African religions have also become a major attraction for those in the diaspora who travel to Africa on pilgrimages because of the global reach of these traditions. The Bambara and Malinke people of Mali believed that the primordial beings were twins. Despite the plethora of denominations and sects, African religions continue to be viewed as single entities,3 and their (our) religions are perhaps the least understood facet of African life. They are less concerned with doctrines and much more so with rituals, ceremonies, and lived practices. Please follow our Commentary Guidelines when engaging in discussion on this site. Perhaps this is linked to the idea that Africa has an inadequate or substandard health care system. African Religion is not Ancestor Worship. Rather, institutional religion continues to grow in relevance and in the national imagination, whether its invocations are part of conversations concerning nation building, Maitatsine and Boko Haram violence, the secularism debate, the Sharia debate, the question of Islamic banking, or the role of the Organization of Islamic Conference. The oral nature of these traditions allows for a great deal of adaptability and variation within and between indigenous African religions. We and our partners use cookies to Store and/or access information on a device. Thus, many practitioners of African religion, particularly in the shrines of goddesses, are women, indicating the parity with which African religion treats gender and gender-related issues. African religions command their own cultural ingenuity, integral logic, and authoritative force. Fact: One-third of Moroccans and one-quarter of Algerians do not speak Arabic as their first language. According to theologian Tony Evans, W. E. B. 3. About | Commentary Guidelines | Harvard University Privacy | Accessibility | Digital Accessibility | Trademark Notice | Reporting Copyright Infringements The much-cited dictum by the doyen of African religious studies, the recently deceased John Mbiti, that Africans are notoriously religious still holds true (though I prefer to use the word deeply).1 While, officially, statistics suggest that African Christians and Muslims constitute about 80 percent of the total population, and African indigenous religion constitutes about 20 percent, these statistics do not reflect the truth of the African situation. When I told him I am a twin (Ibeji) in Yoruba traditionand in principle a sacred being myselfhe almost fell on the floor to pay homage! Yet in the scholarship on the history of religions, indigenous African religions were never considered a substantive part of the worlds religious traditions, because they failed to fulfill certain criteria defined by axial age civilization. Privileged European scholars denied the agency of African religions and singled outand thereby controlledAfrican identity. To view the purposes they believe they have legitimate interest for, or to object to this data processing use the vendor list link below. These are also stories about how the world was put into place by a divine power, usually a supreme god, but in collaboration with other lesser supernatural beings or deities, who act on his behalf or aid in the creative process.11 The mechanisms and techniques of creation vary from story to story and from one tradition to another. Given our current impending ecological crisis, indigenous African religions have a great deal to offer both African countries and the world at large. It is a well-known fact that religion continues to play a central and vital role in the lives of African people. However, the Efik people of Calabar were not the only ones who believed twin children were an abomination. Depending on the kind of religious activity being performed, different religious authorities can be leaders for specific events. Traditional African religion is based on oral traditions, which means that the basic values and way of life are passed from elders to younger generation. Just as Muslim traders and sojourners introduced new world religions to North and West Africa, Western traders and missionaries introduced new world religions to the continent. Because of this, rituals were done to prevent the birth of twins which the people believed to be an anomaly. African Traditional Religion: An Examination of Terminologies Used for Describing the Indigenous Faith of African People, Using an Afrocentric Paradigm by Nana Osei Bonsu, B.Ed. War in Africa, either political or religious is mostly isolated cases. 15. Without relevant knowledge, stereotypes are unavoidable. That is why they have developed institutions for healing, for commerce, and for the general well-being of their own practitioners and adherents of other religions as well. The absence of centralized and unified cosmologies indicates the multifaceted nature of African religious life and worldviews. These stages characterized European perceptions of human evolution. As in the Muslim pilgrimage, it is a solemn journey to the hilltop. Consequently, despite all of Christianity and Islams claims to dominance and their propagandist machinery in demonizing indigenous religion, African religion still provides significant meaning to African existence in many ways. MISCONCEPTION OF THE SUPREM BEING IN ATR There have been widespread misconceptions about the African Traditional Religion (hereinafter ATR). Examples are mobile innovations such as Flutterwave, Sproxil, and Paystack. African leaders are also investing heavily in diversifying the economy. Loosely, it encompasses all African beliefs and practices that are considered religious but neither Christian nor Islamic. However, some African nations have become addicted to these aids and seem unable to function without them. Even the word religion, used in reference to these traditions, is in itself problematic for many Africans, because it suggests that religion is separate from other aspects of ones culture, society, and environment. Intentional or not, this interpretation creates a distorted and misconstrued view of Africans by the rest of the world. 