9 - Religious Accommodation in Two Generations of the Adeleke Family

Summary

In the context of Ede's religiously plural society, religious identification is both a producer and a product of distinct corporate and social identities. But religion is not reduced to its social function: it offers a wide range of visions of personal and community success. While some visions focus on exclusive religious practice, the general emphasis on good relations between members of different religions confirms that at the personal level, religious difference is not necessarily understood as a problem. This chapter explores the way in which the embrace of both Islam and Christianity has shaped the life of one of Ede's prominent families. It illustrates in what way religious plurality – rather than a privileging of one or the other religion – also contains the possibility for the creation of successful institutions, and by implication offers a vision of the town as religiously diverse rather than explicitly Muslim.

While the study of Yoruba kinship and family relations has a long history, it has traditionally focused on the lineage system, the relative importance of the paternal lineage and the importance of shared residence in compounds for the making of family ties. Though a close study of politics in any Yoruba town illustrates that family ties are often fluid and dependent on context, Karin Barber has emphasised the importance of human agency, and creativity, in the drawing and redrawing of family boundaries. Equally, the importance of Islam in confirming and mediating kinship has been discussed in chapter 5. And while several authors note that many Yoruba extended families have both Muslim and Christian members (as well as often some traditionalists), the way in which family relationships may be structured in order to transcend religious difference has not been investigated in detail.

Most extended families in Ede are shaped by the control of family elders and leaders over practices within the house and, especially in the old or indigenous Ede families, the control of practices in the compound. House or compound rules apply to direct descendants of the family, wives married into it and tenants on family land, although they may do so in different degrees. As described in chapter 5, most of Ede's families and compounds have a strong religious identity, and the elders’ control of compound and family affairs includes the limitation of religious activities that challenge their religion.