PEEL | CHRISTIANITY, ISLAM, AND ORISA RELIGION Luminos is the open access monograph publishing program from UC Press. Luminos provides a framework for preserving and rein- vigorating monograph publishing for the future and increases the reach and visibility of important scholarly work. Titles published in the UC Press Luminos model are published with the same high standards for selection, peer review, production, and marketing as those in our traditional program. www.luminosoa.org Christianity, Islam, and Orisa Religion THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF CHRISTIANITY Edited by Joel Robbins 1. Christian Moderns: Freedom and Fetish in the Mission Encounter, by Webb Keane 2. A Problem of Presence: Beyond Scripture in an African Church, by Matthew Engelke 3. Reason to Believe: Cultural Agency in Latin American Evangelicalism, by David Smilde 4. Chanting Down the New Jerusalem: Calypso, Christianity, and Capitalism in the Caribbean, by Francio Guadeloupe 5. In God’s Image: The Metaculture of Fijian Christianity, by Matt Tomlinson 6. Converting Words: Maya in the Age of the Cross, by William F. Hanks 7. City of God: Christian Citizenship in Postwar Guatemala, by Kevin O’Neill 8. Death in a Church of Life: Moral Passion during Botswana’s Time of AIDS, by Frederick Klaits 9. Eastern Christians in Anthropological Perspective, edited by Chris Hann and Hermann Goltz 10. Studying Global Pentecostalism: Theories and Methods, by Allan Anderson, Michael Bergunder, Andre Droogers, and Cornelis van der Laan 11. Holy Hustlers, Schism, and Prophecy: Apostolic Reformation in Botswana, by Richard Werbner 12. Moral Ambition: Mobilization and Social Outreach in Evangelical Megachurches, by Omri Elisha 13. Spirits of Protestantism: Medicine, Healing, and Liberal Christianity, by Pamela E. Klassen 14. The Saint in the Banyan Tree: Christianity and Caste Society in India, by David Mosse 15. God’s Agents: Biblical Publicity in Contemporary England, by Matthew Engelke 16. Critical Christianity: Translation and Denominational Conflict in Papua New Guinea, by Courtney Handman 17. Sensational Movies: Video, Vision, and Christianity in Ghana, by Birgit Meyer 18. Christianity, Islam, and Oris a Religion: Three Traditions in Comparison and Interaction, by J. D. Y. Peel Christianity, Islam, and Orisa Religion Three Traditions in Comparison and Interaction J. D. Y. Peel UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS University of California Press, one of the most distinguished university presses in the United States, enriches lives around the world by advanc- ing scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Its activities are supported by the UC Press Foundation and by philanthropic contributions from individuals and institutions. For more information, visit www.ucpress.edu. University of California Press Oakland, California © 2016 by The Regents of the University of California This work is licensed under a Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND license. To view a copy of the license, visit http://creativecommons.org/ licenses. Suggested citation: Peel, J.D.Y. Christianity, Islam, and Orisa Religion. Oakland: University of California Press, 2016. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.1525/luminos.8 Cataloguing-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress. isbn 978–0-520–28585–9 (paper : alk. paper) isbn 978–0-520–96122–7 (electronic) Manufactured in the United States of America 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of ansi/niso z39.48–1992 (r 2002) (Permanence of Paper). For Anne and for my grandchildren, Josie, James, Jonny, Lizzie, Hannah, Edith . contents List of Abbreviations Appearing in the Text and Notes ix Acknowledgments xi Introduction 1 Part I 1. History, Culture, and the Comparative Method: A West African Puzzle 17 2. Two Pastors and Their Histories: Samuel Johnson and C. C. Reindorf 38 3. Ogun in Precolonial Yorubaland: A Comparative Analysis 52 4. Divergent Modes of Religiosity in West Africa 71 5. Postsocialism, Postcolonialism, Pentecostalism 88 Part Ii 6. Context, Tradition, and the Anthropology of World Religions 105 7. Conversion and Community in Yorubaland 125 8. Yoruba Ethnogenesis and the Trajectory of Islam 150 9. A Century of Interplay Between Islam and Christianity 172 viii Contents 1 10. Pentecostalism and Salafism in Nigeria: Mirror Images? 