Customer Reviews

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

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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.

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.

"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.

I found this book to be unfocused, and the title, misleading. It's repeated description of the Yorubas and their religion as "pagans" and "paganism" is a throwback to the 18th century. The chapter, "Making Country Fashion", which takes an 18th century "pidgin english" phrase by "Saro" returnees and applies it to the Yoruba religion patently trivializes the religion. His translation of Yoruba words and phrases, in many instances, is erroneous or misleading. His conclusions, in many instances are unsupported or at best tenuous. For instance, his confident "certainty" that the Ifa divination system was derived from Islamic geomancy. He also dredges up old controversies, such as the existence, or lack thereof, of one God in Yoruba religion. In conclusion, this book contributes nothing to the discourse, and is a waste of money.