ABSTRACT

As humans, we acknowledge that our senses are not adequate for expressing our innermost feelings and aspirations. This is because; there is a dimension of human identity that cannot be expressed empirically. That is the essence of religiosity, spirituality or sacredness. There was a time when religiosity took centre stage in the cultures of Europe and North America. Later, a new deity called Reason, with its sister called Technology entered the cultural stage. The whirlwinds of technology and progress without ado swept aside religiosity, and secularity became the norm. However, the story is not the same in Africa as Africans have continued to hold religiosity tenaciously despite the influence of science and technology. Africa is the Theatre in which the Drama of competing religions is played. Africans are both the Actors and the Audience in their own Drama, cheered by onlookers and bystanders who from time to time toss tokens of appreciation or disdain. In the meantime, Africans wear the garbs of Europe and North America, speak their languages, and play their music while dancing their dances. But African religiosity has remained intact. The Third Millennium has begun with Africans taking religion seriously, while elsewhere technology and progress took centre stage. This paper analyzes the possibility of Africa becoming secular societies or maintaining the current religious tempo in the nearest future.