عنوان
پدید آورنده
موضوع
رده
کتابخانه
محل استقرار
LA110324
انگلیسی
Religion, hybridity, and the construction of reality in postcolonial Africa
[Article]
Mabiala Justin-Robert Kenzo
Leiden
Brill
That Africans are incurably religious has been one of the pillars on which current knowledge on Africa and the Africans is built. However, the accuracy of the claim is questionable on a number of fronts. The paper suggests that the real significance of the question is that it raises the issue of cultural determinism and indeterminism. Taking our cue from the postmodern and postcolonial criticism, we argue that cultures (or religions) are not ready-made packages that are passed on from one generation to another. Rather, cultures are transmitted through processes that can be described in terms of interactivity, negotiability, indeterminacy, fragmentation, and conflict. More importantly, humans are active participants in these processes. Based on this view of culture, the paper argues that the religious identity of Africans is a matter of constructed hybridity. Our reading of Ben Okri's Famished Road further demonstrates that Africans are neither incurably religious nor incurably irreligious. Instead, they skillfully and creatively construct their identity borrowing insights from resources that are both endogenous and exogeneous to Africa and their own tribal contexts. That Africans are incurably religious has been one of the pillars on which current knowledge on Africa and the Africans is built. However, the accuracy of the claim is questionable on a number of fronts. The paper suggests that the real significance of the question is that it raises the issue of cultural determinism and indeterminism. Taking our cue from the postmodern and postcolonial criticism, we argue that cultures (or religions) are not ready-made packages that are passed on from one generation to another. Rather, cultures are transmitted through processes that can be described in terms of interactivity, negotiability, indeterminacy, fragmentation, and conflict. More importantly, humans are active participants in these processes. Based on this view of culture, the paper argues that the religious identity of Africans is a matter of constructed hybridity. Our reading of Ben Okri's Famished Road further demonstrates that Africans are neither incurably religious nor incurably irreligious. Instead, they skillfully and creatively construct their identity borrowing insights from resources that are both endogenous and exogeneous to Africa and their own tribal contexts.
2004
244-268
Exchange
33/3
1572-543X
Mabiala Justin-Robert Kenzo
10.1163/157254304774249907
مطالعه متن کتاب p
[Article]
275578
a
Y
