Histories of Religion in Africa

Abstract

they affect the historical study of religion. Thus the title of the lecture, 'Histories of Religion in Africa'. I speak of 'histories' in the plural because my own research has led me to the conclusion that the historicity of religion can most effectively be evoked by focusing on the inherent heterogeneity and pluralism of religious concept and practice which is evident in virtually every social context. But when I speak of 'religion' in the singular I am in fact raising a question because, somewhat paradoxically, it seems that the historical analysis of religious pluralism requires a frame of reference that transcends the conceptual constraints imposed by an approach to the study of 'religions' (in the plural) as separate, self-contained systems or 'world views'. Of course, many persons, especially Christians and Muslims in Africa, justifiably see the religions to which they adhere as cohesive and exclusive self-contained systems. At the same time, however, one is fully aware that neither 'Christianity' nor 'Islam' is in itself an analytical concept; neither concept can act as a point of reference for identifying and analyzing the actual diversity and variation of what social actors might perceive or experience as Christian or as Islamic in any specific context. Despite the analytic weaknesses of these systemic concepts of religion, they have been readily applied by many researchers to the study of indigenous religion in Africa, usually in the form of ethnicallydefined 'religions', although there is little evidence to suggest that participants in these religious practices in the past perceived them as