Christianity - The African Mirror

Mar

2023

Toyin Falola: 3 recent books that explain the work of Nigeria’s famous decolonial scholar

TOYIN Falola, distinguished professor of history, is one of Africa’s most accomplished intellectuals. Born Oloruntoyin Falola in 1953 in the Nigerian city of Ibadan, he grew up in a sprawling, polygamous household that practised Islam, Christianity and ancient Yoruba spirituality. Author SANYA OSHA, Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Humanities in Africa, University of Cape Town This confluence of multiple worldviews and religions reflects in his thinking and in his massive academic output. Falola has produced something like 200 books in all areas of the human and social sciences and travels widely to deliver lectures at conferences and public events. Africa…

Mar

2023

By The African Mirror

Sex, intimacy and black middle-class Christianity in South Africa – a difficult history

LITERATURE

A new book, Convening Black Intimacy, explores the history of Christianity, gender and precolonial marriage and sex traditions in South Africa in the late 1800s and early 1900s. To conduct her study, historian Natasha Erlank drew on court records of cases of seduction, church records, anthropological texts, and many sources from black authors, including black newspapers and novels as well as songs sung by black women. What is clear is that black South Africans had loving, intimate relationships that they fought hard to maintain under the destruction brought about by colonialism and apartheid. We asked her more about her fascinating…

Dec

2022

By The African Mirror

Sacred rivers: Christianity in southern Africa has a deep history of water and ritual

RELIGION

WATER is a scarce commodity in much of Africa, particularly in southern Africa. This is well symbolised in the name of the Botswana national currency, pula (rain). When tragedies like flooding and drowning take place, it may seem inappropriate to speak of the scarcity and commodity of water. For example, members of the Johane Masowe church drowned in a flash flood during a baptismal ceremony at a river in South Africa recently. Author RETIEF MÜLLER, Associate Professor in Theology, VID Specialized University But part of the attraction of moving bodies of water to religious groups may be rooted in this…

Aug

2022

By The African Mirror

Christians in Nigeria feel under attack: why it’s a complicated story

RELIGION

NIGERIA has a long history of religious tensions against which the current spate of violence against Christians must be seen. There are a number of factors that have heightened religious tensions in Nigeria. The first is the competition for space between the two main religions of Islam and Christianity. Secondly, there is the perception that Nigerian leaders use the state to promote their religion or faith at the expense of others. Thirdly, there’s a culture of insensitivity to the feelings of minorities. Author JIDEOFOR ADIBE, Professor of International Relations and Political Science, Nasarawa State University, Keffi The root of Islam…

Sep

2020

By The African Mirror

Why the Child’s Rights Act still doesn’t apply throughout Nigeria

EDUCATION

USANG MARIA ASSIM, Senior Researcher/Lecturer, Children's Rights and the Law, University of the Western Cape NIGERIA adopted the Child’s Rights Act in 2003, giving legal consent to both the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. The country’s constitution states that for an international law to take effect, Nigeria’s legislature must create a national version. But as Nigeria operates a federal system of government, the law does not automatically become applicable in all of its 36 states. In terms of the constitution, children’s issues are the…