The Religious Traditions of Africa: A History (review)

The 1960s and 1970s were a remarkable period for African religious history. Pioneering historians such as Richard Gray, Terence Ranger, and Jacob Ajayi grabbed the ball from the anthropologists and ran with it. Books were published by mainstream publishers that would not have seen the light of day during the 1990s. Some, like George Shepperson's remarkable Independent African, a classic biography of John Chilembwe, were much reprinted.

Elizabeth Isichei was part of this upsurge and has now produced a textbook and reference source drawing on much of this early work. That it has been published recently in the United States is a sign that someone is likely to use it as a university text. This is partly, I suspect, a by-product of a renewed interest in religion since 9/11 rather than a revival of interest in African studies. The useful, not burdensome, footnotes, the sensible suggestions for further reading, and an index are helpful; some of the maps are less so without a magnifying glass and careful study. Its twenty-one chapters are made up of short, readable chunks of narrative. They bear a Marks-and-Spencer quality of blandness in the face of adversity; covering all of Africa from the pharaohs to Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo is no easy task. The last few chapters are more thematic, drawing primarily on anthropological sources, though the treatment of "neo-pentecostalism" relies heavily on the work of Paul Gifford.

The author's own research interests are revealed in an imbalance in favor of Christian and "traditional" religious history as against Islamic, and an emphasis on West Africa. There is a balanced account of Christian missionary activity but very little on the role since the 1960s of the no less missionary Islamic dawa societies and, for example, Saudi Arabia's (failed) efforts to create a Wahabi "religious empire" on the back of oil money. This means that religious conflict in Nigeria appears out of a clear blue sky, or, at least out of a home-grown Yan Izala movement. Though the contrast to the 1960s needs to be made, Isichei exaggerates the degree to which the ethnic "gene" has become recessive and the religious "gene" dominant as a source of Nigerian civil conflict. And surprisingly, she omits an analysis of the 2000 Kaduna riots about the shari'a—probably the worst civil disorder since the Biafran War—which would support her case.

Religion simply was not, and is not, "the main source of division in Nigerian society" (118). The main source of division is the scramble for scarce resources, land, and political office; poverty; and corruption—with which ethnic and religious divisions at times interact. On the other hand, to say that "the Biafran War has sometimes been interpreted as one between Muslims and Christians" (118) is disingenuous. That the Biafran authorities deliberately tried to play on anti-Muslim themes and to project the war as Muslims versus Christians as a propaganda ploy would be more like it.

Nigeria is the author's main geographical area of expertise. It would be unfair to expect a book of this scope and size to avoid some oversimplification elsewhere. But the point is that students will be able to dip into it and have their appetites whetted, and harassed lecturers seeking African material will quickly find what they want. Then in the hundred pages of back-up material available they may pursue the topic further. A good library purchase.