J. D. Y. Peel

Syncretism and Religious Change

A superficial view of what happens when a large number of people forsake their former religion for a new one is that some of the old beliefs become mixed with the new. It is a commonplace to hear that folk Catholicism is mixed with pagan survivals, or that newly converted African Christians are “not real Christians” or “have a veneer of Christianity”, because they have not totally abandoned all that they once believed. Such a judgment, however ethnocentric, would be pardonable in a European missionary who held a particular view of Christianity, which itself furnished a clear criterion of “real Christianity”. But similar opinions are often expressed by sociologists and anthropologists who profess themselves neutral with respect to religious belief. They are usually interested in “acculturation” or “culture contact” and consider it of great moment to be able to say how far any particular belief or practice lies along a continuum whose poles are marked “traditional” and “acculturated”. Such assumptions underlay Malinowskis much criticized scheme for the analysis of culture-contact in Africa and the great bulk of the work, by Linton, Wallace, Lanternari and others, on independent religious movements. This tradition of interpretation is still very much alive.

J. F. Ade Ajayi: A Memorial

In contrast to Funke Adeboye’s formal obituary, what I offer here are some memorial reflections on Jacob Ajayi’s life and work, starting from his signal contribution to the International African Institute. This is to start in the middle, but it makes sense to begin from the setting in which (being then newly appointed as editor of Africa) I first met him – although, of course, I had known of him through his writings and his reputation well before that. Ajayi became Chairman of the Council of the IAI – a post once occupied by Lord Lugard – in 1975. Daryll Forde had retired from his long directorship a year or so before, and there ensued a flurry of new initiatives under his successor. The Chairman’s role had for years been routine and minimal – in fact, involving little more than to chair the Council’s annual meeting, whose main business was to receive and discuss the Director’s report on the past year’s activities and plans for the next. Rarely was there anything that was controversial or called for any decisive initiative. But in 1979–80 this dramatically changed, as it became clear that the Institute’s affairs had been very badly mismanaged, and that bankruptcy loomed. Severe corrective measures were needed: staff dismissed, projects abandoned, cheaper accommodation found. The Director resigned and his successor lasted less than a year, fearing he might be held personally liable for the Institute’s debts. Ajayi doubly saved the Institute, first by securing a substantial grant from Oyo State of Nigeria, which plugged the financial black hole, and then by steadying the governance of the Institute through several very difficult years: in fact, he worked with three successive directors. Ajayi was one of the best committee chairmen I have known. His conduct of business was masterly: he always kept a firm grip on the essential issues without seeming to dominate the discussion, letting others have their say until he judged that all had been said that needed to be said, and bringing things to a clear and firm resolution. What made him so effective was less his manner – which was Africa 85 (4) 2015: 745–49 doi:10.1017/S0001972015000571