Africana Studies
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JEWELRY IN YORUBA RELIGION
Dr. Aderonke Adesola Adesanya
Institute of African Studies
University of Ibadan
Ibadan, Nigeria
ronnxie@yahoo.com
Abstract
The Yoruba of West African are very religious people and I have often been fascinated by the grandeur that attend their religious ethos of which much have been discussed in existing literature. A lot has come to the fore about their religious clothing, dances and music which show that they express their culture and indeed their religion in so many ways; through spoken words, dances and clothing, among others. In a given sense when the Yoruba, like the typical African, is enrobed in his/her sacred and or secular indigenous regalia, statements of identity and ideology are made. Through clothing the Yoruba defines and articulates his identity, conveys his individuality and expresses his/her allegiance to a society. What s/he wears is simultaneously a vehicle for the expression of politics, gender and identity and other index of cultural expressions. Quite a number of scholars have examined how African clothing or dress -sacred or secular- shapes and expresses the notions of identity and power. However, very little is available in existing literature on the use and significance of jewelry in African scared and secular platforms. Greater attention has been devoted to religious clothing and performance to the neglect of religious jewelry and its significance. Yet investigation into the types, forms, and nature of use of religious jewelry of the African promises fresh insights on their vibrant and enduring traditions. It is in this sense that I attempt to tease out data on the essence of jewelry in Yoruba religion, discuss the centrality of the gods to the choice of jewelry types, and underscore how jewelry is pageantry, power, prestige and prayer in the worldview of the Yoruba, with a view to enriching knowledge on the Yoruba, and expanding scholarship on the richness of Yoruba religion. Within the context of jewelry use, I also try to make deductions and submissions on the wealth and pageantry of Yoruba gods and their replication in the diasporas, all of which should serve as templates for further investigation into the rich and vibrant culture of the Yoruba.
Show me your friend and I will tell you who you are! Negotiating Fluid Pentecostal Identities in the African religious diaspora
Afe Adogame
The University of Edinburgh, UK
New College, Mound Place, Edinburgh EH1 2LX, UK
Tel. +44 131 650 8928
Email: a.adogame@ed.ac.uk
Abstract
As a highly contested concept, the identity discourse assumes new dimensions, especially in post-modernist thinking and epistemologies, and poses a challenge on whether and to what extent its appropriation may enrich or blur our object of scientific investigation and analysis. Identity formation(s) rarely exist in a social vacuum, thus necessitating a probe into contextual factors that galvanize such politics of negotiation. This suggests the fluidity of identities in that it can dissolve, re-emerge and be reinvented in space-time. However, the concept remains a useful analytical category in comprehending the complex demographics of the African religious diaspora. Religion is largely at the pivot of immigrants’ sense of individual and collective identities. Religious communities serve as focal points for socio-religious networking, but also ‘social’ and ‘cultural’ capital engineering. The growing religious sensibilities, that impinge on dynamics and implications of religion on immigrants, immigrant communities, their host and home contexts needs to be located within a broader context of related institutions and patterns.
The proliferation of the new African religious diaspora in Europe and the USA can be located broadly at the intersection of micro- and meso-structures, mechanisms of migratory processes. Drawing from recent religious ethnography, we interrogate and tease out how religio-cultural identities evolve and are negotiated by African religious communities such as African Pentecostal/charismatics in diaspora. We explore how these religious communities, as strategic actors, are involved in processes of social and cultural capital formation; and how they constitute a significant resource in associational life, thus generating new forms of community that provide a means of empowerment and social mobility in Africa and the diaspora. The paper demonstrates how these religious repertoires establish continuities with the past as well as locate themselves as part of the processes of African modernity.
National Unity and National Integration:
The Role of Religion in the Shaping of Nigeria’s Identity and Development
Sabella Ogbobode Abidde (PhD Candidate & SYLFF Fellow)
Howard University, Washington DC 20059
Department of African Studies
Email: Sabidde@gmail.com
Tel: 202-904-4117
Abstract
Before the advent of colonialism, Nigeria was a mélange of kingdoms, emirates, empires, caliphates and stand-alone groups. But without taking into consideration the disparity in cosmology and mythology, religion, ethnicity, and the people’s aspiration, the British colonial administration expediently created Nigeria in 1914. There was never a sense of nationhood or a sense of belonging. And indeed, almost five decades after independence, the country continues to suffer from a crisis of identity -- a crisis that has severely impacted the country’s strive towards unity and national integration -- leading some to refer to Nigeria as the “mistake of 1914.”
Today, the unity and integration of the country continues to be challenged by several cleavages, including cataclysms with their origin in the Niger Delta, ethnicity and religion and primordial suspicions made worse by rising ethno-national and ethnoregional sentiments. Of the aforesaid, religion and ethnicity seems to be the most vitriolic and combustible. Constitutionally, Nigeria is a secular country; even so, religion has become the dominant force in the socio-economic and political life of the nation. Office holders are not bashful about using state resources to promote religious undertakings.
Politics and religion have become indistinguishable and is having an adverse effect on the unity and integration of the country. Consequently, this paper will (1) examine the role and place of religion in the development of contemporary Nigeria; (2) assesses whether religion has been a unifying or polarizing force in the nation’s polity; and (3) explore how religion, in concert with ethnicity, might be used to strengthen the fragility and fragmentation of the country. Overall, this paper makes the case that religion can be a unifying and nation-building force.
Title: Religion, Health and Healing: The Experience of a Typical Yoruba
Community, Shao, Kwara State, Nigeria
Adelowo Felix Adetunji, Ph.D.
Babcock University, Ilishan-Remo, Ogun State, Nigeria
E-mail Add: desta@yahoo.com; delowodetunji@gmail.com
Abstract
One of the problems confronting humanity today is health hazard. This work attempts to explore the role of religion in health care delivery services as experienced in a typical Yoruba community, Shao in Kwara State, Nigeria. Specific examples are given to substantiate the fact that traditional medicine, being an aspect of the Yoruba religion, has gone along way in tackling the people’s health and welfare problems. Allusions are also made to the parts played by Christianity and Islam. Relevant information gathered through personal interviews and from works of eminent scholars are presented. The paper concludes that, the three religions in Nigeria (especially Traditional Religion), are actively involved in the health and healing of the people, in the community under consideration.
Reading Ethnicity: Basotho Responses to French Missionary Efforts in South Africa 1833-1880
John Aerni
Washington University in St. Louis
One Brookings Dr.
Box 1062, St. Louis, MO 63130
314.941.3345
jcaerni@wustl.edu
Abstract
Western Christianity came to the current country of Lesotho in the 1830s with missionaries from the Paris Evangelical Mission Society (PEMS). While the PEMS missionaries did gain a few converts for religious reasons, many Basotho viewed these early missionaries as sources of novel products and technologies and useful intermediaries in political squabbles with white settlers and government officials. The Basotho recognized the ethnic differences between the French missionaries and the representatives of the British Empire and the emerging Boer Republics in South Africa. These differences contributed to the low rate of conversion as the Basotho realized that the missionaries were not able to provide the kind of material and governmental support they desires. The foreign ethnicity of the missionaries and the marginal social status of their first converts contributed to the circumscribed influence of the church and left it dependent on the efforts of local people to expand its base of converts. This dependence gave early converts a high degree of control over their own exposure to and relations with the church. Relying on early missionary correspondence, letters from various chiefs and converts, and contemporary accounts, this paper will trace the internal Basotho debates over the relation between Sesotho culture and Western Christianity. The heavy influence of Basotho catechists started the syncretic process of forming an indigenous, Basotho-run church that exists to this day, although its form was very different from the church the first Western missionaries envisioned.
RELIGION AND WOMEN’S POLITICAL LEADERSHIP IN NIGERIA: CHRISTIANITY IN FOCUS
BY
Damilola Taiye AGBALAJOBI (Mrs.)
Department of Political Science and Public Administration
Redeemer’s University (RUN)
P.M.B 3005 Redemption city
Km 46 Lagos-Ibadan Expressway
Mowe, Ogun State
lola2kid@yahoo.com
ABSTRACT
A critical appraisal of the relationship between religion and politics in Nigeria generates this question in our minds: what is the role and place of women in Politics. Religion as many people believe creates and sustains the conditions and process that underlie the invisibility of women in politics. Giving the literature on relationship between religion and politics this should be no surprise to anyone. Religion is generally presented in the aspect of literature as the putative cause of political domination of women by men because it promotes the idea that the human worth of women is less than that of men. This prejudice against women has its basis in the belief that Eve was responsible for the fall as she gave in to the satanic temptation.
This paper brings out this question: What evidence do we have to suggest that Christianity is not necessarily inimical to gender equality and women’s political leadership, why and how? This is the central problem this paper seeks to address and which give rise to our three fold objectives: first to describe and analyze Christian’s position on the question of gender equality, second is to identify, explain the place and role of women in politics with focus on Christianity and thirdly, a critical examination of the obstacles to women’s political leadership.
Skin Deep: Interfacing Religion, Ritual and Myth in Selected African and African Diaspora Literature.
G. Oty Agbajoh-Laoye
Department of English
Africana Studies
Monmouth University
West Long Branch, NJ 07764
Tel. (732) 571- 3662; Fax: (732) 263 - 5242
E-mail: olaoye@monmouth.edu
Abstract
In the formation of modern non-western societies the acceptance of Christianity implies the rejection of the spirituality, ritual and folklore that is at the foundation of primary cultures. In African societies, the rituals accompany daily and life cycles from the naming of children, marriage, coming of age, funerals, to the afterlife and African ancestral cosmology occupy marginal position far from mainstream cultures. In Emecheta's The Bride Price, Ezekiel Odia, the father of the female protagonist, a preacher of the Christian faith "[…] force[s] his children to pray every morning, to pray before and after meals but all this [does] not prevent him calling a native medicine-man when the occasion ar[ises]. In fact, behind his door there [is] a gourd containing a magical portion which serve[s] as protection for the family; a man must not leave his family unprotected. The gourd [is] well-hidden, out of sight behind the church wedding photograph of him and his wife Ma Blackie […]" (29).
At Beloved's disappearance -- different versions of the story evolve as she reverts to her mythic place, a figment in the minds of the community as "they made up their tales, shaped and decorated them" (274). In acknowledgement of the African traditional belief beneath the thin veneer of Christianity, the women reenact and reinstall the Yoruba myth that runs parallel to the Judaic creation myth. In acknowledgment of the Yoruba Cosmology, the ifa priest/creative writer/Toni Morrison and her fictional characters, Grandma Baby Suggs and the women in the community divinate and reclaim the voice and words of Olodumare commanding actions that turn their words into flesh. In reaction to Ella's experienced and acknowledged holler, the women "stopped praying and took a step back to the beginning. In the beginning there were no words. In the beginning was the sound, and they all knew what that sound sounded like" (259). This Africanist reading of the resolution at the ending of Toni Morrison's Beloved advances the reinstatement of African traditional religious/ritualistic practices.
The examples from The Bride Price and Beloved advance the thesis that, consciously, unconsciously and subconsciously, African traditional religious belief/ritual and myth lurks beneath the thin veneer of the imposition of Christianity and modernity on the African cultural psyche. My proposed paper analyzes the spiritual mix of religion, ritual and myth as an interface in contemporary experience in a cross section of African and African Diaspora literature such as Wole Soyinka’s Ake, Morrison's Beloved and Isidore Okpewho’s Call Me By My Rightful Name.
Keywords: Religion, Ritual, Folklore, Rites of Passage, African Diaspora, Creative literature
Sociological Analysis of Religion and Community Development in Selected Communities of Southwestern Nigeria.
Oludele A. Ajani
Department of Sociology & Anthropology
Faculty of Social Sciences
Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria.
delejani@yahoo.com
Abstract
Apart from the effective utilization of land, labour and capital, the success of poverty reduction programs depends largely on the performance of social institutions. Religion remains one of the oldest and yet the most dynamic of social institutions. Religious propositions clothed in conceptions of sacred or divine specify how social relations should be conducted, and therefore affect the nature of social exchange as well as the distribution of social resources. Virtually all the founding fathers of Sociology-Marx, Comte, Durkheim, Spencer, Simmel- devoted special attention to the changing role of religion in modern society. The assumption that religion in modern societies would gradually diminish in importance or else become less capable of influencing public life, is now becoming a matter of dispute. Modern religion continues to be resilient and relevant in public life, it does not merely decline but adapts to its environment in complex ways. Poverty reduction since the 1980s has remained at the center of international development agenda and religious institutions have contributed in a number of ways toward the realization of the Millennium Development Goals. This paper is a theoretical exploration of the functions of Christian religious institutions in enhancing their members’ well being. Since religions vary widely in teachings and practices, an attempt is made here to understand the interface between the teachings and practices, and provision of welfare to the less privileged members of the society. It concludes that Christian doctrines and practices could be annexed and integrated into the development process with a bid to enhancing the livelihood of Nigerian citizens.
