The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to African Religions

621 Pages·2012·4.04 MB·English

by  Elias Kifon Bongmba

The Wiley-Blackwell Companion
to African Religions
The Wiley - Blackwell Companions to Religion
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The Wiley - Blackwell Companion to African Religions
Edited by Elias Kifon Bongmba
The Wiley-Blackwell
Companion to
African Religions
Edited by
Elias Kifon Bongmba
Foreword by
Jacob K. Olupona
A John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Publication
This edition fi rst published 2012
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The Wiley-Blackwell companion to African religions / Edited by Elias Kifon Bongmba; Foreword
Jacob K. Olupona.
pages cm. – (Wiley-Blackwell companions to religion)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4051-9690-1 (hardback)
1. Africa–Religion. I. Bongmba, Elias Kifon
BL2400.W49 2012
299.6–dc23
2011047462
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Set in 10/12.5 pt Photina by Toppan Best-set Premedia Limited
1 2012
Dedicated to
Mr. Johannes Bongmba
A loving and supportive Father
Mr. Isaac Ngala Sayani
Who departed on the eve of the publication of this book
And to
Professor Elisha Stephen Atieno Odhiambo
Friend, Colleague, and Exemplary African Scholar
May the Ancestors reward all of you for your many acts of compassion.
Contents
Notes on Contributors xi
Foreword xix
Jacob K. Olupona
Acknowledgments xxii
Introduction 1
Elias K. Bongmba
Part I Methodological Perspectives on African Religions 23
1 Methodological Views on African Religions 25
James L. Cox
2 Philosophy of Religion on African Ways of Believing 41
V.Y. Mudimbe and Susan Mbula Kilonzo
3 Neo-Protestant Ethics and the Spirit of Capitalism: Perspectives
from the Social Sciences 62
Jean Comaroff and John L. Comaroff
4 Divination in Africa 79
René Devisch
5 Orality, Literature, and African Religions 97
Jonathan A. Draper and Kenneth Mtata
6 African Rituals 112
Laura S. Grillo
7 Postcolonial Feminist Perspectives on African Religions 127
Musa W. Dube
8 Religion and the Environment 140
Edward P. Antonio
viii CONTENTS
9 Christianity in Africa: From African Independent to
Pentecostal-Charismatic Churches 153
Birgit Meyer
Part II Interpreting Religious Pluralism 171
10 Neo-traditional Religions 173
Marleen de Witte
11 Spirit Possession in Africa 184
Susan J. Rasmussen
12 Christian Missions in Africa 198
Norman Etherington
13 Christianity in Africa 208
David T. Ngong
14 Coptic Christianity 220
Jason R. Zaborowski
15 The Ethiopian Orthodox Church 234
Christine Chaillot
16 African Theology 241
Elias K. Bongmba
17 The Church and Women in Africa 255
Isabel Apawo Phiri
18 Feminist Theologies in Africa 269
Sarojini Nadar
19 Church and Reconciliation 279
Tinyiko Maluleke
20 Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements in Modern Africa 295
Matthews A. Ojo
21 African Initiated Churches in the Diaspora 310
Afe Adogame
22 Islam in Africa 323
Yushau Sodiq
23 Women in Islam: Between Sufi sm and Reform in Senegal 338
Penda Mbow
24 Islam and Modernity 355
Carmen McCain
CONTENTS ix
25 Jihad 365
John H. Hanson
26 Shari’a in Muslim Africa 377
David Cook
27 Hinduism in South Africa 389
P. Pratap Kumar
Part III Religion, Culture, and Society 399
28 Religion and Art in Ile-Ife 401
Suzanne Preston Blier
29 Sufi Arts: Engaging Islam through Works of Contemporary Art
in Senegal 417
Allen F. Roberts and Mary Nooter Roberts
30 Religion, Health, and the Economy 430
James R. Cochrane
31 Religion, Illness, and Healing 443
David Westerlund
32 Religion and Politics in Africa 457
Stephen Ellis and Gerrie ter Haar
33 Religion and Development 466
Steve de Gruchy
34 Religion, Media, and Confl ict in Africa 483
Rosalind I.J. Hackett
35 Gospel Music in Africa 489
Damaris Seleina Parsitau
36 Religion and Globalization 503
Asonzeh Ukah
37 Religion and Same Sex Relations in Africa 515
Marc Epprecht
Bibliography 529
Index 590
Notes on Contributors
Afe Adogame , PhD, University of Bayreuth, Germany, is author of C elestial Church of
Christ: The Politics of Cultural Identity in a West African Prophetic - Charismatic Movement .
He has co - edited several and published numerous research articles in peer reviewed
journals. Adogame is the Secretary General of the African Association for the Study of
Religion.
Edward P. Antonio , PhD, Cambridge University, is the Harvey H. Potthoff Associate
Professor of Christian Theology and Social Theory and Associate Dean of Diversities at
the Illif School of Theology. In 2010, the Center for Interfaith Action on Global Poverty
(CIFA) named Antonio to lead a process in Nigeria for theological refl ection and evalu-
ation of the experience of Muslim and Christian faith leaders mutually engaged in
interfaith action on malaria prevention throughout the country. He is editor of Incul-
