When Christianity and Western civilization came and interacted with African culture and religion, misconception of beliefs, values, and terms developed. Elders, priests, and priestesses have served as guardians of the sacred traditions. Through their mixing, a new kind of religion emerged, forming the basis for what we have come to know as African diaspora religion. There is a common saying in Africa Dont forget where you come from. The consent submitted will only be used for data processing originating from this website. We and our partners use data for Personalised ads and content, ad and content measurement, audience insights and product development. Their many realities that Africans have not been . When I was in Israel a few years ago, I stayed in a modest bed-and-breakfast inn near the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Theres a globally shared perspective of Africa being full of diseases. 3. Most Africans at home and in the diaspora have made a name for themselves and praised for their contributions to society. Among its one billion inhabitants, more than 1,000 languages are spoken, and there is a massive variety of ethnic religions. 11. Whether these words carry weight or simply make for a good quote, the fact remains that Africans are unique. This is based on misconceptions that these religions are antithetical to . Myth 3: Africa Is Lacking Innovation. They still hold onto their traditional beliefs, culture, and practices, but consider western values superior to theirs. With exception of those who take history classes, the majority of young Africans will fail to elaborately tell the story of their origin. Perhaps its the abundant wildlife, scorching deserts, or the vast uninhabited plainlands. African leaders are also investing heavily in diversifying the economy. In the lived experiences of the people, there has been much borrowing and interchange, particularly in those places that have a history of peaceful coexistence among diverse religious traditions, as is so among the Yoruba. This inaccurate assessment of African belief even affects the definition of African religion. Giving opportunity to stereotypes like Africa are poor and Africa is corrupt. Truly opening my eyes on traditions, cultures and rituals that I did not know existed. 9. 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. 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. John Mbiti divides spirit beings into two types, nature spirits and human spirits. Understanding African Traditional Religion. Connecting With Your Ancestors (African Spirituality Beliefs and Practices) Monique Joiner Siedlak. Africa is not homogenous. Continue with Recommended Cookies. The culture believes and traditions of the people of Africa is vast and should not be oversimplified in a stereotypical way. About | Commentary Guidelines | Harvard University Privacy | Accessibility | Digital Accessibility | Trademark Notice | Reporting Copyright Infringements
African countries like Ghana, South Africa, and Kenya are among the fastest-growing economies in the world. 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. Apart from a few instances in West Africa, where women actually ruled as kings, the designation queen was not often used in isolation from the position itself (which was defined in male terms). 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. Thus, I have argued that religion should be examined not only as a sacred phenomenon, but also as a cultural and human reality, all the while remembering the importance of integrating the sociopolitical dimensions of religiosity into any examination of an African state. Thus, it is easy to see why it seems that Africa needs help. For Ivy Akumu '15, it sparked an interest in the history of Christianity and, by extension, of other religions. Each transition has a function within the society. a. newly birthed babies. While those who identify as practitioners of traditional African religions are often in the minority, many who identify as Muslims or Christians are involved in traditional religions to one degree or another. However, African indigenous religion has not only succeeded in domesticating Islam and Christianity; in many instances, it has absorbed aspects of these two other traditions into its cosmology and narrative accounts and practices. The Ndembu tribe of the Democratic Republic of Congo shared a similar belief. Unlike other world religions that have written scriptures, oral sources form the core of indigenous African religions. And why should our work in critical theory not begin from indigenous hermeneutics before we invoke Martin Heidegger, Michel Foucault, or Jrgen Habermas as platforms for interpreting our own worldview and society? Paperback. The traditional approach of indigenous African religions to gender is one of complementarity in which a confluenceof male and female forces must operate in harmony. Every tribe and culture have their beliefs and way of life. 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. 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 culture believes and traditions of the people of Africa is vast and should not be oversimplified in a stereotypical way. Information was passed down mostly by oral communication in the form of folk tales. .pagination {display: none !important} Religion also encompasses the human, cultural dimensions within faith traditions, such as how human agency shapes, influences, and complicates religious control. My essay Om ptadran, an Africanist Griot: Toni Morrison and African Epistemology, Myths, and Literary Culture, in. Priests, priestesses, and diviners are among the authorities who perform religious ceremonies, but the hierarchical structure is often very loose. 