Religion and the Health among the Yoruba of Southwest Nigeria.
Dr. M.A.O. Aluko
Reader/ Associate Professor
Department of Sociology & Anthropology
Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile- Ife, Osun State, Nigeria.
niyialuko@oauife.edu.ng
maoaluko@yahoo.com
Abstract
This study examined the interplay and the relationship between Religion and Health among the Yoruba of Southwest Nigeria. In the various traditional religions, health just like illness is believed to originate from two main sources: (i) natural and (ii) spiritual/super natural. Both in the past and even in contemporary times, Islam and Christianity to a large extent also subscribes to this notion or belief about the origin of health and illness. The objectives of the paper are in three folds: (i) to examine the relationship between religion and health, (ii) to examine the spiritual dimensions of health, and (iii) in what ways and to what extent is health religiously defined. The data for the paper were obtained from interviews, focus group discussions with Christians, Moslems and adherents of some selected traditional religions, oral traditions and documentary sources. The data were analyzed via content analysis and ZY tables.
In the main, the findings revealed that even in contemporary times people still hold tenaciously to the belief that, health, having a good health is symbolic, meaningful and could occur naturally or otherwise. And that good health in some cases come as a result of (i) living a sinless, harmless life, and doing good to fellow human beings (ii) non- involvement in abominable acts and when a person has not incurred the wrath of the gods and ancestors, and (iii) a person has been preordained and destined to experience the good health at creation (Fatalistic beliefs). The paper concludes that the health of an individual is significantly related to his or her religiosity and spirituality.
The Pentecostal Movement in Nigeria: Revival or Exploitation; Liberation or Enslavement?
Dr. M.A.O. Aluko
Reader/ Associate Professor
Department of Sociology & Anthropology
Obafemi Awolowo University
Ile- Ife, Osun State, Nigeria.
niyialuko@oauife.edu.ng
maoaluko@yahoo.com
Abstract
This paper examined the Pentecostal Movement in Nigeria. The objectives of the paper are in three-fold: to examine whether the Pentecostal Movement in Nigeria has facilitated Revival or Exploitation; to examine whether the Pentecostal Movement has facilitated Liberation or Enslavement; to examine the Reforms that needs to enforced on the Pentecostal Movement in Nigeria in order to bring sanity to the movement. The data for this study were collected from both Primary and Secondary sources. The primary data was collected through in-depth interviews and Focus-Group-Discussions with respondents selected through purposive sampling technique. The secondary data was gathered through documents, newspapers, magazines, periodicals, etc. Data were analyzed with simple percentages and ZY index tables. Even though the Pentecostal Movement in Nigeria is still pursuing the message of Revival and Liberation; this notwithstanding, the findings of the study significantly revealed that the Pentecostal Movement in Nigeria in contemporary times is gradually drifting towards Exploitation rather than Revival; and to Enslavement rather than Liberation. The paper concluded on the note that the activities of the Pentecostal Movement needs to be monitored and censored in order to curtail their unwholesome and sharp practices and to protect innocent citizens who fall victims of these fake Pentecostal movement.
Between Allah, Yahweh and Nyasaye: Negotiating Religious Identity in Kenya
By Prof. Maurice Amutabi, PhD
Department of History,
Central Washington University,
400 University Way,
Language and Literature Building, 100T,
Ellensburg, WA 98926
E-mail: amutabim@cwu.edu or amutabi@yahoo.com
Abstract
In this paper, I interrogate ways through which Kenyans have been able to negotiate between traditional, Christian and Muslim identities very successfully. Nyasaye is the deity of the Abaluyia people of Western Kenya, the second largest ethnic group in Kenya (after the Kikuyu). This paper seeks to examine the politics of identity among Kenyans using Nyasaye, Allah and Yahweh as signifiers of traditional, Judeo-Christina and Islamic religious influences in Kenya, respectively. My paper is predicated on the notion that t he practice of identity politics naturally entails some degree of separatism – hence the need for groups to negotiate the social space – and mediate against tensions. I use these three categories as sites of my analysis. My argument is although many scholars on discourses on identity have always pointed to existence of oppositional binaries – ‘us’ versus ‘them’ – and oppression and liberation, I would like to suggest that this is not necessarily the case in politics of religious identity in Kenya. Also, although other theorists of identity have argued that oppression shapes the consciousness of the oppressed to the point that the oppressed begin to internalize their oppression, I would like to suggest in this paper that for Kenya this is not necessarily the case. I would like to suggest further that in Kenya, many groups have managed to accept and even mimic multiple identities successfully. They have moved from celebration of one identity to the next almost faultlessly. They have internalized what they think is useful to them and discarded what they regard as useless. I would like to use the examples of religious holidays and rituals to interrogate the various ways through Kenyans have negotiated religious identity, successfully. Using traditional rituals such as circumcision, marriage and naming ceremonies, and Christian holidays such as Easter, Good Friday and Christmas and Muslim holidays such as Ill-Firt and Idd-Mubarak and Maulid, I will demonstrate that these rituals and holidays are observed differently and have been appropriated by Kenyan groups in very creative ways. I will argue that there is no inequality, injustice, and oppression in the practice of these rituals or holidays to warrant the creation of consciousness-raising, or call for liberation as seen in other religious identities, often replete with tensions and oppositional binaries.
GLOBAL IS LOCAL: A STUDY OF RELIGIOUS CONFLICT IN NIGERIA
Israel Akanji
School of Divinity,
University of Edinburgh
fbcgarki@yahoo.co.uk
Absract
When Kare Bluitgen, a local author from Denmark conceived the idea of depicting images of Mohammed for an upcoming illustrated book, there is no doubt that he grossly miscalculated the intensity of opposition that would greet such a wild proposal. Underlining this controversy was his complaint of not finding any artist brave enough or willing to illustrate images of the prophet. Thus, in the characteristic manner of insatiability for fame and gain of the press, the Danish newspaper, Jollands-Postem, accepted to publish series of twelve cartoon drawings of the prophet. This publication was condemned around the Islamic world, leading to the burning of embassies and a boycott of Denmark by Muslim nations. In the ensuing pandemonium, major cities of Nigeria, beginning from Maiduguri in the North East, to Onitsha in the South East, became centres of gruesome carnages. This paper seeks to examine the remote and root causes of this glocal conflict and suggests theological resources for conflict transformation.
Religion, Governance and Sexuality: Faith Sponsored Homophobia in the Nigerian National Assmebly
By
Rita Nkechiyem Akinrinade
MTS II, Harvard Divinity School, Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA
e-mail: rakinrinade@hds.harvard.edu
Abstract
Human sexuality has in recent times become a subject that has generated heated debate all over the world with different social groups concerning themselves with issues that pertain to all areas of sexuality. This research is particularly significant as the issue of the rights of sexual minorities is a crucial topic. Moreover, scholarship on gender and
sexuality in the African continent is still in its infancy stage as many traditional African societies regard sexuality as a taboo topic (Abogunrin 2006; Robertson 2006; Hayes et al. 1998).
This paper seeks to obtain a composite picture of what role adherence to identified faith values plays in understanding sexual diversity in the Nigerian political arena. Of particular interest to this study is the controversial bill - the Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Act - that has been tabled before the Nigerian National Assembly.
This study concludes that the proposed law constitutes a violation of the Nigerian government's commitments under international human rights laws, and that since Nigeria is a secular state, law makers must not allow their religious convictions create homophobia in civil society. The study also attempts to develop a theory of Nigerian sexual ethic arising from the outcome of this research. This research will serve to encourage further study into the influence of faith-based responses to diverse sexual
orientations, and the role of the state (executive, legislative and judicial), using the Nigerian example as a case study.
Religion and Family Planning in Nigeria
OMORUAN AUSTIN
DEPARTMENT OF GENERAL STUDIES,
LADOKE AKINTOLA UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY,
PMB 4000,
OGBOMOSO, NIGERIA.
austinoma2002@yahoo.com.
Abstract
There is hardly any important area of human experience which is not linked to the supernatural and the people's sense of religion and religious piety. Religion is a set of beliefs, symbols and practices which is based on the idea of the sacred and which unites believers into a socio-religious community. It is a known fact that religion has been part and parcel of the ideological structure of human society. The pervasiveness of religion
through the total way of life of Africans poses questions into their reproductive live. The task of this paper therefore, is to raise critical questions on the role of religion on contraceptives usage, number of children and sex preference among the people. The paper concludes with religious view on family planning in Nigeria.
Wolves in Sheep Clothing: Examining Criminal Behaviours in Nigerian Sanctuaries
Olabisi James AYODELE
Department of Sociology & Anthropology
Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria
ajbisi@yahoo.com
Abstract
Religion is a universal phenomenon. The world over, religion enables man to grasp social realities and the after-life. It also encourages conformity to societal norms/laws as one of the criteria for gaining the desirable after-life. In contemporary Nigerian society, however, the omnipotent influence of religion to ensure adherents’ conformity to societal norms/laws appears to be waning going by the spate of criminality in Nigerian sanctuaries. This study relies extensively on the content analysis of reported crime cases in selected Nigerian daily national newspapers. It finds that law-breaking under the guise of religion cuts across denominational or sectarian divide. It concludes that materialism is gradually displacing spiritualism and suggests an urgent need to redress the trend.
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Citizenship and Religious Identity in Senegal
Dr Ndiouga Benga
Department of History, University Cheikh Anta Diop, Dakar, Senegal
B.P. 5005 DAKAR FANN, SENEGAL
Office : (221) 33.864.0329 / (221) 77.328.5595
Fax : (221) 33.825.4977
Email : nabenga@refer.sn
The issues of citizenship and identity have been a major theme in political debates. These two phenomena, which are a priori separate, raise the question of the relevance of the nation-state and its constitutive elements, as well as that of the relation of nation-states and citizenship to identity. The question of citizenship is particularly important because it is intertwined with the issue of recognition. The demand of recognition allows groups that claim a specific identity to emerge from the political sidelines and to be integrated fully into the state’s structures. In this regard, being recognized is linked to a struggle of emancipation. Although citizenship may find expression in various domains (voluntary associations, cultural communities, civil society), only “legal” citizenship allows for a full participation of individuals and groups in a political community.
In the case of Senegal, the assertion of an Islamic identity defended by Muslim associations (Jamatu Ibadu Rahman, Al Falah, Association des Elèves et Etudiants Musulmans…) is construed as a challenge to the doctrine of a single nation characterized by its cultural unity and the common identity of its citizens. This principle of unity claims to mask all differences in the public domain. Identity is an effect of prejudice (marginalization by the State) to be transcended and an affirmation too. Not recognizing this identity poses the problem of equity between different identities and how they are represented (belonging and State). Another question is to acknowledge that globalization by making the boundaries of the State permeable, forces to abandon the homogeneous, the unitary concept of citizenship in favour of a plural concept one. The persistence of the Nation-State as a model political unit relies on its capacity to negotiate within and beyond national borders, its capacity to negotiate its identities. In face of a secularist State and globalization that means westernization, the aim of radical islam is to propose an other way, an other cultural process of subjectivation, where Islam is a central force in politics and where God rules. The asking question is if this sort of control doesn’t conduct to a passive form of citizenship.
UNDERSTANDING THE PROCESSES OF YORUBA RELIGIOUS AND ETHNIC IDENTITY CREATION AND CONSERVATION IN THE DIASPORA THROUGH NAMES AND NAMING
Asli Berktay
aberktay@tulane.edu
PhD Candidate, Latin American Studies Department,
Tulane University
255 Cherokee St. Apt 2 New Orleans, LA 70118
Tel: 1-504-621-0948
Abstract
Anyone involved with Yoruba culture on both sides of the Atlantic will note the important role played within it by names and naming. Olanike Ola Orie, in her 2002 article “Yoruba Names and Gender Marking,”[1] studies Yoruba names and naming processes under four different categories: Personal names, attributive names, nicknames and totemic names. This paper seeks to analyze the changes that took place in Yoruba naming processes in the context of the African Diaspora in Latin America and the Caribbean. I will concentrate primarily on Cuba, Brazil and Trinidad, while linking the secondary scholarship on the subject to novel archival research. The majority of the findings up to the present time show a total absence of totemic names and nicknames, which would have largely lost their functions in the slavery and post-slavery settings of the Diaspora. On the other hand, some attributive names have remained and we can recognize an important number of personal names—arranged in the Yoruba structure, yet functioning as novel Diaspora signifiers of suffering, courage and cultural conservation. Further, the conspicuous retention of Òrìşà-related religious names, as well as the creation of new ones, also provides important clues for understanding the role played by religion in the construction and conservation of Yoruba identity in the New World.
