“Knowing Each Other”: Everyday Religious Encounters and Gendered Identities in Southwest Nigeria

Insa Nolte, University of Birmingham

Since the end of the Cold War, and especially since September 2001, research exploring religious difference in Africa has focused on politics and the public sphere. At the same time, the majority of anthropological work on the role of religion for everyday life focuses on the practices and transformations within Muslim or Christian societies. As a result, we know very little about the practices that structure the fine grain of everyday life in inter-religious societies, and about the way in which the presence of two and more religions within a society may affect the development of social identities.

This seminar attempts to map out possibilities for the study of everyday religious encounter among the multi-religious Yoruba people of southwest Nigeria. In addition to more traditional historical and anthropological methods, it draws on an ethnographic door-to-door survey of over 2,500 respondents from different states and from rural as well as urban communities which offers information on a wide range of topics. Focusing on trends of conversion and inter-religious marriage in various parts of Yorubaland during the 20th and early 21st centuries, the seminar will focus on the way in which gendered identities reflect the everyday encounter with religious difference.

Organiser: Dr Marie Rodet

Contact email: mr28@soas.ac.uk