Humans are thus able to maintain constant and symbiotic relations with their ancestors who are understood to be intimately concerned and involved in their descendants everyday affairs. Ifas religious thought systemfriendlier to Islam than to Christianitynot only predates Islam but also engages Islam in serious conversation. Similarly, there are others like Henry Louis Gates who has appropriated images of the Yoruba deity of Esu in his own work. Portia Zvavahera, His Presence, 2013, oil-based printing ink on paper. For this reason, in many parts of Africa, the communal aspects of such rituals have been retained, due to their salience, while the circumcision practice has been dispensed with altogether, due to the health risks associated with it; this is the case among the Maasai in Kenya and in Somali culture, both in Djibouti and Somalia. Traditional African religions are less of faith traditions and more of lived traditions. Hence, the aforementioned rituals are the entry point not only for an understanding of African tradition and religions but also for the visible manifestations and essence of African religious traditions. 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 are eager to learn new skills and embrace new technologies. Its almost as if pre-colonial Africa never existed. Fact: Slaves were always subject to torture, sexual exploitation, and arbitrary . Traditional African religions are less of faith traditions and more of lived traditions. Check Out Marriage Customs From 10 African Tribes, 15 Tribes With Surprising Bridal Traditions In Africa, 12 Surprising African Countries That Allow Dual Citizenship By Marriage, Can Foreigners Buy Land In Ghana? Jacob K. Olupona is Professor of African Religious Traditions at Harvard Divinity School and Professor of African and African American Studies in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University. Voodoo has no scripture or world authority. 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. As the late African historian Cheikh Anta Diop argued, matriarchy was embedded in the African way of life. If you take these reports at face value, you may start to believe that all Africans are poor. Voodoo is a religion that originates in Africa. The terms 'traditional' and 'religion' (in its singular form) have each been targets of criticism. Marriage customs in Africa vary from one tribe to another. The colonial masters sold the idea that the long-held tradition and believes of the African people is savage, inferior, and primitive. 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. I did ancestry and, This is the genuine list of best African president. African religions command their own cultural ingenuity, integral logic, and authoritative force. ao Ajima OM, Ubana EU (2018) The Concept . traditional African takes the character of critical reflection of the African understanding of reality and world view. 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. 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. But, the continent of Africa is far from poor. Voodoo, however, is a dynamic religion with no standardized dogma. All over the continent, cosmological myths describe a complicated process, whether the universe evolves from preexisting objects or from Gods mere thought or speech. When addressing religion in Africa, scholars often speak of a triple heritage, that is the triple legacy of indigenous religion, Islam, and Christianity that are often found side by side in many African societies. Perhaps its the abundant wildlife, scorching deserts, or the vast uninhabited plainlands. It all depends on the time of the year. MISCONCEPTION OF THE SUPREM BEING IN ATR There have been widespread misconceptions about the African Traditional Religion (hereinafter ATR). Although many African languages do not have a word for religion as such, it nevertheless accompanies the individual from long before his birth to long after his physical death. One of the more fascinating conversations that has emerged in the debate about African indigenous traditions is about the central role of women as bearers and transmitters of the traditions, and also the negotiation of gender dynamics. Another false impression often given about African religions is that women do not play any central or leadership roles in the performance of African religious traditions. 15. As Jaco Beyers puts it, the African understanding of religion is an understanding of the connectedness of all things. In most African cultures, history and beliefs have been explained and passed on through oral traditions and storytelling. c. masculine, feminine. To view the purposes they believe they have legitimate interest for, or to object to this data processing use the vendor list link below. But this was not an African thing. About | Commentary Guidelines | Harvard University Privacy | Accessibility | Digital Accessibility | Trademark Notice | Reporting Copyright Infringements In the primordial era, various forms of ethnic indigenous religions spread across the African continent, providing cohesive foundations of nations, peoples, and religious worldviews. Catholic moral theologian Laurenti Magesa argues that, unlike clothes, which one can wear and take off, for Africans, religion is like skin that cannot be so easily abandoned.7 Mbiti also captures this unique aspect in the following passage: Because traditional religions permeate all the departments of life, there is no formal distinction between the sacred and the secular, between the religious and non-religious, between the spiritual and the material areas of life. The story is the same in the political sphere. The culture believes and traditions of the people of Africa is vast and should not be oversimplified in a stereotypical way. In my work, I consider civil religion in Nigeria as a central galvanizing feature that brings together different aspects of religious beingness under the banner of sacred kingship. In Africa, dance is a means of marking life experiences, encouraging abundant crops, honoring kings and queens, celebrating weddings, marking rites of passage, and other ceremonial occasions.Dance is also done purely for enjoyment. Esu was represented as a stone mound in the front yard of ancient Yoruba compounds. While scholars have often argued that African indigenous accounts of creation were ex nihilo (created out of nothing), as the biblical account of creation is often portrayed,12 African cosmological narratives generally indicate that there is never one pattern governing how creation happens. John Mbiti, a prominent Christian theologian from Kenya who helped debunk entrenched ideas that traditional African religions were primitive, giving them equal weight with major . Corrupt government officials also capitalize on the generosity of the westerners to the point of looking like a panhandler. African religions are, therefore, a praxis, and this is where the focus of study should mostly be directed. When it comes to cryptocurrencies, African countries are leading as well. Despite conversion to Islam or to Christianity, Africans continue to accommodate an indigenous worldview that occupies a vital space in the African consciousness. This statement isnt true. The story of Mary Slessor and the killing of twins is popular. 