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. More so, myths encode the traditional settings of the African and their belief system. These elements are worth exploring and espousing. John Mbiti in his book African Religion and Philosophy, argued that African Religion deserves the same respect as Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Buddhism. This corrective scholarship and critical intervention helped to redefine African worldviews and spirituality and, as such, showed how African religion is pivotal to the individual and communal existence of the people. These traditions are not religious principles, but a cultural identity that is passed on through stories, myths and tales. Investors are moving to take advantage of the African market. 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. In many African countries a range of beliefs and attitudes underpin these alternative explanations. Fact: Slavery is virtually a universal institution. 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. Gradually, there was a shift from ATR to Christianity. Through a profound process of orality, Ifa as an interpretive tradition espouses an epistemology, metaphysics, morality, and a set of ethical principles and political ideology. African Traditional Religions (ATRs) will be discussed within the context of which it belongs to, the African traditional life (ATL). Long before the arrival of Christianity and Islam, Africans practiced African traditional religion (ATR). No. I suggest that, at the conceptual and theoretical levels, we begin to take this interpretive approach seriously. African American women are turning more and more to goddess religions and Orisa practices, as they find African religion offering them greater religious autonomy than other Western religions. Ifa defines Yoruba humanity, providing responses to critical issues of its communities. Indigenous traditions continue to define the African personality. Du Bois argued . The diviner, therefore, is also a counselor, psychologist, medicine man or woman, and the spiritual guardian of villages and towns. So, while Africans easily adopt Western traditions, will the West also be willing to adopt African traditions? The term "African Traditional Religion" is used in two complementary senses. African religions, religious beliefs and practices of the peoples of Africa. But Ifa divination predates Western modernity. Therefore, this article will explore African spirituality, traditional religion, culture and the present way of life. Voodoo is a religion that originates in Africa. African spirituality more generallyand Nigerian spirituality in particularis shaped by how individuals in their daily existence make sense of their interactions with religious experience. 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. Unique Beliefs, and Too Many Misconceptions Traditional native sweat lodge with hot stones inside . 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. It is a well-known fact that religion continues to play a central and vital role in the lives of African people. Divination enables us to recognize how indigenous traditions have a foundation upon which knowledge and knowledge production is developed. All over the continent, cosmological myths describe a complicated process, whether the universe evolves from preexisting objects or from Gods mere thought or speech. 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. Perhaps, it was a deliberate attempt to make Africans feel inferior about themselves. When Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code was released, it generated both curiosity and criticism for its portrayal of Christianity. Hence the misguided notion that Africans are corrupt. The Hausa man is different from the Igbo man who is also different from the Yoruba man. Here Is What You Have To Know. The story is the same in the political sphere. They believe in The area of study is Buganda in Uganda. This may not be as advanced as the western world, but its definitely not as bad as the media present it. The ability of the Black community to call on the spirits and ways of its ancestors is crucial to its continu ao Ajima OM, Ubana EU (2018) The Concept . However, western culture has blurred to an extent the lines between African tribes. Abstract. First, there is a supreme being who created the universe and every living and nonliving thing to be found within the universe. In one particular odu of Ifa, Ifa informs us and, correctly so, that the most cardinal event of the hajj is the climbing of Mount Arafat (Oke Arafa). The reason is partly that they want a time when, Your email address will not be published. Absolute as Supreme, infinite and everlasting mind. They held the view that twins were a symbol of excessive fertility which is a characteristic of animals. In modern-day Christianity, Pentecostalism has become a major force to reckon with, indicating a sharp growth by adapting to local [] .sqs-featured-posts-gallery .title-desc-wrapper .view-post Even in areas of Zimbabwe with easy access to Western-type delivery care, the majority of women are cared for and delivered by traditional birth attendants who are members of their extended family. 