192 2 11. The Three Circles of Yoruba Religion 214 3 4 Glossary of Yoruba and Arabic Terms Appearing in the Text and Notes 233 5 6 Notes 235 7 Index 289 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS APPEARING IN THE TEXT AND NOTES AC Action Congress ACN Action Congress of Nigeria AD Alliance for Democracy AG Action Group AIC African independent church APC African Peoples Congress AUD Ansar-ud-Deen Society of Nigeria C&S Cherubim and Seraphim CAC Christ Apostolic Church CMS Church Missionary Society COCIN Church of Christ in Nigeria DMR divergent modes of religiosity Ecomog Economic Group of West Africa Monitoring Group Festac Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture HGCA Carl Christian Reindorf, History of the Gold Coast and Asante HY Samuel Johnson, History of the Yorubas JNI Jama‘atu Nasril Islam (Society for the Victory of Islam) LASU Lagos State University LIA League of Imams and Alfas MSS Muslim Students Society Muswen Muslim Ummah of South-Western Nigeria Nasfat Nasrul-Lahi-il-Fathi NCNC National Council of Nigerian and the Cameroons (later National Congress of Nigerian Citizens) ix x Abbreviations 1 NEPA Nigerian Electric Power Authority 2 NNDP Nigerian National Democratic party 3 NPN National Party of Nigeria 4 NSCIA Nigerian Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs 5 OPC Oodua People’s Congress 6 PDP People’s Democratic Party 7 RCCG Redeemed Christian Church of God 8 SDP Social Democratic Party 9 SIM Sudan Interior Mission 10 SOAS School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London) 11 UI University of Ibadan 12 UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural 13 Organization 14 UPN Unity Party of Nigeria 15 YTR Yoruba traditional religion 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The germ from which this book grew was the Birkbeck Lectures inEcclesiastical History, which I was invited to give in 2009 by the University of Cambridge, in conjunction with Trinity College. I was later invited to give the Bapsybanoo Marchioness of Winchester Lecture in May 2011 at the University of Oxford, hosted by the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology (then headed by Professor David Gellner) and All Souls College. The last chapter grew from a lecture given at the Instituto de Antropología at the Cuban Academy of Sciences in Havana, organized under the auspices of the British Academy. A two-week sojourn at the Zentrum Moderner Orient in Berlin in 2010 gave me the opportunity to present an early overview of several chapters. I remember with pleasure and gratitude the generous hospitality of all these institutions. While African Christianity had been a principal research interest of mine for over half a century, I was increasingly aware of just how skimpy was my knowledge of Yoruba Islam. So to prepare for the Birkbeck Lectures, I decided that I needed to undertake more field research specifically on Islam. This was funded by two awards from the admirable Small Grants Scheme of the British Academy, in 2008 and 2009. For this I was based at the University of Ibadan, where the Institut Français de Recherche en Afrique (IFRA) under successive directors, Dr. Ruth Marshall and Dr. Jean-Luc Martineau, provided me with accommodation and much good company during both visits. As a neophyte in the study of Yoruba Islam, I have been very fortunate to come to know Imam Salahuddeen Busairi, through whose example and friendship I have learned so much, especially about Muslim life in Ibadan at the local level. Professor Amidu Sanni of Lagos State University helped me greatly with contacts xi xii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 1 in Lagos and through sharing the broad sweep of his knowledge of matters Islamic. 2 At the University of Ibadan, members of the Department of Arabic and Islamic 3 Studies, particularly Professor M. O. Abdul-Rahmon, Dr K. K. Oloso, and Dr. L. O. 4 Abbas, were always helpful in responding to my inquiries. For the warm reception 5 I received on a visit to Al-Hikmah University, Ilorin, I thank its vice-chancellor, 6 Professor R. D. Abubakre. A two-week visit to Kaduna was greatly facilitated by 7 Fr. Matthew Kukah (now Catholic bishop of Sokoto), who also kindly arranged 8 for Mr. Samuel Aruwan to serve as a most knowledgeable guide round the city. 9 As over many years past, my time in Ibadan was greatly enhanced by the com- 10 pany of old friends: above all by Professor J. F. Ade Ajayi—may he rest in peace—his 11 wife, Christie, and other members of his family; by Segun Oke, Tunji and Funmi 12 Oloruntimehin, Bolanle Awe, Tunde Adegbola, and Chris Bankole. I cannot omit 13 mention of the Ven. J. S. Adekoya and his parishioners of St Paul’s Church, Yemetu, 14 who extended the hand of fellowship to me on Sunday mornings. 15 I have gained more from the help of friends, colleagues, and former students, 16 in discussing ideas, making suggestions, and commenting on the draft chapters 17 of this book than I can readily acknowledge. Preeminent here is the long con- 18 versation I have had since the mid-1960s with Robin Horton, which has done so 19 much to sharpen my own thinking. I am greatly indebted to Tom McCaskie for 20 the countless exchanges we have enjoyed over the years, as well as to my long- 21 term colleagues in the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) Richard 22 Fardon and Paul Gifford.