POSTCOLONIAL AFRICA: CHALLENGES & PROSPECTS

Indiana University Press

Chapter Title: Religions in Africa Chapter Author(s): John H. Hanson

Book Title: Africa, Fourth Edition Book Editor(s): MARIA GROSZ-NGATÉ, JOHN H. HANSON, PATRICK O’MEARA Published by: Indiana University Press. (2014) Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt16gh7ps.9

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Spirit possessions, harvest festivals, and other activities associated with African traditional religions (or religions with African roots) remain vital, but attendance at

Christian churches and Muslim mosques in Africa has increased signifi cantly dur-

ing the last century. From 1900 to 2010 the number of Christians in Africa grew

from less than 10 million to 470 million, more than 20 percent of the world Chris-

tian community. The number of Muslims in Africa also grew to more than 450

million, over 25 percent of the global Muslim community. This chapter discusses

the endurance of religions with African roots and how Africans have accepted,

proselytized, and elaborated upon Christianity and Islam during the past two hun-

dred years.

DEFINITIONS AND PERSPECTIVES

Religion refers to ideas and practices concerning societal relations with unseen

powers. It is associated with prophecies, moral directives, and explanations of the

world, and religious followers forge bonds with others through rituals, experience

ecstatic states in trances, and obtain healing and comfort through rituals, supplica-

tions, and other activities. The complete range of religious experiences is diffi cult to

study, but scholars can analyze religious ideas and discuss the roles and actions of

religious specialists and their followers in specifi c times and places.

Religions with African roots were the fi rst on the continent and shaped the reli-

gious landscape. They often recognize a creator god and accessible spiritual forces

that ritual specialists can contact in specifi c places or call to become manifest in

individuals or objects such as masks or statues. Public rituals engage these unseen

forces, and private consultations draw on them to provide individual assistance.

Eu ro pe an colonialism disrupted and sometimes prohibited these religious activi-

ties in early twentieth- century Africa, so current expressions are best understood

as contemporary constructions evoking local ideas and practices in complex ways.

John H. Hanson

Religions in Africa5

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104 A F R I C A

Christianity and Islam are mono the istic religions based on scriptures. The Bible

and Qur’an provide believers with moral guidance as well as a warning that human

existence will culminate in an end- of- time when God will judge humans and grant

access to heaven only to those deemed worthy. Early Christians established doctrines

and ecclesiastical organizations in the Catholic and Orthodox traditions, and Protes-

tant denominations emerged during the Eu ro pe an Reformation. Early Muslims never

founded overarching religious organizations, and they largely agreed on the pri-

macy of the Qur’an and the Traditions (reports of the Prophet Muhammad’s actions

and deeds) and a few core rituals, such as daily prayers, as the basis of the faith.

Nevertheless, divisions in the Muslim world emerged, for example, between Sunni

and Shi’i traditions. Theological and ritual elaboration continues in both Christian-

ity and Islam, as one would expect in religions welcoming new converts.

The term “syncretism” often is used in reference to elaborations of Islam and

Christianity in Africa, but the word conveys an inaccurate impression that Africans

somehow fall short of ideals when in reality no “pure” form of any religion exists.

Christians and Muslims in all times and places put religion to work in their lives by

interpreting scriptures and augmenting ritual practices. Historical research reveals,

for example, that core elements of Christian worship, such as praise singing and

supplication through prayer, have roots in the ancient, pre- Christian Mediterranean

world as well as the religious practices of early Christians. African converts to

Christianity and Islam similarly reject their previous religions and enrich their new

faiths with interpretations and expressions drawing on meaningful local ideas and

practices.

RELIGIONS WITH AFRICAN ROOTS

Religions with African roots historically have been the most numerous religions

on the continent. Most did not leave behind written rec ords, but scholars have

uncovered evidence of their ideas, practices, and infl uence on social pro cesses in

the pre- colonial era. Acknowledgement of a creator god as well as lesser gods and

spirits was widespread, but specifi c understandings and religious practices varied.

Spiritual forces often were associated with localities, including hills, rocks, and

sacred forests, but spirits also could become manifest in portable objects such as

masks and sculptures, as the chapter on visual art in Africa discusses. In some con-

texts, religious specialists were mediums who could call spirits; in others they were

prophets who merely received messages, and in still others they were diviners who

could foretell the future. Most societies distinguished between religious specialists

working for the common good and those working for private interests and direct-

ing unseen forces against others. Sometimes specifi c roles were reserved for men

and others for women, but gender specializations were not uniform across the con-

tinent. Religious specialists could be from families with long- standing ties to the

community, but they also could be people from outside, whose social and physical

distance added to their authority.

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Religions in Africa 105

The social functions of religions with African roots were multiple. Some rituals

healed the ill or cured the infertile, as the chapter on health and healing in Africa

discusses. Others had “ordeals” identifying wrongdoers or mass campaigns to

identify asocial persons believed to be witches. Still others aimed at rainmaking.

Po liti cal leadership also had rituals, such as those associated with the installation

of new leaders in offi ce or the commemoration of locally signifi cant events. These

activities often were conservative, reinforcing certain ideas about proper behavior

or merely celebrating community solidarity, but they could produce social change.

For example, rainmaking pro cesses allowed for public commentaries on the effi cacy

of leaders and could inspire po liti cal action by encouraging the ouster of a leader

perceived not to be fulfi lling the common good. In other contexts, where chiefs had

installation ceremonies associated with objects such as stools, rituals existed to

remove or “destool” a leader. Not all practices perform the same work, but all reli-

gious are intertwined in social pro cesses.

Religions with African roots changed over time. The absence of documentary

information makes specifi c changes diffi cult to reconstruct, but borrowing from

other religions is one indicator. For example, Ifa, one of many local religious cults

in coastal areas from Ghana to Nigeria, is a form of divination that draws signifi cantly

from Islamic practices known as “sand writing”; Ifa’s specialists either borrowed

the new practice or adapted elements of Islamic sand writing to their own divination

practices. Another example of religious change occurred in the herding areas of

today’s Kenya and Tanzania, where Maasai peoples currently reside. Ritual special-

ists performed regular initiations of Maasai youths into adulthood, and many Maasai

women supplicated Eng’ai, the high god, as part of their daily religious activities. In

the nineteenth century new religious roles emerged during a time of expansion as

specifi c Maasai groups claimed more territories and incorporated others into their

communities. Integral to this pro cess were prophets, iloibonok, who aided par tic u lar Maasai groups in claiming territories and asserting authority over others absorbed

into growing Maasai communities during these nineteenth- century transformations.

