Studying Religions in Africa Single or Multiple Traditions
Main Article Content
Keywords
Africa, Anthropology of Christianity , Plurality of Religion , unit of analysis
Abstract
The examination of a single religious tradition and the exploration of the plurality of lived practice provide two broad approaches to the study of religion in Africa. The article discusses each of these units of analysis by introducing two scholarly trends emerging in twenty-first century scholarship: the Anthropology of Christianity and the Plurality of Religion. It discusses the historical background to these trends in the contested definitions of ‘religion’ emerging in the twentieth century. It shows how the trends have been developed and discusses their usefulness in the author’s own work. The article demonstrates that the definition of ‘religion’ matters and the unit of analysis influences the research trajectory and the findings. Researchers are encouraged to consider whether their subjects conform to or challenge their working definitions. The article concludes by asking for reflections on these trends by African scholars and looking forward to further discussions on approaches to the study of religion from insider perspectives.
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References
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Bielo, James S. 2009. The Social Life of Scriptures: Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Biblicism. Rutgers University Press.
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Chidester, David. 1996. Savage Systems: Colonialism and Comparative Religion in Southern Africa. University Press of Virginia.
Engelke, Matthew. 2007. A Problem of Presence: Beyond Scripture in an African Church. University of California Press.
Grillo, Laura S., Adriaan van Klinken, and Hassan J. Ndzovu, eds. 2019. Religions in Contemporary Africa: An Introduction. Routledge.
Haynes, Naomi. 2021. “Concretizing the Christian Nation: Negotiating Zambia’s National House of Prayer.” Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 41 (2): 166–74. https://doi.org/10.1215/1089201X-9127037.
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Idowu, Bolaji. 1973. African Traditional Religion: A Definition. SCM Press.
Janson, Marloes, and Birgit Meyer. 2016. “Introduction: Towards a Framework for the Study of Christian-Muslim Encounters in Africa.” Africa 86 (4): 615–19. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0001972016000553.
Janson, Marloes, Kai Kresse, Benedikt Pontzen, Hassan Mwakimako, and Birgit Meyer, eds. 2024. Religious Plurality in Africa: Coexistence, Conviviality, Conflict. Religion in Transforming Africa. Woodbridge: James Currey.
Janson, Marloes. 2021. Crossing Religious Boundaries: Islam, Christianity, and ‘Yoruba Religion’ in Lagos, Nigeria. Cambridge University Press.
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Kalu, Ogbu. 2008b. African Pentecostalism: An Introduction. Oxford University Press.
Kresse, Kai. 2024. “Thinking with Comparison from Within: On Mutual Perceptions in Social Dynamics, with Samples from the Kenyan Coast.” In Religious Plurality in Africa: Coexistence, Conviviality, Conflict, edited by Janson, Marloes, Kai Kresse, Benedikt Pontzen, Hassan Mwakimako, and Birgit Meyer. James Currey.
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Lauterbach, Karen, and Mika Vähäkangas, eds. 2020. Faith in African Lived Christianity: Bridging Anthropological and Theological Perspectives. Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/ 9789004412255.
Lauterbach, Karen. 2017. Christianity, Wealth and Spiritual Power in Ghana. Palgrave Macmillan.
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Meinema, Erik. 2024. “Popular Music, Mijikenda Tradition, and Religious Coexistence in Coastal Kenya.” In Religious Plurality in Africa: Coexistence, Conviviality, Conflict, edited by Janson, Marloes, Kai Kresse, Benedikt Pontzen, Hassan Mwakimako, and Birgit Meyer. James Currey.
Meyer, Birgit. 2021. “What Is Religion in Africa? Relational Dynamics in an Entangled World.” Journal of Religion in Africa 50 (1–2): 156–81. https://doi.org/10.1163/15700666-12340184.
Nolte, Insa, Olukoya Ogen, and Rebecca Jones, eds. 2017. Beyond Religious Tolerance: Muslim, Christian and Traditionalist Encounters in an African Town. James Currey.
Nolte, Insa, and Olukoya Ogen. 2017. “Introduction: Beyond Religious Tolerance.” In Beyond Religious Tolerance: Muslim, Christian and Traditionalist Encounters in an African Town, edited by Nolte, Insa, Olukoya Ogen, and Rebecca Jones. James Currey.
