Religious Encounter and the Making of the Yoruba (African Systems of Thought) [Hardcover]

J. D. Y. Peel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2001 | Series: African Systems of Thought

Here, the author contends that it is through their encounter with Christian missions in the mid-19th century that the Yoruba have come to know themselves as such. This detailed study looks at journals written by African agents of the mission who played a key role in shaping Yoruba consciousness. By focusing on the lived experience of ordinary Yoruba, this title aimgs to show how the process of Christian covnversion began to transform Christianity into something more deeply Yoruba. This is intended as a book for readers interested in African history, colonialism and culture, religious change and the globalization of Christianity.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"For three decades Peel has published on the Yoruba—Aladura: A Religious Movement among the Yoruba (1968) has become an anthropological classic. Now Peel sets an anthropological aim (studying the impact of the Church Missionary Society on a group of Africans who became the Yoruba) but takes form and mode from history (employing events and missionary journals as sources). Early missionaries in the later 19th century included Europeans and ex-slave returnees from Sierra Leone; these men were the quintessential cultural middlemen, adapting Christianity and transforming Yoruba identity in a single seamless process. This 11-chapter book presents a useful discussion of narratives of religion and of empire, and Peel makes a very important point: early missionaries saw heathenism as an absence or vacuum, rather than as something with durability, style, and an ethos of its own. Further chapters are titled Yorubaland at War, Missionary Power, Preaching the Word, Paths to Conversion, and The Making of the Yoruba. In Engaging with Islam, Peel explains that Islam and Christianity were in competition and both religions had to.. offer a means to individual and collective empowerment and they had to offer attractive, viable identities. Well documented with valuable notes and references-cited section. General readers; all academic levels." —B. M. du Toit, emeritus, University of Florida, Choice, November 2001

(B. M. du Toit, emeritus, University of Florida Choice 2001)

"... a magnificent excursion into Yoruba religious history of the nineteenth century." —International Journal of African Historical Studies

(International Journal of African Historical Studies ) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

J. D. Y. Peel is on the faculty of the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. He has held appointments at the London School of Economics, Nottingham University, Liverpool University, and the University of Chicago. He is author of Aladura and Ijeshas and Nigerians, for which he won the Herskovits award. He has been editor of Africa and is former president of the African Studies Association of the United Kingdom. He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1991.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 435 pages
• Publisher: Indiana University Press (March 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0253337941
• ISBN-13: 978-0253337948
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,017,872 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent look at historical records, May 20, 2006

By 

kevin "ohsocal" (SoCal) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Religious Encounter and the Making of the Yoruba (African Systems of Thought) (Paperback)

This book is a scholarly look at 19th century Yorubaland through close reading of Church Missionary Society archive materials (reports, journal entries, letters, etc.) which detail Mission activity, historical events, religious prosthelization, and numerous anecdotes of daily life and cultural struggle (between competing factions of Africans, as well as between Christianity and indigenous religion) during this chaotic period of Yoruba history. Many of the missionaries were themselves African and thus had a solid cultural and linguistic background from which to draw their observations, though, as Peel notes, they also had their agendas. As the foundation of the Yoruba modern intelligencia came out of the missionary movement (as did the written form of the Yoruba language and the first inscribed histories), this is a critical historical moment that Peel explores using contemporary 19th century eye-witness accounts. As the title notes, Peel feels that this religious encounter between Yoruba indigenous religion and British/Yoruba Christianity is very relevant and formative to the modern notion of being Yoruba. It is very thorough (and thus a tad slow) and aimed primarily at a scholarly readership.

I truly doubt the previous reviewer actually read the book, as it is the 19th century missionaries who use the word "pagan" to describe indigenous religion, not the author.

1.0 out of 5 stars Nonsense, February 24, 2012

By 

The Djeli (New York City) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Religious Encounter and the Making of the Yoruba (African Systems of Thought) (Hardcover)

The stance of this book is in the tradition of those promoters of the imperialist tactic cloaked as the "Caucasian burden" that suggests that their presence Africa is a "civilizing" one.

5.0 out of 5 stars a modern classic, June 30, 2011

By 

RichardAnderson - See all my reviews

This review is from: Religious Encounter and the Making of the Yoruba (African Systems of Thought) (Paperback)

"Religious Encounter and the Making of the Yoruba" is a modern classic in the field of African studies and the capstone of John Peel's distinguished academic career. The book combines a lifetime of fieldwork in Nigeria with an impeccable reading of archival sources, making it a model for historians and anthropologists alike. Peel's study is of relevance not only to those in the fields of African history, but anyone interested in the history of Christianity and religious conversion. The one negative review posted on Amazon has received enough rebuttals for its deficiencies and should not dissuade potential buyers from purchasing this important book.