Description
Book SynopsisBased on religious ethnography, in-depth interviews and archival data, Indigeneity in African Religions explores the historical origins, worldviews, cosmologies, ritual symbolism and praxis of the indigenous Oza people in South West Nigeria. The author's locationality and positionality plugs the book within decolonizing knowledges and indigeneity discourses, thus unpacking the complexity of indigeneity and contributing to its conceptual understanding within socioreligious change in contemporary Africa.
The future of Oza indigeneity in the face of modernity is illuminated against the backlash of encounters, contestations with multiple hegemonies, transmissions of Christianity and Islam and indigenous (re)appropriations. Thus, any theorizations of such encounters must be cognizant of instantiations of indigeneity politics and identity, culture, tradition and power dynamics. Through decolonizing burdens of history, memory and method, Afe Adogame demonstrates a framework o
Trade Review
Contributes importantly to the study of African and other Indigenous religions. * Journal of Religion in Africa *
Afe Adogame’s highly readable book has given great meaning to the existence of a small group in a culturally diverse milieu. By paying crucial attention to the complexities of the Oza people’s historical, cultural and religious imaginations over the Longue Duree, the author has used an interpretive framework that discusses the present reality of the Oza people in light of their past experiences. This book will for a long time remain a contemporary benchmark for the reconstruction of the story of the Oza people. * Olutayo C. Adesina, Professor of History, University of Ibadan, Nigeria *
This book offers a rich, in-depth account of the religious culture and worldview of the Oza people in Nigeria and their connections to all spheres of life. Mapping religious change from the 19th – early 21st century, Afe Adogame demonstrates how indigenous religions are crucial for understanding not only the past, but also African futures. * Adriaan van Klinken, Professor of Religion and African Studies, University of Leeds, UK *
Afe Adogame’s important and timely book provides an insightful and rich contribution to the indigenous religious tradition of Africa. Drawing on substantial ethnographic archival materials, and analyzed through multidisciplinary approaches, Adogame renews conversations on a whole array of phenomena, including cosmology, mythology, kingship, rites of passage, ritualism and gender dynamics, in ways that reinvigorate modern scholarship in African religious traditions. The work also advances current scholarship on indigeneity and demonstrates valuable paths on how best to conduct deep research on the subject. * Jacob K. Olupona is Professor of African Religious Traditions, Harvard Divinity School, with a joint appointment as Professor of African and African American Studies in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University *
Table of Contents
Image List Preface 1. Decolonizing History, Memory and Method 2. Historical Origins, Migration Narratives, Relationship with Neighbours 3. Worldviews, Religious Cosmologies, Spiritual Agency 4. Genealogies of Kinship and Sacral Kingship 5. Kingship Myth, Leadership Succession and Legal Imbroglios (1991-2011) 6. Rituals of Passage 7. Gendering Rituals 8. The Future of ?za Indigeneity in the Face of African Modernity Oral Sources Notes Select Bibliography Index