Eu ro pe an Colonial Intervention and Consolidation

In some regions religious specialists became involved in armed struggles against

Eu ro pe an imperialism. One example occurred in today’s Tanzania during the colo-

nial consolidation, after the German administration had imposed taxation and

began promoting rubber harvesting and cotton cultivation. The trigger was a severe

drought in 1905, after which many rural residents rose up against colonial interme-

diaries and eventually fought German armies. Various groups were involved, but

the movement came to be known as Maji- Maji in reference to the potion religious

specialists made from water (maji) and other items for followers to ingest for protection against German bullets. Kinjikitile Ngwale, the spirit medium who fi rst

concocted maji protections, and other ritual specialists associated with the movement were captured and killed by Germans as they forcefully put down the

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Figure 5.1. Dogon dancer in late twentieth- century Mali. Corbis.

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Religions in Africa 107

re sis tance. Another example occurred in today’s Burkina Faso in 1915– 17, as local

populations took advantage of the First World War to rise up against the French at

a time of perceived military weakness. Diverse communities worked together in the

effort to or ga nize and fi ght, drawing on religious specialists controlling a network

of local shrines. In this case, Muslims joined non- Muslims in making common

cause against an enemy, and both were targeted by the French and died in this

failed effort.

The changes of the colonial era infl uenced local religious practices. Eu ro pe an

colonial offi cers encouraged a number of rituals that they assumed consolidated

authority for African intermediaries in the colonial administration, but in some

cases these ceremonies were “invented traditions” and not linked to a continuous

cultural practice. Eu ro pe ans also actively discouraged or outlawed certain practices

deemed controversial or a challenge to their rule, driving them out of public sight.

As religious specialists receded from view, many likely modifi ed or truncated their

religious practices. For example, specialists who previously had dealt with a broad

range of public healing turned merely to infertility in individual cases; the chapter

on health and healing reveals the vibrancy of these practices. Some religions with

African roots continued, occasionally under the cover of secrecy in the colonial era,

and elements of local religious practices remained a resource for contemporary ar-

tistic and musical expressions, po liti cal ceremonies, and other activities. For exam-

ple, Dogon communities in contemporary Mali or ga nize dances with masks on a

regular basis and invite outsiders to witness some of their rites and ceremonies.

Some religions with African roots were able to expand in the colonial era. For

example, in the northeastern region of today’s Ghana, a complex of ancestor and

earth shrines in the Tong hills was targeted by the British as a source of subversion

to their rule. British offi cials sent a military force, then tried destroying the caves,

and fi nally relocated African populations residing near the complex in an effort to

eliminate the shrines. The British relaxed restrictions in the 1920s, and one of these

ancestor cults, Tongnaab, thrived in a new network of shrines in southern Ghana,

where other ethnic groups turned to it for witch- fi nding under the name Nana Tonga.

As some Africans gained wealth and no longer acknowledged social obligations,

accusations of witchcraft increased, and Nana Tonga’s reputation for fi nding witches

was enhanced by the local perception that the northern regions were without asocial

people due to the effi cacy of their gods. Transformations in Tongnaab and Nana Tonga

continue to this day, as its network of shrines remains active and tourists from outside

Ghana visits the Tong hills.

The colonial era included the appropriation of Christian symbols by religions

with African roots. For example, in Gabon beginning in the 1920s, a movement

known as Bwiti established a network of chapel houses emphasizing egalitarianism

bolstered by rituals and other shared religious experiences. Ancestors fi gured prom-

inently in Bwiti, as did initiations during which a local hallucinogenic substance was

consumed in a ritual involving singing and dance. While a central religious experi-

ence in Bwiti was an encounter with Jesus Christ, this fi gure was not the “son of

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108 A F R I C A

God” of Christian teaching but represented as a local healer. Some members of

Bwiti had been educated in Christian missionary schools, but neither they nor other

followers of Bwiti would claim to be Christians. Bwiti is a religion with African

roots that appropriated Christian symbolism to lend it relevance and authority in the

changed circumstances of the colonial era. It drew on ideas and practices of deep

historical resonance and engaged Christianity’s expansion with its complex rituals

and symbolism.

Recent Developments

Religions with African roots are diminishing in infl uence due to the recent expan-

sion of Islam and Christianity in Africa. Evangelical Pentecostal and charismatic

churches, for example, often defi ne “traditional” African religious ideas and prac-

tices as “evil,” and these churches have been successful in eliminating many such

expressions in public contexts. The evocative power of these local religions neverthe-

less remains signifi cant, as the chapters on art and music in Africa discuss. Private

consultations with religious specialists also continue, as religions with African roots

still offer compelling messages and offer healing and other ser vices to Africans.

Accusations of witchcraft persist in contemporary Africa, raising questions about

the relations between these claims and current practices. Note that accusations and

actual involvement in the occult are distinct. In some cases there are personal ac-

counts of possession by evil spirits, but these narratives cannot be corroborated and

the confession itself often is an aspect of joining a Christian movement or a Pente-

costal congregation. More than one person has made sensational claims to have ritu-

ally killed someone as part of his or her “evil” past, only to recant when confronted

by authorities. Allegations of witchcraft nonetheless are real, as periods of social

change often produce outbreaks of widespread public fear and resentment of individu-

als who do not share social norms with others. Contemporary witch- fi nding prac-

tices often draw on evocative symbols and practices from the past, but one cannot

project a continuous tradition of African witchcraft over the centuries. Africa, in

other words, may experience periodic waves of witch- fi nding, but it is not neces-

sarily inhabited by witches.