Consequently, I argue that a comparative analysis of Yoruba names and naming in the African Diaspora will permit a further understanding of the Yoruba cosmology developed in the Americas, and will open new areas of research across academic disciplines—from linguistics to the history of mentalités.
[1] Orie, O. (2002) “Yoruba Names and Gender Marking,” in Anthropological Linguistics 44, 2: 115-141.
Obeah on Trial: the Prosecution and Persecution of African Religion in Jamaica
Danielle N. Boaz, J.D., LL.M.
Ph.D. Student in History, Florida International University
7020 NW 179 th St. Apt 106
Hialeah , FL 33015
(419) 203-9727
daniellenboaz@hotmail.com
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to Jamaica’s anti-Obeah laws under international human rights standards including the right to freedom of expression, the obligation of nondiscrimination based on race and religion, and, in particular, the right to freedom of religion. Obeah is a religion or group of religions derived from the beliefs and knowledge that African slaves transported to the British colonies in the New World during the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. Obeah remains prohibited in Jamaica and has been outlawed for over 400 years. The earliest known law against Obeah was implemented in 1696, set forth to secure the institution of slavery against organizing factors that could lead slaves to revolt. These laws have continued post-emancipation until present times with the expressed purpose of saving the Jamaican people from their “foolish superstitions”. The current Obeah Act was drafted in 1898 and remains on the books unedited since its inception.
This paper will explore the history of Obeah prohibition and prosecution in Jamaica from slavery until present, including recent efforts to decriminalize obeah, and prosecutions of Obeah in surrounding nations. It will review the manifestations of the atmosphere Obeah laws have created, including perceptions of Obeah as expressed by Jamaicans in the media and the civil cases of slander and divorce over Obeah accusations. This paper will examine Jamaica’s anti-Obeah laws and Obeah prosecutions under international human rights laws. Finally, it will provide a recommendation for how Jamaica can bring its laws into compliance with human rights standards.
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Political Islam and democracy in Northern Nigeria
Silvia Chiarelli
Ph.d researcher
Via Berto Barbarani, 1
37063, Isola della Scala ( Verona)
Italy
Email: silvia.chiarelli@unimi.it
University affiliation: Graduate School in Social, Economic and Political Studies-University of Milan Via Pace, 10 2100, Milan Italy
Abstract
In 1999, the return to a civil government was concurrent with the enactment of the Islamic law in twelve of the thirty-six states of the Nigerian Federation. My paper examines why this coincidence happened. I would like to illustrate how its explanation is eradicated in the Nigerian history. First of all I try to underline the situation in Nigeria at the end of twentieth century. Secondly I will sketch briefly the main actors of the Nigerian Political Islam. Thirdly I will attempt an overview of Nigerian history, trying to underline some salient events as, for instance, Dan Folio’s jihad and the configuration of a Muslim identity which would explain the strange coexistence of sharia and the process of democratization involving the country since 1999. Finally I will portray the promulgation and the failing of Islamic law and democracy from 1999 to 2007. The paper will try to explore the following: First of all the instance of the reintroduction of sharia was expression of a moderate Islam; secondly Muslim elite manipulated religious instances coming from Nigerians in order to preserve their power. Muslim population supported strongly the promulgation of Islamic law as the last viable way to solve problems involving the country. Finally at the end of the double mandate of President Obasanjo both Sharia law and the process of economic and political liberalization failed. On my side the following questions remain open: 1. Was the election of the new president Umaru Yar’Adua a new succeeded tentative of Northern elite to get control of the Nigerian Federation? 2. Could an effective full implementation of Islamic law solve the problems in Nigeria?
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Dr Patrick Darling
African Legacy
african.legacy@googlemail.com
46A Ophir Road
Bournemouth
Dorset BH8 8LT
UK
Abstract
Abstract: The discoveries of a skull wall and skull plinth in two different Nigerian settlements, as well as forensic studies of Nigerian skulls kept in the British Museum and Natural History Museum, provide hard data for re-examining past religious beliefs and masquerades in Africa during the Slave-Trade era when the dispora occurred. The impact of 'political correctness' has done much to obfurscate and tone down supposed 'stereotyping' of past African beliefs as mere colonial propoganda; but this new data opens up some of the raw vibrancy and terror inherent in Africa's past political power formation and maintenance. It is examined in the light of wider parallel beliefs elsewhere, so that a more sympathetic global pespective can be obtained of these phenomena - some of which are worryingly resurgent today on both sides of the Atlantic and Mediterranean.
“Diasporic Relationality: Competing Africas, Genders and Nations”
Aisha M. Beliso-De Jesús
Doctoral Candidate
Department of Anthropology
Stanford University
450 Serra Mall, Building 50
Stanford, CA 94305-2-34
408-603-7794
aishab@stanford.edu
Abstract
In January 2007 Chief Araba Agbaye of Ife, the recognized “world” leader of Yoruba worship, acknowledged two women in the Americas as Ifá high priestesses (Iya Onifá’s). Ifá initiation in Orisha diasporas in the Americas has mostly been restricted to men. In Cuba 2003, a fierce debate arose on the validity of female initiation, where “Cuban-style” Babalawos (male high priests) where pitted against “African-style” Babalawos who had initiated women into Ifá in Cuba. Accused of being con-artists robbing innocent women, “African-Style” priests retaliated by calling their attackers misogynist lackey’s of the Cuban-State, who wanted to keep women for “sex and plucking chickens.” This debate is a “lens” into the socio-political power relations and processes of transformation, reconfiguration and negotiation between competing African diasporas, contending nationalisms, racialized and sexualized normativities, and their multiple homelands.
While the concept of diaspora as an emblem of hybridity and multilocationality has been useful in interrogating essentialist notions of home, origin, nation, and belonging, thus complicating the binarized notion of "local" versus "global," diaspora is not necessarily a transgressive shift away from the heteronormative imaginations of nation and can indeed reify the nation. Furthermore, the complicity of different diasporas with current neoliberal and imperialistic projects renders the easy valorization of this concept problematic. Rather than celebrating diaspora as a desired category of movement against any project of fixation, I utilize a "relational approach" (Shohat 2002) where the movement of one may be contingent upon the fixing of a racialized, gendered, and sexualized other. I explore how through this nationalist debate both Nigeria and Cuba are re-situated as “competing homelands,” fixing Africa as a static past, while subjects are disciplined transnationally through racialized and gendered normativities. This paper is part of a larger project to situate multiple and interconnected diasporas within a complex sociohistoric framework.
The Portrayal of the Supernatural in the African Epic as a Reflection of the Religious Belief Systems of the Society that produced the Oral Epic.
Mariam Konate Deme, Assistant Professor
Africana Studies
Western Michigan University
3072 Moore Hall
Kalamazoo, MI 49008
Office: 269-387-2643
Fax: 269-387- 2507
E-mail: mariam.k.deme@wmich.edu
Abstract
The tendency for human beings to appeal to forces outside and beyond the natural realm as coping strategies against adverse life situations can be traced back to antiquity. In the African worldview, even though gods and spirits are invisible to the common person, they are considered real and part of people’s immediate environment. That is why many African epics are set in an atmosphere where gods, spirits, divinities and other supernatural elements abound. This presentation attempts to demonstrate that since African heroic epics generally serve as living testimonies and references of the acceptance by a given society of past religious and cultural practices, their oral performances are consequently intended to transmit such ideologies to present and future generations. This paper argues three fundamental implications of the belief and recourse to the supernatural in the African epic as it relates to the religious and cultural belief systems of the particular societies that produced the epics. The first one is that the existence of the marvelous and the hero of the African epic’s use of supernatural means symbolize a consciousness of his own original limitations and weaknesses as a human being, and his desire to transcend them. The second one is that in the African worldview, true heroism cannot be conceived without the mastery of a system of spiritual knowledge based on the manipulation and activation of nature’s energy. The third and last implication is that the reference to the supernatural in African epics reinforces the belief still commonly held in many African societies that political power is held not by sheer physical force alone, but by the control of external forces.
Religion Gender and Sexuality issues
MAIGA Djingarey
President Femmes et Droits Humains
Focal point of the Network
Women Living Under Muslim Laws in Mali
Mali West Africa
Email: Djingarey@Afribone.net.ml
Abstract
In many African counties different religions coexist in harmony, so do families, and peoples with different faiths. Among those religions, traditional African religions, even if subaltern, still remain strong and enduring and continue to be extraordinary vehicles for social integration. They have substantially contributed to the blinding of African identities. African Christian or Muslim beliefs and practices frequently and comfortably incorporate distinct African cultures, icons and rituals, that is why it is difficult to distinguish what is religious, and what is customary related to a particular culture.
From outcomes of research on women and religion, we discover that there are many customs, rituals, and attitudes peoples reciprocally share with neighbors, friends and relatives of different religions as a way of strengthening their cohabitation or simply a societal conformity which are not Islamic requirement...
Some pre-Islamic or pre-Christian beliefs have survived in both religious and cultural practices, which, in our respective countries, are told Islamic; but when we come together across cultures and discuss, we discover they are not so in other Muslim societies. The most vivid example is female circumcision in Africa being justified as Islamic while it is completely unknown to some parts of the Muslim world. This makes it clear that aspects of women’s oppression that are justified by reference to Islam in one Muslim community, may be viewed as completely alien in another Muslim community.
This paper is going to discuss the practice of female genital cutting, a cultural practice dating back prior to Christianity and Islam in Africa and practiced today as Islamic requirement on millions of women and girls around the world.
The Redemptive Art of Max Lyonga Sako
Mara E. Donaldson,
Dickinson College
Abstract
This essay examines several religious themes in the art of Max Lyonga Sako, a Bakweirian artist living and working in Buea, Cameroon. These include the sacredness of everyday African life and redemption understood as social justice. From informal interviews with the artist in his studio in Buea (2003, 2004) and a formal interview and video (2006) while he was visiting in the United States I will discuss examples of each of these themes in his work. Although some of the paintings have specifically religious themes-- “Resurrection,” (collage, 2005) and “The Mystic Way” (collage, 2006)--many do not. Lyonga’s work is significant partly because he is an Anglophone working in a country dominated by Francophone artists and partly because he appeals to a wide audience. Whatever the subject or style (figurative, abstract, collage), however, his work and vision are permeated by his biblically based Christianity. I argue that Lyonga’s art, rooted as it is in biblical Christianity, draws more from prophetic traditions similar to those in liberation theology than it does to Pentecostal-Charismatic apocalyptic theology. For example, if you ask him “what do you hope people will get out of your paintings,” Lyonga will say, “I hope they will be transformed in some way.” This is what “redemption” means. As he works with street children in Douala by teaching them to paint or when he sets up a food kitchen, Lyonga’s Christianity is intensely practical, art and social justice are interconnected.
Women and the Weigh of Tradition and Religion
Sekou Doumbia,
Civil Society activist
Women & Human Rights
(Femmes & Droits Humains),
Kati, Mali, West-Africa
BP 54 A Kati
Rue 3 porte 23 Kati Noumorila
Tel 646 23 07, Email : sdjomans@yahoo.fr
Abstract
The African ways of life are fostered by beliefs. Belief in God or gods, belief in the influence of the deads, belief in the death and belief in the death as the final journey to the eternal world of the ancestors. These beliefs are, for example, embodied in a poem by Birago Diop, a Senegalese negritude writer in the following verses :
‘‘The deads are not dead,
They’re in the wind that blows,
They’re in the fire that burns….’’
In Africa most of the practices, either religious or traditional, are rooted in these metaphysics. They’re landmarks in our search for identities or new realities and we seldom go upstream of them. A few of them are, giving a name to a newborn baby, celebrating a marriage, burring a dead person, circumcising boys or excising girls to enter adulthood. Our attachment to these practices and our refusal to alter or abandon them lie mostly in our fear for the wrath of our ancestors who protect us. It’s an everlasting relationship linking the livings and the deads. That is why, to feel stronger, we often do sacrifices for them, such as organizing a food party or offering gifts to people in dire need. So, to abandon an ancestral practice is viewed as a treason, a profanation or perjure.
Today, female genital mutilation (FGM) is among those practices that are surviving despites decades-long outreach activities combating them. FGM continues to be a danger for millions of women at times of deliveries and for babies and children who are innocent easy preys to it. The practice is commonplace in rural areas where the hold of tradition is heavier. It is rampant despites existing laws forbidding it. This paper is an attempt to show the entwined influences of religions and tradition upon Africans and their ways of life. It may help scholars in their search for ways to alter negative or dangerous cultural practices such as FGM knowing that changing a segment of the culture in Africa is like fighting against the spirits of the ancestors, a venture in the ex-nihilo, the unknown.
