Understanding Religion and Politics in Africa

A Call for the Re-enchantment of the Scholarly Imagination

Bibliographic Data

ID4885731
AuthorsAnicka Fast (0000-0002-7196-0282, Mennonite Mission Network Ouagadougou Burkina Faso, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume49
Issue2
Pages145-161
Publication date2021-03-11
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Religion in Africa (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-4200 • E-ISSN: 1570-0666
PublisherWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1163/15700666-12340163
OpenAlexW3139016206
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited5

In his 2015 book Christianity, Development, and Modernity in Africa, Paul Gifford argues that Christianity in Africa is bifurcated into an 'enchanted' and a 'disenchanted' form. He presents the conundrum that the enchanted form is pervasive yet incompatible with modernity and consistently ignored by scholars. In this review article I draw on Gifford's conundrum as a springboard to propose a new angle from which to analyse religion and politics in postcolonial Africa: one that moves beyond received dichotomies between tradition and modernity, public and private life, or this-worldly and otherworldly concerns. The work of Michael Schatzberg, Peter Geschiere, Ogbu Kalu, and Emmanuel Katongole moves in various ways past the oppositions that undermine Gifford's work. In dialogue with these scholars, I articulate a plea to scholars of religion and politics in Africa to develop an appreciation for the powerful role of the religious imagination in African and global arenas of power

Aesthetics · Anthropology of religion · Christianity · Dichotomy · Epistemology · History of religions · Modernity · Plea · Political science · Politics · Power (physics) · Secularism · Sociology · African cultural and philosophical studies · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Law · Philosophy · Religion, Society, and Development · Religious studies

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