turation and Postcolonial Discourse in African Theology and author of many articles in peer
reviewed journals.
Suzanne Preston Blier , PhD, Columbia, is the Allen Whitehill Clowes Professor of
Fine Arts and of African and African American Studies, Harvard University. A historian
of African art and architecture in both History of Art and Architecture, Blier is author
of numerous books, including The Anatomy of Architecture: Ontology and Metaphor in
Batammaliba Architectural Expression , which won the Arnold Rubin Prize; and African
Vidin: Art, Psychology, and Power , which received the Charles Rufus Morey Prize. Forth-
coming books include Art and Risk in Ancient Yoruba: Ife History, Power and Identity c.
1300 , African ’ s Worlds: A History (with Joseph C. Miller), and P ast Presence: Ancient Ife
and the Early Yoruba City State: Imaging African Amazons: The Art of Dahomey Women
Warriors . She is a member of the Coll è ge de France International Scientifi c and Strategic
Committee (COSS).
Elias Kifon Bongmba is the Harry and Hazel Chavanne Chair in Christian Theology
and Professor of Religious Studies at Rice University, Houston, Texas. His book T he
Dialectics of Transformation in Africa won the 2007 Frantz Fanon Prize for Outstanding
Work in Caribbean Thought. Bongmba is President of the African Association for the
Study of Religion.
xii NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS
Christine Chaillot is a specialist of Orthodox Churches whose publications on the
Coptic Orthodox, Syrian Orthodox, and Ethiopian Churches have been translated into
English, Arabic, and Amharic. She is author of The Theological Dialogue between the
Orthodox Church and the Oriental Orthodox Churches (1998). Her forthcoming book dis-
cusses the Orthodox Church in Eastern Europe in the twentieth century.
James R. Cochrane , BSc, MDiv, PhD, DDiv h.c., is Professor in Religious Studies, Direc-
tor of the Research Institute on Christianity and Society in Africa, Co - Director of the
International Religious Health Assets Programme, and Senior Research Associate,
School of Public Health and Family Medicine, all at the University of Cape Town. Many
of his roughly 150 publications have focused on religion in society.
Jean Comaroff is the Bernard E. and Ellen C. Sunny Distinguished Professor of Anthro-
pology at the University of Chicago, Founding Director of the Chicago Center for Con-
temporary Theory, and Honorary Professor of Anthropology at the University of Cape
Town. J ohn L. Comaroff is the Harold H. Swift Distinguished Professor of Anthropol-
ogy at the University of Chicago, a Founding Fellow of Chicago Center for Contempo-
rary Theory, Honorary Professor of Anthropology at the University of Cape Town, and
Research Professor at the American Bar Foundation. Their current research in post -
apartheid South Africa is on crime, policing, and the workings of the state, on democ-
racy and difference, and on the nature of postcolonial politics. Their recent co - authored
and co - edited books include L aw and Disorder in the Postcolony (2006), E thnicity, Inc.
(2009), Zombies et fronti è res à l ’ è re n é olib é rale. Le cas de l ’ Afrique du Sud postcoloniale
(2010) and, currently in press, T heory from the South: or, how Euro - America is evolving
toward Africa .
David Cook is Associate Professor at Rice University where he teaches Islam, Muslim
apocalyptic literature and movements for radical social change and West African Islam.
His publications include Understanding Jihad and Contemporary Muslim Apocalyptic Lit-
erature , C ontemporary Muslim Apocalyptic Literature , Understanding Jihad , and U nder-
standing and Addressing Suicide Attacks (with Olivia Allison). He is currently doing
research on West African Islam, focusing on the vast Arabic literature of sub - Saharan
Africa (especially in Nigeria).
James L. Cox is Professor of Religious Studies in the University of Edinburgh. From
1993 to 1998, he directed the University of Edinburgh ’ s African Christianity Project,
which included eight African universities in southern and western Africa. He has held
prior academic posts at the University of Zimbabwe, Westminster College, Oxford, and
Alaska Pacifi c University. His most recent publications include: An Introduction to the
Phenomenology of Religion (2010), From Primitive to Indigenous: The Academic Study of
Indigenous Religions (2007), and A Guide to the Phenomenology of Religion (2006).
Steve de Gruchy was Professor of Theology at the University of KwaZulu Natal where
he served as Head of Department. He was researcher and a key member of the African
Religious Health Assets project. He served as one of the editors of the J ournal of Theology
for Southern Africa. He published numerous articles in peer reviewed journals. Among