Из России с верой: появление старообрядчества в Уганде как отражение культурных процессов в современной Африке

Сибирские исторические исследования. 2018. № 1. С. 167–199.

Bondarenko D. M.

The present article, based on field evidence collected in summer 2017, deals with a very recent phenomenon – the Orthodox Old Believers in the Republic of Uganda in East Africa. This faith originated in Russia, but in Uganda all its adherents belong to the native ethnic groups and, except children, consciously converted to Old Believers from other religions in adulthood. We describe the short by now history and current state of the Old-Believer communities in Uganda and then concentrate on their members’ motivation for converting to Old Believers vs. knowledge of this religion. We show that their knowledge of the Old-Believer doctrine is poor and they usually cannot tell how it differs from that of other Christian denominations. What brings them to Old Believers is the search of the true faith associated with the original and hence the only correct way of performing Christian rites. In this we see intricate interplay of the features typical for authentic African cultures and acquired by them in the course of interaction with the wider world. Basing on our study of Old Believers in Uganda, we discuss in the closing section how globalist and anti-globalist trends manifest themselves in the spiritual (religious) context in contemporary Africa.

Keywords: старообрядцы, ритуализм, старообрядцы за границей, Уганда, мотивы крещения, знание религиозной доктрины, истинная вера, современная африканская религиозность, духовные глобализм и антиглобализм

Publication based on the results of: African Historical Anthropology and Diverse Directions of Social Evolution (2018)