Africans resisted missionary Christianity through traditionalist, radicalized, and silent forms

Evidence

With the introduction of Christianity and colonialism, AR was condemned as barbaric, uncivilized and not well equipped to provide answers to the pressing needs and challenges of modernity. Africans, therefore, had to convert to Christianity, but in doing so they had to abandon their culture and embrace modernity and the new religion, which was Christianity. Mass conversion to Christianity, however, was superficial, as pointed out above. Deep down, most converts harbored dissatisfactions with missionary Christianity and started to resist it. … The African resistance to Christianity took different forms. In his book, African Religion in the Dialogue Debate, Magesa (2010) identifies several forms of resistance, including traditionalist, radicalized and modified forms of African Religion. According to Magesa (2010, pp.119–123), the traditionalists, for example, chose to deliberately ignore Christian influences and retained their African world view, especially in matters of life and death; the radicalized wished to “restore the sovereignty of African culture and religion over all Africans belligerently”; and the modified group, which included African intellectuals, were afraid to publicly display their belief in African culture, so they resorted to practicing it in secrecy. — Frans Dokman, Beyond Bantu Philosophy_…, 162

Categorization

• QUESTION: Magesa’s taxonomy of resistance forms (traditionalist/radicalized/modified) would reward closer study as a framework for understanding African religious agency.