They say our god is not God: How discrimination, government bias is driving traditional religion into oblivion
By Afeez Hanafi
This article was originally published on The Punch
As a minority, practitioners of African Traditional Religion are subject to stereotypes coupled with government marginalisation and institutional practices that show preference to the two dominant religions in Nigeria, Afeez Hanafi reports
Growing up, Osunwumi Fakayode racked up memories that shaped her into adulthood. Of them, encounters laced with discrimination against her faith left indelible impressions on the 22-year-old resident of Ibadan, Oyo State.
Born into a traditional religious household, Osunwumi settled easily for her parents’ faith, believing in Olodumare, a revered Supreme Being in Yoruba cosmology.
Now a 400-level nursing student at the Lead City University in the ancient city, Osunwumi shared the stigmatisation she and her younger sister, Ifabukola, faced in secondary school.
“There was a lot of discrimination in secondary school. Our Christian and Muslim friends laughed at our traditional names. They could not come to terms that a ‘normal’ person could believe in the traditional religion.” Osunwumi recalled with a rueful smile.
Soon, Osunwumi realised, albeit painfully, that her generosity could have serious consequences. All hell broke loose on a fateful day when she offered milk to a schoolmate and later complained of stomach aches.
“Everybody was mentioning my name; they viewed me as a devil and organised a prayer session for the girl just because I was the one who gave her milk. Since then, I was afraid to give food to pupils,” she said, her voice laden with angst.
Beyond experiencing rejection by friends, Osunwumi and her sibling were at the mercy of a school system that recognised only the two dominant faiths. They were constrained to take either Christian Religious Studies or Islamic Religious Studies as their faith was not recognised as a subject in the school curriculum nationwide.
“We said we didn’t want to take either of the two subjects, but the school insisted that we choose one. I settled for CRS,” Osunwumi said.
This kind of restriction holds sway in Nigeria — a secular state where the government is expected to be neutral about any religion — is contrary to the provision of Section 38 (2) of the Constitution, which states that “no person attending any place of education shall be required to receive religious instruction or to take part in or attend any religious ceremony or observance if such instruction, ceremony or observance relates to a religion other than his own, or religion not approved by his parent or guardian.”
On Sundays, when Christian students went for devotion and Muslims attended special prayers, the siblings stayed back in the hostel alongside a few other female Muslims exempted from spiritual obligations due to menstruation.
Such discretion turned out to be their undoing. Whenever an item got missing in the hostel, the two were the immediate suspects.
“They would say only Ifabukola and Osunwumi were in the hostel even if we insisted some female Muslims were also around. At one point, we had to leave the hostel on Sunday to avoid such embarrassment,” Osunwumi disclosed.
For years, holding on to her faith came with several hurdles, many of which were beyond her power to surmount. Unlike most pupils, making friends in school was pretty hard for Osunwumi. A few friendships she laboured to build crashed like a pack of cards on account of her faith.
“There was a Christian friend I had. I noticed she was distancing herself from me, and I asked her what was wrong. She attributed it to a warning given to her against associating with non-believer. My mind was so fragile then, and I was confused if I was actually doing the right thing,” she said.
Now in the university, there is some respite for Osunwumi. Fellow students no longer repel her.
“When they see me wear traditional beads, they think they are for fashion. Nobody really cares about religions,” she said.
Unfortunately, similar beads put Bolanle Ifashola in trouble when he was in Junior Secondary School 3 at Iseyin, an ancient town in Oyo State.
“I wore beads on my wrists to school and a teacher asked me to remove them,” Ifashola, a secondary school leaver, told Sunday PUNCH.
He continued, “I explained to him (the teacher) that Muslims are allowed to wear Hijab while Christians wear crucifix.The school invited my guardian who told them it was my identity as a traditional religion practitioner. He insisted that they should allow me to wear beads. It was a serious issue but the school later gave in. ”
The teenager said he was also in a dilemma to choose between CRS and IRS, but he did not bow to pressure. “I just left the classroom anytime the subjects were being taught,” he revealed.
