Development and Politics from Below: Exploring Religious Spaces in the African State - Non-Governmental Public Action

Marc Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index. Biographical Note: BARBARA BOMPANI is a Teaching Fellow at the Centre of African Studies, University of Edinburgh, UK, and Director of the "Africa and International Development" Masters program. She has previously published on the topic Religion, Politics and Development both in Italian and in English. MARIA FRAHM-ARP is Senior Lecturer in Theology at the School of Theology at the St Augustine College, South Africa. Table of Contents: Introduction; "B. Bompani "&" M. Frahm-Arp"PART 1: 'CHALLENGING THE SECULAR: RELIGION AND PUBLIC SPACES' Development and Invisible Worlds;" S. Ellis" The Mbuliluli Principle: What is in a Name?;" G.ter Haar" Muslim Shrines in Cape Town: Religion and Post-Apartheid Public Spheres; "A. Tayob " Remaking Society from Within: Extraversion and the Social Forms of Female Muslim Activism in Urban Mali; "D. E. Shulz"PART 2: 'RELIGION BETWEEN STATE AND SOCIETY' Dawah and Politics in West Africa: Muslim Jamaat and Non Government organisations in Ghana, Sierre Leone and The Gambia;" D. E. Skinner"Faith-based Organisations, the State and Politics in Tanzania; "E. T. Mallya"Pentecostal Religion and Development in Urban Mozambique; "L. Van de Kamp"PART 3: 'HEALTH CARE PROVISION: REFLECTIONS ON RELIGION'Health and the Uses of Religion: Recovering the Political Proper?; "J. R. Cochrane"Marshalling the Powers: The Challenge of Everyday Religion for Development; "E. Graveling"Sacred Struggles: The World Council of Churches and the HIV Epidemic in Africa; "E. Chitando"Conclusion: Reflections on Modernisation without Secularisation; "B. Bompani "&" M. Frahm-Arp"Review Quotes: "The editors of this volume pose major challenges to the research community: to re-evaluate the concepts, assumptions and methods that may veil rather than illuminate contemporary African societies and to develop a better understanding of the relationships between religion, politics, development and modernity. The authors of the individual chapters make a valuable contribution to this research agenda by examining aspects of the place of religion in public spaces; how religions function and shape people's lives, communities and organizations; and the role of religion in the sphere of health." --Carole Rakodi, Director of the Religion and Development Research Programme, International Development Department, the University of Birmingham, UK "This groundbreaking volume makes a significant contribution to an emerging field in Development Studies. Drawing from a variety of disciplines, its wide-ranging and original set of essays demonstrates the centrality of religious ideas and practices - Traditional, Christian and Islamic - to contemporary African popular culture and their capacity to shape public life and politics. Focusing on the beliefs and passions of ordinary religious adherents, the essays make a compelling case for a holistic human centred model of development and highlight the inadequacy of hitherto dominant western secular models. The collection is required reading for policy makers, practitioners and researchers working in development." -- David Maxwell, Professor of African History, Keele University, UK