AFRICANIZATION OF ISLAM AND CHRISTIANITY

Africanization in the context of this essay refers to the various ways in which Africans have created ‘Muslim or Christian space’ and made islam or christianity their own.

Islam and christianity all came from their places of origin to Africa a long time ago. Christianity being the older religion arrived much earlier than Islam around the second century in north Africa. However, the spread of christianity was stifled by the emergence and spread of islam into north Africa in the seventh century. Christianity will however continue its spread into the south around the nineteenth century with the help of the missionaries who came with the colonial masters.

Islam spread southward earlier than christianity. By the time the colonial masters came around the nineteenth century, many regions around west Africa and some parts of east Africa were already practising islam.

The first example of how christianity and islam was africanized will have to be the emergence of African Christian and Muslim religious leaders and institutions. Institutions established by Africans began to appear even before the Europeans left. Once they left, the indigenous leaders took over. This is the first instance of Africanization of the two religions.

A more glaring example of Africanization is how the religions merged with the cultures and became one in some places, particularly islam in the northern part of Nigeria. In some parts of northern Nigeria, some people cannot differentiate between their culture and religion (islam). Both have merged to symbolise the same thing. This sort of fusion between culture and religion can be seen in many parts of Africa, though not as extreme as seen in Northern Nigeria and parts of North Africa. To people living in this places, culture and religion mean the same thing. They mistake many of their cultural practices as religious due to the fusion between the two in such places.

Another area where both religions were Africanized is in the area of practice. It is accepted that Africa is the most religious continent in the world. Asia has more people of faith and is the origin of all three Abrahamic faiths, but Africans practise religion with more dedication and diligence than any other continent. Africans practice their religion more devoutly than the Europeans who brought christianity to them or the Arabs who brought islam to them. This is also a glaring example of Africanization of the two religions.

Attempt has been made to examine how Christianity and Islam was Africanized. It is a fact that Africans own the form of Islam and Christianity they practise.