Confronting Categorical Assumptions About the Power of Religion in Africa

Abstract

This article examines the place of religion in social science accounts of Africa, particularly as they relate to politics and culture. It explores the significance of representational continuities across the twentieth century and across disciplines which present African social life as religiously determined, and considers the political implications of African exceptionalism as a mode of analysis and policy rationale. Finally, the article considers some directions of institutional change in southern Tanzania and the consequences for understanding religion. This paper is based on a workshop organised by ROAPE on religion and politics in Africa held at the University of Leeds in February 2006. Some of the arguments made in the paper concerning detotalisation and deconversion were developed through discussions at a workshop on history and anthropology held at the University of Manchester in November 2005.