Many Modernities ‐ Religious freedom in South Africa and Sweden

In Europe with a history of religious wars and big national churches, freedom of religion is often understood as “freedom from”, at least from institutional religion. Individual rights are of great importance. African perspectives, on the other hand are often understood to give priority to the community and their rights. Ubunto is a notion to characterize and understanding where you become who you are in relation to others. Our hypothesis is, however, that this dichotomy between an individualized interpretation of freedom of religion and a more collective orientation is too simplistic By bringing health and a gender perspective into the discussion we want to problematize polarizations between individual and collective rights as well as between Europe and Africa.