“Female Genital Modifications: Culture-bound Women in the African Diaspora”
Religion, Gender and Sexuality Issues
Lilian Dube
Assistant Professor, University of San Francisco
ldube@usfca.edu
Abstract
This feminist critique of patriarchal definition of women’s bodies discusses female genital modifications and the role of African women in manipulating their bodies. These rites of passage thrives on women’s knowledge and use of herbs and medicines for genital cut and extensions that risk women’s health and deprive some of sexual gratification. The paper discusses African worldviews, beliefs, practices, and understandings of medicines employed to initiate girls into women. It explores the culture-specific understandings of religion, gender and sexuality in Africa. Thus, the beliefs and practices of clitoridectomy and other female genital ‘trimmings’ in some African cultures are contrasted with the ‘extensions’ of the labia minora in other Southern African cultures. The paper argues that although both practices manipulate women’ bodies and serve the same purpose, to ensure sexual gratification of the male at the expense of the female among other reasons, fresh insights surge when empowered African women tell their stories. The paper postulates that although genital modifications produce ‘culture’s bondswomen’ in Africa, migration creates more formidable challenges for women whose bodies have been genitally modified. It argues that the women who move beyond the cultural boundaries struggle with the permanent and irreversible deformity more than their sisters who remain at home or stay within their own communities in the Diaspora. The persistence of genital modification among some African communities in the Diaspora prompts questions about the value of genital modifications and critiques the appropriation of these rites in the Diaspora. The paper questions the significance of sexually modified female bodies in a context that neither understand nor appreciate the genital trimmings and extensions. It argues that modified bodies diminish the women’s chances of interracial, intercultural, interreligious intimate relationships and controls migrant women’s sexuality. This paper on religion, cross generational gender and sexuality in a globalized world proposes a therapeutic body theology.
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"Happy, Holy, Homosexual": The House of Rainbow, Lagos, Nigeria
Anene Ejikeme, Ph.D.
Department of History
Trinity University
San Antonio, TX 78212
anene.ejikeme@trinity.edu
Abstract
Since the consecration in 2003 of Gene Robinson, an openly gay priest, as bishop of the diocese of New Hampshire, the worldwide Anglican Communion has been in a state of open and heated revolt over the church's position on homosexuality. Archbishop Akinola of Nigeria has emerged, arguably, as the leader of conservative Anglicans worldwide who reject homosexuality, insisting it is neither natural nor acceptable to God. In Nigeria in 2006, Akinola was part of a group that endorsed a proposal to pass a law criminalizing homosexuality. The House of Rainbow is an inclusive church in Lagos, Nigeria, founded by Jide Macaulay, scion of a family of theologians. This 20 minute documentary includes footage from church service as well as interviews with Reverend Jide and members of the church.
Dr. Tibebe Eshete
Department of History
Calvin College
Grand Rapids, MI
te23@calvin.edu
Abstract
Although Ethiopia has a rich history of hymnology pertaining to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church traditions dating back to the 6 th C. AD, modern gospel songs of the Protestant faith are recent phenomenon. The Lutheran missionaries whose origin dates back to the late 19 th and early 2oth centuries were the earliest to introduce modern gospel songs in Ethiopia. The Mennonite missionaries who came to Ethiopia following WW II contributed to its expansion by recruiting young singers from the schools and other institutions they set up mainly in Addis Ababa, the capital city. Gospel songs initiated by the missionaries tended to be of western orientations both in tone and content, until the Pentecostal revival of the 1960’s. The Pentecostal movement, which originated independently among the rising Ethiopian intelligentsia of the 60’s, brought with it a new genre of gospel songs that took its cue in the nation’s rich music repertoire and incorporated modern innovative techniques. Gospel songs ironically exploded during the time of the military-cum Marxist rule (1974-1991). Gospel songs that sprang out of deep sufferings and yearning of the Ethiopians were multilayered in contents and complex in their messages.This paper will essentially provide a textual and contextual analysis of gospels songs composed during the Ethiopian Revolution and in so doing, it highlights the significance of gospel songs as audio-sources to understand and examine a dark period in Ethiopia’s history. Characterizing gospel songs as a “theology of folk resistance,” I will spell out their role in subtly countering an ideology that sought to destroy the Christian faith and their contributions, albeit indirectly, in interrogating a hegemonic power field.
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AFRICANA RELIGIOUS ETHOS
Leonard Gadzekpo, Ph.D.
Black American Studies
Southern Illinois University Carbondale
1000 Faner Drive
Carbondale, Illinois 62901
gadzekpo@yahoo.com
Abstract
What is the cultural essence of Africana when Africana designates Africans and the African Diaspora? The paper examines African religious values and practices, starting from Africa before the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade to the present. It discusses cultural values that inform Africana peoplehood and examines Africana religious ethos. It argues that African retentions and cultural re-interpretations found in the African Diaspora, as exemplified by religious practices in Brazil, Haiti, Cuba, and among African American Christians, are proof of common cultural expression and spiritual performance despite the variety of beliefs. It concludes that the religious ethos affirms an enduring and dynamic character of Africana.
The Mortal and Hard Problems of Religion
Fasiku Gbenga
Department of Philosophy
Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria.
socratesife@yahoo.com or platoife@oauife.edu.ng
Abstract
One of the fundamental activity human beings engaged in religion. The phenomenon is, however, the least understood by man. This is because when asked about some of the fundamental assumptions that gets them going on the phenomenon of religion, human beings mere recourse to God or gods the substance of the phenomenon. Hence, questions about the ontology of God, the compatibility of God with the existence of evil, etc remain corporeal and active questions in the mind of the people. More importantly, there are some other questions that are rarely asked, not because they are not important, but because there is no answer to them. These are the hard problems of religion. In this paper, I attempt to clarify and separate some of the mortal questions of religion from the hard questions. The paper formulates the hard questions and argues their insolubility. It is further argued that while the mortal questions have been discussed and are still being discussed, attention is being drawn to the hard problems.
Precarious Empowerment: African Women, Enslavement, and Religion in 17 th Century Mexico City
Dr. Rhonda M. Gonzales
University of Texas at San Antonio
Dept. of History
One UTSA Circle
San Antonio , TX 78249
210-458-4026
rhonda.gonzales@utsa.edu
Abstract
In 17 th century Mexico City, enslaved African women comprised a sizeable labor force. Yet the historical documents available to us do not tell stories of women overcome or made passive by their coerced positions. On the contrary, colonial era documents suggest that African women used the power of African derived religion and their ability to navigate within the city to create spaces for constructing African rooted identities that defined and empowered them. Colonial officials and others in Mexico City clearly acknowledged the reality of their presence, identities, and influence in their amassing of thousands of documents centered on the telling of African women’s “wicked” and power-laden ways. Examining African women’s lives in Mexico City through a critical reading of Spanish Inquisition documents exposes a history of women who used African derived religious knowledge to subvert their subjugation, carve out influential sociocultural niches, and mold tactical reputations within the city.
Challenges of religious freedom in Zimbabwe: with special focus on Church–State relations since the attainment of political independence in 1980.
Paul Gundani (Professor of Church History, University of South Africa)
Department of Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology,
University of South Africa
PO Box 392
UNISA
0003
Pretoria
Ph. 00-27-12-429-4085
gundaph@unisa.ac.za
Abstract
The Lancaster Constitution of 1979 that paved way for majority rule in Zimbabwe provided for religious freedom as one of the fundamental freedoms available to all citizens. From1980 up to 1998, religious freedoms were generally respected by the state. However, since 1998, government started to adopt practices that not only undermined but appeared to contravene the religious freedoms of many Christian individuals and bodies in the country. In this paper, we consider some of the reasons behind this change of heart by the government in respect of the religious freedoms of citizens. Furthermore, we examine the character of violations of religious freedom perpetrated against Christians within the period under study, and the implications of the violations in the light of the democratic imperatives in Zimbabwe. Due to the current nature of the study, we will rely mostly on documentation located in the print media as well as reports carried out by civic organisations interested in human rights as well religious freedoms.
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PENTECOSTALISM IN THE NIGERIAN SOCIETY: A THERAPY OR DELUSION?
Prof. Mrs. Celestina Omoso Isiramen
Department of Religious Management and Cultural Studies,
Ambrose Alli University,
P.M.B, 14, EKPOMA, NIGERIA.
TEL: 2348034079733
E-MAIL: cesiramen@yahoo.com
Abstract
The conception of the religious skeptic that it is safer to separate religion from the secular is not novel. However, the interconnectedness between religion and other aspects of the social structure is attested to by practical events in human existence. This is not strange to the African whose metaphysical understanding connotes the inseparability of religion from every human endeavour. Presently, the hitherto Oil boom of Nigeria has metamorphosed into Oil doom, a circumstance that has pushed and is pushing the Nigerian people into a desperate search for succour which knows no bounds. Thus, as an inherently religious people, the unprecedented growth of Pentecostal Church in the Nigerian society that is presently bedeviled by harsh, disheartening repressive and alienating socio-economic conditions appears not to be a coincidence. By combining the historical, descriptive, evaluative and phenomenological research methods, this paper examines the impact of Pentecostal activities on the Nigeria people and concentrates on its therapeutic or delusive implications. It is observed that while Pentecostalism plays a sort of therapeutic role in the lives of its Nigerian adherents, its delusive import seems to becloud its positive values. It is therefore recommended that for Pentecostalism to be worth its effort its growing delusive import must be conscientiously addressed.
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CHRISTIAN DIVERSITY AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT IN VIHIGA DISTRICT, WESTERN KENYA
By
Susan M. KilonzoMaseno University, Kenya
Department of Religion, Theology & Philosophy
P.O Box 333, MASENO, 40105
Maseno, KENYA
TEL: +254 721 259 239
E-mail: mbusupa@yahoo.com
ABSTRACT
Scholarly researches have shown that religious institutions are often in unique positions to access the poor at community’s grassroots (Okullu, 2003; Bryant, 1999; Kilonzo, 2005). Moreover, the diverse nature of religion means that different religions can act as an entrance to people’s socio-economic lives in their diverse communities. In Kenya, Christianity is as diverse as the ethnic groups. This diversity raises a concern about the relationship between spiritual beliefs and socio-economic development. The paper objectively examines the causes of this diversity and links the causes to development by analyzing the contribution (positive and negative) of these diverse Christian groups to the socio-economic lives of the people. The approaches to development by these churches are critically examined. The paper is encased under the concept of holistic development which quantifies that the Church should not only be concerned with people’s spiritual welfare but also the material wellbeing. The findings are drawn from a field survey in Vihiga District, Western Kenya, which sampled 23 different Christian denominations and interviewed 46 church leaders, 92 lay workers, and 138 adherents. The paper concludes that religion has played a significant role in the provision of material welfare. The groups have applied a wide range of approaches in the development projects in an effort to provide answers to the development crisis in Kenya. Consequently, various development activities have helped the community members in varied ways. The churches have in this way become a source of identity to the poor in the community’s grassroots, who are in most cases not accessed by the state’s bureaucratic approaches to development. Conclusively, religious denominations accordingly qualify as agents of holistic development in the society.
MATTHEW KUSTENBAUDER
Matthew.Kustenbauder@yale.edu
Yale University
New Haven, USA
Abstract
Since independence Sudan has suffered two civil wars that have devastated entire regions and caused untold human suffering. In most popular accounts the cause of the fighting is characterized as conflicts between a Muslim north and a Christian south. Such a stereotype, one in which the hostilities in Sudan are reflective of a global clash of cultures pitting Islam against
the West, points toward religion and religious identity as fundamental sources of conflict in world history. Serious scholars of Sudan, however, have identified other causes. The legacy of British colonialism was that the peripheral parts of Sudan, especially the south, were woefully undeveloped and thus unprepared for political independence. In addition, there has always existed competition, especially between the northern and southern regions, for scarce resources including labor, good agricultural and grazing land, the Nile waters, and rich mineral and oil reserves. These and other sources of conflict in Sudan suggest that the issue of religion is but one
factor among many. This paper draws upon interviews with members of the Sudanese diaspora living in the United States to answer the question of religion’s role in the conflict. To what extent do Sudanese Americans identify religion as a major factor in the war, and how might their own religious identity influence their telling of Sudan’s history? More specifically, this paper demonstrates that, although they each adhere firmly to different faiths, a significant consensus exists among members of the Sudanese diaspora regarding the precise function of religious identity in Sudan’s wars: namely, all those interviewed hold the position that religion is not the root cause of the hostilities, but has been deployed as both a weapon and a shield in what is, in fact, a political struggle. Assessment of Sudan’s past by refugees and political asylum seekers constitutes a critique from below, incorporating into the historical record voices that must be taken seriously if we are to understand the social forces at work in Sudan’s history
Presenting the Yorùbá Deity Òsun within the Context of Feminist Spirituality Literature
Ajike Kendrick
North Plainfield, New Jersey
Abstract
This thesis investigates how the present language and expression of feminist spirituality literature might incorporate information on the Yorùbá goddess Òsun as a valuable addition to its content. Òsun is the deity of fertility, wealth, power, femininity, and community. Information on the African goddess is widely available in the literature of the Yorùbá religious tradition, yet this divine model of women’s empowerment is virtually absent from mainstream feminist spirituality literature.
