URBANISATION AS IT AFFECTS AND CHALLENGES THE PROGRESS OF AFRICAN TRADITIONAL RELIGION

Abstract

Man has been living in his natural habitat and adopting different methods of settlement. In the course of time, some people were forced to leave their areas of settlement to other areas, maybe looking for greener pastures or to avoid or cushion the effects of natural disasters; this migration and its positive impacts as new habitats with improved living conditions, structures and facilities lead to urbanization in more examples than one. This rapid shift from rural to urban society has significant impacts on African Traditional Religion (ATR) and these effects and challenges are what the author discussed in this work. In looking at it, he employed socio-cultural approach to enable him study both the socio-cultural life of the people. It was discovered that urbanization has brought about dividends such as better living conditions and social amenities,. It also was discovered that this urbanization affected African traditional religion in so many ways like loss of community consciousness and structures, social life, marginalization and misrepresentation of African Traditional Religion, decline in ritual practices etc. It recommends that some accolade should be given to urbanization but it should allow the people to move with their culture, tradition and religion. Certain traditional values like religion, language etc. should be upheld.