{"product_id":"broken-ancestry-how-the-loss-of-indigenous-african-identity-and-the-adoption-of-foreign-religious-systems-helped-disrupt-a-civilisation-9798249009366","title":"Broken Ancestry: How the Loss of Indigenous African Identity and the Adoption of Foreign Religious Systems Helped Disrupt a Civilisation","description":"\u003cp\u003e • Author(s): Phillip Sigauke\u003cbr\u003e • Publisher: Independently Published\u003cbr\u003e • Publisher Imprint: Independently Published\u003cbr\u003e • BISAC: Mind \u0026amp; Body\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAfrica is one of the most religious regions in the world-yet it continues to struggle with political instability, economic dependency, environmental degradation, and fractured identity. Why? \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThis book argues that Africa's crisis is not a failure of faith, but a crisis of civilisational dislocation. Indigenous systems of governance, morality, land stewardship, and spiritual continuity were dismantled during slavery and colonialism before modern systems were meaningfully indigenised. As a result, Africans became deeply religious without becoming authors of their own institutions. Devout-but dependent. Faithful-but fragmented. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThrough historical analysis and philosophical reflection, the book explores how precolonial African societies were structured around ancestral accountability, communal ethics, and land as sacred trust. Chiefs held land in stewardship for ancestors, the living, and the unborn. Morality was enforced through kinship, shame, and relational responsibility. Religion, law, ecology, and governance were interconnected within a shared cosmology. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eColonialism severed these connections. Sacred land became commodity. Communal identity gave way to economic individualism. Spiritual systems were replaced or reinterpreted through foreign theological frameworks that often portrayed Africa's past as darkness rather than civilisational foundation. Urbanisation intensified the rupture, disconnecting people from ancestral land and ritual memory. Development followed-but without cosmology. Growth came-but without rootedness. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe book does not call for a literal return to precolonial religion, nor does it reject Christianity or Islam. Instead, it proposes a spiritual and psychological re-centring: \u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eReclaiming ancestral dignity without romanticising the past\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eRestoring land as moral trust, not merely economic resource\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eReconnecting law and governance to indigenous ethical systems\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eIndigenising theology conceptually, not just linguistically\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBuilding institutions that are spiritually sovereign and locally owned\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003eAt its core, this work asks a deeper question than \"Which God should Africa worship?\" It asks: \u003cb\u003eWho is Africa in history?\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eUntil Africa restores moral continuity, institutional ownership, and civilisational confidence, it will remain spiritually vibrant yet structurally dependent. True development, the book argues, is not merely technical or economic-it is moral, psychological, and civilisational. It requires shared meaning, historical memory, and responsibility to future generations.\u003cbr\u003eBlending social analysis, cultural philosophy, and reflective insight, this book challenges readers to rethink religion, identity, and development in Africa. It is a call to recover selfhood-not as nostalgia, but as the foundation for designing a future rooted in dignity, autonomy, and ancestral continuity. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eFor readers interested in African history, spirituality, postcolonial thought, and development theory, this book offers a bold and thought-provoking contribution to the conversation about Africa's past, present, and future.","brand":"Independently Published","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":47776479182999,"sku":"9798249009366","price":931.0,"currency_code":"INR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0666\/3471\/1191\/files\/9798249009366.webp?v=1777996432","url":"https:\/\/atlanticbooks.com\/products\/broken-ancestry-how-the-loss-of-indigenous-african-identity-and-the-adoption-of-foreign-religious-systems-helped-disrupt-a-civilisation-9798249009366","provider":"Atlantic Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}