Sadly, the Federal Ministry of Education ruled out any possibility of including Traditional Religious Studies in the curriculum.
“We have subjects approved by WAEC (West African Examination Council), NECO (National Examination Council) and JAMB (Joint Admission and Matriculation Board) and Traditional Religious Studies is not one of them,” the Director of Press at the ministry, Mr Ben Gong, said in an interview with our correspondent. “There is no possibility,” he remarked bluntly when asked if there was any chance of including TRS in future.
On why it cannot be accommodated in the school curriculum, Obong retorted, “Which traditional religion should we incorporate and which one should we leave out? There are traditional religious practices that are considered repugnant to natural justice.”
He added, “There is no such provision for it in our schools and we are not making efforts to bring it into our curriculum. We will never seek to promote it let alone bring it into WAEC, JAMB and so on. There is freedom of worship but those (CRS and IRS) are the two recognised by WAEC and NECO.”
Nigeria and fate of traditional religion
Several decades back, African Traditional Religion was a predominant faith across Nigeria’s major ethnic groups — Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo — before Islam and Christianity dethroned it. Over time, the population of African Traditional Religion has depleted across the country, with only a handful of practitioners in the South-West popularising the faith.
Population of the three religions in Nigeria:
The 1963 Nigerian census revealed that 47.2 per cent of the Nigerian population were Muslims, 34.3 per cent Christians, and 18.5 per cent categorised as ‘other’, within which the traditional religion is subsumed.
An article published in March 2021 by Springer, an American medium publishing journals and books, showed that the population of ‘pagans,’ a term used to identify traditional religion worshippers, was 50 per cent, according to the 1931 census.
The population declined to 31.6 per cent in 1952, losing ground to Muslims estimated at 47.3 per cent but higher than Christians estimated at 21.1 per cent.
A 2019 report by the Pew Research Centre captured only Muslim and Christian populations as of 2015. Muslim population stood at 50 per cent, Christians were 48.1 per cent while other (not expressly stated) was estimated at 1.9 per cent.
But the Central Intelligence Agency’s 2018 World Factbook estimated the population of Muslims at 53.5 per cent; Christians, 45.9 per cent and 0.6 per cent as other.
In recent years, the struggle for relevance by traditional religious worshippers has created tension, especially in the southwestern part of the country, where there have been bloody clashes between them and Muslims during the former’s traditional rites.
The practitioners have alleged that the government’s preference for the two dominant religions in sensitive sociopolitical aspects has further fuelled discrimination against them.
The population of Muslim, Christian and Other (including African Traditional Religion).
Endless demand for public holiday
One of the areas traditional religion worshippers feel ‘short-changed’ revolves around faith-related public holidays. Two days are declared as national holidays for Muslims’ Eid-Fitr and Eid-Kabir, respectively, while a holiday is slated for Maolud-Nabiy, marking the birth of Prophet Muhammad (SAW).
Similarly, two holidays are earmarked for Good Friday and Easter Monday, and another two days for Christmas and Boxing Day — a day historically for distributing Christmas gifts. Meanwhile, traditional religion practitioners, mainly from the South-West, have consistently demanded that every August 20 fixed for the Isese Festival be declared a public holiday.
So far, only the Osun State Government out of the six states in the region had approved the holiday after many years of agitations.
In a protest on August 20, 2018, a group under the umbrella of Traditional Religion Worshipers’ Association of Oyo State urged governors in the South West to emulate Osun State.
“This peaceful protest is necessitated by the attitude of the Oyo State Government to the practitioners of Yoruba traditional religion. The present administration has refused to give us an audience despite seeking its attention through letters,” the general secretary of the association, Dr Fayemi Fakayode said.
He added, “We hereby implore the Muslim community, Christian Association of Nigeria, and other stakeholders in this state, in the spirit of religious equity, to join us in our appeal to the Oyo State Government to stop its game of discrimination, neglect, relegation and frustration against practitioners of Yoruba traditional religion in Oyo state.”
