Persecution of traditional African religions

Traditional African religions have faced persecution from Christians and Muslims.^[1][2] Adherents of these religions have been forcefully converted to Islam and Christianity, demonized and marginalized.^[3] The atrocities include killings, waging war, destroying of sacred places, and other atrocities.^[4][5]

By Muslims

Further information: Islamization of the Sudan region, Arab slave trade, and Insurgency in Cabo Delgado

See also: Persecution by Muslims, Religious persecution § Persecution of Serers, Religious persecution § Persecution of Dogons, and Tellem

After the establishment of Islam, its rapid expansion and conquests displaced traditional African religions either by conversion or conquest. Traditional African religions have influenced Islam in Africa,^[6] and Islam is considered as having more commonality with traditional African religions,^[7] but conflict has occurred, especially due to Islam's monotheistic stance and the rise of Muslim reformers such as Askia.

Traditional African religions are tolerant of other gods, which allows general co-existence for multiple religions. This has been regarded by some authors to be another reason behind the rise of other religions in Africa. Most followers of traditional religions accommodated Islam during the start of its spread in Africa,^[8] but in West Africa, it was not until the coming of colonialism that Islam gained mass appeal, transforming even groups with historical animosity towards Islamic domination into Muslim communities.^[9]

In many instances, conflicting groups chose to align with Muslim armies against other African communities.^[10]

Relationship

Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im wrote that the initial stages in the relationship betweein Islam and traditional African religions "are generally believed to have been characterized by co-existence and mutual accommodation between Islam and Traditional African Religions. The process of conversion and cultural transformation was very gradual, usually working through several generations, in either incorporating or accommodating Islamic institutions."^[11]

In the Songhai Empire, the ruler Sonni Baru held or syncretised aspects of the African traditional religions and was challenged by Askia because he was not seen as a faithful Muslim.^[12] Askia would later wage wars against those who were politically non-aligned Muslims and non-Muslims.^[13]

After Dunama Dabbalemi of the Sayfawa dynasty converted to Islam, he waged Jihad, or holy war, against the proponents of the Kanuri religion, seeking to destroy its presence.^[14]

In the Swahili coast, Muslims were not interested in preaching, colonization, or jihad.^{[citation needed]} It was not until the 18th century that Islam spread into the interior. Molefi Asante notes that:

The religion of Islam made each Muslim merchant or traveler an embryonic missionary and the appeal of the religion with its similarities to the African religions was far more powerful than the Christian appeal.^[15][16]

The Dinka people largely rejected or ignored Islamic (and Christian) teachings, as Abrahamic religious beliefs were incompatible with their society, culture and traditional beliefs.^[17]

By Christians

See also: Colonialism, History of colonialism, Christianity and colonialism, and History of Christian thought on persecution and tolerance

The early Christians of Niger Delta who were against the customs and traditions of the indigenous tribes carried out atrocities such as destroying their shrines and killing the sacred monitor lizards.^[18]

The European colonization of Africa is noted to have paved the way of Christian missionaries into Africa. In some cases, the leaders of traditional African religions were persecuted by the missionaries and regarded as the "devil's agents". Ali Mazrui has discussed similar issues in the book The African Condition.^[19] A further example of persecution by missionaries is how many of the earliest Christian missionaries to the Shona people, of modern-day Zimbabwe, desecrated shrines located in Matonjeni, harassed Shona priests and decried Mwari, the Shona God, as being a fake and inept God. This persecution continued until the Shona were completely prevented from worshipping their God, Mwari, at Matonjeni.^[20]

Despite attempts at tolerance and Interreligious Dialogue, in many Christian churches there was a belief that "everything African seems to be pagan", and some argue this view remains today in certain evangelical Pentecostal religious positions. The historical view that Africans had to become "civilized" by colonialism and Christian missionary activity likely contributed to the intolerance of traditional religions during the colonial period. These views culminated in some colonials rejecting that traditional African faiths were proper religions.^[21]

Practitioners of the Bwiti religion have faced persecution by Christian missionaries and French colonial authorities, as well as some members of the present Gabon government.^[22]

Modern times

On 2001, an Oro Festival in Sagamu was violated by the Muslim Hausa-Fulani inhabitants, causing a temporary breakdown between the groups.^[23]

In September 2005, the sleepy town of Iwo, Osun State, became a theatre of war when a group of Muslims called the Tahun took on the community's masquerade festival in brazen and violent attacks.^[24]

