THE INSTRUMENTALITY OF AFRICAN SHRINES AND SACRED PLACES TO SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA: A PHENOMENOLOGICAL APPROACH

Abstract

In many parts of Africa, Nigeria in particular, the role of shrines and sacred places for conflict resolution, social control and moral development remains evident. However, the fast encroaching urbanization and globalization with their accompanying detribalization of cultural systems have, to a large extent, been observed to have disintegrated African social life. Consequently, religious values and sanctions of tribal life seem to have being fast giving way and this has hitherto, poses a serious enigma to the once enjoyed sustainable development in African. Thus, the desacralizing of African shrines has conversely enhanced the rate of corrupt practices at all levels in many African societies. Irrespective of the foregoing orthodoxy, the present study retracts the instrumentality of African shrines and sacred places for development in Nigeria and further argues that globalization has endangered its vitality which has in turn increased the rate of corruption in many African nations.