The Special Assistant to then-governor (Abiola Ajimobi) on security matters, who addressed the protesters, said the state recognised the traditional religion and promised that their request would be conveyed to the governor. But three years on, nothing has changed.
Notably, Oyo was among the few states that declared Tuesday, August 10, 2021, as a public holiday to mark the new Islamic calendar, Hijrah 1443.
“I am so disappointed in the government because we see them as being sentimental,” Fayemi lamented during a conversation with our correspondent. “They only tell us Nigeria is a secular state as it is in the constitution but in practice, it is not. The government is denying us our rights and indirectly frustrating practitioners of traditional religion to convert to either Islam or Christianity.”
Fayemi, a lecturer at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, said the association had also written letters to the incumbent governor, Seyi Makinde, seeking his audience to no avail.
“There was an Isese Festival that was held on an exam day when I was in secondary school. I could not go home because it was not a public holiday. I just hoped that one day things would change. Many of us have been bullied and frustrated to renounce our faith,” Osunwumi, Fayemi’s daughter, recalled.
“What is sauce for the goose should also be sauced for the gander,” a primary school teacher in Iddo, Ibadan, Omokemi Olanipekun, affirmed. “We don’t know why the government has yet to approve a public holiday for traditional religion practitioners. Christians and Muslims enjoy public holidays; it is as if the government doesn’t like us,” she said, fuming with anger.
“If I tell my bosses on that day that I want to go for the Isese Festival, they will tell me there is no holiday and that I must be at work. I attend it at the risk of losing my job.”
At a ministerial press briefing in May 2021, marking the second anniversary of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Tourism, Arts and Culture, Mr Solomon Bonu, echoed the grievance of traditional religion faithful. He said a bill on the public holiday was before the state House of Assembly and assured the worshippers it would be passed soon.
Bonus had stated, “It is our culture; it is the first religion and the religion of our forefathers before Christianity and Islam came into being.”
A senior officer at the Federal Ministry of Interior, which deals with religious matters, said declaring the Isese Festival as a national holiday is a complex matter that requires recommendations from all the state governments.
“There has to be a national coordination from the states. It will come through the state governors to the Federal Government. That is procedural,” the official, who preferred anonymity, said.
The spokesperson for the Christian Association of Nigeria, Samuel Ogundare, said the decision to grant or deny the traditional religion practitioners a holiday entirely rests on the government.
His counterpart at the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, Kayode Oladeji, said Christianity does not discriminate against “any tribe, religion, creed or belief,” adding that the body would not engage in “any form of blame-game that is seemingly laced with envy.”
He stated, “Christians are not in competition with any religion or religions. Whoever or whichever religion feels alienated should join us in our heavenly driven-purpose if they want to have a voice.”
Contrary to discriminatory remarks against traditional religion worshippers and their faith, Islam believes and teaches the doctrine of “live and let live,” said Imam Abdul-Azeez Onike, Chief Missioner, Nasrul-Lahi-l-Fatih Society, a foremost Islamic group. “Muslims are also forbidden from insulting other people’s gods.”
Onike, however, said if granted a public holiday, traditional religion practitioners may abuse it by observing certain rites. One of them is oro, a ritual that requires women living in a community to stay indoors.
“The lack of cohesion amongst various traditional religious groups will make it difficult for the government to know which of them to deal with. There is no known Nigerian leader of traditional religious worshippers that could be pointed. Where there is right, there should be responsibility. Who will be held responsible on behalf of Nigerian traditional religion worshippers when the chips are down?,” he posed.
Enmeshed in stereotypes
Like most of his fellow faithful, Ojuotola Adekemi, a resident of Ebute-Meta, Lagos, is filled with deep resentment. From a youth life embroiled in hatred by peers to adulthood dripping in discrimination, 50-year-old Adekemi had seen it all.
