspora Secularism is a historically laden term that has been harnessed to symbolise the emancipation of social life from the forced imposition of religious doctrine. The struggle between the essentially voluntary and private demands of religion, and the enjoyment of a public social life distinct from religious obligations, is historically entrenched in the cultural identities of many modern Western societies (Dallmayr). The concept of religious freedom in the West has evolved into a principle based on the bifurcation of life into the objective public sphere and the subjective private sphere within which individuals are free to practice their religion of choice (Yousif), or no religion at all. Secularism, then, is contingent on the maintenance of a separation between the public (religion-free) and the private or non- public (which may include religion). The debate regarding the feasibility or lack thereof of maintaining this separation has been a matter of concern for democratic theorists for some time, and has been made somewhat more complicated with the growing presence of religious diasporas in liberal democratic states (Charney). In fact, secularism is often cited as a precondition for the existence of religious pluralism. By removing religion from the public domain of the state, religious freedom, in so far as it constitutes the ability of an individual to freely choose which religion, if any, to practice, is deemed to be ensured. However, as Yousif notes, the Western conception of religious freedom is based on a narrow notion of religion as a personal matter, possibly a private emotional response to the idea of God, separate from the rational aspects of life which reside in the public domain. Arguably, religion is conceived of as recognising (or creating) a supernatural dimension to life that involves faith and belief, and the suspension of rational thought. This Western notion of religion as separate from the state, dividing the private from the public sphere, is constructed as a necessary basis for the liberal democratic commitment to secularism, and the notional equality of all religions, or none. Rawls questioned how people with conflicting political views and ideologies can freely endorse a common political regime in secular nations. The answer, he posits, lies in the conception of justice as a mechanism to regulate society independently of plural (and often opposing) religious or political conceptions. Thus, secularism can be constructed as an indicator of pluralism and justice; and political reason becomes the “common currency of debate in a pluralist society” (Charney 7). A corollary of this is that religious minorities must learn to use the language of political reason to represent and articulate their views and opinions in the public context, especially when talking with non-religious others. This imposes a need for religious minorities to support their views and opinions with political reason that appeals to the community at large as citizens, and not just to members of the minority religion concerned. The common ground becomes one of secularism, in which all speakers are deemed to be indifferent as to the (private) claims of religion upon believers. Minority religious groups, such as fundamentalist Mormons, invoke secular language of moral tolerance and civil rights to be acknowledged by the state, and to carry out their door-to-door ‘information’ evangelisation/campaigns. Right wing fundamentalist Christian groups and Catholics opposed to abortion couch their views in terms of an extension of the secular right to life, and in terms of the human rights and civil liberties of the yet-to-be-born. In doing this, these religious groups express an acceptance of the plurality of the liberal state and engage in debates in the public sphere through the language of political values and political principles of the liberal democratic state. The same principles do not apply within their own associations and communities where the language of the private religious realm prevails, and indeed is expected. This embracing of a political rhetoric for discussions of religion in the public sphere presents a dilemma for the Muslim diaspora in liberal democratic states. For many Muslims, religion is a complete way of life, incapable of compartmentalisation. The narrow Western concept of religious expression as a private matter is somewhat alien to Muslims who are either unable or unwilling to separate their religious needs from their needs as citizens of the nation state. Problems become apparent when religious needs challenge what seems to be publicly acceptable, and conflicts occur between what the state perceives to be matters of rational state interest and what Muslims perceive to be matters of religious identity. Muslim women’s groups in Western Australia for example have for some years discussed the desirability of a Sharia divorce court which would enable Muslims to obtain divorces according to Islamic law. It should be noted here that not all Muslims agree with the need for such a court and many – probably a majority – are satisfied with the existing processes that allow Muslim men and women to obtain a divorce through the Australian family court. For some Muslims however, this secular process does not satisfy their religious needs and it is perceived as having an adverse impact on their ability to adhere to their faith. A similar situation pertains to divorced Catholics who, according to a strict interpretation of their doctrine, are unable to take the Eucharist if they form a subsequent relationship (even if married according to the state), unless their prior marriage has been annulled by the Catholic Church or their previous partner has died. Whereas divorce is considered by the state as a public and legal concern, for some Muslims and others it is undeniably a religious matter. The suggestion by the Anglican Communion’s Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, that the adoption of certain aspects of Sharia law regarding marital disputes or financial matters is ultimately unavoidable, sparked controversy in Britain and in Australia. Attempts by some Australian Muslim scholars to elaborate on Dr Williams’s suggestions, such as an article by Anisa Buckley in The Herald Sun (Buckley), drew responses that, typically, called for Muslims to ‘go home’. A common theme in these responses is that proponents of Sharia law (and Islam in general) do not share a commitment to the Australian values of freedom and equality. The following excerpts from the online pages of Herald Sun Readers’ Comments (Herald Sun) demonstrate this perception: “These people come to Australia for freedoms they have never experienced before and to escape repression which is generally brought about by such ‘laws’ as Sharia! How very dare they even think that this would be an option. Go home if you want such a regime. Such an insult to want to come over to this country on our very goodwill and our humanity and want to change our systems and ways. Simply, No!” Posted 1:58am February 12, 2008 “Under our English derived common law statutes, the law is supposed to protect an individual’s rights to life, liberty and property. That is the basis of democracy in Australia and most other western nations. Sharia law does not adequately share these philosophies and principles, thus it is incompatible with our system of law.” Posted 12:55am February 11, 2008 “Incorporating religious laws in the secular legal system is just plain wrong. No fundamentalist religion (Islam in particular) is compatible with a