Re-Imagining Fundamentalism in Traditional African Religious Thought: The Case of Ombatse in Nigeria

This article re-imagines the conceptual and existential dimensions of religious fundamentalism, which is generally conceived as a belief in the literal interpretation of texts and their application in contemporary society. A major argument in fundamentalism discourse centres on textual religious or sacred texts of organised religions, from which inspiration is usually drawn to counter the corrosive effects of modernisation. The militarisation of sacred texts by religious fundamentalists—a kind of hardware—is predicated on the interpretation of the texts—the software—which provides ideological scaffold to religious fundamentalism. This article argues that though religious fundamentalism is extensively considered textual-based, the Ombatse traditional religious movement—a non-text-based religious movement—challenges not only many of the fundaments of traditional African religious thought but also the text-based thesis of religious fundamentalism. I suggest that Ombatse could be situated, epistemologically, in the locale of resistance to religious colonialism and political marginalisation.