Syncretization as a Means of Preservation: Examining Western European Colonialism in West Africa Through the Lens of Ethnocentrism

15th and 16th century encounters between Western Africa and Western Europe were rife with ethnocentrism, syncretization and differing cosmologies. These factors both clashed and melded together to create the landscape of colonialism in Western Africa. The effects of ethnocentrism can be seen especially in interactions concerning differing cosmologies, which can lay the grounds for syncretization within and across cultures and peoples. As such, ethnocentrism should be evaluated as part of an overall framework of these encounters and as a lens with which to view the reasons for and the resistance to colonialism. In examining these terms within the context of all forms of colonialism (but especially within civilizing colonialism, as this form was marked by the presence of Christianity as a driving and justifying force and the desire to “cultivate” the land and peoples into a more European, “modern” society), it is possible to see the multitude of ways that West Africans resisted and reimagined their worlds throughout encounters with various groups of Western Europeans. As Western Europeans sought to gain control over both the territories and peoples of West Africa, those under colonial rule continuously found new ways to reimagine and redefine their worlds within the context of state, settler and civilizing colonialism, sometimes by submission, often with resistance, and almost always with the syncretization of both culture and religion.

Ethnocentrism is perhaps one of the more obvious facets of colonialism, informing the rationale and decision making process for many European settlers in West Africa. Ethnocentrism provided the blind spot for colonialism- nationalistic superiority complexes, even unrealized, present conflicts when interacting with new people, even when the goal is to “help” or “civilize” said people (an ethnocentric and problematic concept in an of itself). As stated previously, the effects of ethnocentrism can be seen especially in interactions concerning differing cosmologies, which can lay the grounds for syncretization- or conflict. But necessary to note is not only the ethnocentrism prevalent within the encounters with Europeans and West Africans, but the ethnocentrism that may play a part in shaping the narratives discussed in anthropological studies themselves, as many are centered from a white, European perspective, such as in studying the cosmologies on the Kongo. The ethnocentrism in anthropology and in linguistics is made apparent even in minor ways, such as when looking at the syncretization of religious language in the Kongo and their use of the word nkisi, as it translates to “fetish”. In The Kingdom of Kongo and the Counter Reformation, John K. Thornton writes,  “Some scholars have followed the Baptist missionary W Holman Bentley, primary linguist of the Baptist mission that arrived in Kongo in 1879, in believing that such translations were a "most unfortunately selection" on the part of missionaries who, by using them, converted Christian terms and concepts into "fetishes." But these interpretations flounder on the fact that it is most probable that the work of translation was done in the sixteenth century and the principal workers were Kongo intellectuals, and that the translation of nkisi as "holy" is a sound one theologically” (Thornton, 44-45). Anthropology journals have long been filled with European perspectives from European authors, and disputes between these authors on what constitutes ethnocentrism have been made fervently over many years. Morton Klass writes in Ordered Universes: Approaches to the Anthropology of Religion, “As Spiro observes, sacred is vague and in the end perhaps undefinable. True, but it doesn't carry the remorselessly unavoidable ethnocentric judgment of supernatural: that there is on the one hand a natural universe, and on the other hand there are notions about aspects of the universe that are situated outside the natural and real and are therefore labeled supernatural by the person who knows what belongs in which category” (Klass, 25). When African cultures are studied by those who occupy countries which subjugated those same African lands, one can assume to find gaps in the knowledge. 

