SURVIVAL OF AFRICAN TRADITIONAL RELIGION IN A PLURALISTIC RELIGIOUS NIGERIAN SOCIETY

ABSTRACT

The thrust and concern of this thesis is on survival African Traditional Religion in a pluralistic religious Nigeria society. Prior to the advent and spread of external forces of change engendered by colonialism, commerce and foreign religions, Africans have their religion; in other words, the indigenous African way of worship and life. The study employed phenomenological method. The word phonological is an adjective derived from the noun ‘phenomenology’. The primary objectives of the phenomenological method of research is the direct investigation and explanation of phenomena as consciously experienced without theories about their causal explanation and as free as possible from preconceptions and presuppositions. The study found among other things the spread of African Religion to some areas on the planet earth especially where Africans are found and has influenced the lives of even non-Africans. African Religion is found in America especially, the Caribbean Islands, Jamaica, Haiti, Trinidad, Cuba, and Brazil among others. This study therefore investigates the hindrance of foreign religious on the religio-cultural life of African (Nigerian) people specifically; on the African religion. The study examines how Christians ideas have influenced the religion, culture, conception of life and worldview of African peoples hence affecting its continuity. Furthermore, the  study  discovered that the religion gives the African (Nigerian) people a sense of direction and security in life making them realize where they are going and their natural endowments, providing solutions to their problems hence they find it extremely difficult to abandon it for any other religion. These account for its continued probable continuity in a pluralistic society like Nigeria. The study underscores the need for symbiotic existence between the  indigenous  and foreign religions and values in all aspects of life. The study also showed that African Traditional Religion would survive in a pluralistic religious Nigerian society. To this end, there will be cultural revival especial as it affects our traditional religious system. This will no doubt give us a pride of place in this world of today.