References

1. Anne C. Bailey, African Voices of the Atlantic Slave Trade: Beyond the Silence and the Shame.
2. Bryant, M. Darrol; Mataragnon, Rita H. (1985). The Many Faces of Religion and Society. Paragon House Publishers. ISBN 978-0-913757-20-8.
3. Garrick Bailey, Essentials of Cultural Anthropology, 3rd edn (2013), p. 268:"Later, during the nineteenth century, Christian missionaries became active in Africa and Oceania. Attempts by Christian missionaries to convert nonbelievers to Christianity took two main forms: forced conversions and proselytizing."
4. Festus Ugboaja Ohaegbulam, Towards and Understanding of the African Experience (1990), p. 161:"The role of Christian missionaries are a private interest group in European colonial occupation of Africa was a significant one...Collectively their activities promoted division within traditional African societies into rival factions...the picture denigrated African culture and religion..."
5. Toyin Falola et al., Hot Spot: Sub-Saharan Africa: Sub-Saharan Africa (2010), p. 7:"A religion of Middle Eastern origin, Islam reached Africa via the northern region of the continent by means of conquest. The Islamic wars of conquest that would lead to the Islamization of North Africa occurred first in Egypt, when in about 642 CE the country fell to the invading Muslim forces from Arabia. Over the next centuries, the rest of the Maghreb would succumb to Jihadist armies...The notion of religion conversion, whether by force or peaceful means, is foreign to indigenous African beliefs...Islam, however, did not become a religion of the masses by peaceful means. Forced conversion was an indispensable element of proselytization."
6. Black God: The Afroasiatic Roots of the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Religions, Julian Baldick
7. Douglas E. Thomas, "African traditional religion in the modern world", p. 125.
8. Elias Kifon Bongmba, The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to African Religions, 325.
9. Molefi Kete Asante, Encyclopedia of African Religion, Volume 1, 287:

   It is this awareness of the limitation of human knowledge of God that explains, in part, the amazingly tolerant nature of African traditional religion and the absence of excommunications and persecution of heretics in the religious history of Africa ..."

10. Warfare in African History (New Approaches to African History) Richard J. Reid, Kindle Edition, location 617.
11. Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im (1997). Rosander, Eva Evers; Westerlund, David (eds.). African Islam and Islam in Africa: Encounters Between Sufis and Islamists. Hurst & Company. p. 82. ISBN 978-1-85065-282-3. Retrieved 19 July 2022.
12. Towards an Understanding of the African Experience from Historical By Festus Ugboaja Ohaegbulam
13. Robin Walker, Siaf Millar, The West African Empire of Songhai in 10 Easy Lessons: Introduction to Black History, p. 17.
14. Clive Harris, "Three Continents, One History: Birmingham, the Transatlantic Slave Trade and the Caribbean"], p. 18.
15. Asante, Genocide in Africa, 1991, 10
16. "Genocide in Sudan (1991)". May 1, 1999.
17. Beswick, S. F. (1994). "Non-Acceptance of Islam in the Southern Sudan: The Case of the Dinka from the Pre-Colonial Period to Independence (1956)". Northeast African Studies. 1 (2/3): 19–47. doi:10.1353/nas.1994.0018. ISSN 0740-9133. JSTOR 41931096. S2CID 143871492.
18. "Visions & Revisions: Selected Discourses on Literary Criticism", p. 176, by Emeka Nwabueze
19. "Education for Renaissance in Africa- Large Format" by Raphael J.Njoroge, p. 314
20. "African Traditional Religion Encounters Christianity: The Resilience of a Demonized Religion" by John Chitakure, p. 77.
21. Laurenti Magesa, "African Religion in the Dialogue Debate: From Intolerance to Coexistence", pp. 46–47.
22. Swiderski, Stanislaw (October 1998). La religion bouiti, Volumes 1 à 2. ISBN 9780826436559. The persecutions of the Bwiti, organized by the Catholic Church and the colonial government, or even by certain members of the present government, have reinforced the "racial" and religious consciousness of the Bwiti
23. James Gow, Funmi Olonisakin, and Ernst Dijxhoorn, West African Militancy and Violence, pp. 31–32.
24. Gow, Olonisakin, and Dijxhoorn, West African Militancy and Violence, p. 32.

Further reading

• Mbiti, John. S. (1990). African Religions & Philosophy. Heinemann. ISBN 9780435895914.
• Nehemia Levtzion and Randall L. Pouwels (eds). The History of Islam in Africa. Ohio University Press, 2000.
• David Robinson. Muslim Societies in African History. Cambridge University Press, 2004.

External links

•  Traditional African religion portal