Barbara Bompani and Maria Frahm-Arp. Development and Politics from Below: Exploring Religious Spaces in the African State. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010. xiii, 257pp.
Religion in Africa plays a central role in every aspect of people's lives. Using Western benchmarks to study African religious experiences has often produced results that do not do justice to the African experience. The book's contributors seek to answer how different the African religious experience is and how it interplays with politics and development to impact various societies. The focus is on ordinary people who through religion have become agents of positive transformations, which recognized political structures seem to have failed. Professors from diverse disciplines in Europe, United States of America, and Africa shared their thoughts and research on religion, politics, and developmental issues in a 2008 conference with a title similar to that of the book.
The ten chapters are divided into three sections. In Part I, "Challenging the Secular: Religion and Public Spaces," Stephen Ellis is convinced that African states do not share Western concepts of separation between religion and state. Spiritual thoughts supersede the physical. Thus in a real sense, when African religious beliefs are placed beside the West's, the modernity principles that leave out religious roles do not work for Africa. Gerrie ter Haar uses Emmanuel Milingo, the Catholic Archbishop of Lusaka, as a case study to show how religion (Christianity) extract self-help programs to generate change in food production through the Mubliuli Economic Principle. Ter Haars seeks human dignity through self-improvement. Abdulkader Tayob also looks at dignity in religious traditions, spaces, and identities in South Africa by examining the kramat burial sites for Muslim saints. Dorothea Schulz accesses Muslim women of Bamako, Mali, and how foreign donors have helped to transformed them over the years. The underlining argument in this chapter is that change through religious activism emanates from self-recognition and mutual group support that does not require an 'other' to dictate the principles and pace.
Part II, "Religion between State and Society," reflects on the carved space of religion that exists between the state and the society and the relationship that accrues from this. Skinner surveys this religious space in Gambia, Ghana, and Sierra Leone in looking at the tremendous growth Islam has attained in exerting its influence into the social (education and health), political and economic public spaces, locally and internationally, thereby becoming more open to secular developments. Ernest Mallya continues with a study of the relationship between faith-based organizations (FBOs), NGOs, and the government in Tanzania and concludes that religious groups are at the mercy of the government, which is appropriating the resources of the FBOs and NGOs. Linda van de Kamp evaluates the Universal Church of Christ in Mozambique to expose the negativity in some religious activities. This church encourages its members to give money to the church, reminiscent of the early Catholic Church selling indulgences. The result is the continual poverty of the congregation while the "men of God" become rich. The emphasis of these chapters is on the religious groups filling the vacuum created by political institutions and helping to foster a new process of advancement for the people. In addition, they espouse that religious activism does sometimes have negative implications even though the intention may be noble.
In Part III, "Health Care Provision: Reflections on Religion," James Cochrane offers a theoretical framework for the study of religions to arrive at a public acceptance of the relationship between religion and politics. Elizabeth Graveling uses the village of Ndwumizili to elaborate on how people alternate between different religions to achieve life's satisfaction, while Ezra Chitando assesses how the World Council of Churches is dealing with the HIV epidemic in Africa.
The selection of papers in this book all speak to the relationship between religion and development that most Western countries downplay. The contributors have all shown that religion can help bring about development and societal cohesion in instances where politics fail. Using salient information gleaned from books, journal articles, radio broadcasts, interviews, and internet sources, the authors in one voice reiterate the ordinary people's effort at effecting change in their society. The synthesis of all the papers have successfully interrogated and reflected on "the significance of the kinds of public action that manifest themselves in nonWestern societies" (p. 3). This is an important contribution for policy makers, development agencies, and religious groups to acquaint themselves with formulating policies that will be beneficial to the people they are serving.
Lady Jane Acquah, University of Texas at Austin
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