“I am a traditional religion practitioner and I worship Ifa, the god of divination,” the native of Ipokia, Ogun State, declared. “When I was young, my friends always talked down to me over my faith and they wanted me to renounce it. Some of them ended their relationship with me because of that.”
Otunba Lekan Ajirotutu has courted more hate than love in society because of his faith. A civil servant and Public Relations Officer, Association of African Traditional Religion, Nigeria and Overseas, Ajirotutu told of endless battles with negative perception and derogatory remarks.
The broadcaster said he and fellow worshippers are victims of prejudice occasioned by a system that privileges Christianity and Islam in public places and functions.
“Most people see us as herbalists,” he remarked bitterly. “There is discrimination in the working environment. You see mosques and churches in some ministries, but traditional religious worshippers can’t set up shrines. Many organisations believe that setting up a shrine is occult. It is only at the Obafemi Awolowo University that a shrine is now on the campus.
“The government only associates with traditional religion when they want to entertain an important visitor. They will call masquerades to entertain. It is hypocritical.”
“Among colleagues, there is discrimination,” Ajirotutu continued in a measured tone to bottle up his anger. “They are afraid to come near you once they know you’re a traditional religion worshipper. They see you as someone who has juju (charms).”
The stereotype also manifests in non-religious public gatherings in Nigeria, where prayers are often said before and after. On some occasions, a Christian says the opening prayer while a Muslim round off the event with a closing prayer or vice-versa. Other times, the prayers are said by representatives of the two faiths in quick succession to kick off an event.
“We have to signify before we can be recognised to say prayer at such events. Most times, even if we signify, the anchor will ignore us. They will say we are not captured in the programme. In public gatherings such as town hall meetings, we inform the organisers of our participation ahead of the events,” Ajirotutu said.
Olanipekun, the Ibadan schoolteacher, complained of similar stigmatisation. She still hurts over her recent encounter with an inspection officer from the State Universal Basic Education Board.
While addressing teachers that Friday, Olanipekun said the official asked two of them, an Islamic cleric and a female pastor, to sit out of admiration.
She never knew her request to be accorded the same privilege as the Iyanifa (head of Ifa worshippers) of Iddoland would stir up a hornets’ nest.
She stated, “He (official) asked if I am babaalawo (a herbalist). I told him I’m a traditional religion worshipper and not a babaalawo. He insisted that I’m babaalawo and I corrected him. We argued back and forth before he finally asked me to sit.”
The teacher told our correspondent she was once labelled a witch, and her child was punished in school for wearing beads on the wrists.
“Her teacher beat her to remove the beads whereas Muslim and Christian pupils are allowed to wear Hijab and Cross in the school,” she lamented.
How courts promote discrimination
In a situation where marginalisation of traditional religion is subtly encouraged in courts considered the temple of justice, the worshippers’ fate becomes more pathetic. For instance, at swearing on oath, court registrars ask witnesses: ‘Are you a Christian or Muslim?’ thereby unconsciously limiting the number of religions in Nigeria to two.
Dr Bashir Gwandu, the media aide to the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, parried our correspondent’s inquiry on the question structure. “Please contact lawyers,” he said curtly and hung up.
Although those who respond in the negative to both options are allowed to swear with whatever they believe in or ‘affirm,’ the question should be framed as “what is your faith?” a human rights lawyer, Jiti Ogunye, advised.
“Reducing faiths to Christianity and Islam undermines their (traditional religion worshippers’) faith and it is not good enough.”
The lawyer noted that the close-ended question implied that a registrar “is using the pedestal of the judiciary” to convey an impression there are only two recognised religions in Nigeria, “legitimise them and de-legitimize the ones that are not so specifically mentioned.”
“It is not okay for that kind of thing to be perpetrated in court. We must tell the Christians and Muslims that they are not the only people in Nigeria. There are other religionists and there are people who don’t believe in God,” he further disclosed.
