| Abstract: | The author presents a tentative outline of twelve periods in the history of religion in West Africa. The year 1000 AD marks the shift from the first discernible period of African religious experience, that of premigrancy faith, to the second, that of postmigrancy faith. The third and fourth periods, Islamic and Christian quarantine, are complementary, as are the fifth and sixth, mixing Islam and Europeanizing Christianity. The seventh period, that of resurgent traditionalism, consists in something of a reaction to changes under the impact of modernization. The eighth and subsequent periods are very much current religious phenomena, although their origins may date back as far as two centuries ago in some cases. They are: reformist, de-Africanizing Islam; Africanizing Christianity; civil religion; neo-occultism; and the socialist subvariety of secularism. However, it is the first two periods that provide the key to understanding precisely what is the unity of the history of religion in West Africa, since every one of the periods outlined, after the first, may be called a postmigrancy period. Ref. |
AfricaBib 
Periodical article
Leiden University catalogue
WorldCat