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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Is Africa incurably religious? Confessing and contesting an invention
Authors:Platvoet, JanISNI
Rinsum, Henk vanISNI
Year:2003
Periodical:Exchange: Journal of Contemporary Christianities in Context
Volume:32
Issue:2
Pages:123-153
Language:English
Geographic term:Subsaharan Africa
Subjects:images
African religions
Abstract:In the 1960s and early 1970s, Okot p'Bitek was the first African scholar of religions to challenge the myth that 'Africa is incurably religious'. Recently, a few other dissenting voices have begun to be heard. The myth, its explanation, p'Bitek's opposition to it, and recent evidence against it are examined in this paper. The authors locate the source of this myth in the 'religionism' of African Christian liberal theologians who examined the native religions of Africa in Christianizing ways at the time of Africa's transition from colonialism to independence. John Mbiti was the foremost among them, but he was not the first. The authors discuss his 'precursors' and then Mbiti's contribution, and briefly refer to other contributors. Next, the myth is shown to fit the terms of the theory of the 'invention of tradition'. It is a counter-invention set against the numerous European 'inventions of Africa'. This is followed by a review of Okot p'Bitek's polemic against Western-Christian scholarship of African indigenous religions. In the concluding section, the authors summarize recent evidence against the myth that 'Africa is incurably religious' along two lines: as found in the indigenous religions themselves - the line pioneered by p'Bitek; and as found in modern Africans - a development exemplified in p'Bitek's biography. Notes, ref. (Response by Kehinde Olabimtan in Exchange vol. 32, no. 4 (2003), p. 322-339, and reply by Platvoet and Van Rinsum in Exchange vol. 37, no. 2 (2008), p. 156-173.) [ASC Leiden abstract]
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