Abstract
The three major types of cultural pluralism in Black Africa are those based on differences in language, religion and ethnicity. We will consider each of these in this chapter.
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Notes
Like many other widely used concepts in social science, cultural pluralism enjoys no universally accepted definition. The term was introduced in J. S. Furnivall, Colonial Policy and Practice (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1948)
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Levine, R. and D. T. Campbell, Ethnocentrism: Theories of Conflict, Ethnic Attitudes, and Group behavior (New York: Wiley, 1972)
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Notable examples of this argument are contained in Karl W. Deutsch, “Social Mobilization and Political Development,” American Political Science Review, 55 (September 1961), 493–514
S. N. Eisenstadt, Modernization: Protest and Change (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1966).
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R. H. Bates, “Ethnic Competition and Modernization in Contemporary Africa,” Comparative Political Studies, 6, 4 (January 1974): 457–484
Tamotsu Shibutani and Kian M. Kwan, Ethnic Stratification: A Comparative Approach (New York: Macmillan, 1965).
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Istvan Fodor, “La classification des langues negro-africaines et la theorie de J. H. Greenberg,” Cahiers d’etudes Africaine, 7 (1968): 617–631
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J. H. Kwabena Nketia, “The Language Problem and the African Personality,” Presence Africaine, no. 67 (1968): 157–171
Jean Mfoulou, “Science et pseudo-science des langues Africaines,” Presence Africaine, no. 70 (1969): 147–161
Jack Berry, “Language Systems and Literature” in The African Experience, Vol. 1, eds. John Paden and Edward Soja (Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 1970).
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J. H. Greenberg, Language, Culture, and Communication (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1971)
D. G. Morrison and H. M. Stevenson, “Cultural Pluralism, Modernization, and Conflict: An Empirical Analysis of Sources of Political Instability in African Nations” Canadian Journal of Political Science V. 1 (1972), pp. 82–103.
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See, for example, Obafemi Awolowo, The People’s Republic (Ibadan: Oxford University Press, 1968)
See Joshua A. Fishman, “National Languages and Languages of Wider Communication in the Developing Nations,” Anthropological Linguistics, 11 (April 1969): 11–135.
For a discussion of multilingualism, see Scientific Council for Africa, Symposium on Multilingualism: Brazzaville, 1962, Publication no. 87 (London: 1962). For a summary of a pilot research project on multilingualism, see Jack Berry, “The Madina Project; Sociolinguistic Research in Ghana” in Expanding Horizons in African Studies, eds. Gwendolen M. Carter and Ann Paden (Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 1969), pp. 303–314.
W. H. Whiteley, ed., Language Use and Social Change: Problems of Multilingualism with Special Reference to Eastern Africa (London: Oxford University Press, 1971).
D. Dalby (ed.), Language and History in Africa (New York: Africana, 1971)
B. Heine Status and Use of African Lingua Francas (Munich: Weltforum Verlag, 1970)
M. A. Adekunle, “Multilingualism and Language Function in Nigeria”, African Studies Review, XV, 2 (Sept. 1972), pp. 185–208.
See John Spencer, Ed., Language in Africa (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1963)
Istvan Fodor, “Lingusitic Problems and ‘Language Planning’ in Africa,” Linguistics, 25 (September, 1966): 18–33.
David Barrett, Schism and Renewal in Africa: An Analysis of Six Thousand Contemporary Religious Movements (Nairobi: Oxford University Press, 1968).
Duncan MacDougald, Jr., The Languages and Press of Africa, (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1944).
Daryll Forde, ed., African Worlds: Studies in the Cosmological Ideas and Social Values of African Peoples (London: Oxford University Press, 1954)
John S. Mbiti, African Religions and Philosophy (New York: Praeger, 1969)
John V. Taylor, The Primal Vision: Christian Presence and African Religion (London: SCM Press, 1968)
Fr. Piacide Tempels, La Philosophie Bantoue (Elizabethville: Editions Louvania, 1945).
N. S. Book, African Religions: A Symposium (New York: NOK 1977)
H.W. Turner Bibliography of New Religious Movements in Primal Societies vol 1: Black Africa. (Boston: G. K. Hall, 1977).
Jean C. Froelich, Les Musulmans d’Afrique Noire (Paris: Editions de l’Orane, 1962)
I.M. Lewis, ed., Islam in Tropical Africa (London: Oxford University Press, 1966)
Vincent Nonteil, L’Islam Noire (Paris: Editions de Seuil, 1964)
J. Spencer Trimingham, The Influence of Islam upon Africa (London: Longmans, 1968)
J.M. Cuoq Les Musulmans en Afrique (Paris: Maisonneuve et Larouse, 1975)
R.V. Weekes Muslim Peoples (Westport: Greeenwood Press, 1978).
P.E. Ofori, Islam in Africa South of the Sahara (Nendeln, Lichtenstein: KTO Press, 1977)
S.M. Zoghby Islam in sub-Saharan Africa: A partially annotated guide, (Washington D.C., Library of Congress, 1978).
C.G. Baeta, ed., Christianity in Tropical Africa (London: Oxford University Press, 1968)
T.A. Beetham, Christianity and the New Africa (London: Pall Mall, 1967).
