ABSTRACT
A survey of religion in sub-Saharan Africa by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life highlights the dominance of Christianity and Islam and the marginalisation of African indigenous religions in socio-cultural and political life. Students who belong to dominant religious groups and who ‘benefit’ from religious misrepresentation might harbour misconceptions and would be less sensitive to others’ beliefs, less tolerant of religious diversity and less able to relate to others of differing faiths. In his article entitled ‘Misrepresentation of Religion in Modern British (Religious) Education’, Philip Barnes has been critical of contemporary British Religious Education. In addition to the schools, the religious identities of educators and students are also embroiled in a complex web of ambivalence occasioned by their cultural roots and their newfound postcolonial religious identities. Thus, misrepresenting indigenous religion is not only a religious agenda, but also an ideological one emanating from the vestiges of political and religious colonisation.