Feminist spirituality was born out of the American feminist movement which began in the late 1960’s. This research focuses on how western perspectives in the feminist spirituality movement, and lack of information due to secrecy within the Yorùbá religions tradition, may have contributed to the virtual omission of Òsun in current feminist spirituality literature. Reasons why Òsun has been excluded from some texts and only minimally presented in others is explored. This paper presents Òsun in the context of feminist spirituality as a model for how other non-western goddesses can be presented in a culturally authentic and historically accurate way. This paper discusses her inherent value to devotees in Nigeria, Cuba, and the United States, and demonstrates Òsun as a divine role model of power and effective leadership for both men and women. Potential benefits of including information on Òsun in mainstream feminist spirituality literature, to spiritual feminists and spiritual feminism in general, are outlined. Similarly, potential benefits of living in relationship with divinities that reflect ethnicity and gender are explored.
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RELIGION, CONFLICTS AND VIOLENCE IN A PLURALISTIC SOCIETY: A STUDY OF INTER RELIGIOUS INTERACTIONS IN NIGERIA.
DANOYE OGUNTOLA LAGUDA
DEPARTMENT OF RELIGIONS
Lagos state University, Ojo Lagos, Nigeria
P.M.B.1087 Apapa, Lagos
E-mail:danoyeoguntola@yahoo.com
Abstract
The Nigerian nation has witnessed in recent past series of religious conflicts and violence. These social strives has affected political, economic and social interactions among people of diverse interests in the country. It has sometimes forced social cum cultural changes in the polity thereby making theories of Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim, and Milton Yinger on religion apposite realistic. The adherents of religious traditions have often being deployed, involved as well as manipulated by religious and political leadership to cause violence based on their own selfish ends. The case of Sagamu upheaval of 1999 (a clash between the adherents of African traditional religion and Muslims) and the Jos riots of 2003 (a multi-ethnic and religious crisis) cannot be overemphasised.The pluralistic nature of the Nigerian polity, naturally, gives the citizens the freedom to choose and practice the religion of their choice. The situation had made religion a tool for manipulations and a tool for social conflicts among adherents of the three religions dominant in the country. Therefore conflicts of interest in doctrinal and evangelical matters and in the practice of the religions have often led to violence. The conflicts are in most cases between people of Islamic creed and people of the Christian faith, but in the two cases for study, the Traditional worshippers have joined the trail. During these conflicts, violence ensued with ethnic dimensions leading to lost of lives and properties, this is due to ignorance, on the part of adherents, of the tenets, doctrines and traditions of these religions, which from findings it is shown that the three religions preach peace and condemn violence.
This paper seeks to demonstrate that the positive social dimensions of religion are often not cultivated by adherents of the traditions dominant in Nigeria, thereby making it a negative social tool that makes socio-economic developments difficult to achieve especially in developing countries like Nigeria. Furthermore, the paper will attempt to show that religious conflicts may be a necessity in a pluralistic society like our case study, but the violence that are the bye- products of such conflicts are due to the manipulations earlier mentioned.
RELIGION, GENDER AND SEXUALITY: RELIGIONS INSTITUITIONS AND RELEGATION OF WOMEN IN AFRICA,
By
A. A. Lawal, Ph.D.Dept of History and Strategic Studies
University of Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria.
e-mail: panlawi2001@yahoo.com
Abstract
This controversial topic requires some clarifications on gender, sexuality and spirituality as regards human nature, human experience and attitudes of men and women towards birth, adulthood and death. Can we say both men and women have equal understanding and experience of divine fellowship and power to communicate God’s message to humanity in Christianity, Islam and Traditional religion? From Western Christian perspective of God’s order in creation, as recorded in the Bible, man fell because a woman fell prey to Satan and thereby incurred God’s curse. Since then a woman has been subjected to a man. Both the old and new testaments give the image of God the father, the Son and the Holy Spirit as masculine, hence man has over-all authority in the Church, at home and in the society. Islam also upholds the supremacy of man over woman rather than the woman’s equality. However, in traditional Africa religion, cultural environment and folklore are not similar. Thus while women enjoy some equal rights and privileges with men in some climes, they are regarded in others. Some specific examples will be given to illustrate these various developments which have significant historical antecedents. The role of modernization since the colonial period is crucial in shaping societies though the process of assimilation, acculturation and westernization. European values overshadowed African cultural heritage through European educational system, mission schools, churches and travels to Europe and America by Africans for various purposes. As a result of the success of women emancipation movements in Europe and America, anti-women laws and practices were both liberalized or eradicated hence equal rights and privileges in public service, churches and politics. Africans, (men and women) overseas benefited from these changes and negotiated for similar changes in Africa, hence their active involvement in independence movements, competition with men in education at all levels, and in politics. The paper elaborates on the impact of the contemporary changes in churches, mosques and traditional religions institutions. In many Christian denominations except the Catholic Church, women are ordained as pastors, evangelists, prophets, teachers etc. but in Islam, no similar appointment are conceded to women account of the rigid application of the Islamic rules and regulation. In tradition religion, women’s roles and offices are also re-defined to uphold women’s dignity and identity. The paper gives a survey of previous myths about women’s sexuality that neutralizes prayers, fasting and ritual ceremonies in the three religions to justify women’s relegation. But there is a world of difference now despite some hazy stereotypes and prejudices against women.
A Harmonisation of Religion and Governance in National and Socio-Political Systems
By
Folake Lawanson (Ms.)
Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife.
Department of Business Law, Faculty of Law, Obafemi
Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, Nigeria
E-mail Address: aloeveratalk@yahoo.com
Abstract
One of the most influential facets of life in every society is the socio-political structure. It is this structure that midwifes the various policies that affect human living. It has been observed that a number of socio-political structures have been greatly influenced by religion. This is because religion is one of the oldest human institutions. Tracing the history of most political structures especially the ancient Roman Empire, there is evidence of great impact of ecclesiastical influence on them. That is why the Catholic Church today is never completely named without preceding it with the word “Roman”; not that the Church has any affiliation with Rome other than that the seat of the Supreme Pontiff is situated therein, but the nominal affiliation was borne out of the fact that the “Roman” Empire was closely linked and governed ecclesiastically. It, however, would not suffice to say that religion affects politics without saying whether it does so positively or negatively. Human beings are of diverse views, depending on what forms their ideals in life. Humans, left alone to colour the face of politics with the influence of their various ideals (predominantly religion), would result in the socio-political structure becoming haywire with conflicting policies and practices. Therefore, there would be need for machinery to be set in motion to control this influence. The legal system, with statutory aid, could then be seen as a tool for the enforceability of a regulated positive influence (if at all) of religion on the political structure. This paper seeks to highlight the influence of religion in the Nigerian socio-political system from the pre-colonial era to recent times and how the Statutes have been or could be used to direct the use of religion in public affairs. Some international perspectives of this evaluation would also be done.
Conversion to the Baha’i Faith within the Basel Missionin British Cameroons, 1953-1963
Anthony A. Lee, Ph.D.
Department of History
Bunche Hall
University of California
Los Angeles, CA 90024
Abstract
Today there are about one million adherents of the Baha’i Faith in Africa. The religion was introduced to the continent in the mid-twentieth century. Since the British Cameroons was the place where the Baha’is were most successful, at least in terms of conversions and the establishment of Baha’i institutions, this paper will attempt to look at the origins of the Cameroonian Baha’i community. But I will not be so much interested in the institutional growth of the religion as I will be in discerning the message that was being delivered by the Baha’is there and how it was understood.
Cameroon appears to be one of the only places in Africa during this period where the Baha’i message overwhelmed its own institutional boundaries to become an organic religious movement. The movement also overwhelmed Christian institutional boundaries, especially among African Christians within the Basel Mission. The Baha’i Faith not only grew openly and publicly, as elsewhere, but also as an underground movement within this Basel Mission community. The paper will discuss the vulnerabilities of the Basel Mission that allowed it to become the locus of the development of a new religious movement within its midst. Why did whole communities of Basel Mission Presbyterians become Baha’is? And how did the Mission respond to this development? I will look briefly at the history of the Basel Mission in Cameroon and in Ghana—taking particular note of the dynamics of that mission community at the end of the colonial era. I will then discuss Baha’i conversions in Cameroon and the missionary response to those conversions.
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Religion, Gender and Sexuality Issues in Nigeria
Rev Rowland Jide Macaulay; Pastor,
House Of Rainbow MCC, Lagos Nigeria
ramacaulay@hotmail.com
Abstract
This paper will focus on the marginalization of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Transgender (LGBT) Christians in Nigeria. The challenge of having to deal with sexual orientation has created an atmosphere where people were not able to deal with the trauma of being non heterosexual in a country where faith dominates the spectrum of living. I will like to write this paper to show that sexuality and spirituality can be reconciled for the LGBT community and other marginalized people. I will focus on the following from an African Theological perspective;
·What the bible says about homosexuality for Africans
·Argue that God made them Gays and Lesbians
Christianity strikes many people in different way, often they see no need for a religion that is 2000 years old and has had its day. One of the duties of Christian apologetics is that of making a case for the faith. We can prepare ourselves for such opportunities by memorizing many facts about our faith, such as evidences for the reliability of the Bible and the truth of the resurrection. We can learn logical arguments such as those for the existence of God or the logical consistency of Christian doctrines. While these are important components, such things can seem very remote from LGBT people today, especially in a country like Nigeria. There is turmoil in Nigeria today as we try to decide all over again what is good and what is evil. In spite of all the glorious advances made in a number of areas of life, there is a prevailing mood of unease. Nigerians generally seem to be scrambling for something in which to put their confidence for the future. There is no doubt that Christianity is relevant to many situations in Nigeria, there are endless list of examples, injustice, dysfunctional families, unemployment, culture, poverty, social justice, breach of human rights, inequality, misogyny, denominational rife, unruly government, homophobia, discrimination, corruption, hypocrisy of the religious communities. We also need a balance to restore order, sanity, love, endurance, control, gratitude, accountability, respect, manners, responsibility, liberation, freedom, helping the poor, works, support, preaching the gospel of inclusion, baptizing the people, winning souls etc. The answers to the questions of the relevance of Christianity in Nigeria, which certainly have no answers in naturalism, are found in Jesus. These truths, buttressed by the facts and logical consistency of Christianity, can be a significant part of our case for the truth of Jesus Christ. Although truth is not ultimately determined by experience, the common experience of humanity provides a point of contact for the Gospel. Even if such matters are not persuasive by themselves, they might at least serve to show that Christianity is relevant to our lives today and more so in the lives of many LGBT people in Nigeria. We can safely say that Christianity is not really a religion; it is a relationship with God. Many missions in Nigeria are popularized through branding, many with specific enticing purpose.
The Archaeology of Community Identity and Resistance in Antebellum Philadelphia: African-Influenced Burial Practices at the Cemeteries of the First African Baptist Church
John P. McCarthy, RPA
Senor Archaeologist/Historian
Cultural Resources Services Group
S&ME, Inc. Charleston, SC
Mailing address: 620 Wando Park Blvd., Mt. Pleasant, SC 29464, USA
email: jmccarthy@smeinc.com
Abstract
Based in an enduring belief in a world of spirits and a continuing relationship with one’s ancestors, the cemetery became a special venue for the expression of community identity in early nineteenth-century Philadelphia. African-influenced, Creolized, burial practices that made unusual use of ordinary material objects were documented archaeologically at two cemeteries used by Philadelphia’s First African Baptist Church and at other burial grounds and religious sites used by both free and enslaved African-Americans as well. Of interest was the considerably greater occurrence of these practices at the later of the two cemeteries in Philadelphia. This paper will describe these findings and place them in socio-historical context to consider them as material expressions of the integration of African beliefs and practices in the spiritual life of Philadelphia African Americans. In addition it will be argued that these European objects were given new, African-influenced, socially charged meanings reflecting a uniquely African-American socio-cultural identity. The increased occurrence of these practices at the later of the cemeteries will be considered as a reactive expression of the congregation’s identity in response to an increasing hostile socio-cultural environment.
