EARLY WESTERN WRITERS

INTRODUCTION

Religions of Africa have been a subject of much interest, speculation and study among Westerners. Many theories have been put forward concerning these religions. The Westerners who took an interest in these religions have been divided into two major categories, namely, Early and Later Western writers. Some scholars are advocating a third category – contemporary Western writers.

RATIONALE FOR THE INTEREST

1. According to E.E. Evans-Pritchard, (Theories of Primitive Religions, 1965), Western scholars were interested in Religions of Africa because Africans were considered to be “primitive” and “primitive” people had primitive religions which are the species of the genus religions. They are the mothers of all world religions.
2. According to J. G. Platvoet, (ed, et al) (The study of Religions in Africa, Past, Present and Prospects, 1996), the interest was generated by the need to spread Christianity.
3. The same scholar is of the opinion that these writers wanted to provide information to colonial governments about the colonised so that they could govern them effectively.
4. Some were just interested in writing about Africans and their religions.

EXAMPLES OF EARLY WESTERN WRITERS

1. Edward B. Tylor
- Wrote the book, Primitive Culture, 1973, in which he stressed the importance of the soul and propounded the theory of animism. This theory attributed spirit or soul to all creatures both animate and inanimate. This theory was then applied to religions of Africa.

2. James Frazer, The Golden Bough, 1922.
3. Herbert Spencer, Principles of Sociology, 1885.
4. Emile Durkheim
5. Max Muller

CRITIQUE

According to Evans-Pritchard, most, if not all theories about religions of Africa were erroneous. He savagely criticises Javon’s book, Introduction to the History of Religion, 1896, as follows: “It is a collection of absurd reconstructions, suppositions and assumptions, inappropriate analogies, misunderstandings and misinterpretations and especially what he wrote about totemism, just plain nonsense”.

REASONS FOR THE ERRORS

1. According to E.E. Evans-Pritchard, their research methodology was faulty, especially the way they collected data. They were arm-chair writers. They had never been to Africa near the so-called “primitive” peoples yet they claimed to know Africans and their beliefs thoroughly.
2. Some got their information from pioneer Arab travellers such as Ibn Battuta, and other fortune seekers who had been excited by some aspects of the indigenous cultures of the people of Africa and had made a passing reference to places, objects etc.
3. Some relied on the information supplied by missionaries who were bent on proving that Africans had no religion and by so-doing justifying the spread of Christianity.
4. Evans-Pritchard contents that most of the information was fabricated to suit the writers’ preconceived ideas about Africans. He writes, “Most of it was false and almost all of it was unreliable and, casual, superficial, out of perspective, out of context…”
5. The writers did not speak or understand African languages and this led to serious misunderstandings. Those who could speak did not understand that words have different connotations when used in different contexts.
6. The reports which these writers used were highly selective and inadequate. Their sources wrote only what interested them or astonished them.
7. The travellers and hunters who had gathered the information that was used by the writers were not trained in anthropology or any research methodology. 8. They used a scissors and paste method in writing which Evans-Pritchard calls, “a promiscuous use of evidence”.
9. Some of them used derogatory terminology to refer to Africans and their religions e.g. primitive, savages, juju, barbarians, fetishism etc.
10. Some of the writers were agnostics who wanted to prove that Africa had no religion, therefore Christianity and other world religions could be explained away.

ERRONEOUS INFROMATION REPORTED

1. “Without any exception, they are without a belief in the Supreme Being; neither have they any form of worship or idolatry, nor is the darkness of their minds enlightened by even a ray of superstition. Their mind is as stagnant as the morass which forms its puny world”. (Sir Samuel Baker, reporting about the Nilotes to the Ethnological Society of London in 1866)

2. “How can the untutored African conceive of God? How can this be? Deity is a philosophical concept which savages are incapable of framing”. (Emil Ludwig)

3. “The negro is still at that rude dawn of faith – fetishism and has barely advanced to idolatry.” (Sir Richard Burton)

THEIR SUCCESSES/ACHIEVEMENTS

1. According to C. I. Ejizu, their work helped “wet the appetite of people that came later on the African scene….
2. The writings gave rise to a more determined study of Religions of Africa by other Westerners and Africans.
3. According to Platvoet and Cox these writers gave valuable information that could have been lost.
4. Some travellers, hunters and missionaries gave reliable and accurate information.
5. These were writers of their era. It is not good to judge them retrospectively. During that time anthropology was still in its infancy.