CHRISTIANITY

Some of the fi rst Christian communities were in northern Africa. Alexandria, in

the lower Nile valley, was an early Christian religious center, and other towns to the

west were signifi cant, such as Hippo in today’s Algeria, where Augustine wrote his

infl uential theological works. Christianity declined in northern Africa as local pop-

ulations of Copts and Berbers adopted Arabic and converted to Islam in the centu-

ries after the Arab conquests of the seventh century. Several Christian communities

remain in northern Africa, such as the Coptic Church in Egypt, but Orthodox Chris-

tianity’s major African presence is in Ethiopia. Rulers of Axum, a highland Ethio-

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Religions in Africa 109

pian state and regional commercial power, converted to Christianity in the fourth

century CE. Through the subsequent activities of Christian monks as well as the

support of Ethiopian po liti cal elites over the centuries, Christianity thrived and

expanded in the highlands. Today with some forty million members, the Ethiopian

Tewahedo Church, an autonomous branch in the Orthodox Christian tradition, has

its own saints and religious festivals, liturgies in Ge’ez (an ancient Semitic lan-

guage with origins in the highlands), and religious icons.

Nineteenth- Century Missionary Efforts

The nineteenth century brought sustained efforts to expand Christianity in Africa.

Eu ro pe ans had established Catholic missions in previous centuries, after the initial

voyages of exploration of the fi fteenth century, but success often eluded them, except

in contexts such as Kongo, where the king converted and a local Christian com-

munity emerged with its own saints. The nineteenth century witnessed an upsurge

in missionary activities: Catholics continued their efforts and Protestants increased

their involvement, moved in part by religious revivals in late eighteenth- century Eu-

rope and North America. This new evangelism combined with long- standing efforts

to abolish slave trading in Africa. David Livingstone, a nineteenth- century Scottish

missionary and explorer who wrote about his work in Africa, inspired many others

to follow his example. Using Eu ro pe an coastal trading enclaves as points of access to

the continent, Christian missionaries obtained plots of land from African leaders and

sought to establish new communities of Christian converts.

Christianity grew most effectively when African converts spread the message.

Receptivity to Christianity initially occurred at the top or bottom ranks of African

societies. Royalty sometimes converted and encouraged their subjects to follow; lit-

eracy and access to commodities, as much as Christian beliefs and rituals, often were

the attractions for African elites. Christianity also appealed to the downtrodden, such

as in contexts where warfare produced uprooted people seeking new beginnings.

Among the most successful nineteenth- century missionaries were recent African

converts. Samuel Ajayi Crowther, for example, was enslaved in today’s southern

Nigeria in 1821, liberated from a slave ship, and released by the British navy at Free-

town, Sierra Leone, where he converted to Christianity; Crowther returned to Nigeria

to proselytize and rose to the rank of bishop in the growing Anglican community of

late nineteenth- century Nigeria. Crowther and other African Christians spoke from

individual experiences and articulated the message in local languages. They also

persisted in the faith, even after tropical diseases claimed signifi cant numbers of the

fi rst Eu ro pe an missionaries in Africa. Martyrdom faced some early converts: in

Buganda, for example, Christian and Muslims competed for infl uence at the capital

during the late nineteenth century, and a shift in support led to the deaths of several

African Catholics, who are remembered to this day in an annual ceremony in Uganda.

The nineteenth century did not bring large numbers of Africans into the fold, but it

laid the groundwork for Christian expansion in the century that followed.

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110 A F R I C A

Eu ro pe an Colonial Intervention and Consolidation

The relations between Christianity and Eu ro pe an colonial rule in Africa are

complex. The colonial “civilizing mission” was close to the Christian vision for

Africa, and some Eu ro pe an missionaries encouraged African elites to sign treaties

and ally with Eu ro pe an powers during the late nineteenth century. Missionaries

associated with infl uential congregations in the metropole tended to be favored by

colonial offi cials in Africa— Catholics in French colonies and Protestants in Brit-

ish colonies, for example— although all Christian denominations were present to

some degree throughout the continent. Missionary organizations began to mirror

the social and racial hierarchies of colonialism, as additional Eu ro pe an missionar-

ies arrived and pushed African converts from leadership positions beginning in the

late nineteenth century. But some missionaries criticized the abuses of imperial

conquest and colonial consolidation. Ironically, Eu ro pe an colonial offi cials sup-

ported African po liti cal leaders who sustained local religious rituals condemned

by the missionaries. In some cases, colonial authorities even prevented Christian

missionaries from proselytizing in regions with signifi cant Muslim populations,

such as the northern regions of Nigeria.

Colonial rule created fertile ground for conversion to Christianity. Eu ro pe an

conquests raised questions about the effi cacy of religions with African roots, and

colonial consolidation encouraged Africans to seize the opportunities associated

with Christianity. Missionary schools offered literacy in Eu ro pe an languages, a

skill that Africans could put to use as clerks in colonial bureaucracies or Eu ro pe an

fi rms. As Africans were looking afresh at Christian mission schools, Eu ro pe an mis-

sionaries were altering strategies and targeting children for conversion: these cir-

cumstances meshed and produced a young generation of converts in the early colo-

nial era. Conversions of adults still occurred too. In Rwanda, for example, many

tens of thousands of farmers joined the Catholic Church in the 1930s, following the

example of elites who had been converted by missionaries during earlier de cades.

And serendipity could play a role. In the northwestern regions of today’s Ghana,

conversions of farmers occurred when it rained on a Catholic mission after an Irish

missionary promised it would during a local drought; the children of these converts

attended missionary schools and became the social base for a dynamic Catholic

community in this region.

Some Africans split from mission churches and founded new congregations, usu-

ally called African in de pen dent churches. Led by African clergy, these churches

went by different names but shared many features, such as a more vibrant ritual life

and belief in the role of the Holy Spirit acting through living prophets. The Aladura

or “praying churches” of Nigeria, for example, formed in the early colonial period

out of the Christian prayer circles of missionary school graduates who held adminis-

trative jobs in the colonial towns of southern Nigeria. Under the guidance of charis-

matic African clergy, prayer circles developed into new churches, expanded into rural

areas, and added an emphasis on drumming and healing rituals, activities that were

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Religions in Africa 111

prohibited at mission churches at the time. African in de pen dent churches in southern

Africa, often called Zionist churches, also emphasized the role of African prophets

and local symbolism; some of these Zionist congregations became involved in the

struggle against the system of racial discrimination known as apartheid.