Obadare, Ebenezer. 2016. “Response to ‘Similarity and difference, contest and tradition, in contemporary religious movements in West Africa’ by J.D.Y. Peel.” Africa 86 (4): 640–645.
Odoyoye, Mercy Amba and Rachel Angogo Kanyoro, eds. 1992. The Will to Arise: Women, Tradition and the Church in Africa. Orbis.
Orobator, Agbonkhianmeghe E. 2018. Religion and Faith in Africa: Confessions of an Animist. Orbis.
P’Bitek, Okot. 1971. African Religions in Western Scholarship. East African Literature Bureau.
Phan, Peter C. 2003. “Multiple Religious Belonging: Opportunities and Challenges for Theology and Church.” Theological Studies 64 (3): 495–519.
Pontzen, Benedikt. 2021. Islam in a Zongo: Muslim Lifeworlds in Asante, Ghana. Cambridge University Press.
Premawardhana, Devaka. 2024. “Polyontological Mobility: Border-Making and Border-Crossing in African Religions.” In Religious Plurality in Africa: Coexistence, Conviviality, Conflict, edited by Janson, Marloes, Kai Kresse, Benedikt Pontzen, Hassan Mwakimako, and Birgit Meyer. James Currey.
Robbins, Joel. 2014. “The Anthropology of Christianity: Unity, Diversity, New Directions: An Introduction to Supplement 10.” Current Anthropology 55 (10): 157–71. https://doi.org/10.1086/678289.
———. 2020. Theology and the Anthropology of Christian Life. Oxford University Press.
Sanneh, Lamin O. 1989. Translating the Message: The Missionary Impact on Culture. Orbis.
Sawyer, Harry. 1970. God, Ancestor or Creator? Aspects of traditional Belief in Ghana, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. Longmans.
Schuetze, Christy K. 2023. Spirit Wives and Church Mothers: Marriage, Survival, and Healing in Central Mozambique. Women in Africa and the Diaspora. The University of Wisconsin Press.
Shankar, Shobana. 2024. “Between the Crescent and Cross: Politicized Remains of Local Religions Traditions in the North of Nigeria.” Religious Plurality in Africa: Coexistence, Conviviality, Conflict, edited by Janson, Marloes, Kai Kresse, Benedikt Pontzen, Hassan Mwakimako, and Birgit Meyer. James Currey.
Soares, Benjamin. 2006. “Introduction.” In Muslim-Christian Encounters in Africa, edited by Benjamin Soares. Islam in Africa 6. Brill.
Ukah, Azonzeh. 2007. “African Christianities: Features, Promises and Problems.” Working Paper 76. Johannes Gutenberg-Universität, Institut für Ethnologie und Afrikastudien.
Walls, Andrew F. 2002. The Cross-Cultural Process in Christian History: Studies in the Transmission and Appropriation of Faith. Orbis.
Wild-Wood, Emma. 2020. The Mission of Apolo Kivebulaya: Religious Encounters and Social Change in the Great Lakes c.1865-1935. Eastern African Studies. James Currey.
Williams, Corey L. 2019. “Chrislam, Accommodation and the Politics of Religious Bricolage in Nigeria.” Studies in World Christianity 25 (1): 5–28. https://doi.org/10.3366/swc.2019.0239.
Ammerman, Nancy T. 2020. “Rethinking Religion: Toward a Practice Approach.” American Journal of Sociology 126 (1): 6–51. https://doi.org/10.1086/709779.
Asad, Talal. 1993. Genealogies of Religion: Discipline and Reasons of Power in Christianity and Islam. Johns Hopkins University Press.
Bediako, Kwame. 1995. Christianity in Africa: The Renewal of an African Religion. Edinburgh University Press.
Bialecki, Jon, Naomi Haynes, and Joel Robbins. 2008. “The Anthropology of Christianity,” Religion Compass 2 (6): 1139–58.
Bielo, James S. 2009. The Social Life of Scriptures: Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Biblicism. Rutgers University Press.
Bongmba, Elias Kifon. 2020. “What has Kinshasa to do with Athens? Methodological Perspectives on Theology and Social Science in search for a Political Theology”. In Faith in African Lived Christianity: Bridging Anthropological and Theological Perspectives, edited by Karen Lauterbach and Mika Vähäkangas. Brill.
