The Determination of Religion in Africa

Abstract

Christian Mission among Muslims: Sokoto Province, Nigeria, 1935–1990, by Mukhtar Umar Bunza. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2007. 180 pp. £18.99 (paperback). ISBN 1 59221 523 8. Christian Churches in Dahomey-Benin: A study of their socio-political role, by Patrick Claffey. Leiden: Bril, 2007. 278 pp. €83.00 (hardback). ISBN 90 04 15572 4. African Christianity: An African story, edited by Ogbu U. Kalu. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2007. 473 pp. $34.95 (paperback). ISBN 1 59221 581 5. Muslim Societies in African History, by David Robinson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. 209 pp. £16.99 (paperback). ISBN 0 521 53366 X. Cross and Flag in Africa: The ‘White Fathers’ during the colonial scramble (1892–1914), by Aylward Shorter. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 2006 294 pp. £16.99 (paperback). ISBN 1 57075 655 4. Geoffrey Parrinder famously referred to the three religions of Africa, but it would be difficult to speak in such a way today.1 As John Mbiti recognized in 1969, there was never a single or combined entity that could correctly be called African Traditional Religion.2 To be sure, traditional African religions can scarcely be left out of the account when either of the two world religions are being studied in Africa, for everywhere they provide an active backdrop to most religious expression. Though David Robinson asserts that neither Islam nor Christianity can be spoken of in the plural,3 John Lonsdale is convinced that there were several Christianities to be identified within one people, accounting in part for their own divisiveness.4 This is the challenge that any wide review of religions faces. What is the social scale being examined? Taking just one society, however defined, is still likely to show multiple religions and multiple traditions in one religion, while even a traditional African religion cannot necessarily be confined to one society. World religions do not have a monopoly on the spread of religion across cultures, particularly when movements such as Maji Maji or witch finding have spread quickly.