Scholars often refer to the religious transformations associated with African in de-

pen dent churches as the “Africanization” of Christianity. This term has merit, as it

draws attention to ways Africans appropriated the message and re oriented rituals to

make them relevant to their lives. But it is misleading to say that African in de pen dent

churches are more African than churches that did not experience the rupture of sepa-

ration. On one hand, mission churches eventually engaged in discussions about lit-

urgy and leadership, with internal reform gradually leading to the liberalization of

ser vices and liturgies and to the elevation of Africans to leadership positions. Today

these former mission churches, often called “mainline” churches, are run by Afri-

cans who retain affi liations to the Catholic or Protestant communities of the initial

missionaries. On the other hand, emphasis on Africanization obscures the ways that

Eu ro pe an missionaries were transformed by their experiences in Africa. Recent

work reveals how cross- cultural exchanges served to infl uence Eu ro pe an Christian

practices in metropolitan contexts during the twentieth century.

Figure 5.2. African in de pen dent church baptism in mid- twentieth- century South Africa. Corbis.

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112 A F R I C A

African women converted to Christianity in large numbers and became infl uen-

tial members of many congregations during the twentieth century. In Botswana,

for example, Christian missionary efforts initially converted the male elite of the

Ngwato state in the late nineteenth century, but by the 1920s Tswana women domi-

nated membership and actively promoted social causes such as temperance. Their

religious activities were a transformation of expected gender roles in Tswana society,

where women had brewed beer and been excluded from the public sphere. Women

also played signifi cant roles in congregations that broke from missionary churches. In

Kenya, for example, large numbers of women were moved by the preaching of Alfayo

Odongo Mango, found er of the Roho Holy Spirit movement, an African in de pen dent

church. These women preserved Roho beliefs and practices after Mango died in a

fi re set by the movement’s enemies in 1934; their hymns, songs, and ecstatic visions

are the core of the Ruwe Holy Ghost Church, the successor to the Roho movement.

Translating the Bible into African languages was critical to the expansion of

Christian communities. Some translations were by Eu ro pe ans knowledgeable in

African languages, but most missionaries relied on African converts as their as-

sistants, and in some cases Africans took the lead in translation. In Uganda, for

example, Baganda Christian converts took the lead in translating the Bible into Lu-

ganda and carried the new translations far and wide in a successful missionary cru-

sade during the early twentieth century. Their translations incorporated local words

for “high god” and other religious expressions; more importantly, they allowed local

religious ideas and practices to permeate the sacred text of Christianity. Translated

Bibles had other infl uences too. Once a translation of the Bible had been made, that

specifi c dialect of the African language became the standard over time. For example,

after African missionaries disseminated a Bible translated into Yoruba in nineteenth-

century southern Nigeria, not only did its dialect of Yoruba become the accepted

version of that language, but the Bible and local missionary activities contributed to

the construction of a wider Yoruba identity that previously had not been acknowl-

edged by speakers of the numerous dialects of this language.

Recent Developments

The most notable Christian development of the past three de cades is the phe-

nomenal growth in evangelical Pentecostal and charismatic churches in Africa.

The genesis of these churches was in the colonial era, as the Assemblies of God

and others founded missions in Africa, but signifi cant expansion occurred in the

postcolonial context, often at the expense of African in de pen dent and mainline

churches. African ministers in Pentecostal and charismatic churches draw on Afri-

can interpretations of Pentecostal teachings to stress personal deliverance, baptism

by the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, prayer healing, and exorcism of demonic

forces. In addition, they use mass media to present themselves as “modern”: their

loudly broadcast church ser vices defi ne their presence and preach a “prosperity

gospel” linking material and spiritual prosperity to personal intervention by God.

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Religions in Africa 113

Some congregations actually provide mechanisms for economic advancement,

such as loans to poorer members to start businesses, but their interpretation stresses

God’s intervention to ensure fi nancial success, and the religious leadership often

engages in conspicuous consumption of expensive clothing, luxury cars, and up- to-

date electronic equipment as repre sen ta tions of God’s blessings. Global connec-

tions also infl uence these Pentecostal and charismatic churches, with frequent ex-

changes of visiting evangelists between Africa and North America.

Some scholars associate the rise of evangelical Pentecostal and charismatic

churches with the diminishing economic possibilities in many African nations dur-

ing the 1970s and 1980s. The promise of God’s blessing is alluring at times of wide-

spread fi nancial hardship. Others note that newly wealthy Africans are attracted to

an exclusive spiritual community that reduces their need to fulfi ll kinship obliga-

tions to family outside the congregations. Global exchanges also are valued in an

increasingly interconnected world. These so cio log i cal observations do not diminish

the strong sense of religious community among “born- again” individuals attending

the Pentecostal and charismatic churches in Africa.

The mainline Christian churches have not remained static. Many congregations

have adopted practices associated with Pentecostal and charismatic churches, such

as the use of new media and speaking in tongues. The charismatic movement in the

Catholic tradition, for example, has emerged with vigor in the African context as

well as elsewhere in the world. African Christians are writing theological works

that elaborate on the message for a new generation. Some of these African leaders

have gained a following outside the continent, especially in Protestant congregations

in the United States, where national bodies have adopted controversial positions

on contemporary social issues and stirred opposition in some communities. Some

understand these contemporary African engagements with scripture as hewing

closely to the Bible’s textual injunctions, but all interpretations are social construc-

tions and cannot defi nitively be portrayed as more or less “biblical.”

African Christian groups occasionally use violence to advance their cause.

