RT Article
T1 On the Colonial History of the Ideas of God(s) in Africa: A Case of the Contradictions between Missionaries and an Explorer on the Cameroonian Coast
JF Journal of religion in Africa
VO 53
IS 1
SP 78
OP 104
A1 Lunkwitz, Diana
LA English
PB Brill
YR 2023
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/1832548643
AB This contribution examines contested ideas of god(s) as held by Protestant missionaries and the German explorer Hugo Zöller in the early colonial period of Cameroon and in neighbouring West African countries in the 1880s. While many present studies on African Traditional Religion(s) tend to perpetuate an understanding of religion around one supreme god, Zöller’s reports included discontinuities and open questions. An intertextual reading approach is used to question historical and translation barriers and analyse the ideas of god(s) in reception history, including through the report of a later mission director and a handbook of religion. It becomes apparent that all the analysed historical material assumed one supreme god or one origin of religion, albeit according to the different interests of each foreign writer’s point of view. A decolonising reading that focuses on the foreigner’s idea of god(s) in the local people’s view then offers interesting insights into the perception and interpretation of the exploitative trade with ‘products’ from Cameroon linked to the coloniser’s own religion. That shift in perspective animadverts on the entire colonising trade system. This contribution thus proposes a decolonial historiography of religion in Africa in order to extend the critical investigation of reception history and perspectives.
K1 perspectives
K1 Intertextuality
K1 Colonialism
K1 idea of god
K1 Cameroon
DO 10.1163/15700666-12340245