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A Methodology for Modern African Religious Movements

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2009

H. W. Turner
H. W. Turner
Affiliation:
University of Nigeria
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Extract

The existence of a widespread religious phenomenon in Africa appearing under many names, in corporate manifestations as new groups and in individual form as new prophets, is evidenced in many ways. Even the most casual observer driving through a large African town cannot fail to notice the succession of exotic names on sign boards or to meet a white-robed religious procession, and if he tries to trace the bell-ringing, drumming, and chanting that fill the night air for hours on end the chances are that he will be led to one of these sign boards and to some humble structure filled with tireless worshippers. Occasionally the bizarre behaviour of a prophet or “sect’ provides material for the journalist seeking sensation, or leads to an appearance in the police courts, or even to military action, as in Northern Rhodesia in 1964 against the Lenshina movement. Strange churches apply for membership of Christian councils, and ministers and missionaries are perplexed when some of their members secure spiritual help from a semi-literate prophet, or transfer their allegiance to an unknown church with an outlandish name.

Type
Comparative Methods
Information
Comparative Studies in Society and History , Volume 8 , Issue 3 , April 1966 , pp. 281 - 294
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 1966

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References

1 For a list of these, which could be extended, see Turner, H. W., “The Significance of African Prophet Movements”, Hibbert Journal, 61 (April 1963), pp. 112–116Google Scholar.

2 E. E. Evans-Pritchard, in introduction to Hertz, R., Death and the Right Hand (London, E.T., 1960), p. 22Google Scholar .

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12 Evans-Pritchard, E. E., Nuer Religion (London, 1956), p. viii. See also op. cit., p. 17Google Scholar , and J. Daniélou in Eliade and Kitagawa, , The History of Religions (Chicago, 1959), p. 81.Google Scholar

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14 Jones, A. H. M., in Journal of Theological Studies, N.S. X (October 1959), p. 295Google Scholar . For a similar complaint concerning the neglect of the religious factor in the Cambridge Modern History account of the Reformation, see B. Hall, .Ibid, XI (April 1960), pp. 110ff.

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18 Beyerhaus, P., “What is our Answer to Sects?” Ministry (Morija, Basutoland), I (July, 1961), p. 12.Google Scholar

19 Turner, H. W., “The Litany of an Independent African Church”, Sierra Leone Bulletin of Religion, I (December, 1959), pp. 48–55Google Scholar (also in Practical Anthropology, VII, November-December 1960, pp. 256–262)Google Scholar ; “The Catechism of an Independent West African Church”, Sierra Leone Bulletin of Religion, II (December 1960), pp. 45–57Google Scholar , also as International Missionary Council, London, Occasional Paper, I, 9 (1961).

20 Turner, H. W., Profile Through Preaching (London, 1965)Google Scholar .

21 G. Myrdal, op. cit., pp. 11, 131, 235.

22 Wach, J., The Comparative Study of Religions (New York, 1958), p. 54Google Scholar .

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