Alice Auma, for example, founded an African in de pen dent church known as the Holy

Spirit Movement in the northern regions of Uganda during the 1980s. Claiming to

be a prophet receiving messages from the Holy Spirit, Auma began by casting off

witches, but she eventually formed a militia, the Holy Spirit Mobile Force, to defend

the Acholi ethnic community from the Ugandan central government during a time

of civil disorder. Auma claimed that spreading blessed shea butter on followers

would protect them from harm, and she led the Holy Spirit Mobile Force to several

victories in 1987. Her forces were defeated, however, by the Ugandan army in 1988

as they marched to the capital, Kampala: Auma fl ed to Kenya, but Joseph Kony, one

of her lieutenants and a former Catholic altar boy who claimed to be possessed by

spirits, convinced remnants of Auma’s militia and other dissidents to fi ght an insur-

gent campaign under his leadership. Kony’s movement, the Lord’s Re sis tance Army,

abducted children to serve as its soldiers and ordered the murder or mutilation of

suspected enemies in the civilian population. After a de cade of atrocities, the Lord’s

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114 A F R I C A

Re sis tance Army signed a truce with the Ugandan government in 2006, and Kony

and his followers withdrew to the eastern regions of the Demo cratic Republic of

Congo, where the Lord’s Re sis tance Army has continued its activities. This move-

ment was the topic of an internet movie, Kony 2012, an ahistorical pre sen ta tion that obscured more than it revealed.

Christianity has a long history in Africa. It began in the early centuries in towns

such as Alexandria and Hippo, was sustained in contexts such as Ethiopia, and

expanded during the last two hundred years as foreign missionaries and African

converts spread the faith and translated the Bible into African languages. African

prophets also emerged to form African in de pen dent churches inspired by the Bible,

and more recently evangelical Pentecostal and charismatic churches stress the ac-

tive role of the Holy Spirit in Africa. Christianity had wider infl uences, as mission

schools provided education that was not widespread in colonial Africa. Diverse

manifestations of Christianity currently exist in Africa, creating opportunities for

dialogue and competition between various churches.

ISLAM

Africa was involved in the history of Islam from the time of the Prophet Muham-

mad, who reportedly sent some members of the early Muslim community to the

highlands Ethiopian state of Axum for refuge from Arabian opponents of the faith.

Muslims emerged as majority populations north of the Sahara after the Arab

Muslim conquests of the seventh century: over several generations local popula-

tions of Copts and Berbers gradually adopted Arabic, appropriated Arab identities,

and converted to Islam. Muslim merchants crossed the Sahara Desert and the In-

dian Ocean, converting local residents who in turn proselytized to others. Initial

converts in sub- Saharan Africa often were merchants, and the relations between

Islam and commerce remained intertwined for centuries. Po liti cal elites and others

also converted, but this development was limited to the savannas just south of the

Sahara and the coastal areas of eastern Africa. Most Muslims in sub- Saharan Africa

kept African languages and local identities: societal adoption of Arabic occurred

in only a few regions, such as the upper Nile valley of northern Sudan and in the

westernmost Sahara (today’s Mauritania). Along the eastern African coast, for

example, African Muslims speak Kiswahili, a Bantu language with Arabic loan

words. Kiswahili- speaking coastal elites, African in origin, converted to Islam begin-

ning in the tenth century CE, and Islamic practices thereafter were infl uenced by

local Muslim scholars as well as Muslim visitors and immigrants from Arabia, the

Persian Gulf, and South Asia. Across the continent African Muslims participated

in networks carry ing people, texts, and ideas in all directions. Ibn Battuta, the

fourteenth- century Moroccan Muslim traveler who logged more miles than Marco

Polo, was merely the most notable traveler: numerous Africans went on pilgrim-

ages and embarked on long- distance commercial ventures over the centuries.

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Religions in Africa 115

Revival, Reform, and Empire- Building during the Nineteenth Century

Islamic revival and reform were a major current in the nineteenth century. Mus-

lims in many regions began to question established notions of Islamic religiosity

and emphasize the moral example of the Prophet Muhammad and his companions.

Some reformers founded new organizations to provide religious education and so-

cial ser vices. These ideas and or gan i za tion al innovations were not accepted by all

Muslims, and reformers sometimes disputed among themselves, creating numer-

ous movements that competed for followers.

Sufi orders were on the forefront of Muslim revival and reform in Africa. Sufi sm

is a spiritual discipline in which disciples seek enlightenment through rituals, such

as reciting litanies, in hopes of experiencing proximity to God. Reformist Sufi

leaders used the or gan i za tion al structure of orders to create new communities that

offered spiritual instruction and assistance in social and economic activities. In the

Horn of Africa, for example, Sufi orders integrated people dislocated from the clan-

based societies of the region into new settlements offering Islamic education and

coordinating farming and trade. Some Somali Sufi orders were exuberant in ex-

pression and allowed sensual stimulation through drinking coffee and drumming at

devotional activities; others condemned these practices and performed austere ritu-

als in their communities. Sufi orders expanded elsewhere: in northern Africa, where

the tradition had a long history and was revitalized in the nineteenth century, and in

regions stretching from Senegal to Sudan and along the eastern coast of Africa,

where Sufi sm often was a new religious orientation.

Sufi orders could become involved in po liti cal activism. The Arabic word jihad means religious effort or struggle, and it can be interpreted as nonviolent religious

advocacy or internal spiritual development, but one important interpretation is jihad

as armed action in defense of Islam. In the nineteenth century this latter meaning

gained currency for some Sufi leaders. For example, Umar Tal, a resident of what

today is Senegal and the leader of the Tijaniyya Sufi order in West Africa, called

upon his disciples to fi ght non- Muslim elites in present- day Mali. Umar followed in

the steps of an earlier Muslim leader, Uthman dan Fodio, whose call to military jihad

in the early nineteenth century led to the creation of an expansive Sokoto Caliphate

covering much of today’s northern Nigeria. The Muslim states founded by Uthman

and Umar fought religious wars against non- Muslims, and captives were enslaved as

domestic servants and on large plantations, freeing Muslim elites to pursue religious

activities, such as writing Sufi poetry in Arabic and vernacular languages. Nineteenth-

century military jihad movements created several states led by Muslim leaders,

establishing a legacy that informs po liti cal developments to this day in northern

Nigeria and elsewhere.

Other Muslims also engaged in empire building during the nineteenth century.