C.P. Groves, The Planning of Christianity in Africa, 4 vols. (London: Lutterworth Press, 1948–1958).
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Raymond F. Hopkins, “Christianity and Sociopolitical Change in Sub-Saharan Africa,” Social Forces, 44 (1966): 555–562.
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David B. Barrett, Schism and Renewal in Africa: An Analysis of Six Thousand Contemporary Religious Movements (Nairobi: Oxford University Press, 1968)
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B. R. Wilson Magic and the Millenium (London: Heineman, 1974).
H. Wakelin Coxill and Kenneth Grubb, eds., World Christian Handbook 1968 (London: Lutterworth Press, 1968).
Eglise Vivant, Bilan du Monde (Paris: Casterman, 1964).
Rycroft and Clemmer, in a useful compilation of religious and non-religious data on Africa, present a table giving Protestant totals for nations which edits the 1962 Handbook data to eliminate these duplications. W. Stanley Rycroft and Myrtle M. Clemmer, A Factual Study of Sub-Saharan Africa (New York: Commission on Ecumenical Mission and Relations, the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., 1962), p. 110.
Two of the most important of these sources are: Harlan P. Beach and Charles H. Fahs, eds., World Missionary Atlas (New York: Institute of Social and Religious Research, 1925)
Joseph I. Parker, Interpretative Statistical Survey of the World Mission of the Christian Church (New York: International Missionary Council, 1938).
Hildegard Binder Johnson, “The Location of Christian Missions in Africa,” The Geographical Review, 57, no. 2 (1961): 168.
The Christian religion data in the first edition of this work were drawn from the World Christian Handbook and therefore represent indicators of adherence. The data for the second edition was supplied by David Barrett and includes the African Independent Churches in the Christian category—the Christian variables are of identifiers. Bruce M. Russett, ed., World Handbook of Political and Social Indicators (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1964)
C.L. Taylor and M. Hudson World Handbook of Political and Social Indicators (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1972).
For two succinct discussions of the problems of ethnic unit classification or identification, see Raoul Naroll, “On Ethnic Unit Classification,” Current Anthropology, 5 (1964): 282–312
Alan Merriam, “The Concept of Culture Clusters Applied to the Belgian Congo,” Southeastern Journal of Anthropology, 15 (1959): 373–395.
For a discussion of concepts, see Jack Goody, Comparative Studies in Kinship (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1960)
George Peter Murdock, Social Structure (New York: Free Press, 1949).
For a discussion of ethnic political authority patterns, see Ronald Cohen and A. Schlegel, “The Tribe as a Socio-Political Unit—A Cross-Cultural Examination,” in Essays on the Problem of Tribe, ed. June Helm (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1968), pp. 120–149
Ronald Cohen and John Middleton, eds., Comparative Political Systems (Garden City, N.Y.: The Natural History Press, 1967)
John Middleton and David Tait, eds., Tribes Without Rulers (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1958)
Marc J. Swartz, Victor W. Turner, Arthur Tuden, eds., Political Anthropology (Chicago: Aldine, 1966)
Max Gluckman, Politics, Law and Ritual in Tribal Society (Oxford: Blackwell, 1965)
Michael Banton, ed., Political Systems and the Distribution of Power (Edinburgh: Tavistock Publications, 1963).
For a discussion of economic factors in ethnic society, see George Dalton, “Traditional Economic Systems,” in The African Experience, Vol. I, eds. John N. Paden and Edward W. Soja (Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 1970)
George Dalton, ed., Tribal and Peasant Economies: Readings in Economic Anthropology (New York: Doubleday, 1967).
These scales were constructed for the most part from the nominal classifications used in George P. Murdock, Ethnographic Atlas (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1967).
George Peter Murdock, Ethnographic Atlas (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1967).
Additional sources that were consulted where necessary were the Human Relations Area Files (HRAF), computer indexed at Northwestern University (see Donald G. Morrison, “An Index to the Human Relations Area Files,” American Behavioral Scientist, 10 (February 1967): 27–30
George Peter Murdock, Outline of Cultural Materials (New Haven, Conn.: HRAF Press, 1962)
Robert B. Textor, A Cross-Cultural Summary (New Haven, Conn.: HRAF Press, 1967).
Robert B. Textor “Computer Summarization of Coded Cross-Cultural Literature,” in Comparative Research across Cultures and Nations, ed. Stein Rokkan (The Hague: Mouton, 1968), pp. 54–63.
For a discussion of cross-cultural reliability, see Robert M. Marsh, Comparative Sociology (New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, 1967)
Frank W. Moore, ed., Readings in Cross-Cultural Methodology (New Haven, Conn.: HRAF Press, 1961), pp. 261–279
Raoul Naroll, Data Quality Control (New York: Free Press, 1962).
For a discussion of incorporation and integration in ethnic groups over time, see Ronald Cohen and John Middleton, From Tribe to Nation in Africa: Studies in Incorporation Processes (Scranton, Pa.: Chandler Publishing Company, 1970).
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Morrison, D.G., Mitchell, R.C., Paden, J.N. (1989). Cultural Pluralism. In: Black Africa. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-11023-0_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-11023-0_3
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