Religion, State, and Society in Contemporary Africa

The Editor: Austin M. Ahanotu is Professor of History at California State University at Stanislaus. His teaching experience also includes several years of teaching African history and religious studies in Nigeria. He received his B.A. in History and Political Science from Berea College and his M.A. and Ph.D. in History from the University of California in Los Angeles. Professor Ahanotu has done additional historical studies at Yale, Berkeley and Duke under the auspices of the National Endowment for the Humanities. He has published in professional journals and has contributed chapters on contemporary Nigerian ethnic and religious experiences in Studies in Southern Nigerian History and in The Terrible Meek: Essays on Religion and Revolution respectively.

Contents: The vital element in nation building in contemporary Africa is the interplay of religion as an ideology in the context of state and societal shift from religious to political legitimacy.