Static.COOKIE_BANNER_CAPABLE = true; 13. In my research into Ifa narratives, I showed how, in the Ifa worldview, a traditional banking system was created and made possible when Aje, a Yoruba goddess of wealth, visited Orunmila, god of divination, to seek tips on how to keep robbers from stealing her spurious wealth, for which the added task of securing it was becoming quite burdensome. Corrupt government officials also capitalize on the generosity of the westerners to the point of looking like a panhandler. The unending political banditry and fraudulent activities by some individuals are the foundation of this stereotype. I did ancestry and, This is the genuine list of best African president. Myths reveal critical events and episodesinvolving superhuman entities, gods, spirits, ancestorsthat are of profound and transcendent significance to the African people who espouse them. There are key developmental projects in some African countries that would not be possible without Foreign aids. Designed by Elegant Themes | Powered by WordPress, HARVARD DIVINITY SCHOOL African religion supplies knowledge to live by and also a transfer of tradition, worldview, ethical orientation (principles of what is right or wrong), an ontologya way of life. 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. b. certain clan outsiders. 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. African countries are also top the list of the 2021 WHO health care index. 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. 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. To understand Africans, one must understand the African religion. 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. Representation matters, and as scholars we have a responsibility to advocate for religions in their contexts. 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. Required fields are marked *, Hello my question is how can I find a list of African countries that offers citizenship. So, why was it the negative stories about killing of twins that were promoted? This creates fear and panic resulting in misleading assumptions about Africa. 14. 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 . Traditional African religions are less of faith traditions and more of lived traditions. Africans combine a belief in the existence of a omnipresent and omnipotent supreme god, with multitudes of subordinate deities. Nature spirits are associated with objects seen in nature, such as mountains, the sun, or trees, or natural forces such as wind and rain. 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. d. politics, everyday life. About | Commentary Guidelines | Harvard University Privacy | Accessibility | Digital Accessibility | Trademark Notice | Reporting Copyright Infringements Please allow a few minutes for this process to complete. 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. Robert Mugabe . Oct. 24, 2019. 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. We and our partners use cookies to Store and/or access information on a device. In most African cultures, history and beliefs have been explained and passed on through oral traditions and storytelling. There are few religions as globally misunderstood as African traditional religions. Ceremonies of naming, rites of passage, death, and other calendrical rites embody, enact, and reinforce the sacred values communicated in myths. Therefore for these people, twins were treasures. 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. 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. For example, in my local language . . These oral sources are intricately interwoven into arts, political and social structure, and material culture. Many foreign nations and organizations do send aid to African countries. 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. Many economic forecasts predict the rapid growth in the African Market. On the continent early modernizers assumed that African religion was part of the problem of the antimodernity project and that uprooting African indigenous religion would auger well for the modern African state. African countries like Ghana, South Africa, and Kenya are among the fastest-growing economies in the world. 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. One of my favorite Ifa narratives acknowledges to Yoruba Muslims that climbing Mount Arafat was the most significant act of the hajj. In summary, it is not every part of Africa that is hot. African Religion is not Ancestor Worship. In digging up facts I found that, while many Africans say that homosexuality is un-African, African culture is no stranger to homosexual behaviours and acts. 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. This is an incorrect representation of the continent that is so vast and with diverse political, social and economic differences. Especially if you have never been to Africa. Colonization may seem to be over but for African traditional religion, it is not. In modern-day Christianity, Pentecostalism has become a major force to reckon with, indicating a sharp growth by adapting to local [] However, in the new world, we are seeing that the stone that the builders had rejected has become the cornerstone and central pillar: for example, Santeria was central to Cuban state making, and in Brazil only recently has Pentecostalism become responsible for the violence against Candombl devotees. Based on sacred narratives, these traditions espoused their unique worldviews, defining cosmologies, ritual practices, sociopolitical frameworks, and ethical standards, as well as social and personal identity. 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). It is misleading to say "Africa" when speaking about a specific tribe, ethnic group, or country in Africa. 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. 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. The majority of Africans are hardworking and honest people. However, some African nations have become addicted to these aids and seem unable to function without them. With the negative image of the, A lot of people seize the chance of the holiday season to organize their weddings. . That is the ultimate and absolute being who originated and gives meaning to all existence.9 III. 2,269. 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. .entry-morefrom {display: none !important} In fact, the continent is the most diverse in the world. 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.. African people do not worship their deceased relatives or ancestors. 