Top of page

Film, Video Secular Africa? Making Sense of the Interplay Between Secular Constitutions and Religious Citizens

Event video

Transcript: TEXT

About this Item

Title

  • Secular Africa? Making Sense of the Interplay Between Secular Constitutions and Religious Citizens

Summary

  • On July 19 and 20, 2022, the African and Middle Eastern Division (AMED) hosted a symposium, "Religious Practices, Transmission, and Literacies in Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia." The symposium featured the presentations of seven scholars who conducted two-week research residencies in the AMED Reading Room between June 1 and July 15. The residencies and symposium are part of the Exploring Challenging Conversations project generously funded by a planning grant from the Lilly Endowment, Inc. The purpose of the initiative was to enhance public awareness of cross-regional and intercultural religious understanding in Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, and their global diaspora. ; ; Jacques Berlinerblau is the Rabbi Harold White Professor of Jewish Civilization at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. ; ; Twenty-eight of Africa's fifty-four nations possess constitutions whose edicts regarding proper relations between government and religion/s may be described as "secular". While this intriguing fact is known to many scholars of Africa, it is rarely considered by journalists, policy analysts and even those who study political secularism. All of which raises an important geopolitical data point for further scrutiny: more than half of the countries in the world's most youthful, religious, and likely soon-to-be most populous continent are, in theory, wed to formally secular structures of governance. In this presentation the speaker begins by defining the "constitutionally secular African nation state." From there the speaker proceeds to interrogate a paradox: constitutionally secular states in Africa, wed to the principle of "separation of church and state" don't actually seem to separate religion from politics. Quite the contrary, in many instances governments openly embrace religious symbols, favor certain religious groups, and meddle in religious affairs. Conversely, religious groups routinely mobilize for politics, often with great success. The speaker tries to explain this paradox by reference to prevailing scholarship on political secularism and theories of state fragility.

Names

  • Library of Congress
  • Library of Congress. African and Middle Eastern Division, sponsoring body

Created / Published

  • Washington, D.C. : Library of Congress, 2022-08-15.

Notes

  • -  Group name: Religious Practices, Transmission, and Literacies in Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia. 0
  • -  Edward Miner, Bethania Michael, Jacques Berlinerblau.
  • -  Recorded on 2022-08-15.

Medium

  • 1 online resource

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

  • 2024698116

Online Format

  • video
  • image
  • online text

Additional Metadata Formats

Rights & Access

While the Library of Congress created most of the videos in this collection, they include copyrighted materials that the Library has permission from rightsholders to present.  Rights assessment is your responsibility.  The written permission of the copyright owners in materials not in the public domain is required for distribution, reproduction, or other use of protected items beyond that allowed by fair use or other statutory exemptions. There may also be content that is protected under the copyright or neighboring-rights laws of other nations.  Permissions may additionally be required from holders of other rights (such as publicity and/or privacy rights). Whenever possible, we provide information that we have about copyright owners and related matters in the catalog records, finding aids and other texts that accompany collections. However, the information we have may not be accurate or complete.

More about Copyright and other Restrictions

For guidance about compiling full citations consult Citing Primary Sources.

Credit Line: Library of Congress

Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Library Of Congress, and Sponsoring Body Library Of Congress. African And Middle Eastern Division. Secular Africa? Making Sense of the Interplay Between Secular Constitutions and Religious Citizens. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, -08-15, 2022. Video. https://www.loc.gov/item/2024698116/.

APA citation style:

Library Of Congress & Library Of Congress. African And Middle Eastern Division, S. B. (2022) Secular Africa? Making Sense of the Interplay Between Secular Constitutions and Religious Citizens. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, -08-15. [Video] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2024698116/.

MLA citation style:

Library Of Congress, and Sponsoring Body Library Of Congress. African And Middle Eastern Division. Secular Africa? Making Sense of the Interplay Between Secular Constitutions and Religious Citizens. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, -08-15, 2022. Video. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2024698116/>.