liberal-democracy.” Posted 2:23pm February 10, 2008 “It should not be allowed in Australia the Muslims come her for a better life and we give them that opportunity but they still believe in covering them selfs why do they even come to Australia for when they don’t follow owe [our] rules but if we went to there [their] country we have to cover owe selfs [sic]” Posted 11:28am February 10, 2008 Conflicts similar to this one – over any overt or non-private religious practice in Australia – may also be observed in public debates concerning the wearing of traditional Islamic dress; the slaughter of animals for consumption; Islamic burial rites, and other religious practices which cannot be confined to the private realm. Such conflicts highlight the inability of the rational liberal approach to solve all controversies arising from religious traditions that enjoin a broader world view than merely private spirituality. In order to adhere to the liberal reduction of religion to the private sphere, Muslims in the West must negotiate some religious practices that are constructed as being at odds with the rational state and practice a form of Islam that is consistent with secularism. At the extreme, this Western-acceptable form is what the Australian government has termed ‘moderate Islam’. The implication here is that, for the state, ‘non-moderate Islam’ – Islam that pervades the public realm – is just a descriptor away from ‘extreme’. The divide between Christianity and Islam has been historically played out in European Christendom as a refusal to recognise Islam as a world religion, preferring instead to classify it according to race or ethnicity: a Moorish tendency, perhaps. The secular state prefers to engage with Muslims as an ethnic, linguistic or cultural group or groups (Yousif). Thus, in order to engage with the state as political citizens, Muslims must find ways to present their needs that meet the expectations of the state – ways that do not use their religious identity as a frame of reference. They can do this by utilizing the language of political reason in the public domain or by framing their needs, views and opinions exclusively in terms of their ethnic or cultural identity with no reference to their shared faith. Neither option is ideal, or indeed even viable. This is partly because many Muslims find it difficult if not impossible to separate their religious needs from their needs as political citizens; and also because the prevailing perception of Muslims in the media and public arena is constructed on the basis of an understanding of Islam as a religion that conflicts with the values of liberal democracy. In the media and public arena, little consideration is given to the vast differences that exist among Muslims in Australia, not only in terms of ethnicity and culture, but also in terms of practice and doctrine (Shia or Sunni). The dominant construction of Muslims in the Australian popular media is of religious purists committed to annihilating liberal, secular governments and replacing them with anti-modernist theocratic regimes (Brasted). It becomes a talking point for some, for example, to realise that there are international campaigns to recognise Gay Muslims’ rights within their faith (ABC) (in the same way that there are campaigns to recognise Gay Christians as full members of their churches and denominations and equally able to hold high office, as followers of the Anglican Communion will appreciate). Secularism, Preference and Equality Modood asserts that the extent to which a minority religious community can fully participate in the public and political life of the secular nation state is contingent on the extent to which religion is the primary marker of identity. “It may well be the case therefore that if a faith is the primary identity of any community then that community cannot fully identify with and participate in a polity to the extent that it privileges a rival faith. Or privileges secularism” (60). Modood is not saying here that Islam has to be privileged in order for Muslims to participate fully in the polity; but that no other religion, nor secularism, should be so privileged. None should be first, or last, among equals. For such a situation to occur, Islam would have to be equally acceptable both with other religions and with secularism. Following a 2006 address by the former treasurer (and self-avowed Christian) Peter Costello to the Sydney Institute, in which Costello suggested that people who feel a dual claim from both Islamic law and Australian law should be stripped of their citizenship (Costello), the former Prime Minister, John Howard, affirmed what he considers to be Australia’s primary identity when he stated that ‘Australia’s core set of values flowed from its Anglo Saxon identity’ and that any one who did not embrace those values should not be allowed into the country (Humphries). The (then) Prime Minister’s statement is an unequivocal assertion of the privileged position of the Anglo Saxon tradition in Australia, a tradition with which many Muslims and others in Australia find it difficult to identify. Conclusion Religious identity is increasingly becoming the identity of choice for Muslims in Australia, partly because it is perceived that their faith is under attack and that it needs defending (Aly). They construct the defence of their faith as a choice and an obligation; but also as a right that they have under Australian law as equal citizens in a secular state (Aly and Green). Australian Muslims who have no difficulty in reconciling their core Australianness with their deep faith take it as a responsibility to live their lives in ways that model the reconciliation of each identity – civil and religious – with the other. In this respect, the political call to Australian Muslims to embrace a ‘moderate Islam’, where this is seen as an Islam without a public or political dimension, is constructed as treating their faith as less than equal. Religious identity is generally deemed to have no place in the liberal democratic model, particularly where that religion is constructed to be at odds with the principles and values of liberal democracy, namely tolerance and adherence to the rule of law. Indeed, it is as if the national commitment to secularism rules as out-of-bounds any identity that is grounded in religion, giving precedence instead to accepting and negotiating cultural and ethnic differences. Religion becomes a taboo topic in these terms, an affront against secularism and the values of the Enlightenment that include liberty and equality. In these circumstances, it is not the case that all religions are equally ignored in a secular framework. What is the case is that the secular framework has been constructed as a way of ‘privatising’ one religion, Christianity; leaving others – including Islam – as having nowhere to go. Islam thus becomes constructed as less than equal since it appears that, unlike Christians, Muslims are not willing to play the secular game. In fact, Muslims are puzzling over how they can play the secular game, and why they should play the secular game, given that – as is the case with Christians – they see no contradiction in performing ‘good Muslim’ and ‘good Australian’, if given an equal chance to embrace both. Acknowledgements This paper is based on the findings of an Australian Research Council Discovery Project, 2005-7, involving 10 focus groups and 60 in-depth interviews. The authors wish to acknowledge the participation and contributions of WA community members. 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