Development and Invisible Worlds / S. Ellis -- The Mbuliluli Principle: What is in a Name? / G.ter Haar -- Muslim Shrines in Cape Town: Religion and Post-Apartheid Public Spheres / A. Tayob -- Remaking Society from Within: Extraversion and the Social Forms of Female Muslim Activism in Urban Mali / D.E. Shulz -- Dàwah and Politics in West Africa: Muslim Jamàat and Non Government organisations in Ghana, Sierre Leone and The Gambia / D.E. Skinner -- Faith-based Organisations, the State and Politics in Tanzania / E.T. Mallya -- Pentecostal Religion and Development in Urban Mozambique / L. Van de Kamp -- Health and the Uses of Religion: Recovering the Political Proper? / J.R. Cochrane -- Marshalling the Powers: The Challenge of Everyday Religion for Development / E. Graveling -- Sacred Struggles: The World Council of Churches and the HIV Epidemic in Africa / E. Chitando -- Conclusion: Reflections on Modernisation without Secularisation / B. Bompani & M. Frahm-Arp
Summary
In what ways and senses does religion endure? In what ways has development failed Africa? How can we build effective African politics from below? These are some of the questions explored in this volume, which seeks to analyze the shifting and complex sets of relationships that exist between religion, politics and development in Africa. Modernist and secularist thinking has long predicted that religion would be rendered irrelevant, to be sidestepped, ignored or eliminated. However, this is not the case in 21st century Africa. Religion plays an increasingly important role in politics and development. This volume captures the dynamism and power of religion in Africa. In doing so it aims to move beyond narrow conceptualisations of 'politics' and 'development' and public and private spaces in order to uncover the meaning of modern religion in Africa and the many ways it is embedded in millions of Africans' everyday struggles to survive, sustain themselves and make sense of the modern world
