African Christianity: The search for an African Personality

Abstract

African Christianity, as the synthesis between Christianity and African Traditional Religion, seems to evoke an inquiry relating to the issue of African personality. Scholars such as Blyden and Damuah viewed African converts as extenders of alien traditions by turning away from their own. For this awareness, both scholars proposed an alternative approach – that is, the resuscitation of African persona, whereby African Christians can resuscitate and grow their own indigenous traditions, focusing on the African Traditional Religion in particular, and cease to extend alien traditions, which are often put together with African ideals. Using a qualitative research approach, in the form of document analysis, this paper critically examines the advocacy for African personality by Blyden and Damuah and the reasons for calling for such an approach.

Keywords

• african christianity
• african traditional religion
• african personality