Africans in New Netherland’s Dutch Reformed Church
Andrea Mosterman, Ph.D. Candidate
Boston University Department of History
71 Gardner Street
Allston, MA 02134
857-919-3817
andreacm@bu.edu
Abstract
Recent scholarship has demonstrated that African participation in the Dutch Reformed Church was not unusual in the Dutch colony New Netherland. Nevertheless, the role these Africans played in the Church has not yet been studied. African conversion to this Calvinistic denomination did not only influence the ways in which Africans gave form to their religious life; their active participation also changed the church experience of their white counterparts. Moreover, the African presence led church leaders to reconsider their ideas of slavery and equality within Calvinistic theology. Why did these African men and women join this Calvinistic denomination? What was their position in the church? How did their active membership influence Dutch Reformed Church policy, theology, and the religious experience of its members? Through examination of Dutch colonial documents such as council minutes, travel accounts, and Church records, this paper will reconstruct how African participation in the Dutch Reformed Church transformed the African and Dutch religious experiences.
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Contesting Space: dynamics of Indigenous Leaderships and Modernity within Amasiri, Nigeria.
Obinna, Elijah Oko
CSCNWW
School of Divinity,
The University of Edinburgh, UK
New College, Mound Place, Edinburgh EH1 2LX, UK
E:mail: E O Obinna@sms.ed.ac.uk , tel: +447787831716
ABSTRACT
Religion continues to play prominent roles among most Igbo people. However, several religious institutions, some of which offered leadership to many Igbo communities seem not to have made much sense within the colonial and missionary structures. The common saying ‘Igbo enwe eze’ meaning (the Igbo have no King), appears to have undermined the roles of these religious institutions which undertook several religious, political, economic and social functions of many Igbo communities. Furthermore, since the colonial era and most especially since the 1971s, the institution of traditional rulers (His Royal Highnesses) has gained much prominence in the social and political life among several communities within Igboland. The growing importance of Traditional Rulers in local and national politics within Nigeria and its impact on the existing indigenous leadership institutions appear to have received little attention by scholars. The continuous presence of these institutions remains acceptable among several Amasiri while the traditional rulers and Chiefs are asserting themselves within the same community. This particular development leads to a contestation of space. This paper draws on data from a qualitative field research among the Amasiri of South-Eastern Nigeria. It assesses the transitional changes within the indigenous leadership patterns from the pre-colonial and post-colonial eras. It examines the role of successive governments in the advancement of the position of the traditional rulers. The paper also teases out contemporary negotiation patterns for relevance between the traditional rulers and religious leadership structures. The paper argues that although in the face of the political and leadership revolutions the religious leadership institutions still remains in control.
Women’s Contributions to Aladura Church Identity in Nigeria and the Diaspora
Mojubaolu Olufunke Okome, Ph.D.
Professor of Political Science and Women's Studies Program Director
Brooklyn College, CUNY
3413 James Hall, 1207 Ingersoll
2900 Bedford Avenue
Brooklyn, New York 11210
email: mokome@brooklyn.cuny.edu
Elisha P. Renne, Associate Professor
Department of Anthropology and
The Center for Afroamerican and African Studies
University of Michigan
101 West Hall, 1085 S. University Ave.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1107
email: erenne@umich.edu
Abstract
In the Cherubim & Seraphim Church, an Aladura or African Independent Church, founded in 1925, there was a predominance of men church leaders including Moses Tunolase Orimolade and H.A. Phillips. Yet church women also contributed to the growth of the early C&S Church. Of these, Abiodun Emmanuel and Christianah Olatunrinle are the best well-known examples. This paper considers the roles of C&S church women, both in Nigeria and in the US, in maintaining the particular identity of one branch of the C&S Church, the Eternal Sacred Order of the C&S (ESOCS). Women have historically had leadership roles in this Church and presently constitute a large proportion of church membership. This study will examine the current situation of women in ESOCS churches in order to identify some of the factors which contribute to (or detract from) women’s participation in these churches in Nigeria and in the US. The paper argues that various aspects of the Nigerian immigrant experience in the US, as well as changing church affiliations, have tended to reduce leadership possibilities for women in the ESOCS there although their religious participation is critical for maintaining a distinctive identity. Alternately, Nigeria-based women have greater institutional access to power within the church, in part a reflection of the role of women as church founders, and because of greater church attendance, larger churches, and more extensive networks of family support, which provide more opportunities for women as C&S church leaders. Women’s participation is also important in perpetuating everyday church practices such as deep spiritual engagement, ecstatic praise worship, as well as attendance at church vigils and retreats, which mark the C&S Church’s specific cultural identity—its association with angelic beings.
Religion and Global Justice: An African Diasporic Overview
A. Ezekiel Olagoke, Ph.D.,
Adjunct Professor of Sociology,
Arapahoe Community College, Littleton, CO
aolagoke@comcast.net; aolagoke@gmail.com
Abstract
One common denominator, underscoring common qualities and family likenesses of nations and ethnic groups is religion. In spite of profound Enlightenment prejudice against religion, and its divisive roles for centuries, religion still plays a prodigious role in recognizing our fundamental humanity, respect for other peoples’ right, peaceful co-existence, and the sharing of each other’s trials and triumphs. How does religion critique the “global” in globalization? In what ways does religion address the issues of justice: social justice; human justice, and global justice? Economic and political globalization, some have argued are bye products of liberalism, modernization theory, and world systems theory (Williams & Hondagneu-Sotelo, 2007). What are the limitations of these philosophical traditions viewed from the lenses of religion?
How does religion examine and explore the condition of living between the “core and the periphery nations of the world? This paper, through case studies of African immigrants in the United States and Europe, will examine the thesis that, religion matters, and it matters considerably in addressing the grotesque level of penury, poverty, and the prodigious gulf between the world’s richest and poorest. With Africa as a fulcrum, this paper responds to the aforementioned questions, and posits in conclusion that globalization that neglects the role of religion in human affairs is headed toward a dangerous plane and precipice in finding solutions to human problems.
With a thick description of the lives of key African immigrant communities in the United States (Dallas, Denver, Chicago), this paper will further examine the identity shaping role of what Ali Mazrui called the “triple heritage (African traditional religions, Christianity, and Islam). Conclusions will be drawn on the relevance or irrelevance of these religions in African Diasporic communities.
THE ROLE OF WOMEN AS EDUCATORS IN GELEDE PRACTICE
OYERONKE OLADEMO, PH.D
Department of Religions,
University of Ilorin, Ilorin
Nigeria
wuraolanike@yahoo.com
Abstract
The Yoruba can be found in southern Nigeria and many locations in the Diaspora both in and outside the African continent. They are people with a rich cultural heritage and profound religious sensitivity. The richness of Yoruba indigenous religion encompasses sacrifice, recitations, divination, rituals, (prayers, songs, dace, liturgy), and festivals among other features. Yoruba festivals serve as opportunities for entertainment, harmonious relationship at various levels, re-enactment of ritual prescriptions but most especially for verbal and non-verbal education on the people’s ethos, values and philosophy of life. Gelede is a Yoruba festival that imparts Yoruba values and ethos on the young generation through verbal and non-verbal communication. Gelede is a festival to the mothers (witches) to placate them and appreciate the female principle. Women’s roles in this regard are momentous and that is the focus of this paper, to elucidate the role of women in the course of education that Gelede practice provides among the Yoruba (Ketu and Egbeda).
Methodology for this paper will be phenomenological plus the use of books, video recording and interviews.
Coping Strategies of New Converts Among Christians, Muslims And African Traditional Religion in Osun State, Nigeria
IKUTEYIJO, Lanre Olusegun
Sociology and Anthropology Department
Obafemi Awolowo University,
Ile-Ife, Nigeria
Ikuteyijo@yahoo.co.uk
Abstract
New religious converts often face a number of challenges with their new status. These challenges emanate from coping with the doctrines of the new religion and managing the estranged relationships with former colleagues. This study examines the coping mechanisms adopted by former faithfuls of Christianity, Islam, and African Traditional Religion (ATR) in Osun State, Nigeria. One hundred converts were chosen using a snowballing sampling technique. Converts from Islam to Christianity; Christianity to Islam; ATR to Christianity or Islam; and Christianity or Islam to ART were interviewed. Some of the indicators examined in the study include motivating factors for conversion as well as sustaining factors in the new faith. Preliminary study findings show that certain factors were responsible for the conversion and sustenance in the new religion. These factors include mode of integration into the new religion; hierarchy of the new convert in the former religion; feeling of fulfillment by the new convert; and the strength of social networks built around the new converts.
The study concludes that religious bodies play a leading role in individual’s feeling of spiritual fulfillment and that religious harmony is possible in a multi-religious state like Nigeria, especially when adherents of various beliefs learn to accommodate changes in faith by fellow believers.
The Politics of Religion in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Survey of Sharia Crises and the Politicisation of Religion in Nigeria
By
Mashood Omotosho
Department of International Relations
Obafemi Awolowo University,
Ile-Ife , Nigeria.
mashomotosho@yahoo.com
momotoso@oauife.edu.ng
Tel: 234-802-361-2722
Abstract
The issue of religious turbulence in the Sub-Saharan Africa has received sporadic attention from scholars and policy makers in the recent times. The region has experienced periods of religious conflict and such crises arose from the politicisation of religion and the struggle for political power among the various political leaders.
Given the widespread of religious conflict in Nigeria this paper focuses on the politics that surround the Sharia crises that engulfed the Northern part and the Middle Belt of the country just some few months after the emergence of democratic governance in 1999. While scholarly interest is increasing in light of the religious and political violence in the country, no systematic empirical analysis has been undertaken to address the political intricacies that surround the religious upheavals in Northern part and the Middle belt of the country. Hence, this paper aims to provide an assessment of the Sharia crises and the political chicanery involved.
The introduction of Sharia law in some Northern states, the religious conflict in Kaduna, the ethno-religious conflict in Jos and other violent conflicts shows that religion plays a role more frequently than is usually assumed and that the effects of religions are principally ambiguous. This paper unravels and analyses the evolving politics of Sharia in the Northern part of the country, its underlying rationale and consequences. The introduction of Sharia and the ethno-religious conflict in the Middle Belt of the country as the study demonstrates, is yet another in the series of dangerous contradictions engendered by the Nigerian state. The main finding is that many of the religious crises and the Sharia saga that engulfed the country in the last eight years of democratic rule were politically motivated and which if not handled with care can truncate the nascent democracy and even jeopardise the survival of Nigerian state.
Title: A Paradox of Conflict: An Examination of Religious Understanding in Yorubaland.
By
Dr Rotimi Omotoye
DEPARTMENT OF RELIGIONS
Lagos state University, Ojo Lagos, Nigeria
graquarters@yahoo.com
Abstract
There is no gain-saying, that Nigeria has over the years been a victim of multiplicity of religious intolerance, upheaval, violence, killing and maiming.
It is believed that there are three recognized religions in the country. Each religion is contesting for survival, recognition and sometimes supremacy. These are African religion, Islam and Christianity. It is noted that as a result of Colonialism and political advantage, Christianity and Islam are given more recognition by the state. Majority of the adherents of Christianity and Islam were converted from African traditional religion. Different strategies are employed daily to convert them to any of the foreign religions. It is observed that religious intolerance, maiming and killing is rife and rampant amongst Muslims and Christians, most especially, in the Northern States of Nigeria. Reactions from adherents of traditional religion are rather occasional, wobbly and un-coordinated. These adherents are apparently neglected as their influence is consistently eroded and corroded with Islam and Christianity infiltrating deep into their strongholds and traditional terrain. In Yorubaland of South-Western Nigeria, the political leadership often appeals to the common historical and political ancestry, so as to maintain religious tolerance in the area. The Yoruba race is a descendant of Oduduwa, the acclaimed originator of the race at Ile-Ife. The political unity and historical background has been a stabilizing force against any religious intolerance and violence in Yorubaland. Most Yoruba extended families are a hybrid of adherents from Traditional Religion, Islam and Christianity. They intermarry and celebrate religious festivals like Ogun, Obatala, Lisabi, Okebadan, Idel Fitri, El-kabir, Easter and Christmas together. They exchange goodwill messages and pleasantries as visits and foods are exchanged in such occasions. In fact, Muslims in Northern Nigeria are very skeptical about the authenticity of the Islamic faith of Yoruba Muslims; because of the cordial and stable religious understanding in the land. They view their Islamic faith with skeptism.
We believe, therefore that it is our considered opinion that Yorubaland is to a large extent, a paragon of religious tolerance whose strength could be sold to other parts of Nigeria as a panacea for national religious harmony. The beautiful blend of diverse religious faith does not, however, preclude occasional religious outbursts. Such outbursts do not cause nightmares as they are brought under immediate control.
CONFLICT PREVENTION AND MANAGEMENT IN NIGERIA: THE ROLE OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION
BY
JOHN A. ONIMHAWO, Ph.D.