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. Perhaps this is because the traditional African system was dependent on the oral form of communication. Many people have bought into the narrative of African traditional religious beliefs as something untrue and based on delusions, but they have also forgotten that all religions have the same thing in common. It is misleading to say Africa when speaking about a specific tribe, ethnic group, or country in Africa. Another crucial aspect to consider in the comparative study of African religions is the reality of the transfer of these religions across the Atlantic through the Middle Passage and transnational migration and cultural exchange. As scholars of the comparative study of religions in Africa, we must begin to rethink the study of African religion in the twenty-first century in order to avoid the continuous mis-assessment of the resilience of indigenous traditions. Prior to colonization, there was scarcely any form of writing in the majority of African tribes and cultures. This article analyses the legal processes of recognising customary and religious (Muslim) marriages in South Africa's constitutional democracy. 14. 8. Advocating for civil religion in a religiously pluralistic society does not require the erasure of conventional religious traditions. .entry-morefrom {display: none !important} Similarly, there are others like Henry Louis Gates who has appropriated images of the Yoruba deity of Esu in his own work. African identity and culture are preserved in African Traditional Religion. Such dismissal has been based on the misconception and assumption that indigenous Bapedi . It is the foundation on which the morals of pre-colonial Africa were built. For example, in my local language . Indigenous religion has always played a pivotal role in the African public sphere, as my study of the Ifa divination system has shown.18 In indigenous religion, communities are governed according to the dictates of the gods, particularly through a divination system such as Fa (Benin) and Ifa (Southwest Nigeria), which encompass the political, social, and economic conditions of life. A primary goal of parenting is to transmit values, beliefs and ideas around lifestyles based on cultural knowledge of the adult tasks and competencies needed for appropriate functioning in society (Gershoff, 2002; Harrison, Wilson, Pine, Chon & Buriel, 1990). 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. In times of crisis they often come to the surface, or people revert to them in secret.8. 7, The Spirits, in his, One must resist the structuralist temptation that views myths as static, unchanging, and simply the productions of a peoples imagination about the cosmic order. 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. Many sources define African worship as ancestral worship which is wrong. Marriage customs in Africa vary from one tribe to another. 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. Post-colonial Africa is yet to be completely free from the mental slavery and stereotype created by the colonial masters. One reason that might account for the gap in African history is the unavailability of any written document. The west, by trying to learn more about the African tradition will avoid the bias and ignorance of being misinformed. His many publications include African Religions: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2014); City of 201 Gods: Il-If in Time, Space, and the Imagination (University of California Press, 2011); and Kingship, Religion, and Rituals in a Nigerian Community: A Phenomenological Study of Ondo Yoruba Festivals (Almqvist & Wiksell, 1991), which has become a model for ethnographic research among Yoruba-speaking communities. 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"). My earlier scholarship was propelled by the insight that the ideology and rituals of Yoruba sacred kingship are what define Yoruba civil religion and, indeed, the center of Yoruba identity.15 Sociologist Robert Bellah understands civil religion as the sacred principle and central ethic that unites a people, without which societies cannot function.16 Civil religion incorporates common myths, history, values, and symbols that relate to a societys sense of collective identity. For example, in many African cultures, intending couples MUST perform both traditional and white weddings. African scholars in the United States are paying increasing attention to African images in African American culture and religion.20 Some scholars, especially literary critics, now scout African American novels such as Toni Morrisons and Alice Walkers works, for glimpses of African traditions. According to the Global peace index, Malaysia, Botswana, and Ghana are among the top 50 most peaceful countries, beating the United Kingdom and the United States that were ranked 45 and 128 respectively. 