11. It arose through a process of syncretism between several traditional religions of West and Central Africa and Roman Catholicism.There is no central authority in control of the religion and much diversity exists among practitioners, who are known as Vodouists, Vodouisants, or Serviteurs. In times of crisis they often come to the surface, or people revert to them in secret.8. Mary Slessor is accredited to ending this savage act in ancient Calabar, Nigeria. For one thing, a sizable number of African myths deal with events considered to have actually happened as narrated by the people themselves or as reformulated into symbolic expressions of historical events. The west, by trying to learn more about the African tradition will avoid the bias and ignorance of being misinformed. Traditional African religions are not stagnant but highly dynamic and constantly reacting to various shifting influences such as old age, modernity, and technological advances. Investors are moving to take advantage of the African market. If you would like to change your settings or withdraw consent at any time, the link to do so is in our privacy policy accessible from our home page.. Absolute as Supreme, infinite and everlasting mind. See Luc De Heusch, What Shall We Do with the Drunken King?,. . Such an approach should endeavor to provide not only an awareness of sociocultural contexts but also to narrate the historical dimensions of these traditions. There are abundant natural resources scattered across the 54 countries of Africa. In the case of the Yoruba kings and their people, sacred kingship formed a sacred canopy that sheltered the followers of each of the three major traditionsIslam, Christianity, and African traditional religionforging bonds of community identity among followers of the different traditions. The diversity of Native American religions could fill whole libraries with descriptions of belief, tales of lore, definitions, explanations, and insights into spiritual practices and ceremonies. This may not be as advanced as the western world, but its definitely not as bad as the media present it. Narratives about the creation of the universe (cosmogony) and the nature and structure of the world (cosmology) provide a useful entry to understanding African religious life and worldviews. However, this was never a generally accepted idea. Regardless of where they find themselves, most Africans will always hold onto some form of their tradition, culture, and religion. They believe in Colonization may seem to be over but for African traditional religion, it is not. In these times of intense turmoil, people of African descent are facing serious threats and challenges to their well-being. African traditional religious beliefs in East Africa. . Representation matters, and as scholars we have a responsibility to advocate for religions in their contexts. It is the religion which resulted from the sustaining faith held by the forebears of the present Africans, Especially if you have never been to Africa. Your email address will not be published. Even within a single ethnic group or clan, there are often highly contested and even opposing stories or viewpoints when it comes to creation accounts, thus allowing for flexibility and hermeneutic creativity. Here Is What You Have To Know. Yes, poverty is an issue in Africa. It is misleading to say "Africa" when speaking about a specific tribe, ethnic group, or country in Africa. The Trans-Atlantic slave trade led to the growth of African-inspired traditions in the Americas such as Candombl in Brazil, Santera in Cuba, or Vodun in Hati. Second, spirit beings occupy the next tier in the cosmology and constitute a pantheon of deities who often assist the supreme God in performing different functions. Space constraints permit me to cite only one example. African religions do not rely on a single individual to be a religious leader, but rather depend on an entire community to make the religion work. It is the foundation on which the morals of pre-colonial Africa were built. For instance, the Asante people of Ghana see twins as sacred beings. When he heard that I came from Nigeria, he wanted to display his knowledge of Ocha tradition as a devotee of Oxhosi, God of Thunder in Afro-Brazilian heritage. Myth 3: Africa Is Lacking Innovation. It is misleading to say Africa when speaking about a specific tribe, ethnic group, or country in Africa. traditional African takes the character of critical reflection of the African understanding of reality and world view. Due to the centrality of ancestral tradition to the African lifeworld, death itself is a significant transition from the current life to the afterlife and marks a continuity in life for those living and those to come. In many African communities, ____________ are qualified to navigate the delicate moral and social balance between the good and evil forces exerted on the human