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Grounded in ethnographic and historiographic research and taking a cross-regional approach, this book explores the complex dynamics of similarity and difference, rapprochement and detachment, and divergence and competition between practitioners of Christianity, Islam, and African religious traditions.
Across Africa, Muslims, Christians, and practitioners of African religious traditions live in shared settings, demarcating themselves in opposition to one another and at times engaging in violent conflicts, but also being entangled in complex ways and showing unexpected similarities and mutual cross-overs. However, while encounters and entanglements of African religious traditions with either Islam or Christianity have long been a central research issue, the configuration as a whole has barely been taken into account, even though Muslims, Christians, and practitioners of African religious traditions have long co-existed - and still co-exist - more or less peacefully in many settings in Africa. Building on recent interventions to move beyond the compartmentalization of the study of religion in Africa, this edited volume will spotlight why and how an integrated approach to Islam, Christianity, and African religious traditions is important. Bringing together stimulating case studies from Kenya, Nigeria, Zanzibar, Ghana, and Mozambique that offer new directions for ethnographic and historical research, the volume will not only shed light on an important phenomenon out there in the world - the long-overlooked ways in which Muslims, Christians and practitioners of African religious traditions interact with one another in various majority-minority configurations - but will also engage with a critical rethinking of the study of religion in Africa (and beyond).
Across Africa, Muslims, Christians, and practitioners of African religious traditions live in shared settings, demarcating themselves in opposition to one another and at times engaging in violent conflicts, but also being entangled in complex ways and showing unexpected similarities and mutual cross-overs. However, while encounters and entanglements of African religious traditions with either Islam or Christianity have long been a central research issue, the configuration as a whole has barely been taken into account, even though Muslims, Christians, and practitioners of African religious traditions have long co-existed - and still co-exist - more or less peacefully in many settings in Africa. Building on recent interventions to move beyond the compartmentalization of the study of religion in Africa, this edited volume will spotlight why and how an integrated approach to Islam, Christianity, and African religious traditions is important. Bringing together stimulating case studies from Kenya, Nigeria, Zanzibar, Ghana, and Mozambique that offer new directions for ethnographic and historical research, the volume will not only shed light on an important phenomenon out there in the world - the long-overlooked ways in which Muslims, Christians and practitioners of African religious traditions interact with one another in various majority-minority configurations - but will also engage with a critical rethinking of the study of religion in Africa (and beyond).
Price: $36.95
Pages: 312
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Inc.
Imprint: James Currey
Publication Date:
17 March 2026
Trim Size: 9.21 X 6.14 in
ISBN: 9781847014108
Format: Paperback
BISACs:
POLITICAL SCIENCE / Peace, Comparative religion, RELIGION / Religion, Politics & State, HISTORY / Africa / General, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / Cultural & Social, African history, Social and cultural anthropology, Peace studies and conflict resolution
Recognising that Africa is not the only arena where religious coexistence is being worked out it has important data for religious leaders and policymakers too. By capturing the potential of terms like relationality, entanglement, and multiplicity, the book bridges not only convictions but also cities and the remote rural hinterlands of nations. It is this 'plurality' that makes the collection so distinctive - and important.
Foreword by Birgit Meyer
Introduction: Relational Perspectives on Islam, Christianity, and African Religious Traditions, by Marloes Janson, Benedikt Pontzen, Kai Kresse
Part I: Multiple Fields: How to Study Religious Entanglement?
1 Thinking with Internal Comparison: Mutual Perceptions in Social Dynamics on the Kenyan Coast - Kai Kresse
2. Polyontological Mobility: Border-Making and Border-Crossing in African Religions - Devaka Premawardhana
3. 'Living Tradition': Histories and Presences of Local Religious Traditions in Asante, Ghana - Benedikt Pontzen
Part II: Islam, Christianity, and African Religious Traditions in the Public Domain
4. Between the Crescent and Cross: Politicized Remains of Local Religious Traditions in the North of Nigeria - Shobana Shankar
5. Between Conviviality and Unsociability: Negotiating Mixed Religious Background in a Field of Muslim-Christian Tensions in Northern Nigeria - Musa Ibrahim
6. Popular Music, Mijikenda Tradition, and Religious Coexistence in Coastal Kenya - Erik Meinema
Part III: Wellbeing and Healing
7. Coming to Terms with Religion/s: Islamic Medicine in Zanzibar - Hanna Nieber
8. The Mallam and the Modalities of Coexistence in the Ghanaian Multi-Religious Space - Kodjo Senah
The Spirit of Trespass: An Afterword by Ebenezer Obadare
Introduction: Relational Perspectives on Islam, Christianity, and African Religious Traditions, by Marloes Janson, Benedikt Pontzen, Kai Kresse
Part I: Multiple Fields: How to Study Religious Entanglement?
1 Thinking with Internal Comparison: Mutual Perceptions in Social Dynamics on the Kenyan Coast - Kai Kresse
2. Polyontological Mobility: Border-Making and Border-Crossing in African Religions - Devaka Premawardhana
3. 'Living Tradition': Histories and Presences of Local Religious Traditions in Asante, Ghana - Benedikt Pontzen
Part II: Islam, Christianity, and African Religious Traditions in the Public Domain
4. Between the Crescent and Cross: Politicized Remains of Local Religious Traditions in the North of Nigeria - Shobana Shankar
5. Between Conviviality and Unsociability: Negotiating Mixed Religious Background in a Field of Muslim-Christian Tensions in Northern Nigeria - Musa Ibrahim
6. Popular Music, Mijikenda Tradition, and Religious Coexistence in Coastal Kenya - Erik Meinema
Part III: Wellbeing and Healing
7. Coming to Terms with Religion/s: Islamic Medicine in Zanzibar - Hanna Nieber
8. The Mallam and the Modalities of Coexistence in the Ghanaian Multi-Religious Space - Kodjo Senah
The Spirit of Trespass: An Afterword by Ebenezer Obadare