Muslim dynasties founded by Muhammad Ali in Cairo and by the Bu Saidi family

of Oman in Zanzibar created extensive empires and encouraged commercial adven-

turers who raided south of Egypt and west of Zanzibar, respectively, in search of

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116 A F R I C A

ivory and slaves. The slaves worked on plantations in the imperial heartlands, where

they produced crops such as cloves for world markets. Sufi orders operated in the

margins, often integrating the uprooted into new Muslim communities. In Egypt’s

northern Sudan territories, for example, Muhammad Ahmad, often referred to as the

Mahdi because of his claims to be the “guided one” of Islamic eschatology, rose up

and or ga nized an armed movement that defeated Egyptian overrule in the late

nineteenth century.

Eu ro pe an Colonial Intervention and Consolidation

Eu ro pe an powers confronted Muslim po liti cal leaders during the late nineteenth-

century colonial intervention, co- opting some elites and conquering others. In Egypt

Britain maintained the royal dynasty as it established hegemony over the country in

the 1880s, but in the Sudan Britain fought against the Mahdi and defeated Abdal-

lah, his successor, who died with approximately twenty thousand Muslims in the

1898 battle against the British at Omdurman. Eu ro pe an intervention sometimes led

Muslims to wage guerrilla campaigns, such as in Algeria and Somalia, where Sufi

leaders mounted a challenge to colonial rule for several de cades before Eu ro pe ans

fi nally defeated them. Some Muslims migrated to Arabia to avoid living under Eu-

ro pe an colonial rule. Still others resigned themselves to colonialism, withdrew

from po liti cal affairs, and focused on spiritual matters. The responses of Umar

Tal’s relatives ran the spectrum, from those who fought and died against the French

to others who worked with colonial administrations and those, such as Umar’s

grandnephew Bokar Salif Tal, who devoted himself to expanding Islam through

his Sufi teachings among populations Umar had conquered years earlier.

Some Muslim elites maintained close relations with Eu ro pe an administrations

and shaped the colonial experience. For example, in the former Sokoto Caliphate,

Muslims came to an understanding with the British after the sultan fought against

the colonial invasion: Britain retained Muslim elites in offi ce and allowed the exer-

cise of Islamic law and other aspects of the previous order but imposed control in

some areas, such as abolishing certain kinds of corporal punishment and gradually

ending slavery in northern Nigeria. Similar elite accommodation emerged else-

where, such as between Britain and the Omani elite in Zanzibar. More ambiguous

were the relations between the French and Amadu Bamba, a Sufi leader in Sen-

egal. Bamba tried to keep his distance from politics, but his ability to attract

disciples, including former slaves, brought French suspicion, two periods of forced

exile from Senegal, and house arrest until his death in 1927. Bamba’s order, the

Muridiyya, eventually gained French ac cep tance and was able to expand, engag-

ing in cash- cropping for material support while continuing an emphasis on Islamic

education.

The number of Muslims in sub- Saharan Africa grew during the Eu ro pe an colo-

nial era. Colonial accommodations of Muslim elites created respectability for

Islam in some regions, but nothing replaced inspired preaching as the primary way

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Religions in Africa 117

to win new converts. Sufi leaders welcomed newcomers such as former slaves into

their orders, offering outsiders access to new communities based on religion and

not class or kinship. Sufi leaders composed poetry in vernacular languages, in-

cluded local cultural expressions such as dancing and drumming at their devotional

sessions, and developed organizations that supported the expansion of cash- cropping

or commercial activities. They also drew on local expectations that religious leaders

could heal the ill, and they provided herbal cures and made amulets from verses of

the Qur’an for spiritual protection. Some leaders came from established Muslim

scholarly lineages, but Sufi sm’s emphasis on spiritual matters meant that pious dis-

ciples could rise quickly, and several leaders came from humble backgrounds. And

while Sufi leaders constructed their organizations locally, they had connections with

global Sufi networks.

Sufi sm’s expansion included women. Some Sufi leaders educated their sisters,

wives, daughters, and other female relatives and inducted them into the orders. These

women in turn brought other women into the order through gender- segregated ac-

tivities in their homes. As women joined the movements, Sufi leaders often allowed

mixing of the sexes at public events, such as celebrations of the Prophet Muham-

mad’s birthday and devotional sessions; women usually wore modest clothing

styles, taking their cue from local standards for Muslim dress. These gatherings

nevertheless attracted criticism from some Muslims, resulting in greater gender

segregation over time. In Somalia, for example, the twentieth century saw the rise of

women’s Sufi events where women recited sittaat, hymns invoking notable women from the early history of Islam; the women believed these fi gures might assist with

their fertility or childbirth concerns.

Other Muslims contributed to Islam’s expansion in sub- Saharan Africa. In rural

areas, former slaves returned to their regions of origin and sometimes carried the

faith of their masters with them, refashioning it in new contexts. In towns, Muslim

Africans met non- Muslims in their ser vice as police offi cers or colonial clerks and

convinced some to join the faith. Other Muslims founded urban associations to

support Arabic- language schools. Muslim missionaries from abroad were active

too. For example, the Ahmadiyya Muslim community, founded in the late nineteenth

century by the Indian Muslim Ghulam Ahmad, sent a small number of South Asian

missionaries to Africa, where they converted Africans and worked with them to

found schools and translate the Qur’an into African languages. Muslims usually

have not translated the Qur’an, but others followed the Ahmadi example: most

notably, the East African scholar Abd Allah Salih al- Farsi translated selected pas-

sages of the Qur’an into Kiswahili and added it to his instructional pamphlets in

Kiswahili about performing Muslim rituals. The Muslim world in sub- Saharan

Africa was alive with efforts to expand the faith and to provide the requisite knowl-

edge for the growing number of new Muslim converts.

In northern Africa Eu ro pe an imperialism led to shifts in po liti cal conscious-

ness. Secular nationalism was a strong current, but Islam was another. In Egypt,

for example, Hassan al- Banna, a schoolteacher, founded the Muslim Brotherhood

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118 A F R I C A

(al- Ikhwan al- Muslimun) in 1928 to stress conservative Muslim values while pro-

viding social welfare through health clinics and social cooperatives. The Muslim

Brotherhood opposed British colonial rule, and its military wing engaged in bomb-

ings and assassinations in the 1940s, culminating in al- Banna’s death in a retaliatory

killing and the banning of the movement by the authorities. The Muslim Brother-

hood eventually disavowed violence, but its early history infl uenced one of its mem-

bers, Sayyid Qutb, to write infl uential texts about armed Muslim opposition to corrupt

rulers that have infl uenced extremist Islamists to this day.