realm. the earlier idea was that African Traditional Religion was incompatible with monotheism. Introduction. Indeed indigenous African religions have provided the blueprint for robust conversations and thinking about community relations, interfaith dialogue, civil society, and civil religion. This statement isnt true. 1 While, officially, statistics suggest that African . Each of these has its peculiar characteristics. Igbo religion is traditional according to Mbiti (1970), in the sense that it is rooted in their culture.It is received by oral authority by one generation and transmitted by the same process to subsequent generations and, thus, has effect of being widely diffused among its adherents and of deeply coloring their consciousness. The reason for this is quite simply the misunderstanding of the relevance and foundation of the African tradition. Fact: Slavery is virtually a universal institution. Gradually, many Africans began to buy the narrative. Static.COOKIE_BANNER_CAPABLE = true; They counteracted various derogatory names given to AIR. It argues that the best interpretation of the Constitution requires laws that address cross-cutting issues of recognition and redistribution relating to religion/culture and gender, and that the best . Indigenous Bapedi music and oral tradition have been dismissed as myth, superstition and primitive stories. The culture believes and traditions of the people of Africa is vast and should not be oversimplified in a stereotypical way. Later in my academic life, I explored theoretical issues at the national level, showing how Nigerian civil religionan invisible faithprovided a template for assessing how we fared at nation building, allowing the symbols of Nigerian nationhood to take on religious significance for the Nigerian public above and beyond any particular cultural communities of faith.17 I do not want to be misunderstood here. Indigenous African religions are not based on conversion like Islam and Christianity. African Vibes is a one-stop global platform that connects the African diaspora to opportunities for growth, development, and social impact in Africa. African indigenous religions provide strong linkages between the life of humans and the world of the ancestors. Since growth and innovation come as a pair, it is impossible to say that African countries are growing without being innovative. Africa is not homogenous. What, for example, is the notion of history and the sacred in Akan thought? European theorists are important, and we need to know and understand them to engage in serious global cultural dialogue, but this does not mean that we should discard our traditions as noninterpretive traditions limited merely to ethnographic illustrations. Robert Mugabe . Whether these words carry weight or simply make for a good quote, the fact remains that Africans are unique. In fact, the continent is the most diverse in the world. This view wasnt held in many other tribes in Nigeria. Orishas, Goddesses, and Voodoo Queens: The Divine Feminine in the African Religious Traditions. The scope of the study is 1877-when Christianity was first introduced in Uganda to 1962 when Uganda got her independence; the period when Christian missionaries lost influence together with the colonial rulers. Women are revered in African traditions as essential to the cosmic balance of the world. There are rituals that celebrate the passage of time and mark time as it passes for the people, orienting them to the seasonal changes, such as the new yam festival and celebration of the old season and beginning of a new one. Earlier researchers and missionaries portrayed them often as primitive and barbaric and ridiculed them [I give many examples in my book: White Fathers in Colonial Central Africa - a Critical Examination of V.Y. Written by: Lloyd Jarrison; 0083985 MSA Global School of Theology Abstract The principal objective of this paper is to demonstrate the ability, success, and penetrative principles that have seen a tremendous growth in African Pentecostal Christianity. The African religious worldview is primarily indigenous, although Islam and Christianity continuously respond to its viability and strength through their transitive approaches, their theologies, and their knowledge systems. Manage Settings The most difficult task I face in characterizing African indigenous spiritual traditions is accounting for their diversity and complexity. It is a well-known fact that religion continues to play a central and vital role in the lives of African people. religions are considered: African Traditional Religions (ATRs) especially that which is found in sub-Saharan Africa, and Christianity, sometimes referred to under the umbrella of faith-based communities. Through modern change these traditional religions cannot remain intact, but they are by no means extinct. Not the one we saw, very clear and good article easy to understand. The traditional religions of Africa are human in the deepest sense, because they focus on people and their everyday problems. The expression is also used almost as a technical term for a particular reading of such beliefs and practices, one that purports . The Mursi religion is classified as Animism. That is why we have freewill, and regardless of whether we choose to acknowledge that a living God exists or not, and regardless of how we choose to worship Him, directly or through deities, we will all be eventually accountable. Connecting With Your Ancestors (African Spirituality Beliefs