RST3707/201/2/2017

Tutorial letter 201/2/2017

Africa’s Religious Heritage

RST3707

Semester 2

Religious Studies & Arabic

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:
This tutorial letter contains important information
about your module.
Dear Student

Hierdie studiebrief is slegs in Engels beskikbaar. Afrikaanse studente is egter welkom om die
eksamen in Afrikaans te beantwoord.

In this Tutorial Letter we provide you with feedback on Assignments 01 and 02, as well as with
information on the format and content of the examination paper.

Feedback on Assignment 01

In this assignment you were asked to write an essay of 5-6 pages in which you assess
Chidester's analysis of imperial religious studies and his prospect for religious studies as a
field informed by postcolonial theory. You were expected to study the prescribed article by
Chidester (included in your Reader), use your own words in summarizing his argument and
argue your own view in debate with his analysis.
In answering you need to always cite the sources consulted so as to avoid plagiarism which is
an academic offense. In-text-references and a list of references should always be used to
acknowledge the sources of ideas and material that are not originally yours. This assignment,
however, was an exception because it was based on the reading of one article and whatever
you gave as an answer to the three questions is understood to have been based on that same
article. Nevertheless, if you quoted word for word from the article, you still had to use the
Harvard system to acknowledge the source. In the next assignment and in any other essay type
question, with the exception of those written under examination conditions, one should always
remember to reference properly. Consult tutorial letter 301/2015 on how to reference your work.

In order to assist you in understanding Chidester's article, we summarize it by means of three

questions that he addresses in the article. This feedback is not going to be a model answer(s),
but is just going to help you understand Chidester's argument.

1 How did modern European colonial powers use / instrumentalise religion and how
did indigenous subjects react to this? Or, to rephrase the question: What roles did
religion play in encounters between European colonial powers and indigenous
subjects? To illustrate the argument you must provide examples that are historically
and geographically specific.

Your answer was supposed to include the thoughts below and more. It ought to have pointed
out that the European colonial powers used religion as a tool to oppress and conquer. In the
17th century they created the impression that the people they were meeting with had no trace of
religion at all or did not know anything about religion. This they did so that they would find a
basis to justify why they had to colonise. The argument, as Chidester (2000: 428) puts it, is that
if these people lacked something as important as religion, then they could not claim any rights
to land, life, livestock, etc. It seems that the denial of the existence of any indigenous religion
was orchestrated by the Europeans to guarantee their hidden motives of colonizing the
indigenous people and depriving them of any basic human rights. In other words, religion was
used as a tool to dispossess the indigenous people of what had been theirs before the
Europeans invaded their lands. The article is replete with examples that you were required to
give to illustrate your answers. As Chidester (2000: 426) puts it, ‘the indigenous people all over
the world struggled to make sense out of colonial situations’. Chidester (2000: 426) provides

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several examples of ways in which some indigenous people reacted by reworking indigenous
myths to make sense of the military incursions.

2 How did the 19th century academic study of religion serve the interests of modern
European colonial powers? Provide specific examples to illustrate your argument.

Your answer was supposed to indicate that there was a shift from the original rejection or denial
of any existence of religion in the colonised lands to the discovery of indigenous religions. It was
supposed to go on to emphasize that this, however, still sought to privilege Christianity as a far
superior religion. All the other religions (indigenous) were ‘superstitious.’

The 19th century academic study of religion was still prejudiced and just like the reports of the
missionaries, travellers and explorers before this time, continued to accord the Europeans (and
Christianity) a superior place on an evolutionary scale. The academic studies of people like F.
Max Müller, Tylor and Frazer – influenced by Hegel’s evolutionary theory of cultural progress -
were supposed to be given as examples to illustrate your argument.

3 How may postcolonial theory inform the future academic study of religion?

One ought to understand postcolonial theory in the light of the two positions that Chidester
(2000: 433ff) mentions: indigeneity and hybridity. Indigeneity seeks to recover the pure tradition
or traditions of the past in their precolonial form. Chidester (2000: 434) describes indigeneity as
‘essentialist’. In other words, indigeneity presupposes that it is possible to recover those ‘pure
traditions’ and it also seems to suggest that the so-called ‘traditions’ have remained static
(without changing) since time immemorial. Hybridity, on the contrary, looks at the space in
between (Chidester 2000: 434-435). It does not focus on either the traditions of the colonised or
the colonisers, but on the negotiation between the two. It maintains that migrants, exiles and
diaspora communities that characterize modern times pose a challenge to the indigenist search
for pure traditions; it furthermore argues that focusing on the colonizers may be missing the
actual issue that lies in ‘the space in between.’ Whether one chooses indigeneity or hybridity will
inform the future academic study of religion. If scholars keep emphasizing recovering the
traditions of the past in their pure form that will sway the future academic study of religion that
way, but if they focus on the negotiation in the zones of encounter (where the indigenous met
with the European) that also will sway the future academic study of religion towards that
direction.

You may need to reread the article and, using the guidelines above, see how you should
have responded. It will also help to reread pp. 2-6 in the study guide.

Feedback on Assignment 02

In this assignment you were requested to assess in ca 5-6 pages a critical analysis of the
functions of Haitian Vodou. You were to base your essay on Study Unit 5, including the
prescribed reading material for that unit. You could, of course, have used any additional
material that you find appropriate to the topic.

You were given guidelines on structuring your essay (introduction, body, conclusion) and on the
content of each of these sections. In marking your assignment we used the template in Tutorial
letter 101.

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Since we provide you with individual feedback on the structure and content of your essay, we
do not provide you with more details here.

Formal issues: Reference technique and plagiarism

Finally, please note again:

 we recommend the Harvard reference technique, on which you will find plenty of
information on the internet (there are surely different versions of this technique; the
important point is that you consistently follow the one that you choose);

 always include the statement on plagiarism with each assignment that you send us (cf
Tutorial Letter 101). Plagiarism is a serious academic offense. If we detect plagiarism in
your essay, we have no choice but to give you 0%. According to Unisa’s policy on
plagiarism disciplinary action may be taken against students who are guilty of it.

Information on the examination

The examination paper will consist of SIX questions, of which you may answer any FOUR (25
marks each):

Question 1 focuses on colonial and postcolonial approaches to the study of religion (Study unit
1 in the study guide, with prescribed reading).

Questions 2 and 3 deal with Indigenous African religion (Study units 2 - 5 in the study guide,
with prescribed reading).

Question 4 and 5 deal with Christianity in Africa (study units 6 - 8 in the study guide, with
prescribed reading).

Question 5 deals with Islam in Africa (Tutorial letter 102).

We trust that you have found this module stimulating and that all will go well with the
examination. We gladly invite you to consider our other modules for inclusion in your study
package. We are happy if you have already decided to offer Religious Studies as a major. If you
have not taken such a decision yet, kindly consider the possibility.

Please note that Mr Elijah Dube will be the responsible lecturer for this module in the second
semester, since I will be on study leave. You may contact him at dubeeen@unisa.ac.za, mobile
+27 84 309 8558.

Best wishes

Prof Johan Strijdom

Mobile: 0798193169
Fax: (01) 429-4417
E-mail: strijjm@unisa.ac.za

RST3707_2017_TL_201_2_B
2017-07-30