Council of Councils
Think Global Health
Online Store
Introduction
Over the last several decades, governments have collectively pledged to slow global warming. But despite intensified diplomacy, the world is already facing the consequences of climate…
Religion and Changing Patterns of Authority in Africa
Project Expert
About the Project
As the authority of the postcolonial African state steadily erodes in the face of numerous domestic and external challenges, scholars and policymakers have pondered how to reconstitute it. Curiously, the potential role of religion is downplayed when not totally omitted. The Project on Religion and Changing Patterns of Authority in Africa aspires to correct this oversight. It seeks to understand the role of spirituality in how ordinary people grapple with and strive to transcend the crisis of the state, how political leaders mobilize and manipulate religious symbols and affiliations, and how the religious class negotiates the state-society interface. The project tackles these questions through roundtable meetings, blog posts, and articles.
Events
Chiedo Nwankwor, vice dean of education and academic affairs, and director of SAIS Women Lead at Johns Hopkins University, and Ebenezer Obadare, the Douglas Dillon senior fellow for Africa studies at…
In the News
-
The ongoing Emirship tussle in Nigeria begs broader questions about the place of traditional rulership in Africa’s emerging democracies.
-
Among a cross section of Nigerian Christians, support for former US President Donald Trump remains stubbornly strong.
-
Authorities in Nigeria squander an opportunity to make a statement about human dignity and genuine social inclusion.
-
More than a mere automobile, the sport utility vehicle (SUV) in Nigeria is rich in social meaning.
-
The relationship between a Nigerian pastor on death row and his congregation offers a timely glimpse into the nature of devotion and social obedience across African Pentecostal churches.
-
Nigerians are increasingly frustrated with the Bola Tinubu administration, none more so than Nigerian Christians.
-
When it comes to wealth transfer, Nigerian Pentecostal churches prefer to keep it all in the family.
-
The phenomenon of state-sponsored weddings across Nigeria’s predominantly Muslim northern region raises pertinent questions on the limits of political benevolence.
-
What various forms of bodily deportment can teach us about power and authority in Africa.
-
The apparent success of the military coup in Niger bodes ill for democracy and stability in the Sahel and the rest of the continent.
-
Nigeria’s close-run presidential election was not about religion, until it was.
-
Pope Francis’ diagnosis of the causes of African underdevelopment is simplistic, condescending, and ahistorical.
-
-
Horrendous killing of college sophomore highlights the country’s ethnoreligious fault line, but interdenominational rivalry in the south is of no less moment.
-
The brutal murder of college sophomore evokes conflicting visions of citizenship and political identity in Nigeria.
-
Despite the mockery she receives, Pastor Mummy G.O. is an exception to the Nigerian Pentecostal norm as her strict theological model contrasts sharply with Pentecostalism’s current adhesion to the Prosperity Gospel.
-
Across West Africa, Pentecostal pastors hold huge public sway. Their influence is a reflection of deepening distrust of the secular state and its ability to fulfill citizens' demands.