Conflict between new religious movements and African traditional religion in the Bafut Community : the clash between kingship international ministries and African traditional religion

Abstract

After identifying the conflict between New Religious Movements and African Traditional Religion as a potential area for academic research, this research set out to answer a main research question and sub questions. The main research question was: Why and how do New Religious Movements clash with African Traditional Religion in the Bafut community of the North West of Cameroon? This question was further broken down to four sub questions including; What does the NRM think of ATR theologically?, How has ATR responded?, How are these clashes resolved or diffused?, What impact do these clashes have in the community during and after the conflicts? These questions transliterated to the objectives of the project, objectives which were attained through various research methods and theories. Primary research was done through ethnographic interviews, participant observations and field notes. Secondary data was collected from libraries and the internet through mediums like books, journals, encyclopedias and other electronic materials. These materials reviewed were combined with the concepts of cosmic war and contextual theology to form the interpretational grid for the analysis in the thesis. After a closer scrutiny of the findings, the research concluded that the absence of contextual theology manifested in the presentation of Christianity (by New Religious Movements) as supra-cultural leads to the demonization of native religion (ATR) leading to consequent attacks and counter attacks and thus the conflicts that take the form of cosmic wars. The work concludes that the administration of corresponding forms of contextual theology and the promotion of interreligious dialogue for reconciliation can mitigate the conflicts.