Brenner, Louis. 2024. Histories of Religious Thought and Practice in Africa: Thematic Perspectives. James Currey.
Cannell, Fenella, ed. 2006. The Anthropology of Christianity. Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822388159.
Chidester, David. 1996. Savage Systems: Colonialism and Comparative Religion in Southern Africa. University Press of Virginia.
Engelke, Matthew. 2007. A Problem of Presence: Beyond Scripture in an African Church. University of California Press.
Grillo, Laura S., Adriaan van Klinken, and Hassan J. Ndzovu, eds. 2019. Religions in Contemporary Africa: An Introduction. Routledge.
Haynes, Naomi. 2021. “Concretizing the Christian Nation: Negotiating Zambia’s National House of Prayer.” Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 41 (2): 166–74. https://doi.org/10.1215/1089201X-9127037.
Ibrahim, Musa. 2024. “Between Conviviality and Unsociability: Negotiating Mixed Religious Background in a Field of Muslim-Christian Tensions in Northern Nigeria.” In Religious Plurality in Africa: Coexistence, Conviviality, Conflict, edited by Janson, Marloes, Kai Kresse, Benedikt Pontzen, Hassan Mwakimako, and Birgit Meyer. James Currey.
Idowu, Bolaji. 1973. African Traditional Religion: A Definition. SCM Press.
Janson, Marloes, and Birgit Meyer. 2016. “Introduction: Towards a Framework for the Study of Christian-Muslim Encounters in Africa.” Africa 86 (4): 615–19. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0001972016000553.
Janson, Marloes, Kai Kresse, Benedikt Pontzen, Hassan Mwakimako, and Birgit Meyer, eds. 2024. Religious Plurality in Africa: Coexistence, Conviviality, Conflict. Religion in Transforming Africa. Woodbridge: James Currey.
Janson, Marloes. 2021. Crossing Religious Boundaries: Islam, Christianity, and ‘Yoruba Religion’ in Lagos, Nigeria. Cambridge University Press.
Kagame, Alexis. 1976. La Philosophie Bantu comparée. Présence Africaine.
Kalu, Ogbu. 2008a. Clio in African Garb: Essays on Christian Presence and African Responses. Africa World Press.
Kalu, Ogbu. 2008b. African Pentecostalism: An Introduction. Oxford University Press.
Kresse, Kai. 2024. “Thinking with Comparison from Within: On Mutual Perceptions in Social Dynamics, with Samples from the Kenyan Coast.” In Religious Plurality in Africa: Coexistence, Conviviality, Conflict, edited by Janson, Marloes, Kai Kresse, Benedikt Pontzen, Hassan Mwakimako, and Birgit Meyer. James Currey.
Landau, Paul. 1999. “‘Religion’ and Christian Conversion in African History: A New Model.” The Journal of Religious History 23 (1): 8–23.
Lauterbach, Karen, and Mika Vähäkangas, eds. 2020. Faith in African Lived Christianity: Bridging Anthropological and Theological Perspectives. Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/ 9789004412255.
Lauterbach, Karen. 2017. Christianity, Wealth and Spiritual Power in Ghana. Palgrave Macmillan.
Lemons, J. Derrick, ed. 2018. Theologically Engaged Anthropology. Oxford University Press.
Masuzawa, Tomoko. 2005. The Invention of World Religions Or, How European Universalism Was Preserved in the Language of Pluralism. University of Chicago Press.
Mbillah, Johnson A. 2010. “Interfaith Relations in Africa.” In African Theology on the Way: Current Conversations, edited by Diane Stinton. SPCK.
Mbiti, John.1970. Concepts of God of God in Africa. SPCK.
Meinema, Erik. 2024. “Popular Music, Mijikenda Tradition, and Religious Coexistence in Coastal Kenya.” In Religious Plurality in Africa: Coexistence, Conviviality, Conflict, edited by Janson, Marloes, Kai Kresse, Benedikt Pontzen, Hassan Mwakimako, and Birgit Meyer. James Currey.
Meyer, Birgit. 2021. “What Is Religion in Africa? Relational Dynamics in an Entangled World.” Journal of Religion in Africa 50 (1–2): 156–81. https://doi.org/10.1163/15700666-12340184.
