The domestication of Islam and Christianity in African societies: A Methodological Exploration

Abstract

A critical question facing the student of religion in Africa is the continuing vitality of indigenous religions and their status in Muslim and Christian Africa. The picture has been complicated by attempts to project models of traditional religions on the basis of what Islam and Christianity appear to tolerate, or find tolerable. In spite of the positive yield of such an approach it has not seriously moved us beyond assumptions rooted in the ancient competition between Islam and Christianity, a competition now being fostered on the unstated ground that the African religious heritage offered little challenge and was consequently abolished by whichever of the two religions first came on the scene. The rival claims to superiority of Islam and Christianity have followed these religions into Africa where the lure of numerical prizes stiffened the competitive resolve. Without necessarily abandoning such a competitive view of religious encounter some Western scholars, with a scarcely concealed prejudice against Christianity, in which they have been imitated by scores of educated Africans, grant to Islam in Africa the capacity for tolerance and adaptation which they refuse to a begrudged Christianity. In addition to belittling the role of African religions, this approach sedulously propagates old religious rivalries and thus gravely distorts the process of religious change and adaptation in which the African environment has continued to play a formative role. The challenge thus facing Islam and Christianity in Africa is not the facile one of carving up the continent between them but one that demands creative involvement. We should therefore now apply to these two religions the crucial test of responsiveness to Africa's religious traditions. This produces a wholly different situation whose implications should make us less complacent about accepted designations.