and Practices) Monique Joiner Siedlak. Compared to most patriarchal traditions, where womens participation and roles are curtailed, African religions attitude toward gender inclusion is unique. Please confirm you want to block this member. Corrupt government officials also capitalize on the generosity of the westerners to the point of looking like a panhandler. a. newly birthed babies. The Ndembu tribe of the Democratic Republic of Congo shared a similar belief. Lilith Dorsey. This article is an edited version of remarks he delivered for the annual Surjit Singh Lecture in Comparative Religious Thought and Culture at the Graduate Theological Union on April28, 2020. Elders, priests, and priestesses have served as guardians of the sacred traditions. My credentials as a Harvard professor made little impression on him. By Jacob K. Olupona. Thank you for this interesting essay on African religion. Portia Zvavahera, His Presence, 2013, oil-based printing ink on paper. Esu was represented as a stone mound in the front yard of ancient Yoruba compounds. In whatever way it happens, African cosmological narratives are similarly complex, unsystematized, and multivariate, and they are the bedrock for indigenous value systems. There are quite a number of revival groups and movements whose main aim is to ensure that the tenants and practice of African indigenous religion that are threatened survive. Many foreign nations and organizations do send aid to African countries. Another misbelief about Africa is that all Africans are the same. Many centuries ago, Ifa must have envisaged the possibility of Boko Harams Islamic extremist movement ravaging Nigeria today. To understand Africans, one must understand the African religion. Long before the arrival of Christianity and Islam, Africans practiced African traditional religion (ATR). It deals with their cosmology, ritual practices, symbols, arts, society, and so on. He clarifies that there is a close relationship between all things with one reality, and no distinction between physical and spiritual, adding that meaning in life is derived from unity. Most of these aids go into building infrastructures like schools and hospitals. A porous border exists between the human realm and the sky, which belongs to the gods. But Ifa divination predates Western modernity. As spirits, the ancestors are more powerful than living humans, and they continue to play a role in community affairs after their deaths, acting as intermediaries between God and those still living.6 Finally, I would add that Africans live their faith rather than compartmentalize it into something to be practiced on certain days or in particular places. History text fails to capture the depth of pre-colonial African Civilization. As many might know, one type of ritualinitiations for adolescent African girlscauses great consternation among Westerners, because these often involve rites like female circumcision or other bodied practices. Misconception 1: "Entire North Africa natively speaks Arabic.". For many Africans, religion is a way of life that can never be separated from the public sphere, but instead informs everything in traditional African society, including politics, art, marriage, health, diet, dress, economics, and death. Information was passed down mostly by oral communication in the form of folk tales. Divination enables us to recognize how indigenous traditions have a foundation upon which knowledge and knowledge production is developed. Initially, Christian missionaries and propagators of Islam assumed that indigenous religion would eventually fizzle out, while Islam and Christianity would dominate the African religious scene. Correcting Misconceptions About African Traditional Religions. Whether one agrees or disagrees with the practice, it is important to note that not all female initiations involve circumcision, and that the rituals associated with initiation are crucial to ensuring that an individuals social position is affirmed by both family and community. Nature spirits are associated with objects seen in nature, such as mountains, the sun, or trees, or natural forces such as wind and rain. This is an incorrect representation of the continent that is so vast and with diverse political, social and economic differences. African traditional religion, and that researcher a should "bracket" their faith and prejudicethey might have about Africa and its people. . b. certain clan outsiders. In African traditional religions guidance is provided through myths, which are handed down orally. Like Mbiti and Green, Magesa notes that the world of African Traditional Religion is a hierarchically ordered place where, God is seen as the Great ancestor, the first Founder and the Progenitor, the Giver of Life behind everything that exists. In this way, the visible and invisible are in tandem, leading practitioners to speak about all objects, whether animate or inanimate, as potentially sacred on some level. The formation of African diasporic religions in the crucible of forced and voluntary migrations of Africans from the continent from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries led to the intermingling of African religions with Christianity and local cultures of the Transatlantic to form novel religious expressions. The Ifa divination system, which produced 256 chapters of oral narratives, constitutes an encyclopedic compendium of knowledge that provides answers to nearly every meaningful human question in the Yoruba