AND
PETER OGHENE. O. OTTUH, M.A.
Professor and Lecturer respectively,
Department of Religious Management and
Cultural Studies, Ambrose Alli University,
Ekpoma, Edo State, Nigeria
E-MAIL: frjoni@yahoo.com; pottuh@yahoo.com
ABSTRACT
Conflict and crisis are common phenomena in many countries of the world, including Nigeria. They are perceived and analyzed in different ways by different people. Conflict and crisis are two interrelated concepts used to describe certain occurrences in human society. In Nigeria, religious, ethnic and political conflicts are common occurrences. This paper therefore, examines the concept of conflict, its prevention and management, and the role of Christian religion towards achieving this in Nigeria. The paper employs the descriptive and evaluative methods to achieve its aim. This paper recommends that Christians should employ the principle of universal brotherhood of humanity in the prevention and management of conflicts and crisis in Nigeria. The paper concludes that combined efforts of government, religious leaders and groups, humanist groups, civil societies and individuals are required for a sincere and consistent implementation of these preventive and managerial measures.
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‘The African Diaspora in Germany seen through the axes of Storytelling: of Law and Security and of Religious Traditions and Theology.’
By
Reverend Doctor G.A. Parris
The University of Birmingham
Director of Centre for Black Theology
Graduate Institute of Theology and Religion
Selly Oak Campus
Elmfield House
Selly Oak
Birmingham
B29 6LG
g.parris@bham.ac.uk
Abstract
African migrants identify quite clearly with the churches that they have left behind in their home countries, and in the case of many African indigenous churches in Germany, this desire has enabled many of them to be established in Germany. Although some of these churches have a stated vision that they should spread their churches to the Western metropolis, they have ended up with congregations of Diasporan Africans, with little outreach to white Germans. There is a rationale to this affirming of religious identities, whether it is the Ethiopian or Eritrean Orthodox faith community or the Ghanaian Pentecostal churches or even the Nigerian African indigenous churches. Churches serve as a community centre, a place where people can socially relocate for a couple of hours on a Sunday and be affirmed culturally. In these migrant churches people can speak their own languages, listen to others speaking it and feel a sense of acceptance by all. Pastors and their wives serve as honorary social workers, as they tend to meet with local and governmental authorities to resolve problems of deportees, of those without papers and they work closely with those who may be depressed because of the impact of racism in the society. In Frankfurt, pastors work closely with the African Health worker of Maisha, the African Health and Family Counselling Agency to meet any psychological and medical needs that African migrants may have, as no one is asked about their status.
Migrant churches present a home away from home, however limited, and for these reasons, will always be a beacon for African migrants as well as somewhere where African religious identities can be affirmed
Religious rumor and the state in Africa
Adrien Pouille- Indiana University of Bloomington
2100 East Lingelbach Lane
Redbud Hill 804-Bloomington, Indiana 47405
812-857-8698
admpouil@indiana.edu
Abstract
Unlike many advanced and modern societies, information in most African countries is not often vigorously controlled and verified before their public release through the media. Public diffusion of information in Africa is usually not done with the same care and professionalism deployed in most Western countries when it comes to news broadcasting.
The circulation of unreliable and unverified information is a cultural phenomenon in several African countries. Media structures expected to discard and to control the flow of information presented to the public fails to do so. More, they give credit to rumor. Official authorities, because of their educational experience, are expected to adopt some reserve about rumor but fail to do so also in many cases. This negligent and passive treatment of information has conferred to rumor a prominence and importance that makes of it a cultural reality, and also a relevant indicator of the nature of political power in most African countries. Rumor, mostly religious rumor – I will focus mostly on religious rumor – tells about the strength and nature of political institutions in several African countries. In my attempt to validate my argument I will raise and analyze the following questions:What is rumor? What differentiates religious rumor from secular rumor? How do politics and political institutions interfere with religious rumor in Africa? How does religious rumor provide information on the nature of political institutions in Africa?
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Leza, the Mother: New Conceptualizations of the Creator God in East-Central Africa
By Christine A. Saidi
Hunter College, CUNY
New York, NY
mamamwasi8@yahoo.com
Abstract
In the area of religious beliefs, the peoples of East-Central Africa innovated a new word and concept for the Creator God at least 1500 years ago. In modern-day languages its pronunciation comes out either Leza or -Leesa. In its derivational implications, Leza is female gendered. Its literal sense appears to have been “to nurture (especially a child).” Among Bantu-speaking peoples, preparing food and feeding people was mother’s work. Calling God by such a term likens the activity of the Creator to one of the major activities of a woman, mothering. To further this explanation an alternative name for God was Nakabumba, which means in most East-Central African languages, the honored potter and is accompanied by the meaning: God created humans as a potter creates a pot. While Leeza, God, appears to be likened to a mother and to a potter (which is exclusives a female role in this region). Leza is also referred to asMufyashi Wine Wine [the most excellent parent] In this translation God is” neither and both” mother and father. In the complex theology of religion in East-Central Africa, God may be as nurturing as a mother, but She/He is also conceptualized as dual gendered or beyond gender.
Equally significant, the derivation of Leza conveys a new and different conceptualization of the Creator as a more active presence in the world than just a distant First Cause. As many scholars have noted, the Creator God was commonly understood in Bantu, and more widely in Niger-Congo religious thought, to have brought the world into being, but did not remain involved with creation thereafter. But the early East-Central Africans, it appears, changed that conception to one in which the idiom for the Creator implied a nurturing being, still active in overseeing Her/His creation.
The implications of both gender and active presence in the conceptions of the Creator God received further impetus in East-Central Africa over a 1000 years ago. East-Central African societies created terms, relating to different aspects of the Creator God’s agency. In the new terms, God, as Mother was often explicit and even grammatically marked. In the Lala creation myth, Leesa was referred to as the ‘mother’ of all beasts. In the Botatwe group, God was called by such alternative names as Namakungwe, “She from Whom all things come,” and another name, Nemenzi, can be translated as “the Mother of water.”
Relics of Indigenous Religious Belief as a Precursor to Human Rights Violations: The Osu Caste System in Umuode Community, Nkanu East, Enugu State, Nigeria.
Ben Okolo Simon
Department of International Relations
University of Witwatersrand,
Johannesburg, South Africa.
Tel: +27-73-162-1392
Abstract
The practice of one’s religious beliefs is expected to bring one closer to God through service to neighbours and humanity. However, where a religious belief becomes a source of human rights violations, that belief must be questioned, more so when the belief is rooted in custom. This paper interrogates the belief behind the Osu Caste system of the Igbo of South eastern Nigeria. A specific case of the Umuode community of Nkanu East, in Enugu state is used as a case study to illustrate the injustices suffered by the community for the mere reason that their neighbouring community branded them as Osu (outcast) and hence have ostracised them. The belief which is rooted in an indigenous religious understanding negates all international conventions and the Nigerian constitution against discrimination. The paper advocates that while indigenous religious practices and beliefs are not by themselves bad, any one which is repugnant to natural justice, equity and good conscience should be jettisoned. Since the belief runs through most Igbo communities irrespective of religious leaning, the paper advocates that this issue should be tackled not just by the Igbo nation, but by the international community as many of those branded Osu have lost their lives through violence engendered by the discrimination. The paper makes some recommendations that should be looked at both at the national level and at the international level in order to put to an end this bizarre belief that goes to the core of human rights – the right not to be discriminated against and the right to free association.
Politics of the spirit and flesh, gender and Christianity in Africa: A Case of Lutheran Church in Tanzania
Dr. Elinami Swai
Womens' and Gender Studies
University Hall 4220-A
The University of Toledo
Toledo, OH, 43606
swaiev@gmail.com
Abstract
This paper proposal analyses the construction of ideal and bad woman, within the politics of soul and body in Africa with special reference to the Lutheran Church in Tanzania. The author carries out a socio-historical analysis, arguing that the overall construction of a woman of the spirit and of the flesh – illustrated by two case studies which are examined in detail – combines contradictory elements and assumptions. The meanings of ‘of the spirit’ and ‘of the flesh’ are ‘framed’ by the representations of ideal and bad woman and the dominant Lutheran teachings synthesizing themes of ‘morality’, and ‘immorality.’ More specifically, the insistence on spectacular images of a woman of the spirit and of the flesh are constitutive elements of colonial politics of identification, which aid the church to carry out surveillance of women’s actions, knowledge, agency and sexuality signifying oppressive practices without, however, slipping to the other side of ‘binary oppositions.’ On the contrary, this persistence on ‘spirit’ and the ‘flesh’ discourses were pivotal in identifying which woman should receive communion, be married, buried, ex-communicated, and/or her children be baptized in the church. This paper suggests that the activities of Lutheran church in Tanzania, for many years have allowed the church a position of benevolence, interested only in showing women how to think, what to do and how to behave, and those who fall outside of these stipulations, automatically became ‘of the flesh’ and thereby bad and disavowed. The paper will show how Lutheran church in Tanzania constantly neglects African women’s agency and ways of knowing, transforming their behavior to conditions suitable for oppression, and inferiorization.
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Renegotiating Islam: Limamou Laye and the Layennes of Senegal
Douglas Thomas, Asst. Prof.
Department of, History, Political Science & Geography
Southern Arkansas University
Magnolia, Arkansas 71753-5000
dhthomas@saumag.edu
Abstract
This paper analyzes the processes by which Limamou Laye interpreted Islam to the Lebu of Senegal. Working from the assumption that Islam is not a monolith, we assert that Islam, as do all of the portable religions, is interposed upon indigenous cosmological understanding thus allowing the convert and posterity to own it. Through this process, Islam ceases to be a foreign religion.
In the case of the Layennes, Limamou Laye their founder does not succumb to syncretism. On the contrary he proclaims the superiority of Islam over the traditional Lebu religion. In doing so he encapsulates his message in the tools of Lebu public discourse thereby legitimizing and “Lebuizing” Islam.
The Cross, the Crescent and the Politics of the HIV/AIDS Pandemic in Nigeria
James Tar TSAAIOR, PhD
Department of English
University of Ibadan, Nigeria
E-mail: tar.tsaaior@mail.ui.edu.ng
tsaaiortar@yahoo.com
Phone: 234-802-371-1378
Abstract
Much of Africa’s postcolonial history has been dominated and defined by discourses bordering on military dictatorship, political corruption, economic strangulation, cultural deracination, fratricidal wars and internecine conflicts, hunger, poverty, disease especially the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Indeed, HIV/AIDS represents the single most formidable and intractable threat to life in Africa today because of its silent but ferocious ravages. It has destroyed the family, the nucleus of society, national economies and institutions, and depleted the labour force. Nigeria, the world’s most populous black nation, participates in the politics of the pandemic wracked by a welter of developmental complexities and contradictions. This paper, therefore, negotiates the politics of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Nigeria, the role of the state and the interventionist involvement of the Cross and the Crescent, metonyms of Christianity and Islam through drama and video productions on radio and television for public conscientization and the provision of health facilities for victims of the disease. The paper exists at the interface of politics, religion and the critical issue of national development which the pandemic threatens. It focuses on the centrality of the combined role of these major religions in Nigeria in complementing, but sometimes also, extending the state’s confrontation against the disease thus broadening the discursive boundaries on its awareness and prevention.The paper, however, problematises this collaboration between the state and the religious groups by interrogating the politics this collaboration inevitably generates. This politics inheres in the fact that while the religions contest the state’s position on public morality, ethical behaviour and political correctness on issues of “safe sex”, “prevention”, and other unnatural methods, the state speaks back through what it calls the lack of compromise of religious orthodoxy and doctrinaire fervour. The paper observes that this tension between the state and the religious organizations undermines the crusade against HIV/AIDS. It appreciates the powerful role of religion in the public space as the open conscience of society and custodian of public morality and advocates a synthesis of approach by the religions and the state in tackling the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Nigeria for the developmental needs of the nation.
