‘The Eliminated Gods’: The Christian Reconfiguration of Jukun Theism

Abstract

This article looks at an aspect of the cosmology of the Jukun of north-central Nigeria, specifically their theism, and how it has changed through their encounter with Christian monotheism. Many contemporary Jukun people assume that their indigenous cosmology has always been anchored on a Supreme Being akin to the Christian God. In this study I show that this currently held belief is largely due to the theological framework which Christian missionaries sought to make the Jukun worldview fit into. And even prior to the first Christian contact, Jukun indigenous cosmology had been in contact with Islam. I give a very brief history of the Jukun and of the Christian missionary efforts among them starting in 1906 and, starting from my own questions growing up as a Jukun, look at how indigenous concepts and categories for deities were adapted over the course of time as the majority of Jukun became Christian.