AFRICAN SACRED KNOWLEDGE IN OPERATION: REFLECTIONS ON SELECTED YORUBA PENTECOSTAL HISTORICAL SITES FOR ENHANCING CHRISTIAN TOURISM IN NIGERIA

Abstract

Sacred knowledge is a religious concept of global discussion. Religions are attached to myths and legendary assumptions in their narratives and historic presentations. Most of these values are kept sacrosanct and preserved for references and sometimes attract tourism on the global scenes. There are popularities and values attached to indigenous sacred objects than most of the historic sacred objects in African Christianity, particularly in Nigerian Pentecostalism. These esteemed values and propagations have attracted international observations and ethnographic studies in indigenous religion. The purpose of the study is to highlight selected sacred historic valuables in Nigerian Pentecostalism, using Yoruba as example for the enhancement of Christian tourism. The study adopts historical, phenomenological and survey types in participatory observation of the selected sites. Two historical sites were picked as specimens of sacred knowledge (The great revival site of 1930 in Oke-oye & River Ariran where God called Joseph Ayo Babalola in IkejiArakeji). It was discovered that the tourist attraction of these historic sites is not highly laudable, compared to the magnitude of the manifestation of God reported in history. There is no clear-cut awareness and global attraction of these historic sites under the current tourist discussion. The researchers recommended that the Apostolic sister denominations should team up to re-package these historic sites, not for any show of veneration, but carve a date for global resort and pilgrimage, that would further communicate the self-disclosure of God in African Pentecostalism. This will generate wealth and more popularity for this brand of Christianity like African Indigenous religion.