Religion, Education and the making of the nation
The contribution of Christian missions to the Education of the Youth and the making of the Nation: the case of Cameroon
TADJUDJE, Willy
PhD Student, University of Yaoundé II-Soa, Faculty of Law
PO Box 1328 , c/o Dr MABOU, SG ESSTIC, Yaoundé, Cameroon
Tel.: 00 237 99 78 57 34
Email : willytadj@yahoo.fr
williamstchadji@yahoo.com
Abstract
Christian missions in Cameroon refer to Roman Catholic Church and protestant tendencies (Evangelical Church of Cameroon, Adventist Church of Cameroon, Presbyterian Church of Cameroon, Full Gospel Mission…). These Christian missions are present in Cameroon at least since the beginning of the colonisation. Their aim is to evangelise and promote biblical culture and behaviours. For instance, they are considered as moral authorities since they used to orientate the conscience of people in the sense of the adoption of Christian and citizen manners. Nevertheless, they are not only moral authorities with the objective to take care of the faith of Christians. Apart from Eucharistic celebrations and biblical training they offer to believers, they are also development partners, because they accompany the State in the accomplishment of its cardinal activities. On this effect, they contribute actively and permanently to the education of the youth and the making of the nation. Cameroon is situated in central Africa. In this country, Christian missions used to build schools (primary, high and university schools), hospitals, and institutions of professional training, act when necessary, participate to national debates, consolidate peace and promote morals and ethics. Their actions are perceptible everywhere in the country. Today, the making of the nation can’t be done without their intervention. In this perspective, how can we appreciate the contribution of Christian missions to the education of the youth and the making of the nation? Is this participation satisfactory? Do Christian missions assume their engagements? Do they used to collapse in the achievement of their activities? These are the questions we can ask there. They will constitute our guideline. To answer these questions, we will analyse the nature of the investment of Christian missions concerning education and the making of the nation in Cameroon, and its pertinence.
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Negotiating relationships in a mixed religious society: Islam in Southeast Nigeria
Dr. Egodi Uchendu
Associate Researcher
Zentrum Moderner Orient
Kirchweg 33, 14129 Berlin, Germany
Tel: +49 (0)30 80307 243
egodi.uchendu@googlemail.com
Abstract
Somewhere in northern Igbo land Islam was introduced as the second religion, next to the indigenous system of worship, but for the rest of Southeast Nigeria it was the third of the major religions in existence; coming a century after the Christian faith and many centuries after the institutionalization of indigenous religious systems . The eventual dominance of Christian beliefs among the Igbo of Southeast Nigeria—described as one of the homogenous Christian regions in Africa (Nnorom 2003)—made Islamic proselytization in Igbo territory difficult and the pace of conversion very slow. Thus, by the outbreak of the Nigerian civil war in 1967, indigenous Muslims numbered approximately less than two hundred amidst a given population of over sixteen million Igbo. Notwithstanding the difficult beginnings, the Igbo are beginning to convert to Islam and, though still in the minority, the impact of indigenous Muslim presence is gradually being felt in a number of Igbo towns. This paper, which is part of a wider research project, would examine efforts at mutual co-existence between Igbo Christians and Muslims in Igbo land.
RELIGIOUS IDENTITY AND MUSLIM, NON - MUSLIM CONFLICTS IN NIGERIA: NIGERIA’S MEMBERSHIP OF THE ORGANIZATION OF ISLAMIC CONFERENCE AS A PARADIGM.
BY
DR. I. O. UMEJESI; PH.D, LL.B, (HONS) BL
AMBROSE ALLI UNIVERSITY,
P. M. B. 14, EKPOMA.
EDO STATE, NIGERIA.
GSM: +23408033656685
Email: oxaumejesi@yahoo.com
Abstract
By the combined effect of Sections 10 and 38 (1) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Nigeria can be described and referred to as a secular State. The import of this, is that both the federal and state governments are to be neutral in religious matters, as there is no State religion. Furthermore, individuals are free to embrace and practise any religion of their choice. As a result, Nigeria has many religions, with African Traditional Religion, Christianity and Islam, as the three major religions to which their adherents are attached as part of their religious identity. However, the religious identity of Nigeria remains the bone of contention between Nigerian Muslims and non - Muslims. While Nigerian Muslims strive to identify Nigeria as a Muslim country, others oppose the project and this among other issues, generates Muslim - non - Muslim conflicts. Nigeria’s full membership of the Organization of Islamic Conference is a paradigm for study, as it is capable of altering the secular nature of Nigeria for an Islamic religious identity, with far reaching implications for non - Muslims. This paper examines those implications and finds that the language “Islamization” and “Christianization”, which the opposers and sponsors of the project, respectively, use is the stuff for a religious blood bath. To avoid this scenario the paper, therefore, recommends, strict adherence to the constitutional provision of a secular state without any religious identity, for the peaceful co - existence of all Nigerians, irrespective of their personal religious identities.
PATTERNS OF INTERACTION OF AFRICAN TRADITIONAL RELIGION, CHRISTIANITY AND ISLAM IN YORUBALAND: MODEL FOR RELIGIOUS PEACE IN NIGERIA
BY
DR. I. O. UMEJESI
e-mail: oxaumejesi@yahoo.com
GSM: +23408033656685
And
MR. E. I. UKPEBOR
e-mail: emma2002ukpe@yahoo.com
GSM:+23408077852984
FACULTY OF ARTS
AMBROSE ALLI UNIVERSITY
P. M. B 14, EKPOMA,
EDO STATE, NIGERIA.
Abstract
Religious fundamentalism, bigotry and intolerance are responsible for about 50 percent of the conflicts around the world. Nigeria, on the municipal level, has its own share of these conflicts but the religious harmony in Yorubaland calls for study and emulation. In Yorubaland, African Traditional Religion, Christianity and Islam co - exist and interact peacefully, more than in any other par of Nigeria. This paper looks at the patterns of interaction of these three religions in Yorubaland and finds that Yoruba culture is tolerant and this affects religious interaction there, for religious are shaped by cultures in which they exist. The paper, therefore, recommends the adoption of Yoruba culture of religious tolerance as the National ethos, especially as S 23 of the 1999 Constitution includes Religious Tolerance among the National ethics. This is to ensure religious peace in the multi - religious state of Nigeria.
“NO FIANCÉE, NO BAPTISM” : AN EPISODE IN THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH ENCOUNTER WITH SCHOOL GIRLS IN BENIN CITY, NIGERIA 1952
Uyilawa Usuanlele
Department of History,
State University of New York,
Oswego, NY 13126
usuanlel@oswego.edu
Abstract
African women are now known to have been more of victims of Christian missionary activities which contributed to their subordination in the society. This paper contributes to this aspect of missionary work with further documentation of the Roman Catholic Mission’s role in it. It draws attention to the episode of “forced engagement” of school girls in Benin City in 1952 and argues that the policies and practices of the RCM towards women were borne out of competition and rivalry with other denominations and faith and the need to establish a sustainable church. The paper examines the Roman Catholic Mission and its policies towards women’s education in its rivalry with other denominations and faith and its relations with girls in its Schools in Benin City and the impact on the life of these women who tried to and/or embraced the Catholic faith.
Ethno-religious Conflicts and the Crisis of Democratic Governance in Nigeria.
Chuku Umezurike,PhD
Department of Political and Administrative Studies
National University of Lesotho
Roma 180
Lesotho.
Cell Phone: 00 266 588 124 76
Email:chukuumezurike@yahoo.com
Abstract
Being abstract of the paper prepared for the Conference on Religion and Religious Identities in Africa and the African Diaspora,Kalamazoo,Michigan, October 9-12,2008.
Despite being largely underdetermined in contemporary global civilisation,religion has no doubt remained a very important social legitimation.This is even much more revelant in Africa where global capitalist development has been shortchanged. Invariably,religious identities have been a representation of social diversities in the African society.Thus religious conflicts have been accourtrements of ethnic conflicts,the latter being a predominant character of social existence in Africa.As the Nigerian experience has shown,religious conflicts have formed part of ethnic conflicts.In few situations however,ethnic conflicts have occured independent of religious conflicts.But it has been difficult to identify situations where religious conflicts have occured independent of the ethnic.It is in the light of this that the need to extend the already bourgeoning scholarship on ethnicity and ethnic conflicts in Africa demands attention.Moreover,there is the need to examine the implications of these realities for democratic governance in the African continent.The central thesis of the study is that ethno-religious conflicts have been exarcerbating the crisis of democratic governance in Nigeria.The study has been divided into sections.The introductory section is presented first and foremost.The second section has been designed to dwell broadly on the interface between ethno-religious conflicts and the crisis of democratic governance in Nigeria.The third and last section has also been designed to draw from the specific experiences of the interface presented above as a form of proof.The study was finally concluded.
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TRAINING UP THE CHILD: YOUTH PARTICIPATION & CULTURAL PRIDE IN THE BLACK MAJORITY CHURCH
Cassandra J. St. Vil, Howard University
1027 4th Street, NE / Washington, DC 20002
(347) 742-1085 / CJSaintVil@Yahoo.com
Abstract
Church membership among Black Christians has been one of the fastest growing trends in the United Kingdom. Although Black Africans are less than 1% of the total population, Blacks, as a whole, comprise more than two-thirds of church members in London. The past two decades have seen dramatic growth in Black church membership of nearly 20%, especially among Nigerian and London-based churches, despite a general decline of church membership across the UK. However, this spiritual phenomenon is entirely underresearched. Churchgoers of African and Caribbean descent participate in Britain’s spiritual homes known as the Black Majority Church (BMC), where over half the membership is of African ancestry. There are over 3,000 BMCs throughout the UK, providing service to 300,000 church members, most of which are concentrated in London. Pentecostalism remains the most popular denomination among BMCs. Many of these church homes will also have strong West African influences, as the majority of Britain’s Black Africans are either first or second generation immigrants from Nigeria. The unique experiences of Nigerian-British youth, however, has been largely ignored although they are experiencing a tumultuous period of adolescence challenged with insecurity, violence, school expulsion, racism, and disenfranchisement. This study intends to examine how participation in the church with a majority Black membership can help to develop the esteem, cultural pride, and identity of Nigerian adolescents through positive cultural engagement. Qualitative case studies of church-involved Nigerian youth will capture the processes of identity development as affected by youth ministry participation. The broader research query is to understand the potential impact a culturally reflective community has upon identity development among Black youth.
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Social value, racial polarization, and the mutual constitution of African and European “traditions” in Cuba’s complex of popular religions
Dr. Kristina Wirtz, Western Michigan University
kristina.wirtz@wmich.edu
Abstract
Contemporary Cuba presents a complex ecology of folk or popular religions, of which Santería or Regla de Ocha is the best known beyond the island. However, that majority of Cubans who are religious and engage in popular religious practices choose from and often combine practices of folk Catholicism and different strains of Spiritism and Reglas de Palo, as well as Santería and several more regionally-specific “traditions.” Most scholarship, in Cuba and internationally, has either focused on the historical derivation of one particular “tradition” (usually Santería) examined in isolation from the richer context or has lined up what are presented to be a number of discrete “traditions” to discuss them as parallel choices—Yoruba-derived Santería versus Congo-derived Palo Monte versus European-derived Kardecian Spiritism. However, more recent work by Argyriadis (2000), Palmié (2002), and Román (2007) for example, has instead examined what I call the processes of “discursive polarization” that project differently valorized religious practices onto a spectrum that aligns Africanness with amorality and witchcraft and Europeanness with proper, moral religion. My contribution in this paper is to lay out a dialogical view of how the various popular religious practices of contemporary Cuba are mutually constituted as distinct but complementary “traditions.” In particular, I examine the metacultural work accomplished by religious labels, dynamics of racial polarization of Cuban folk culture, and actual religious practices such as initiations, keeping altars, and other rituals. This analysis also helps account for Santería’s emergence as the most visible, recognizable, and emblematic (Afro-)Cuban popular religion.
Religious networks and conflict transformation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Ayo Whetho
School of Politics
University of KwaZulu-Natal
Private Bag X01 Scottsville 3209
Pietermaritzburg, South Africa.
Telephone: +27 33 260 5012
Email address: 205518423@ukzn.ac.za
Abstract
The increasing socio-political role of religion in human affairs is gaining currency in contemporary social research, in contradistinction to the marginalisation of religion in social science discourse for the most part of the twentieth century. Religion now reverberates with special strength in the public sphere in many societies in the Third World owing to the astonishing recourse to spirituality as a means to adjust to social and economic malaise. In Africa, the role of religion in the public sphere is receiving increasing scholarly attention against the backdrop of ascendant religiosity which is exemplified by the phenomenal expansion of Pentecostal/Charismatic churches as well as the spread of Islam. Within this milieu, faith-based organisations wield considerable influence in shaping the course of contemporary realities and have thus become important actors in the political space in many African states.
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) for example, religious networks have – in the country’s post-independence epoch – demonstrated their comparative advantage vis-à-vis social service delivery in the face of maladministration/malfeasance and corruption on the part of political leaders. In fact, the religious constituency has been an important segment of the DRC’s civil society given that faith-based organisations wield enormous influence in the Congolese polity, which has been characterised by years of arbitrary rule, crisis of governance and, most recently, state deflation/failure or declining state capacity arising from a deadly and complex conflict that has been labelled “Africa’s First World War”. It is therefore apposite to examine the roles of these non-state actors in the conflict transformation process in the context of the analytical tradition that explores the nexus between religion and conflict. This paper, which draws from a recent field research, contextualises the roles of religious networks in the DRC’s conflict transformation process.