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. Please confirm you want to block this member. A frica has 54 countries and more than a billion people. In his interview with the New York Times, the theologian said, The days are over when we will be carbon copies of European Christians, Europe and America westernized Christianity. They provide the orientation for the human life journey by defining the rites of passage from life to death. Many foreign nations and organizations do send aid to African countries. African Religion is not Ancestor Worship. Theres a globally shared perspective of Africa being full of diseases. This is based on misconceptions that these religions are antithetical to modernity. Portia Zvavahera, Cosmic Prayer, 2019, oil-based printing ink and oil bar on canvas. Today, several myths are mixed with facts in describing African traditional religion. Religion creates a significant part of African life. Countries like Senegal, Mali, and Burkina Faso that are close to the Sahara desert have the Sahel climate. It is the foundation on which the morals of pre-colonial Africa were built. the belief that natural objects and natural phenomenon possess souls or spiritual beings. They certainly represent interpretive traditions, and, when carefully studied, they form a solid foundation for theoretical frameworks used to study and decode these religions in our scholarship. 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. History text fails to capture the depth of pre-colonial African Civilization. Africans engaged Western enlightenment and religious traditions in serious dialogue and conversation, and responded by creating and interpreting their own modernity. A 1685 law, for instance, prohibited the practice of African religions, and required all masters to Christianize their slaves within eight days of their arrival in Haiti. Again, this isnt true. Given our current impending ecological crisis, indigenous African religions have a great deal to offer both African countries and the world at large. . However, this was never a generally accepted idea. Now it is our turn to Africanize it.. Perhaps, it was a deliberate attempt to make Africans feel inferior about themselves. The first encounters are fascinating. Ceremonies of naming, rites of passage, death, and other calendrical rites embody, enact, and reinforce the sacred values communicated in myths. Your email address will not be published. Loosely, it encompasses all African beliefs and practices that are considered religious but neither Christian nor Islamic. The reason for this is quite simply the misunderstanding of the relevance and foundation of the African tradition. Elders, priests, and priestesses have served as guardians of the sacred traditions. Lilith Dorsey. . 5. Understanding African Traditional Religion. 4.8 out of 5 stars. They held the view that twins were a symbol of excessive fertility which is a characteristic of animals. The problem is, this number is often collated for the whole of Africa, instead of each country of Africa. Priests, priestesses, and diviners are among the authorities who perform religious ceremonies, but the hierarchical structure is often very loose. Bolaji Idowu, John Mbiti, Wande Abimbola, Benjamin Ray, Gabriel Setiloane, Laura Grillo, Aloysius Lugira, Kofi Asare Opoku, Emefie Ikenga-Metuh, Charles Long, and others attempted to imbue African traditions with the vitality, status, and identity that is now finally recognized. African cosmogonic narratives posit the creation of a universe and the birth of a people and their indigenous religions. Unlike the Christian community, recited stories of creation are not performed by a single God, who ordered, by fiat, the creation of the universe with mere spoken words. This action will also remove this member from your connections and send a report to the site admin. For example, in many African cultures, intending couples MUST perform both traditional and white weddings. The stoning of the devil in the Kaba in Mecca was a disguise for rejecting the local Esu, the Yoruba god of fate and messenger of the gods. The concerns for health, wealth, and procreation are very central to the core of African religions. .title-desc-wrapper .view-post {display: none !important} So, while Africans easily adopt Western traditions, will the West also be willing to adopt African traditions? In spite of the heuristic value of V. Y. Mudimbes distinction between myth and history in Africa, and by extension the cohesion of oral and written narratives,10 the notion that myth is nonrational and unscientific while history is critical and rational is false. The range of African indigenous beliefs and practices has been referred to as African traditional religions in an effort to encompass the breadth and depth of the religious traditions on the continent.2 The diversity of the traditions themselves is tremendous, making it next to impossible for all of them to be captured in a single presentation. There are female priestesses, diviners, and other figures, and many feminist scholars have drawn from these traditions to advocate for womens rights and the place of the feminine in African societies. 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. In my view, these common misconceptions are due to ill representation of the African culture. When Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code was released, it generated both curiosity and criticism for its portrayal of Christianity. 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