Recent Developments

In de pen dence brought new challenges to African Muslims. South of the Sahara

in par tic u lar, Muslims found themselves at a disadvantage vis-à- vis Christians as

positions opened in state bureaucracies for individuals literate in Eu ro pe an lan-

guages adopted as national languages in postcolonial Africa: Christians had access

to mission schools to learn Eu ro pe an languages, but the colonial state often had not

provided an extensive network of Western- style schools in Muslim areas. Postcolo-

nial states also stressed secularism, stirring emotions among some Muslims who

perceived these changes as undermining religious autonomy. Recent Muslim calls

for greater implementation of sharia in part refl ect these changing circumstances.

Sharia (the word is often translated as “Islamic law”) refers to Muslim legal pro-

cesses that developed over the centuries. Recent uses of sharia sometimes include

instances of turning to Islamic legal manuals produced by classical jurists to apply

a rigid code with specifi c punishments for certain crimes, but the practice of sharia

also is nuanced, as it has been for centuries. Muslims acknowledge that the ulti-

mate judge, God, is forgiving, thus allowing for latitude in juridical decisions and

punishments.

A new wave of Muslim reformism has swept across postcolonial Africa. Global

Muslim infl uences are evident, such as Salafi sm, named for a diverse group of Is-

lamic movements that stress the pre ce dents of the salaf, Arabic for “ancestors,” including the Prophet Muhammad and his initial followers. Emphasis on the ex-

ample of salaf has deep roots in the Muslim world, and many credit the rise of contemporary Salafi sm to the evangelism of the eighteenth- century Saudi reformer

Abd al- Wahhab and the nineteenth- century Muslim scholars Muhammad Abduh,

Jamal al- Din Al- Afghani, and Rashid Rida. In its contemporary expressions African

Muslim reformers draw on these ideas and also put their own intellectual effort into

addressing local problems with a scripturalism that emphasizes knowledge of Ara-

bic and promotes the Qur’an and Traditions as a basis for fostering piety in social

life. African Muslim reformers criticize most Sufi leaders, whom the reformers see

as fostering unacceptable innovations in religious practice. Reformers argue in ver-

nacular languages for their text- based understandings and adopt new media to com-

municate with a mass audience, no longer emphasizing the intimate face- to- face

encounters of Sufi sm. In many cases, these reformers founded Arabic- language

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Religions in Africa 119

schools that have adopted an instructional method breaking from the rote memori-

zation found in the established Qur’anic schools run by Sufi s and other African

Muslims. Transnational networks provide African reformers with access to re-

sources; Arabic- language schools, in par tic u lar, benefi t from fi nancial support from

oil- wealthy governments in Arabia and elsewhere, and their top students often gain

fellowships to further their studies abroad. The willingness of some African states

to include Arabic- language schools in the national educational system also ex-

pands opportunities for employment. Educational assistance, however, is merely

one element of support that fl ows from Arabia and Iran; medical clinics and other

humanitarian assistance are provided as well. Arabian assistance often leads to

greater adherence to Salafi st ideas, and Ira ni an assistance has supported small

Shi’i communities in Africa.

Sufi orders and other Muslim movements that grew in the colonial era have con-

tinued to play a role in religious life. While Sufi orders have lost infl uence in some

regions, they remain vital in others, using new media for proselytizing. In Senegal,

for example, the Muridiyya expanded from its initial base in rural Senegal to add a

presence in Dakar and other Senegalese urban areas. The annual pilgrimage to

Touba, the spiritual center of the Muridiyya movement, remains a focus, and Sufi

leaders regularly tour urban areas, including cities such as New York and Paris where

Figure 5.3. Mosque association praying for safe travel on the hajj in early twenty- fi rst- century Senegal.

Beth Buggenhagen.

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120 A F R I C A

immigrants have settled and rely on recordings of Sufi litanies and other new media

to keep their faith alive. Sufi orders have remained active in eastern Africa as

well, such as in Tanzania, where the orders still are the most widespread and pop u-

lar Muslim organizations. The Ahmadiyya Muslim community’s efforts continue in

Africa: beginning in the 1970s, the Ser vice to Humanity Scheme has increased ac-

cess to educational and health ser vices in Africa through development projects

funded by donations from Ahmadi Muslims worldwide and led by local Ahmadi

members and expatriate Ahmadi volunteers committing themselves to working for

a set period in Africa.

In northern Africa the Muslim Brotherhood and other Muslim movements have

emerged as major po liti cal forces in the aftermath of recent protests that swept en-

trenched governments from power. The protests began in Tunisia in 2010 after a

fruit vendor set himself on fi re, provoking mass demonstrations against President

Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who from 1987 oversaw a repressive state apparatus and

economic policies that did not benefi t the masses. The protests removed Ben Ali

from power in January 2011 and sparked other protests in the region. In Egypt,

where President Hosni Mubarak also had promoted state repression and economic

liberalism, protesters adopted strategies from their Tunisian counterparts, such as

using social media to or ga nize nonviolent civil re sis tance through the occupation

of Tahrir Square in Cairo. The Muslim Brotherhood joined the protests and offered

support as the movement removed President Mubarak from power in 2011. The tran-

sitions in Egypt and Tunisia are not complete: in their immediate aftermath Muslim

po liti cal parties, the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and Ennahda (a po liti cal move-

ment inspired by the Muslim Brotherhood) in Tunisia, won elections and assumed

the task of governing, but in 2013 military action swept the Muslim Brotherhood

from power in Egypt and saw new protests challenging the Ennahda government in

Tunisia. In Libya the infl uence of the Tunisian and Egyptian protests resulted in the

ouster of longtime ruler Muammar Qaddafi , but only after the Libyan re sis tance

waged an insurgent military campaign aided by international airpower. The after-

math of the Libyan uprising did not lead to a stable, centralized government: many

groups, including those advocating reformist Islam, are competing for infl uence in

the postrevolutionary era.

