ABSTRACT
To get a handle on our topic, we must first try to clear a conceptual thicket by paying attention to the terms of the discourse: Africa, religion, and theism. This is, of course, a difficult task. How does one define Africa, for instance? Africa is a point on the map, a geographical expression. Africa is also a concept, with a meaning that resonates beyond its boundaries, and an idea that is embraced by millions of people. That idea could be a source of a sense of dispossession, or it could provide a sense of hope in the future. Africa is, of course, a political entity, an aggregation of states in various degrees of political development, still bogged down by biting poverty, sub-national crisis and sectarian strife (Mudimbe 1988).
