The Impact of Christianity, Islam and Colonialism on Indigenous African Religion and Cultures

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of foreign religions on the African Traditional Religion, their socio-political settings and culture. The work has equally endeavored to highlight the essence, content and raison d’état for the religious practices of the Africans in precolonial times. With such evaluation, the work has been able to draw out the values and functions of the religion on the socio-political and cultural settings of the African people. Adequate effort was made to review and assess the circumstances which led to the adoption and establishment of these foreign religions on Africa as a whole. For obvious reasons especially that which is related to the human rights of men in their religious views and worship, the work does not make any pretensions as to exact any effort to place the West dominated misunderstanding of the African views of religion and spirituality above other considerations. Rather, this work has embarked on the presentation of the advantages of each of these religions and more importantly, the impact it had on the African people in the past and its continued tendencies in their history. The position of the work therefore is that Africans should rather cultivate in themselves a sense of self-confidence and assurance that the religious state of man in the African sense was the bedrock of the unique social values, morality, balance and order which regulated the society which was bereft of social ills. The work concludes that African traditional religion still remain a virtual instrument to reform our society today as it enforced obedience in the past and reverence to a supreme God as in the other religions who also is the chief moderator and administrator of the world, then, now and in the future.

Keywords: Christianity, Islam, African Traditional Religion, Culture, Colonialism.

DOI: 10.7176/JPCR/41-04