RELIGION AS AN INSTRUMENT OF MANIPULATION AND MOBILIZATION

Religion occupies a very important place in African society. Consequently, religious teachings and practices shape the thinking and influence the decisions of majority of people living in the continent. However, owing to the proclivity of man to manipulate situation, idea or doctrine, the teachings of the known religions institutions in the continent - Christianity, Islam and the African Traditional Religion (ATR) in particular - have been instrumentalized to meet selfish ends. The high level of ignorance and poverty in the continent provides the fertile land upon which the business of manipulation of religion flourished. Thus selfish clerics and other leaders at both domestic and public spheres abuse religion by manipulating its teachings to explain and/or justify actions that would have ordinarily been condemned. The study investigated the manipulation of religion in public and private spheres and identified the instances of manipulation of religion and their negative consequences. Relying on the assumptions of the Marxists Literary Theory, the study analyzed the instrumentalization of religion in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Purple Hibiscus and Razinat Mohammed's Habiba.