The production of the sacred in postcolonial Africa

This study seeks to discuss the persistence of religion in colonial and postcolonial narratives of confinement and exclusion. I begin by first exploring the history of religion in relation to colonial representations of Africa(ns) as savage and, situating the narratives of confinement and exclusion in the context of South Africa's colonial history, I set out to demonstrate the temporal and spatial expressions of the sacred as it is invoked/ produced by both the colonized and colonizer. I then proceed to explore such contests of power to produce the sacred in Frantz Fanon's On National Culture and the indigenous authorities in post-apartheid South Africa. In doing so, I draw upon the resources of postcolonial theory, subaltern studies and African/Fanon studies to demonstrate how strategies of containment and exclusion have been employed to mediate the persistence of the sacred in colonial, anti-colonial and African nationalist discourses. A further distinguishing feature of this study is that it seeks demonstrate through the metaphor of infection, the persistence of religion regardless of, and in fact activated by, these strategies that seek to domesticate and disinfect the sacred.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Department of Religious Studies

Year dc:date.issued

2006

Author dc:creator

• Settler, Federico

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Chidester, David

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/8192

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/8192