and Fon universe. Divinities and ancestors have personalized annual festivals during which devotees and adepts offer sacrificial animals, libations, and favored foods to propitiate them. Similar to other West African communities, the Yoruba did not reject Western modernity but challenged its claim to ontological and epistemological superiority. No. Africa is a continent that is made up of 54 countries, 1.3 billion inhabitants, more than 3000 ethnic groups, and 2100 unique languages. Similarly, indigenous religion, worldviews, and rituals such as rites of passage and other religious performances are permeated by other religions, culture, and society in general. Take for instance the story of poverty in Africa. Little wonder John Mbiti, a famous African theologian said, Wherever the African is, there is his religion. Unique Beliefs, and Too Many Misconceptions Traditional native sweat lodge with hot stones inside . In many African countries a range of beliefs and attitudes underpin these alternative explanations. This inaccurate assessment of African belief even affects the definition of African religion. African Traditional Religion: A Definition (1973), Omosade Awolalu in Yoruba Belief and Sacrificial Rites and John Mbiti in The Concept of God in Africa (1970) are a few examples of postcolonial scholars of religion who have resisted and denounced colonial idea that Africans do not know God. . The reason is partly that they want a time when, Your email address will not be published. The African tradition of female circumcision is the ritual of the rite of passage from girlhood into the realm of womanhood. Traditional African religion has common themes such as a Creator or High God, positive ancestor influences as well as tricksters, and an afterlife with spirit worlds. But, the bad eggs seem to get more attention. Our parting a week later was hard for him! Just as rituals are an expression of this . On the other hand, we now know from research and archival sources that, by their very nature, sources and records of missionaries, colonial administrators, and indigenous elites, which were preserved by colonial administrations, were equally susceptible to distortion and perforation, having been written from the angle of an invented modernity that the colonizer considered superior to the worldviews of local peoples. Furthermore the issue of whether ATR should be called in singular or plural is another issue causing problems in the study of african tradional religion. By civil religion, I have in mind not only institutional religion and the beliefs and practices as they relate to the sacred and transcendent, but also practices not always defined as religious, including the rites of passage offered by our various youth brigades, and also the values of communalism and national sacrifice. 9. First, there is a supreme being who created the universe and every living and nonliving thing to be found within the universe. The concerns for health, wealth, and procreation are very central to the core of African religions. Wherever the African is, there is his religion: he carries it to the fields where he is sowing seeds or harvesting a new crop; he takes it with him to the beer party or to attend a funeral ceremony;. An Ifa song warns those embarking on the pilgrimage to be pure and those who possess witchcraft not to embark on the pilgrimage. Published. Traditional African religions have gone global! The misconception about African religion Man generally is given to misconception especially in the midst of conflicting ideas or contending issues. Some African countries even adopted the language of their colonial masters as the Lingua Franca. In fact, we should not misunderstand the notoriety in some people's religious life, just like Furthermore, many in places like the US and the UK have converted to various traditional African religions, and the importance of the diaspora for these religions is growing rapidly. Africans combine a belief in the existence of a omnipresent and omnipotent supreme god, with multitudes of subordinate deities. Photo: Pinterest. Voodoo is a religion that originates in Africa. Du Bois argued . Get it as soon as Wednesday, Oct 26. African Traditional Religion is the traditional religion of the African people before the coming of Islam and Christianity. When I was in Israel a few years ago, I stayed in a modest bed-and-breakfast inn near the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. As a lived religion, African tradition deploys through its ritual processesparticularly rites of passage, calendrical rituals, and divinatory practicestangible material and nonmaterial phenomena to regulate life events and occurrences, in order to ensure communal well-being. Giving opportunity to stereotypes like Africa are poor and Africa is corrupt. Again, this isnt true. A frica has 54 countries and more than a billion people. 2. We must be careful not to give the impression that African religious lives are compartmentalized into what is often called the triple heritage (Islam, Christianity, and African traditional religion). African dance occupies central place in cultures throughout the African continent, embodying energy and a graceful beauty flowing with rhythm. Every life stage is important in African religions, from birth and naming, to betrothal/marriage, elderhood, and eventually death. Africa is given the image of a place that is hot and sunny all year round. 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