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- Convenor:
-
Birgit Meyer
(Utrecht University)
- Discussant:
-
Adam Jones
(Universität Leipzig)
- Stream:
- Anthropology, religion and conflict
- Location:
- G52
- Start time:
- 13 September, 2006 at
Time zone: Europe/London
- Session slots:
- 1
Short Abstract:
none
Long Abstract:
Scholars working on Africa have long realized that religion and politics are entangled in a far more complicated way than their straightforward distinction and the academic division of labor associated with it (religious studies and political science) would suggest. In recent years a host of studies appeared which highlight the political role of Islamic Reform Movements, Pentecostal-Charismatic churches, as well as neo-traditional and witchcraft eradication movements. Conversely, recent work on post-colonial politics stresses the importance of access to supernatural resources for achieving power, and the recurrence to religiously grounded notions (such as faith, confession, or conviction) in articulating new notions of citizenship and belonging. Against this background, it clear that the modernist master narrative of secularization, which postulates that the public importance of religion declines with increasing modernization, has become dysfunctional and unproductive. Inviting to explore the interface of religion and politics on an empirical and theoretical level, this panel seeks to push us towards a more adequate understanding of this interface in present-day Africa.
Accepted papers:
Session 1Paper long abstract:
Taking as a point of departure Ghana's transition to a democratic constitution in 1992, this paper examines how the liberalization and commercialization of hitherto state-controlled media created new opportunities for the public articulation of religion. In contrast to mainstream churches, traditional religion, and Muslim groups, Pentecostal-Charismatic Churches adopted new media far more easily and skillfully. This paper discusses the implications of the public presence of Pentecostalism for debates about the nature and relevance of 'tradition', once the prime resource for the imagination of the nation. The central argument is that the turn to democracy entailed new possibilities for the articulation of religion, in particular transnational Pentecostal movements, and hence forces us to explore, empirically and theoretically, how religion and politics intersect in addressing their overlapping constituencies.
Paper long abstract:
The talk will put forward the argument that there is a pervasive anxiety among Muslims over their security, both physical and spiritual, in to-day's northern Nigeria. It is an anxiety partly millenarian, partly political, that seeks to re-create a stronger sense of the 'core North' as dar al-Islam, with notionally 'closed' boundaries - just as it was in the pre-colonial Sokoto Caliphate. This has led, since 1999-2000, to the re-establishment, within twelve of Nigeria's thirty-six states, of full shari'a law and now more recently to the formation of a sometimes large corps of hisba (wrongly called "vigilantes") - this despite Nigeria having a constitution that both is secular and reserves to the Federal Government institutions like police and prisons. The talk will explore the various dimensions, past and present, of 'security' in Kano and will end with the problem of 'dual citizenship' where pious Muslims see themselves at the same time both as Nigerians and as members of the wider Islamic umma.
Paper long abstract:
This paper addresses the ambivalent position of magistrates - notably judges - who are obliged to deal with 'witchcraft.' In many parts of Africa people put pressure upon the state to do something about a supposed proliferation of new forms of witchcraft, against which older sanctions would no longer be effecticve. Thus 'witchcraft'or 'sorcellerie' - or whatever term people use - becomes an urgent challenge to the secular character of the state. Judges are forced to reconcile one way or another their positive juridical training with the depth of popular anxieties about occult aggression. In practice all sorts of adaptations are tried out to take accusations seriously even if they can not be substantiated by 'tangible proof.' The ambiguity is reinforced by the fact that many magistrates feel privately obliged to have recourse to the same specialists who play a central role in popular rumors about the occult forces.
In this paper I will compare a few of these ambivalent attempts at reconciling positivst law with witchcraft thinking from Cameroon and South Africa.