Inferiority complex
The maxim, ‘if you can’t beat them join them,’ is a reality many adherents of African Traditional Religion live with, Fayemi, the OAU lecturer, noted. He said some practitioners grudgingly renounced their faith in surrender to widespread contempt they persistently endured.
Fayemi stated, “Many people believe in traditional religion but those who are bold enough to profess it are very few. That is why many of them go to an Ifa priest at night but during the day, they are Christians or Muslims. We don’t have the economic power and influence to make things work for us. Unfortunately, the government is promoting the two other religions at the expense of the traditional religion.”
The lecturer maintained that negative perception of the faith was largely influenced by its misrepresentation in Nollywood, lamenting that “people think what they watch in the movies is the true image of the traditional religion.”
“That is why in a film, somebody being hypnotised by a practitioner of the traditional religion will be rescued by a pastor or an imam. You hardly see a movie where a pastor or an imam is trying to destroy somebody’s life and a traditional religion practitioner is rescuing the person. Everything that is evil is attached to the traditional religion,” he protested.
Sharing his personal experience, Fayemi relived a nasty scenario that played out in a meeting with a school principal in Calabar, Cross River State, where he was posted for the one-year National Youth Service Corps.
The principal had announced that a Muslim would say the opening prayer while a Christian would anchor the closing prayer.
“I raised my hand and said I am a traditional religion worshipper but the principal ignored me,” Fayemi recounted. “The vice principal whispered to him and he later reluctantly obliged me to pray. I wasn’t happy and turned it down. I felt disappointed.”
He added, “There was an interview I went for in a private secondary school in Lagos in 2005 after my NYSC. The interviewer asked me if I am a Christian or Muslim and I said I am a traditional religion practitioner. The head of the panel cringed and said, ‘are you sure you will not initiate our children into a secret cult?’ Once he said that, I knew I would not get the job.”
A teacher at a unity school in Oyo State, Ifasoji Okunlola, spoke of the travails of two new pupils with whom he shares the same faith in the school.
On Sundays, when Christians and Muslims had gone to the chapel and mosque, respectively, the pupils were often left in a dilemma.
“They went to the classroom area but the school rules don’t permit them to go there on Sundays. So they were always punished until I intervened. I then arranged for a meeting with them at the dining where I teach them about the traditional religion,” Okunola disclosed.
In the unity school, he said assemblies are held on Monday and Friday, with Christians and Muslims leading the prayers on a respective day. “There is no provision for traditional religion because we are in the minority. I hope some adjustments will be made as time goes by,” the teacher stated
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Worshippers at the mercy of Muslim-Christian dominated govt
Ogunye, the public interest lawyer, advised the traditional religion practitioners to be steadfast in employing persuasive means to achieve their demand for a public holiday.
“They will have to continue to work with Christians and Muslims who are at the National Assembly. They will have to persuade everyone to accept it. It is within their right,” he concluded.
A lawyer and social commentator, Liborous Oshoma, said the assumption that an individual could either be a Muslim or Christian was deeply ingrained in the mind of an average Nigerian. He noted that traditional religious worshippers needed to do more to propagate their faith to change the narrative.
“The moment that is done, people will recognise them. If the Isese Festival is universally recognised across the country, then it may be considered as a public holiday. It has to be a gradual process and they need to propagate their faith,” he submitted.
A professor of African Traditional Religion and Inter-Cultural Interpretation at the Imo State University, Owerri, Egbucha Godwin, urged the government to promote the faith’s positive aspects and explore it to enhance human development.
“In traditional belief, there are positives but people only emphasise the latter (negatives). They don’t care about the positive aspects of the belief,” he said.
By far and large, traditional religion practitioners in Nigeria are miles away from exiting the web of discrimination fuelled by institutional marginalisation. And with a paltry population that renders them almost voiceless, they may have to push more — — for many years — — to be treated justly.
This story was produced with a reporting grant from ICFJ in conjunction with Code for Africa.