The Oxford Handbook of Religious Space by Jeanne Halgren Kilde;

Author:Jeanne Halgren Kilde;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxford University Press USA
Published: 2022-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Significance of Religious Spaces in Western Africa

Religious spaces are pivotal in sustaining the inseparable nature of the religious and the nonreligious in Western African societies. Western Africans derive corporate identity in terms of historical and religiocultural heritage, spirituality, worldview, ecological preservation, existential stability, and moral stability from the numerous religious spaces in the subregion. Ogundayo and Adekunle (2019) claim that the existence of religious spaces, especially those spaces observed in the indigenous religion, indicates that the indigenous African religiocultural elements have been able to withstand the interruptions and threats of erosion from modernity, Christianity, and Islam. Indigenous religious spaces continue to define the spirituality of Western Africans (Agbiji and Swart 2015, 3). Just as a particularly religious place can serve both religious and secular purposes, so, too, can the spirituality of Western Africans. It expands and accommodates other views such that Western African spirituality does not draw divisions between the religious and the nonreligious (Olupuna 2014). To live is to be religious, and to be religious is to live (Okeke, Ibenwa, and Okeke 2017, 4). Although majority of Western Africans claim to be either Christian or Muslim, there are as many adherents of the indigenous religion as there are Muslims and Christians combined (Olupuna 2014). The blend of Christian and Muslim practices with those of the indigenous religion, to some extent, makes it difficult to separate some religious traditions prevalent in Western Africa. Most importantly, the religious spaces in the subregion serve as an emblem of this religious hybrid.

One religious space that reveals the blend of religions in Western Africa is the cemetery, where the connection between the living and the dead is made acute through the performance of religious practices. The religious ritual of keeping the cemetery sacred has succeeded in maintaining the kinship bond of Western Africans (see Post, Nel, and van Beek, 2014). Additionally, traditional practices forbidding the hunting of some animal species and logging in certain forests have contributed immensely to preserving ecology in the region (see Murray and Agyare 2018, 1). Also, reliance on the dictates from these sacred places in the instance of unfortunate events has a sort of placebo effect on Western Africans. Religious spaces are often visited when a Western African experiences misfortune or a setback in life. These misfortunes could include ill-health or a curse by malevolent spirits or individuals. Technically, the prescriptions from these religious spaces may not be the effective antidotes that are needed. Yet the assurance and contentment adherents draw from such prescriptions help them stay calm amid their misfortunes. In this regard, religious spaces provide a sort of existential stability for Western Africans.

Further, living with the knowledge that ancestors, angels, and God are always rewarding the moral person and punishing the evil individual stabilizes the moral order in Western Africa. Within this knowledge lies the collective identity of Western Africans. As already noted, some religious spaces embody the whole identity of a nation or a particular community. In most instances, the history of the group is continuously maintained by religious spaces.

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