Diversity and Homogeneity in African Religious Discourses

Abstract

This article sets out to show that African theology can best be done by acknowledging the diversity and homogeneity of the African peoples. Indeed, African diversity is seen in the fact that there are plural religions such as ancestral African - a religion that is expressed diversely by over two thousand ethnic nationalities, Christianity which has the Roman Catholics, the independents, the new religious movements and the protestants; Islam which has Shia and Sunni; Hinduism and the smaller religious groups; multi-party political systems since the 1990s; the effect of colonialism which broadened the already existing diversity of the indigenous peoples through its various ways of orienting its subjects; hence the 21 st century Africa is divided into Francophone Africa, Lusophone Africa, Arabophone Africa, Anglophone Africa and so forth. Conversely, African homogeneity is best expressed in the concept of hospitality (ubuntu); where injury to one is seen as injury to all. In attempting to give a fair definition regarding who an African is, one requires addressing both the homogeneity and homogeneity of African peoples. The situation obtains because of the African religio-cultural histories and life patterns that have tended to define and redefine Africa. The presentation is done through desk top research where an extensive literature review was done. For its theoretical review, the paper has relied on Jesse Mugambi's works, which builds on the post-exilic motif in the Africa of the 21s1 century.