Issue: 1
Volume: 8
Page Numbers: 39-48
Publication Date: 2017
Religion,Power and the Social Order in Traditional African Society - Anthony O Ben, Ibebidamiobhedo B Okon
African societies have in time past created their own traditional systems rooted in religion which was used in controlling the social environment with multiple acculturation and adaptations. The history of the development of law as a mechanism for maintaining social order has been based on the fact that human beings though social animals, are by nature “selfish” and “Competitive “that peaceful co-existence is impossible without rules and regulations which must be observed or violated at the risk of sanction or punishment. This work identifies the over dependence of Africans on Western laws which are foreign to African world-view. It therefore seeks to examine how African societies have been able to maintain social order through the exercise of power by the appropriate institutions or persons. This work will rely on secondary research materials, using a religio-historical, sociological approach with descriptive and analytical framework. This work concludes that Africans had various means of social control for sustenance, growth, and development of the society before the advent of the Europeans and Christian missionaries.
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