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Endnotes
1. Some scholars are still of the opinion that the adjective ‘traditional’ should be dropped in ATR in favour of using simply African Religion (AR). I have no problem using either ATR or AR. However, I feel more comfortable with the former. I have yet to discover in the English language where the word ‘traditional’ implies any derogatory meaning. If ‘traditional’ has become unacceptable, does it logically follow that any word used to describe a ‘traditional’ religion will eventually become derogatory? ‘Traditional’ was chosen over ‘primitive’ specifically because it was not derogatory. If we refer to ATR as simply ‘African Religion’, how will we then differentiate between ATR and the broader context of AR, which encompasses all religious expression (of any origin) in Africa?
2. The sound arguments of some scholars about the use of the singular ‘Religion’ instead of ‘Religions’ in reference to ATR may have laid to rest the debate regarding the appropriateness of these terms. The two outstanding arguments in favour of the homogeneity of ATR have come from Idowu (1973, 104) and Magesa (1997, 14–18). Idowu argued that African people have a common racial origin and therefore all African culture and religious beliefs have evolved from a common source, which he described as ‘negritude’, an expression of their common Africanness. Magesa argued that AR is one in its essence. There is a ‘basic worldview’ that is fundamentally the same throughout Africa. The varieties that exist within ATR cannot be taken to mean a diversity of fundamental belief. Parrinder (1962, 11), writing earlier, observed, over four decades, that homogeneity is apparent in ATR. In similar vein, Taylor stated,
There is not one homogeneous system of belief throughout Africa…Nevertheless anyone who has read a number of anthropological works dealing with different parts of Africa must be struck not only by the remarkable number of features that are common but by the emergence of a basic world-view which fundamentally is everywhere the same. (1963, 27)
3. The dissertation, entitled Fundamental Concepts of Limba Traditional Religion and Its Effects on Limba Christianity and Vice Versa in Sierra Leone in the Past Three Decades, was completed in 2004.