Description
Book SynopsisA counterbalance to the predominant study of Islam's role in social and political struggles, this book examines life in Ede, south-west Nigeria, offering important analyses of religious co-existence. Since the end of the Cold War, and especially since 9/11, religion has become an increasingly important factor of personal and group identification. Based on an African case study, this book calls for new ways of thinking about diversity that go "beyond religious tolerance". Focusing on the predominantly Muslim Yoruba town of Ede, the authors challenge the assumption that religious difference automatically leads to conflict: in south-west Nigeria, Muslims,Christians and traditionalists have co-existed largely peacefully since the early twentieth century. In some contexts, Ede's citizens emphasise the importance and significance of religious difference, and the need for tolerance.But elsewhere they refer to religious boundaries in passing, or even celebrate and transcend religious divisions. Drawing on detailed ethnographic and historical research, survey work, oral histories and poetry by UK- and Nigeria- based researchers, the book examines how Ede's citizens experience religious difference in their everyday lives. It examines the town's royal history and relationship with the deity Sàngó, its old Islamic compounds and itsChristian institutions, as well as marriage and family life across religious boundaries, to illustrate the multiplicity of religious practices in the life of the town and its citizens and to suggest an alternative approach to religious difference. INSA NOLTE is Reader in African Studies, University of Birmingham, and Visiting Research Professor, Osun State University, Osogbo. OLUKOYA OGEN is Former Provost, Adeyemi College of Education, Ondo,Professor of History, Osun State University, Osogbo, and Visiting Senior Research Fellow, University of Birmingham. REBECCA JONES, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Birmingham, is author of At the Crossroads: NigerianTravel Writing and Literary Culture in Yoruba and English, published by James Currey in 2019. All three editors worked on the ERC project 'Knowing Each Other: Everyday Religious Encounters, Social Identities and Tolerance in Southwest Nigeria'. Nigeria: Adeyemi College Academic Press (paperback)
Trade ReviewThe clarity of expression, accompanied by pictorial representations, makes the book appealing and also makes for good reading to both the academic and the nonacademic audience. This work not only showcases the unique historical and cultural realities of Yoruba, it also illustrates the strong bond that exists among the Yoruba beyond the divisive power of religion. It has added to reliable materials for further research in the area of religious diversity in Africa and beyond. * RELIGIOUS STUDIES REVIEW *
[A]t a moment when many Westerners perceive an inevitable 'clash of civilizations' between Islam and the West/Christendom, Beyond Religious Tolerance offers a valuable alternative where Americans and Europeans would be least likely to look for one. . . . [It reveals] that both tolerance and secularism as typically conceived are products of Western cultural and historical experience, which can be and have been conceived differently-if at all-in other times and places. * READING RELIGION *
A truly comprehensive and well-balanced overview of religious life in Ede from many different angles . this book is a must not only for scholars interested in Islam, Christianity, and African religion in Yorubaland, but for anybody interested in the governance of religious diversity. * AFRICA SPECTRUM *
This book, a refreshing and articulate addition to ethnographies of religion in West Africa, captures the resiliency of peaceful coexistence across a multiplicity of religions. It should be of interest to anthropologists, historians, religious scholars, and policy makers alike, giving tangible hope to those who think peaceful existence among religions is intractable. * AMERICAN ETHNOLOGIST *
This book is the product of a remarkably successful project of North-South collaboration between the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom and Osun State University in Nigeria. The result is something quite different from a standard edited volume in which the chapters reflect the preoccupations and perspectives of individual authors rather than of the common theme of the book. Instead, the different chapters articulate closely with one another, exploring a single concrete problem from different but complementary angles. * THE JOURNAL OF AFRICAN HISTORY *
Table of ContentsBeyond Religious Tolerance: Muslims, Christians and Traditionalists in a Yoruba Town - Insa Nolte Beyond Religious Tolerance: Muslims, Christians and Traditionalists in a Yoruba Town - Ogen Olukoya Kingship and Religion: An Introduction to the History of Ede - Siyan Oyeweso Ambivalence and Transgression in the Practice of Sàngó - Aderemi Suleiman Ajala and Insa Nolte Sàngó's Thunder: Poetic Challenges to Islam and Christianity - George Olusola Abijade Compound Life and Religious Control in Ede's Muslim Community - Amusa Saheed Balogun Challenges and Affirmations of Islamic Practice: The Tablighi Jamaat - Adeyemi Balogun The Baptist Church in Ede: Christian Struggles over Education and Land - Ogen Olukoya and Amusa Saheed Balogun Freedom and Control: Islam and Christianity at the Federal Polytechnic - Akin Iwilade and Oladipo Fadayomi Religious Accommodation in Two Generations of the Adeleke Family - Hakeem Ibikunle Tijani Marrying Out: Gender and Religious Mediation in Interfaith Marriages - Insa Nolte and Tosin Akinjobe-Babatunde Everyday Inter-Religious Encounters and Attitudes - Rebecca Jones and Insa Nolte Outlook: Religious Difference, the Yoruba and Beyond - Insa Nolte and Ogen Olukoya Appendix 1: Ede Anthem Appendix 2: Songs of Ede Appendix 3: Oríkì of the Tìmì of Ede, present and past
