Paper short abstract:

This study reveals that endogenous African traditional religions have not been obliterated by exogenous religions. Rather, its crucial components have been tacitly and uncritically reconfigured into Christian frameworks like the African Independent Churches and exogenous mainstream traditions.

Paper long abstract:

A significant corpus of scholarly literature on African Religious Traditions (ART) is authored in Western construct, and from the periphery of African context. A corollary is the misleading amalgam that ignores crucial intrinsic religious categories and components of ART, that define the latter as a religious entity in its own right. Meanwhile, the encounter of endogenous religious traditions with exogenous counterparts like Christianity, seems to showcase the cogency and resilience of the ART. The integration by some African Independent Churches (AIC) of traditions such as the use of potent items, and the veneration of dead-but-canonized saints by some exogenous mainstream churches, illustrate the resurgence or rather a reconfiguration of ART. David Adamo’s “Postcolonial Round of Engagement”; Yusufu Turaki’s Theological Methodology and framework of six-fold foundation are all useful in redefining the nomenclature and the taxonomy of reconfiguration. Without attempting an exhaustive investigation of ART or the AICs, this inquiry concerns itself chiefly with an appraisal of trans-religious influences, a probing of intersection or divergence of traditions and praxis between the ART, and Christian traditions. The research employed a purposive random sampling technique and a mixed method of data collection. The researcher collected data from 532 respondents and analyzed these, using techniques germane to each type. The findings indicate a matrix, where engrained ART beliefs pervade exogenous religious praxis. This study further shows how endogenous religions reconfigure in Christian frameworks, and suggests a redefined approach to the study of ART.

Keywords: African Religious Traditions, African Independent Churches, Trans-religious Influence, Religious reconfiguration.