In Search of the True Faith: the Appearance of Orthodox Old Believers in Uganda and Spiritual Anti-globalism in Contemporary Africa

The present article, based on field evidence collected in 2017, deals with a very recent phenomenon — the Orthodox Old Believers in Uganda. This faith originated in Russia, however in Uganda all its adherents belong to African ethnic groups. We describe the short by now history and current state of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Exchange
Main Author: Bondarenko, Dmitrij Michajlovič 1968- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Brill [2019]
In: Exchange
RelBib Classification:AD Sociology of religion; religious policy
CB Christian life; spirituality
KBN Sub-Saharan Africa
KDF Orthodox Church
Further subjects:B Orthodox Old Believers
B True Religion
B contemporary African religiosity
B Uganda
B doctrinal knowledge
B Ritualism
B religious globalism and anti-globalism
B motivation for conversion
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Summary:The present article, based on field evidence collected in 2017, deals with a very recent phenomenon — the Orthodox Old Believers in Uganda. This faith originated in Russia, however in Uganda all its adherents belong to African ethnic groups. We describe the short by now history and current state of the Old-Believer communities in Uganda and then concentrate on their members' motivation for converting to Old Believers vs. knowledge of this religion. We show that what brings them to Old Believers is the search for the true faith associated with the original and hence correct way of performing Christian rites. In this we see an intricate interplay of the features typical for authentic African cultures and acquired by them in the course of interaction with the wider world. Basing on our case study, we discuss how globalist and anti-globalist trends manifest themselves in the religious context in contemporary Africa.
ISSN:1572-543X
Contains:Enthalten in: Exchange
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1163/1572543X-12341518