The letter and the spirit: literacy and religious authority in the history of the Aladura movement in western Nigeria

Abstract

Opening ParagraphThe Yoruba word aladura, meaning ‘one who prays’, generally refers to a set of churches that formed a powerful religious movement among the Yoruba in western Nigeria during the first decades of this century. To date, there have been three main lines of interpretation which received general recognition: first, in form of a theological analysis (Turner, 1967); second, in a discussion of social protest (Mitchell, 1970); and finally, through the sociology of religion (Peel, 1968). In this article I propose to introduce another aspect of interpretation. Following the many passing remarks made by these authors in respect to the use of writing within the Aladura churches, I will read their accounts in terms of how people perceived and experienced the written word in the specific context of the Christian–colonial order and consider whether and how this experience has influenced people's actions and religious behaviour. In doing so, I am going to take up a theme which has become widely popular in the anthropological field under the heading ‘the consequences of literacy’.

Christianity and rural community literacy practices in Uganda

“…More recent studies in Africa were conducted in South Africa (Prinsloo & Breier, 1996) and in Namibia (Papen, 2001). Studies with a specific focus on religion and literacy practices within a particular community include those conducted in Papua New Guinea by Kulick and Stroud (1993) and in Western Nigeria by Probst (1993). Kulick and Stroud (1993) noted that the community 'took hold' of literacy and transformed it to express their local Christian lives and needs based on their local social institutions and cultural concerns.…”

“…Kulick and Stroud (1993) noted that the community 'took hold' of literacy and transformed it to express their local Christian lives and needs based on their local social institutions and cultural concerns. In West Africa, Probst (1993) examined how literacy was perceived and experienced by the Yoruba people, and how these perceptions and experiences of literacy were shaped by the indigenous spiritual life of the Yoruba. In that way, literacy became a very important aspect of religious life among the Aladura believers.…”

“…In that way, literacy became a very important aspect of religious life among the Aladura believers. It is this syncretism of literacy and traditional forms and values that made literacy an acceptable aspect of worship in the Aladura church (Probst, 1993). In her Namibian study, Papen (2005b) showed how learners participating in the National Literacy Programme for Namibia (NLPN) changed the programme to meet their demands for religious literacy practices by bringing the discourse of the church and religion into the programme.…”

A Non‐Place Identity and a Fixed (Sacred) Text: Literacy Practices Shaping Identity/ies of a Slavic Baptist Congregation from the Former Soviet Union to the United States

“…In a situation of resistance, they may create additional scripture as the basis for new revelation. Probst () in his literacy research described a Christian splinter group in west Nigeria, in which the leader, Josiah Oshitelu, claimed to have a series of visions that he wrote down as an addition to the scriptural text. Oshitelu's texts created another community – another identity – that challenge religious colonising forces.…”

Knowledge, literacy and media among the Iban of Sarawak. A reply to Maurice Bloch An earlier version of this article was published in the Proceedings of the Sixth Biennial Conference of the Borneo Research Council. University of Malaysia, Kuching, 1014 July 2000. The article follows from research I carried out in Sarawak for some 17 months in 19968 was part of a PhD thesis with the Anthropology Department at University College London, supervised by Dr Simon Strickland and Professor Chris Tilley. I was offi

“…Alternatively, I could trace the metamorphoses of segments of Iban discourse as they travel in and out of the oral/aural and textual domains. For example, local legends as they are initially told to Thomas T. Laka, a popular broadcast storyteller, who then records, transcribes, edits, proofreads and reads them out on air so that they can Reder and Wikelund 1993ARCTIC Havelock 1976, Basso and Anderson 1977Hornberger 1998Crump 1988Walker 1981Wollard 1989Bourdieu 1984, Thomas 1986Fishman 1991Dombey 1988, Houston 1988Graff 1987Chartier 1989, Sheridan et al 1999 Davies 1986 Camitta 1993, Slater 1998, Collins 1998EURASIA Smalley et al 1990Robinson-Plant 2001Doronilla 1996Sweeney 1987Wagner 1993Bourgois 1986 King 1994 AFRICA Kalman 1999Goody 1987, Bledsoe and Robey 1986Bastian 1993, Probst 1993Aikman 1999Yates 1994, Meyer 2002Jackson 1975, Spolsky et al 1983Duranti and Ochs 1986, Besnier 1991Grohs 1990 OCEANIA AMERICAS Bloch 1993Meggitt 1968Gewertz and Errington 1991Hornberger 1998 Kulick and Stroud 1993 AUSTRALIA Michaels 1991 FIGURE 2. A sample of contributions to...…”