ABSTRACT
In South Africa, apartheid has been opposed to cultural mixing and syncretism and it has attempted to seal off, spatially and politically, ‘cultures’ artificially identified as disparate and self-contained. Policies of racial and cultural segregation have not, however, succeeded either in eliminating interracial cooperation (see Gluckman 1956) or in suppressing cultural cross-fertilization, such as the emergence of popular culture in the townships. A long history of Christian evangelism has been a potent force in promoting cultural mingling. This merging tendency can be noted across a range of Christian denominations, particularly in the propensity of individuals to manipulate the convergence of religious traditions (Pauw 1974), but it is the independent African churches which are acknowledged to have gone furthest in synthesizing Christianity and indigenous African religion.
