“African Crossroads: Conflicts between African Traditional Religion and Christianity”

By Uchenna Onuzulike.

Published by The International Journal of the Humanities

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Article: Print	$US10.00
Article: Electronic	$US5.00

This paper focuses on the conflicts between African Traditional Religion and Christianity. Although there are other religions in Africa such as Islam and Judaism, this study concentrates on African Traditional Religion and Christianity. Religion is the strongest element in traditional African culture and exerts great influence upon the conduct of the African people. Religion is closely bound up with the traditional way of African life; therefore, religion has shaped the lives of Africans, at the same time life has shaped religion as well. Whenever two or three cultures meet, there is potential conflict. Spiritual conflicts exist between African Traditional Religion and Christianity. It is difficult to separate African culture from African Traditional Religion because religion is embedded in African culture. African Traditional religion is part of the African’s ethos and an understanding of it should go hand in hand with Christian evangelization. Ignoring these traditional beliefs, attitudes and practices may lead to a lack of understanding of African behavior and problems. This paper work uses Nollywood, the Nigerian movie industry, to showcase the clash between African Traditional Religion and Christianity.

Keywords:	African Traditional Religion, Christianity, Nigerian Movies, Nollywood, Juju

International Journal of the Humanities, Volume 6, Issue 2, pp.163-170. Article: Print (Spiral Bound). Article: Electronic (PDF File; 575.574KB).

Uchenna Onuzulike

Ph.D. Student, School of Interdisciplinary Arts, Ohio University, Ohio University, USA

Uchenna Onuzulike (M.S.P.C., Clark University, 2007; B.A., Worcester State College, 2005) has just completed his master’s thesis titled, “Nollywood: The Emergence of the Nigerian Videofilm Industry and Its Representation of Nigerian Culture.” His research interests focus on gender discourse, religious communication, ethnic/racial identities, and diasporic film cultures. He has recently published two articles. The first article is entitled “The Birth of Nollywood: The Nigerian Movie Industry,” in Black Camera: A Micro Journal of Black Film Studies, Vol.22, No.1, Spring/Summer 2007, pp. 25 – 26. The second article is entitled “Nollywood: The Influence of the Nigerian Movie Industry on African Culture,” in The Journal of Human Communication: A Journal of the Pacific and Asian Communication Association, Vol. 10, No.3, pp.231 – 242. He presented four papers in 2007. The first paper was at the Georgia Communication Association’s 2007 Annual Convention, the second was at the New York State Communication Association’s 2007 Annual Convention, the other two papers were at the Eastern Communication Association’s 2007 Annual Convention in Providence, Rhode Island. He starts a PhD this Fall (2008) in Interdisciplinary Arts at Ohio University.

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