Militant Muslim movements have emerged in contemporary Africa. The recent

events in northern Africa, for example, have triggered an uprising south of the Sa-

hara. As discussed in the chapter on African politics, Tuareg separatist groups in

Mali, joined by Tuareg fi ghters fl eeing Libya with arms from Qaddafi ’s weapons

caches, recently waged an insurgent campaign in northern Mali. Ansar Dine, one

of the Tuareg insurgent groups, is a Muslim militia that made an alliance with Al-

Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, an Algerian group now recruiting young Muslim

men from across the region to fi ght in the Mali confl ict. In Nigeria, the Muslim

group known as Boko Haram embarked a campaign of bombings, initially target-

ing the police but later attacking United Nations offi ces and Christian churches;

some Nigerian Muslim leaders who condemned Boko Haram’s militant tactics

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Religions in Africa 121

have been assassinated by this shadowy group. In Somalia, two de cades of civil

unrest led to the rise of Al- Shabab, a Somali Muslim militia formed to support the

Union of Islamic Courts, a grassroots movement that sought to erode the power of

armed Somali clan leaders. When Ethiopia invaded Somalia in 2006 to dislodge

the Union of Islamic Courts, Al- Shabab fought the Ethiopians and gained pop u lar

support; it took control of much of southern Somalia in 2009 when Ethiopia with-

drew its forces. Once in power Al- Shabab rule was strict in its application of a lit-

eralist interpretation of the Qur’an, leading quickly to the loss of pop u lar support

among Somalis. Its leadership also or ga nized terrorist bombings in Uganda and

developed an internet presence advocating global jihad. Omar Hammami, an Ala-

bama native and convert to Islam, for example, migrated to Somali and composed

hip- hop lyrics about dying for Al- Shabab’s cause. Kenya and Ethiopia invaded

Somalia in 2010, and while Al- Shabab lost control in towns, it remains a force in

some rural areas: a radical leadership consolidated control, purging members such

as Omar Hammami through assassinations, and embarked on acts of terrorism in

Somalia’s towns and elsewhere, such as the 2013 assault on a Kenyan shopping mall.

In contexts outside Al- Shabab control, however, Somali Sufi orders are remerging as

infl uential groups. The activities of Al- Shabab, Boko Haram, and Ansar Dine at-

tract attention as radical groups using force to impose their interpretations of Islam

on others, but most African Muslims engage in peaceful religious advocacy and

are tolerant of religious pluralism in Africa.

Africa’s Muslim communities, long established on the continent, grew in numbers

and infl uence during the past two hundred years. Sufi orders led reformist efforts

in the nineteenth century and, after Eu ro pe an colonial intervention, turned to ex-

panding the numbers of the faithful through proselytism. These conversions en-

couraged local engagements with Islam, but homogenizing pressures are mounting

as a result of increased interactions between Africa and the rest of the Muslim world.

African Muslim reformers resolve tensions between local and global Islamic cur-

rents through the adoption of forms of Muslim piety based on readings of the Qur’an

and connections to affl uent regions of the Muslim world. But Sufi sm remains signifi -

cant in some contexts, and other forms of Muslim religious expression continue to be

relevant. In northern Africa Muslim movements have benefi ted from regime change

to contest elections and come to po liti cal power. In a few contexts, such as Mali and

Somalia, radical Muslim movements embracing a militant agenda have arisen, using

force to impose an interpretation of Islam not shared by most others.

Religions in Africa are diverse and dynamic. Religions with African roots draw on

rich pasts as they respond to contemporary efforts to represent their actions as ir-

relevant. Christianity’s long history in Africa produced numerous congregations of

Orthodox, mainline, African in de pen dent, and evangelical Pentecostal and charis-

matic churches. Islam has similar longevity and vitality, with Sufi , reformist, and

other Muslim movements defi ning the contemporary scene. Religions with African

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122 A F R I C A

roots have spread to diaspora communities in the Americas and elsewhere, and

global interactions keep African Muslims and Christians in contact with others in

their faiths. Africans will continue to elaborate on religious ideas and practices as

they make religion relevant to their lives.

suggestions for further reading

Allman, Jean, and John Parker. 2005. Tongnaab: The History of a West African God. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Bascom, William. 1969. Ifa Divination: Communication between Gods and Men in West Africa. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Brenner, Louis. 1983. West African Sufi : The Religious Heritage and Spiritual Search of Cerno Bokar Saalif Taal. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Falola, Toyin, ed. 2005. Christianity and Social Change in Africa. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press.

Isichei, Elizabeth. 1995. A History of Christianity: From Antiquity to the Present. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans.

Kalu, Ogbu. 2008. African Pentecostalism: An Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Landau, Paul. 1995. Realm of the Word: Language, Gender and Christianity in a Southern

African Kingdom. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Levtzion, Nehemia, and Randall Pouwels, eds. 2000. The History of Islam in Africa. Athens:

Ohio University Press.

Loimeier, Roman, and Rudiger Seesemann, eds. 2006. The Global Worlds of the Swahili: Interfaces of Islam, Identity and Space in Nineteenth- and Twentieth- Century East Africa. Berlin: Lit. Verlag.

Mack, Beverly, and Jean Boyd. 2000. One Woman’s Jihad: Nana Asma’u, Scholar and Scribe. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Mbiti, John. 1969. African Religions and Philosophy. New York: Praeger. Peel, J. D. Y. 2000. Religious Encounter and the Making of the Yoruba. Bloomington: Indiana

University Press.

Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. 2012. “Tolerance and Tension: Islam and Christianity

in Sub- Saharan Africa.” Available at www .pewforum .org /executive -summary -islam -and

-christianity -in -sub -saharan -africa .aspx .

Robinson, David. 2004. Muslim Societies in African History. New York: Cambridge Univer- sity Press.

Spear, Thomas, and Isaria Kimambo, eds. 1999. East African Expressions of Christianity. Athens: Ohio University Press.

Umar, Muhammad Sani. 2005. Islam and Colonialism: Intellectual Responses of Muslims of Northern Nigeria to British Colonial Rule. Leiden: Brill.

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