Clash of Traditions: Christianity and African Traditional Religions in Ìlàjẹland

Abstract

The populations of Ìlàjẹ theocratic communities consider themselves culturally distinct from the inhabitants of their native settlements. The inhabitants of the former predominantly originate from the latter, as before the formation of theocratic communities in Ìlàjẹland, Ìlàjẹ indigenes in their homeland inhabited villages and islands within their coastal boundaries. To escape persecution and to practice their faith without inhibition, the Holy Apostles opposed to the traditional practice of twin-infanticide and other reform groups within the C & S society in Ìlàjẹland migrated from their original settlements through a novel strategy that led to the creation of autonomous communities independent of local authorities. The Holy Apostles established Ayétòrò in 1947, while a reformist group within the C & S Society founded the Cherubim and Seraphim Zion Church at Ugbónlá in 1948. Presently, more than forty settlements founded on Christian principles are found across the Ìlàjẹ coast. The theocratic communities claim to have eliminated Ìlàjẹ traditional customs in their new settlements due to their aversion to them. They claim that the administration of their communities derives from the active presence of the Holy Spirit. This assertion should impede significant convergence between the customs and traditions of these two social systems. To test these claims, the research interrogated the cultural practices across these two ideological settings using ethnographic fieldwork. The research identified significant assimilation of cultural practices of the natal settlements in Ìlàjẹ theocratic communities. These include the institutionalisation of role substitutes like the Cherubim band replacing the civil law-enforcement agencies in Ìlàjẹ natal settlements, the hybridisation of cultural practices including marriage and burial customs deriving from Ìlàjẹ natal settlements and the improvisation or the innovative reconfiguration of agelong cultural ideas to enable them to meet the orientations of theocratic settlements in the region.