| Popis: |
Just as European colonizers drew up arbitrary state borders in the “scramble for Africa” of the late 19th century, so have external authorities often imposed religious categories on African societies. Yet today, practicing and observing religion in the region is as much about challenging such distinctions as upholding them. African religious life is dynamic and pluralist, integrating three major currents of faith—Christianity, Islam, and African Indigenous traditions—and a diversity of subgroups and alternative or interstitial communities. It encompasses varied facets of practice, authority, identity, and place, and it demonstrates an ambivalent and contradictory relationship to modern nation-state politics. This chapter addresses these characteristics in turn, balancing broad themes and local particulars. It calls for paying closer attention to religion in African societies to better understand the significance of global religion, especially as it relates to the legacies of global imperialism and the challenges of religious pluralism. |
