Date of Award
Spring 2005
Document Type
Dissertation - Restricted
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Theology
First Advisor
Hinze, Bradford E.
Second Advisor
Hinze, Christine F.
Third Advisor
Omar, Irfan
Abstract
Africa has often been perceived as a confluence of tension and conflict and the recent upheavals in Sub-Saharan Africa have done little to help this perception. The waves of ethnic and religious violence continue to drain the continent of its material and human resources, leading to what Bernard Lonergan would call a state of "cumulative decline." Intolerance, and tribal and inter-ethnic conflict, seem commonplace. Muslim-Christian relations in some countries are currently at their lowest ebb. The carnage that accompanies this ethnic and religious tension begs for urgent attention. The world still remembers the Hutu-Tutsi conflict that led to savage massacres in Rwanda and warlord politics in Somalia of the 1990s. Even in the case of Nigeria, the most populous black nation, since its formation in 1914 ethnic conflicts have pitted the north against the south, leading to the polarization of Hausa and Ibo, Hausa and Yoruba, and Yoruba and Ibo...