Abstract
This paper examines the role ofreligion and ideology in social change in contemporary Africa. Part I offers a neutral definition ofideology as a cultural system (the road map image) and distinguishes this definition from two pejorative ones, viz., the interest theory (with its battlefield image) and the strain theory (with its medical analogy of sickness/health). Part II presents an ideological description of the social process, graphicaly represented as a series of super-imposed fishbowls. Part III suggests an ideological analysis of the cultural process (described as cultural domination by “foreign devils") by means of reference group theory. Part IV examines Zaire’s ideology of
authenticity for insights into escape routes from the social and cultural impasses described in parts II and III. Whereas parts II and III are predominantly descriptive, part IV is consciously prescriptive, and suggests certain contributions of Christian theology to the African Revolution.1