Jacob K. Olupona, African Religions: A Very Short Introduction
(Oxford University Press, 2014): 152 pp.
I got started reading this little book last year while
preparing to teach a unit on African religions for a World Religions class.
Here are some notes:
Olupona is a Professor of African Religious Traditions at
Harvard Divinity School. This book is in the popular “Very Short Introductions”
series from Oxford.
In the preface, he traces the development of the field of the
study of African religions. He begins by acknowledging that Christians
missionaries were the first to take up these studies:
“Some of the most serious early writings about African
religions were produced by European missionaries sent to Africa to spread
Christianity. For these missionaries, the study of African religion was
ultimately a preparatio evangelica, a
necessary step toward understanding the most expedient way to convert Africans
to Christianity” (xxi). He also connects their study to colonialism.
“Gradually, the study of African religions developed as an
autonomous field within comparative religions” (xxi).
He later notes the importance of the ancestors in African
religions: “Ancestral traditions, the veneration of deceased parents and
forebears, constitutes a key aspect of African religions. Some traditions
regard ancestors as equal if not superior to the deities within the pantheon;
also, it is not always easy to make a distinction between ancestors and
divinities” (28).
In a section on divination, Olupona notes how with the advent
of Islam and Christianity into Africa the sacred writings of these religions
were used as “divination devises.” He describes “bibliomancy” as “divination
through the selection of randomly selected passages” and notes it is widespread
in Africa (49).
He begins a section on African witchcraft by noting it is
“completely unrelated to the religious practices of modern neo-Pagans who
sometimes use the word ‘Witchcraft’ (or, more commonly, Wicca) as the name of
their religion, sometimes self-identifying as witches” (49-50). Such
“goddess-centered religion focused on nature veneration and holistic wellness”
has no connection to witchcraft in African religions (50). In contrast, he
observes, “In Africa, witchcraft is almost universally defined as the
manipulation of occult forces to do harm and achieve selfish ends” (50). He
adds that witches are usually marginal people (widows, elderly, outsiders,
strangers) and “almost always women” (50).
He defines sorcery as “an indigenous technology implemented
to manipulate the sacred for negative ends”, adding, “Indeed, a thin line
exists between healers, witches, and sorcerers” (51).
In a section on initiation rites, Olupona notes, “Initiations
for adolescent African girls cause great consternation among Westerners,
because they often involve female circumcision” (59). He defends the practice,
however, by noting that in many cultures it is “less dramatic, involving only
partial removal of the clitoris, or only small ritual cuts to the clitoris and
labia” (59). One wonders, however, if the author is minimizing the negative
aspects of this practice.
Regarding Islam and Christianity in Africa, Olupona begins,
“Africa domesticated the two exogenous religions” (89).
While saying that Christianity was “deeply culpable in the
African slave trade,” Olupona also observes, “Contrary to the way that it is
popularly imagined, the majority of African slaves were not directly captured
by Europeans” (95). “Slavery was already endemic throughout Africa, with the
enslavement of defeated peoples being common” (96). Thus, he concludes, “both
Europeans and Africans were responsible for the Atlantic slave trade” (96).
In the colonial period of the seventeenth to nineteenth
centuries, the author notes that in general Christianity “tended to fare much
better under colonial rule than did Islam” (99).
In the modern period he calls attention to the rise of the
so-called African Independent Churches (AIC). He notes, “The AIC movement is
arguably the most creative and vibrant Christian movement in African history
and has led to massive numbers of conversions” (100). While acknowledging that
many of these AIC’s have adopted
cult-like practices, he does not offer the assessment that many of these
movements hold little semblance to historic, orthodox Christianity.
Finally, he talks about the spread of African religious
practices in the African diaspora, so that African religions are now a global
phenomenon.
Though it
takes an overall relativistic view on theology and religious practices
(describing, rather than prescribing), this little book is a succinct,
well-written, and insightful introduction to understanding African religions.
JTR
