Readings On Religion And Culture In Africa

This is a book of reading on religion and culture in Africa comprising ten papers by experts in religion and cultural matters and an introductory note by the editor himself. Covered in the volume are papers covering: the impact of secularisation and urbanisation on a most cherished socio-cultural practice of the extended family system of the Isoko people in Nigeria; the traditional medical practices in Urhobo with particular focus on the use of local herbs to treat ailments; the socioreligious as well as the political significance of Obiri (family hall) in Ikwerreland; the rationale behind the use of the concept Dunamis in the Gospel According to Staint Mark. Although his paper does not focus on African (traditional) religion, its inclusion here is based purely on the theological significance of the concept of Dunamis; the extent to which evil spirits and mysterious forces have influenced the religion and culture of the Urhobo people of Nigeria; the significance of festivals in the traditional African society; John Wesleys innovations in Christendom and their implications for Africa; the recent unprecedented upsurge in the assumed use of religious powers to cast out evil spirits as well as for prayer healing among Muslims in Nigeria; the culture of alienation, anxiety and violence, drawing inspiration from the Fall Story of Genesis 3; and the widowhood practices of some areas in Nigeria.

This is a book of reading on religion and culture in Africa comprising ten papers by experts in religion and cultural matters and an introductory note by the editor himself. Covered in the volume are papers covering: the impact of secularisation and urbanisation on a most cherished socio-cultural practice of the extended family system of the Isoko people in Nigeria; the traditional medical practices in Urhobo with particular focus on the use of local herbs to treat ailments; the socioreligious as well as the political significance of Obiri (family hall) in Ikwerreland; the rationale behind the use of the concept ‘Dunamis’ in the Gospel According to Staint Mark. Although his paper does not focus on African (traditional) religion, its inclusion here is based purely on the theological significance of the concept of ‘Dunamis’; the extent to which evil spirits and mysterious forces have influenced the religion and culture of the Urhobo people of Nigeria; the significance of festivals in the traditional African society; John Wesley’s innovations in Christendom and their implications for Africa; the recent unprecedented upsurge in the assumed use of religious powers to cast out evil spirits as well as for prayer healing among Muslims in Nigeria; the culture of alienation, anxiety and violence, drawing inspiration from the Fall Story of Genesis 3; and the widowhood practices of some areas in Nigeria.

Religions in Contemporary Africa is an accessible and comprehensive introduction to the three main religious traditions on the African continent, African indigenous religions, Christianity and Islam. The book provides a historical overview of these important traditions and focuses on the roles they play in African societies today. It includes social, cultural and political case studies from across the continent on the following topical issues: Witchcraft and modernity Power and politics Conflict and peace Media and popular culture Development Human rights Illness and health Gender and sexuality With suggestions for further reading, discussion questions, illustrations and a list of glossary terms this is the ideal textbook for students in religion, African studies and adjacent fields approaching this subject area for the first time.

How can African theology survive the self-repetition of mere cultural apologia or contextualization-stereotypes, and mature into a critical theoretical discipline responding to the challenges of the postmodern world-order? Dr. Humphrey M. Wawe contributes here a sound theological reflection using the hitherto unused methodological paradigm of mapping the inroads in the transaction between the Bible and African culture.

This book consists of classic articles on African Traditional Religion by eminent scholars in the field. It has six sections. The first one deals with definitions and how the African perceives his world; the second looks at ATR in terms of its academic, historical, western and methodological perspectives. The third examines some vital elements of the theology, spirituality, ethics and salvific value of ATR. Section four reviews the impact of ATR in its environment as it bears on family life, nation building, education and health. Section five examines the encounter of ATR with world missionary religions like Christianity and Islam. The final section, which ends with a selected bibliography on the subject considers the future and the way forward for ATR. The book is designed as a resource and reference material for anyone interested in the field of Religion. It will also appeal to both scholars and students in the field of Religious studies, Sociology of Religion, Comparative study of Religions and «Mission» studies.

It is quite instructive to see how the concerned --- explaining religious debates on principal methodological concepts from there. Basically, this is a approaches and theoretical axioms correct approach and a methodological developed - approaches and basic prerequisite if you want to work concepts that seem to serve as a point objectively, neither being an of departure in the study of Traditional ethnocentrist or be prejudged by any African Religion. To me, it seems to confessional faith that you privately be the old Western type of “academic may hold. Both such subconscious disease” of putting everything into a factors conflict with the academic and well defined but strict set of categories scientific aim of being neutral and according to certain preconceived objective. Furthermore, it may have criteria and them make it work. In the first been the Early Marxists such as end, scholars and researches will find Marx himself and his close collaborator Engels who in the midst of the 19 th themselves caught up in their own trap century made the first attempts to they built. depart from the then prevalent dominating pattern of idealistic The instance of assessing the study of approach in science and advocating a Traditional African Religion from at more objective, neutral pattern of least two superficially conflicting points approach. It is what they called of view must give such an impression “materialist approach” opposing any to anyone following the recent prejudgment and preconception. To academic debates in the relevant them, prejudgment and preconception literature. Thus, it could only be a was to be found in the “transcendence” European, David Westerlund who in of Christian Religious Faith prevalent in his “INSIDERS AND OUTSIDERS IN the societies of those days. They were THE STUDY OF AFRICAN simply seeking for another alternative RELIGIONS. Notes on some Problems approach bringing about more of Theory and Method” (in: OLUPONA, objective and neutral standpoints not J.K. (ed.), “African Traditional Religions only in the study of society and the in Contemporary Society”, St. Paul, socio-economic factors underlying it 1991:15-24) raised the point. In but in any other sphere of academic addition to presenting a brief overview debate as well.

The Ansaru Allah Community, also known as the Nubian Islamic Hebrews (AAC/NIH) and later the Nuwaubians, is a deeply significant and controversial African American Muslim movement. Founded in Brooklyn in the 1960s, it spread through the prolific production and dissemination of literature and lecture tapes and became famous for continuously reinventing its belief system. In this book, Michael Muhammad Knight studies the development of AAC/NIH discourse over a period of thirty years, tracing a surprising consistency behind a facade of serial reinvention. It is popularly believed that the AAC/NIH community abandoned Islam for Black Israelite religion, UFO religion, and Egyptosophy. However, Knight sees coherence in AAC/NIH media, explaining how, in reality, the community taught that the Prophet Muhammad was a Hebrew who adhered to Israelite law; Muhammad’s heavenly ascension took place on a spaceship; and Abraham enlisted the help of a pharaonic regime to genetically engineer pigs as food for white people. Against narratives that treat the AAC/NIH community as a postmodernist deconstruction of religious categories, Knight demonstrates that AAC/NIH discourse is most productively framed within a broader African American metaphysical history in which boundaries between traditions remain quite permeable. Unexpected and engrossing, Metaphysical Africa brings to light points of intersection between communities and traditions often regarded as separate and distinct. In doing so, it helps move the field of religious studies beyond conventional categories of “orthodoxy” and “heterodoxy,” challenging assumptions that inform not only the study of this particular religious community but also the field at large.