HIST 10102 - African Religions

Course Credit: 1
HIST-10102 African Religions This course is designed to provide students with an integrated and general understanding of the history of African religions by focusing on three religious traditions of Africa, namely, Primal (African Traditional Religion, ATR), Christianity and Islam. In so doing, we intend to look at the dynamics undergirding the three religious traditions and broadly probe the contours of negotiated spaces in changing historical contexts. The presentation of the course is premised on the fact that the study of religion in Africa is vitally essential to the understanding of the manifold features of the African experiences. A prominent theme of the course is: continuity and change in Africa’s religious traditions. We view religion as a system meaning formations (valuations) about the cosmos and the place of human life in it. This kind of approach provides the lens through which we can examine African religions in their diversities and complexities. [HSS]