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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Emerging themes in Nigerian and West African religious history |
Authors: | Ajayi, J.F. Ade. Ayandele, E.A. |
Year: | 1974 |
Periodical: | Journal of African Studies (UCLA) |
Volume: | 1 |
Issue: | 1 |
Pages: | 1-39 |
Language: | English |
Geographic terms: | West Africa Nigeria |
Subjects: | Christianity Islam African religions |
Abstract: | In West Africa - unique in the abundance of literature - African religion, Islam and Christianity jostle one another in their vitality - sixty-five million animists, thirty-six million Muslims and nine million vocal Christians. Though statistically larger than Islam and Christianity combined, African religion is the most unrecorded, the least known and the least chronicled in West African religious history. Islam has made itself a religion of the people and has enjoyed considerable scholarly attention. Christianity is the most recorded, the best publicized and the most studied. The authors review emerging and neglected themes in West African religious history, and stress two major points: The three religions have not existed in isolation in their historical role in West Africa, and, the history of each religion has to be seen in relation a) to the followers of that religion not merely as worshippers but also as social, political and economic beings and b) to the followers of the other two religions, not merely as religious opponents and rivals, but also as fellow social, political and economic beings. Notes. |