After evaluating ethnocentrism as a guiding force for the imperialism and various forms of colonialism West Africans faced, it’s interesting to note the ways in which it intertwined with various African cosmologies and how this lead to the syncretization of both culture and religion.. When Portuguese Christians arrived in Kongo in the 15th century, each group of evangelists (the Capuchins, Jesuits and Carmelites) had differing processes in mind to ultimately achieve the reality of a Christian state. Kongo is unique in its syncretization of religion as it was not formally colonized before the spread of Catholicism, and the kings responsible for much of the spread of Catholicism took European words and symbols and synthesized them to create meaning and order that could coexist within their own society.  Thornton writes, “The church in Kongo thus developed on its’ own, and perhaps not surprisingly took its own interpretation of the religion and cosmology” (Thornton, 42-43).. The synthesization of religious language can be highly attributed to King Afonso’s adaptation of Catholicism and his team of priests and intellectuals, though in the early 16th century, Marcos Jorges’ catechism gives insight into many of the words and phrases translated into Kikongo, and most notably,those with a Bantu root, such as the Kikongo word for “bible”, nkanda uakisi. While Afonso integrated Kongolese culture and cosmologies into the framework of Christianity, he also took steps to eradicate symbols of Kongo spirituality, destroying the city’s idols and creating schools that churned out the religious elite, and educated group meant to evangelize and keep order within the Kongo. By the time the Carmelites arrived in 1584, Kongo appeared to be a country of proud Christians, with the Carmelites remarking that the country was not in danger of “returning to idolatry” (Thornton, 43). Without the syncretization of Catholicism into an already established cultural system in Kongo, the transition into Catholicism might have been far more violent, dominant and foreign.

European and African cosmologies also clashed in the way of interpretations of symbols and art, creating both an othering and syncretization of Portuguese culture. Crosses were one particular symbol that belonged to differing cosmologies for both the Portuguese and the natives of West and Central Africa, specifically Benin. The Portuguese carried Christian crosses that represented a “new” God, whereas in Sierra Leone, “the cross (or X-shape) was understood to signify the conflation of spiritual and earthly realms, particularly the regeneration of the dead among the living, (Blier, 380) and in Benin the figures were utilized for various rituals, as well as indicators of political succession. The use of the cross by the Portuguese may have likely contributed to the “otherworldly” view the Africans held of the Portuguese, thinking they came from a world of the dead with their long hair and white skin, other physical manifestations that held alternate meanings for West Africans. The art created by West Africans in Kongo often equates the arrival of the Portuguese as a spiritual event, not only due to the symbolism of their whiteness and wealth that harks back to the association of riches , but in the symbolism of life, longevity and death portrayed through the use of spirals and serpent-form patterning, reimagined for European tourists in the 1800’s. Blier notes, “Spirals reinforce the prominent identity of Europeans as signifiers of transition, death, and life” (Blier, 382). Depictions of the Portuguese often clashed in comparison to depictions of native peoples in Benin, with the Portuguese often shown looking gaunt, aged, akimbo and sickly in contrast to the robust and “fleshy” portrayals of Benin kings and dignitaries. This appears to serve to other the Portuguese, though evidence for the postures and poses utilized in Benin brass castings suggest that this was also a form of syncretization through art, as baroque European art often depicted Europeans this way as well.

In examining the encounters of West Africans and Europeans through the lens of ethnocentrism and the responses mounted to and against it, it is easier to construct a nuanced timeline that informs the beginning of the transatlantic slave trade. Whether used as a coping mechanism or produced as a natural result of colonization, syncretization of religion, language, art and culture not only propitiated the Western Europeans in their quest for colonization, but in many cases helped to preserve at least some of the relics of the culture that existed pre-colonization, allowing some West Africans to grasp onto ancestral ties to reaffirm their place in a world that was changing in front of them, much to their detriment and out of their control. Throughout the 15th and 16th centuries, West Africans were bombarded with cosmologies both foreign and relatable to them, and through syncretization began to develop into the nations we see today, imbued with both the pre-existing cultures of their ancestors and the aftereffects of European colonialism.
 
Works Cited

Suzanne Preston Blier, “Imaging Otherness in Ivory: African Portrayals of the Portuguese ca. 1492,” The Art Bulletin, Vol. 75, No. 3. (September, 1993), 375-396.

Morton Klass, Approaches to the Anthropology of Religion, (Boulder, CO:  Westview Press, 1995), pp. 25-41.

John K. Thornton, “The Kingdom of Kongo and the Counter Reformation,” Social Sciences and Missions, Vol. 26, Issue 1 (April 2013), 40-58.