Nolte, Insa, Olukoya Ogen, and Rebecca Jones, eds. 2017. Beyond Religious Tolerance: Muslim, Christian and Traditionalist Encounters in an African Town. James Currey.
Nolte, Insa, and Olukoya Ogen. 2017. “Introduction: Beyond Religious Tolerance.” In Beyond Religious Tolerance: Muslim, Christian and Traditionalist Encounters in an African Town, edited by Nolte, Insa, Olukoya Ogen, and Rebecca Jones. James Currey.
Obadare, Ebenezer. 2016. “Response to ‘Similarity and difference, contest and tradition, in contemporary religious movements in West Africa’ by J.D.Y. Peel.” Africa 86 (4): 640–645.
Odoyoye, Mercy Amba and Rachel Angogo Kanyoro, eds. 1992. The Will to Arise: Women, Tradition and the Church in Africa. Orbis.
Orobator, Agbonkhianmeghe E. 2018. Religion and Faith in Africa: Confessions of an Animist. Orbis.
P’Bitek, Okot. 1971. African Religions in Western Scholarship. East African Literature Bureau.
Phan, Peter C. 2003. “Multiple Religious Belonging: Opportunities and Challenges for Theology and Church.” Theological Studies 64 (3): 495–519.
Pontzen, Benedikt. 2021. Islam in a Zongo: Muslim Lifeworlds in Asante, Ghana. Cambridge University Press.
Premawardhana, Devaka. 2024. “Polyontological Mobility: Border-Making and Border-Crossing in African Religions.” In Religious Plurality in Africa: Coexistence, Conviviality, Conflict, edited by Janson, Marloes, Kai Kresse, Benedikt Pontzen, Hassan Mwakimako, and Birgit Meyer. James Currey.
Robbins, Joel. 2014. “The Anthropology of Christianity: Unity, Diversity, New Directions: An Introduction to Supplement 10.” Current Anthropology 55 (10): 157–71. https://doi.org/10.1086/678289.
———. 2020. Theology and the Anthropology of Christian Life. Oxford University Press.
Sanneh, Lamin O. 1989. Translating the Message: The Missionary Impact on Culture. Orbis.
Sawyer, Harry. 1970. God, Ancestor or Creator? Aspects of traditional Belief in Ghana, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. Longmans.
Schuetze, Christy K. 2023. Spirit Wives and Church Mothers: Marriage, Survival, and Healing in Central Mozambique. Women in Africa and the Diaspora. The University of Wisconsin Press.
Shankar, Shobana. 2024. “Between the Crescent and Cross: Politicized Remains of Local Religions Traditions in the North of Nigeria.” Religious Plurality in Africa: Coexistence, Conviviality, Conflict, edited by Janson, Marloes, Kai Kresse, Benedikt Pontzen, Hassan Mwakimako, and Birgit Meyer. James Currey.
Soares, Benjamin. 2006. “Introduction.” In Muslim-Christian Encounters in Africa, edited by Benjamin Soares. Islam in Africa 6. Brill.
Ukah, Azonzeh. 2007. “African Christianities: Features, Promises and Problems.” Working Paper 76. Johannes Gutenberg-Universität, Institut für Ethnologie und Afrikastudien.
Walls, Andrew F. 2002. The Cross-Cultural Process in Christian History: Studies in the Transmission and Appropriation of Faith. Orbis.
Wild-Wood, Emma. 2020. The Mission of Apolo Kivebulaya: Religious Encounters and Social Change in the Great Lakes c.1865-1935. Eastern African Studies. James Currey.
Williams, Corey L. 2019. “Chrislam, Accommodation and the Politics of Religious Bricolage in Nigeria.” Studies in World Christianity 25 (1): 5–28. https://doi.org/10.3366/swc.2019.0239.
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Apr 28, 2025
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Studying Religions in Africa: Single or Multiple Traditions. (2025). Utambuzi: Journal for the Study of the Religions of Africa and Its Diaspora, 8(1), 35-46. https://doi.org/10.36615/ypzzyd17
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Author Biography
Emma Wild-Wood, University of Edinburgh
Professor of African Religions and World Christianity, School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh
How to Cite
Studying Religions in Africa: Single or Multiple Traditions. (2025). Utambuzi: Journal for the Study of the Religions of Africa and Its Diaspora, 8(1), 35-46. https://doi.org/10.36615/ypzzyd17