JACQUES DERRIDAAND THE DECONSTRUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY IN SOUTHEASTERN NIGERIA

Abstract

The people of Southeastern Nigeria are very much enterprising and industrious. Their industry is felt in every aspect of life including the religious. One of the signs is the array of churches present in the region. Recently however, there seems to be a growing tendency among the younger and some middle-aged generation to question, abandon and de-convert to alternative faith beliefs and to African traditional religions once abandoned by their forebears for Christianity. With the growing revival of festivities and shrines dedicated to traditional deities, and the public defence and preaching of traditional forms of worship with deep ties in social and cultural heritages, we have the impression that what Jacques Derrida called deconstruction is already taking place on Christianity in the Southeastern part of Nigeria. The manifest attempt in the public space to supplant the Christian God of Jesus Christ with a certain cult of Chukwu abiama points to the movement of dechristianization which may be one of the negative effects of deconstruction. As Derrida would insist, deconstruction is “not a negative operation.” It opens to the acceptance of the other and has the potency of leading to a rediscovery of what authentic Christianity is all about.