Should Religion Come Ahead of Culture?
Should religion be ahead of culture? Or should it be the other way round? This has become an intense debate especially among the conquered peoples. Yes, conquered peoples! Normally, it should not be a debate in a free society. I doubt if the debate of the one that comes first between Judaism or Christianity and the Jewish culture will ever cross the mind of the Jews. This debate, in sincerity, will not even worth a minute of the Saudis, owners of Islam. If, per-chance, it comes up the obvious pick is culture! Anyways, religion is part of culture; they are inseparable.
What is culture really? It is a people’s total way of life including their spirituality. “Total way of life” encapsulates the pattern of dressing, eating, greeting, housing, interpersonal relationship, communal festivities and other activities that define human existence. Different human communities formulated their peculiar patterns of these behaviours as their social codes. It is this same communities or individuals from these communities that created religions.
Consequently, religion is an arm of culture. This is why it is evidence based to say African religion, Western religion, Arabian religion, etc. The adjective “African” stands for the peoples of the region and in context the peoples can be substituted with their cultures, ditto Western religion.
It will be erroneous to say a religion has its exclusive culture! The reality is that religions are exported with the cultures of their origin. Elements of the culture where a religious movement begin will always mix with its practice and such elements are often mistaken as religious items but in truth they are cultural items of their communities of origin. Understandably, the indigenous adherents of a religion will relate well with such items as their cultural dictates rather than spiritual instructions.
The wearing of Thobe, Abaya, and the Shemagh in Saudi Arabia, which also has environmental significance, was part of their pre-Islamic tradition but it continues to be their traditional dress in the era of Islamic tradition. It will be absolute misrepresentation if it is deemed to be the spiritually acceptable mode of dressing in Islam by other cultures that have embraced the religion. Let us also cite the wearing of suit by a Christian pastor as an example, the mode of dressing is purely Western and has nothing to do with the religion. The same applies to the white wedding tradition which has become an identity for Christianity. Apparently, the West after receiving the religion from the Jewish tradition has domesticated it into their culture. However, this is not to say there are no spiritual dresses in some cultures.
Exported religions are always domesticated which brings about the emergence of variations. The domestication comes in the form of doctrine. We cannot deny the existence of African variation of Islam or Christianity. The variation can further be broken down to ethnic variations; Yoruba Islam, Igbo Catholism, etc. Why? It is simply because the religions have been modified to suit some cultural realities different from that of their cultures of origin. If Yoruba traditional religion from the Western part of Nigeria in Africa was exported to Austria, Agbada—a male traditional dress—would be mistaken as a religious regalia.
It is sheer deception to arrogate perfection to any culture; infact the idea of perfection does not exist. It is why change or review is always required as time goes by. No religion is also perfect, the conflict of ideas attest to this. If the bible were to be rewritten today, the writers might want to take a second look at the issue of divorce. The bible frowns at divorce, however, in our society today some persons might still be walking alive on earth if they had taken precaution by opting to exit their abusive marriage. How do we reconcile the fact that the bible is against divorce but the West that propagates the religion favours divorce?
Africans have infused elements of indigenous spirituality into their imported religion, Christianity and Islam especially. Some Pentecostal and white germent churches (in Nigeria especially) use modified African spirituality in Christianity for divine expectations. The same is with Islam. These practices are obviously alien to the original form of the religions.
The belief that religion must come ahead of culture can only be a product of ignorance or conquered mind. This mentality has held down Africa, preventing it from developing. It has caused uninformed fanaticism which is the recipe for conflict and retardation. The reality Africans must embrace is that the civilizations that have spread their religions extensively smuggled their cultures along. It is why as an African Muslim you tend to be conservative and act like the Arabs while as an African Christian you act liberal and behave like the West.
The day Africans begin to separate the elements of culture hidden in the imported religions is when real enlightenment and liberation will begin. It is from then on reawakening of indigenous culture will begin which will engender development. The scale of ignorance and fanaticism will fall off from the eyes and the dignity of Africanness will be restored. Nothing like Islamic culture or Christianity culture, it is all ruse. Your religious codes do not qualify as culture!