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. One of my favorite Ifa narratives acknowledges to Yoruba Muslims that climbing Mount Arafat was the most significant act of the hajj. Perhaps this is linked to the idea that Africa has an inadequate or substandard health care system. Also, poverty is mostly concentrated among few nations in Africa or within few regions of each Nation. Compared to most patriarchal traditions, where womens participation and roles are curtailed, African religions attitude toward gender inclusion is unique. Africa is a continent that is made up of 54 countries, 1.3 billion inhabitants, more than 3000 ethnic groups, and 2100 unique languages. A classic example is how the Ifa divination text of the Yoruba provides deep commentary on the practice of Islam by the Yoruba people, such as the hajj tradition. Header Photo:Traditional African Necklace Photo: Wikimedia Commons, Copyright 2016-2022, The Interfaith Observer | Site by FaithlabTIO is part of the Religica Theolab inside the Center for Ecumenical and Interreligious Engagement (CEIE) at Seattle University, Donna Bollinger Tapped to Lead Religions for Peace-USA, Interfaith Themes in Sub-Saharan African Tales (for Kids), Interreligious Literacy and Why It Matters, Religious Literacy & the Flying Spaghetti Monster, Thou Shalt Not Hate: The Role of Religious Actors in Addressing Hate Speech, When Wiccans & Evangelical Christians Become Friends, The Interfaith Rainforest Initiative: A Case Study of Religious Literacy, The Chinese Jews of Kaifeng (and what Ive learned from them), Reimagining Interfaith: Taking Our Lead from Kids. Fact: Slavery is older than the first human records. 5.3.2 Intolerance and misconceptions about African traditional religion and Culture As already alluded, the stories told in Europe about Africa, the notion of racial and cultural superiority, and the notion of salvation, led to the western missionaries having a negative attitude toward African traditional religion and culture. 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. Intentional or not, this interpretation creates a distorted and misconstrued view of Africans by the rest of the world. Slowly, they projected ATR as barbaric and dehumanizing. 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. Its almost as if pre-colonial Africa never existed. In African traditional religions guidance is provided through myths, which are handed down orally. This misconception has, in some scholars, matured into prejudice and resilient skepticism about the African's ability to grasp the concept of God. However, since Africans are known for their excellent craftsmanship, these artifacts do tell the story of the ancient African empires. 2,269. Published. . there is a diversity of religion in Africa; rather, it is the extent of that diversity and the degree to which the term 'African traditional religion' might misleadingly mask both that extent and the mutability of the forms it encompasses. 13. Each of these has its peculiar characteristics. Africa is the second-largest continent in the world. Myths reveal critical events and episodesinvolving superhuman entities, gods, spirits, ancestorsthat are of profound and transcendent significance to the African people who espouse them. Today, several myths are mixed with facts in describing African traditional religion. African Traditional Religion and medicine are integral parts of life and culture of the Africans and have greatly influenced their conceptions about human health and wholeness. However, some African nations have become addicted to these aids and seem unable to function without them. African religions are, therefore, a praxis, and this is where the focus of study should mostly be directed. . 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. Most of these aids go into building infrastructures like schools and hospitals. They counteracted various derogatory names given to AIR. 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. Africa is poor. Because it enables us to theorize questions of syncretism and hybridization and, more importantly, raises the issue of why African religion is flowering and spreading in the Americas, especially in the United States, while it is declining in Africaa phenomenon that we need to understand. Whatever it is, the assumption that Africa is lacking innovation is laughable. The battle between the African traditional religion and western civilization has been raging on for years. Traditional African religions are less of faith traditions and more of lived traditions. the belief that natural objects and natural phenomenon possess souls or spiritual beings. Female circumcision is a hotly contested practice condemned by many global organizations and lumped together under the category of female genital mutilation. Few have much clarity or knowledge on what is actually involved. One approach is to outline, in a systematic way, the essential features of these traditions without paying much attention to whether or not the traditions fit into the pattern of religions already mapped out by Western theologians and historians, who use Western religious traditions as the standard by which to measure religions in other parts of the world. . Many economic forecasts predict the rapid growth in the African Market. While some Christian mission historians, such as J. D. Y. Peel, for example, correctly argue that the Yoruba had their own enlightenment (Olaju), this is always presented in the context of Christian conversion and is very much tied to the escalating Christian missionary movement. 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. Required fields are marked *. Today as a minority tradition, indigenous African religions have suffered immensely from human rights abuses. These one-sided stories or reports are among the major roots of stereotypes and myths about Africa. Despite conversion to Islam or to Christianity, Africans continue to accommodate an indigenous worldview that occupies a vital space in the African consciousness. Individuals in their daily existence make sense of their origin globally shared perspective of Africa misconceptions about african traditional religion yet to be free!, culture, and terms developed mostly be directed by oral communication in the lives of African tribes Nigerian in... 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