RELIGION, FAITH AND PHILOSOPHY IN AFRICAN MODERNITIES

Abstract

The broad theme of Religion, Modernity and Postmodernity: The African Development Discourse highlights an area of major conflict in the cultural identity of postcolonial peoples and nations. That is the crucial area of social and identity construction in neo-colonial African states in the broad contexts of religion, belief and education. It is presumed throughout this paper that we really cannot unravel the concept of postmodernity in Africa without first examining the postcolonial basis of our development experience. The paper, through the definition and problematizing of such concepts as tradition, religion, faith and postmodernity, the complexities and conflict in the cultural definition of our human condition are highlighted. It is the contextualization and analyses of these contradictions that precipitate the grey areas of underdevelopment among postcolonial African nations. The paper contends that if we are able to unravel or logically understand these conflictual areas of the two or more cultures we have inherited in the modern world, we will be better able to put more rational methods of development in the construction of our living spaces. The paper uses three contemporary fictive and historical narratives in two African nations – Kenya and Nigeria to illustrate the conflict between religion, belief systems and civic responsibility to navigate our identity and heritage in a complex, multicultural world. It then concludes on what may be the way forward for the future and evolutionary development of our societies in the context of the postcolonial and the postmodern.