ABSTRACT
The sacralization of authority and power found its way into the new political ideologies and political arrangements of the Modern nation-states. By the close association of religious authority and political power in the person of the traditional ruler, African traditional societies were, what Dutch historian Arend van Leeuwen called, “ontocracies,” sacralizing authority and power with the effectual integration of altar and throne. In the present quest for new political arrangements in Africa, the discussion is often distorted so that it seems as if the choice is between so-called “Western” forms of political organization and “indigenous” systems and patterns. For Reindorf, Christianity had already become unhinged from European habits; it was simply a good thing, and hence good for the African. The African achievement of Christianity has been therefore to provide the conditions for the universalizing of African horizons through the reverse process of the localization of Christianity.