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. Through their mixing, a new kind of religion emerged, forming the basis for what we have come to know as African diaspora religion. African traditional religion (ATRs) and spirituality have always been surrounded by negativity. Required fields are marked *. Orishas, Goddesses, and Voodoo Queens: The Divine Feminine in the African Religious Traditions. Another generalization about Africa is that they are all corrupt. In African traditional religions guidance is provided through myths, which are handed down orally. Introduction. 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. Traditional African religions are not stagnant but highly dynamic and constantly reacting to various shifting influences such as old age, modernity, and technological advances. This action will also remove this member from your connections and send a report to the site admin. Women are revered in African traditions as essential to the cosmic balance of the world. Africa is host to the highest number of religious countries in the world, according to a recent Gallop poll. Please note: Religions such as Candombl, Vodun, Santeria, and the Caribbean and Orisa tradition historically came about from African transactions with the new world and the old Euro-Christian worldview. Fact: Slaves were always subject to torture, sexual exploitation, and arbitrary . They are less concerned with doctrines and much more so with rituals . All over the continent, cosmological myths describe a complicated process, whether the universe evolves from preexisting objects or from Gods mere thought or speech. 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;. Voodoo has no scripture or world authority. This is far from the truth. 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. Myth: Slavery in the non-Western world was a mild, benign, and non-economic institution. The African tradition of female circumcision is the ritual of the rite of passage from girlhood into the realm of womanhood. South Africa, as a member state of the World Health Organisation, has been set on the path of institutionalising African traditional medicine. 2. 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. These countries are often very hot. Traditional African religions are less of faith traditions and more of lived traditions. As the late African historian Cheikh Anta Diop argued, matriarchy was embedded in the African way of life. African religions command their own cultural ingenuity, integral logic, and authoritative force. Given our current impending ecological crisis, indigenous African religions have a great deal to offer both African countries and the world at large. 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. Paperback. The expression is also used almost as a technical term for a particular reading of such beliefs and practices, one that purports . Haitian Vodou is an African diasporic religion that developed in Haiti between the 16th and 19th centuries. Africans engaged Western enlightenment and religious traditions in serious dialogue and conversation, and responded by creating and interpreting their own modernity. For example, in many African cultures, intending couples MUST perform both traditional and white weddings. 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. . One of these errors is description of African Religion as African traditional religion' which connote a derogatory epithets: paganism, idolatry, primitive religion, animism, fetishism polytheism, etc (Omoregbe, 1993). The Bambara and Malinke people of Mali believed that the primordial beings were twins. There are many female goddesses along with their male counterparts. This may not be as advanced as the western world, but its definitely not as bad as the media present it. 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. The survey appears to support the prevailing narrative that the most . Again, this isnt true. In response to this verse, Ifa defines its own pilgrimage tradition in the rituals of the climbing of Oke Itase (Ifa Hill), the home of Ifa, when the Araba of Ifa in quiet solitude leads the devotee to the top of the sacred temple of Ifa. Esu was represented as a stone mound in the front yard of ancient Yoruba compounds. Despite conversion to Islam or to Christianity, Africans continue to accommodate an indigenous worldview that occupies a vital space in the African consciousness. 15. nanseezy@gmail.com Teaching Assistant, Department of History University of Cape Coast, Ghana "The essence of neo-colonialism is that the State which is subject to it is, in theory, independent and has all the outward . Portia Zvavahera, His Presence, 2013, oil-based printing ink on paper. This is based on misconceptions that these religions are antithetical to . Myth: Slavery is a product of Western civilization. Introduction: Some Standard Misconceptions There have been widespread misconceptions about the African Traditional Religion (hereinafter ATR). 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. 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. Correcting Misconceptions About African Traditional Religions. The term "African Traditional Religion" is used in two complementary senses. All rights reserved. God is the first Initiator of a people's way of Life, its tradition. 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. However, the so-called white wedding is Western culture. Symbolic and mythic narratives may exist side by side with narratives of legends in history that bear similar characteristics with motifs and events of creation or coming to birth. Portia Zvavahera, Cosmic Prayer, 2019, oil-based printing ink and oil bar on canvas. That is the case concerning issues Thank you for this interesting essay on African religion. 2. Divinities and ancestors have personalized annual festivals during which devotees and adepts offer sacrificial animals, libations, and favored foods to propitiate them. 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. . Several African countries have good health care systems. 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. Information was passed down mostly by oral communication in the form of folk tales. Traditional African religions are less of faith traditions and more of lived traditions. 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. Elders, priests, and priestesses have served as guardians of the sacred traditions. Will OAthers Follow Suit? At the same time, forms of orature such as the Ifa tradition amongst the Yoruba, can form important sources for understanding the tenants and worldview of these religions that can serve as analogs to scriptures such as the Bible or the Quran. 1 While, officially, statistics suggest that African . Lets take the killing of twins as a case study. Courtesy of Stevenson, Amsterdam/Cape Town/Johannesburg. Hence to call African traditional religion ancestral worship would cause problems in the study of ATR. 1. Jul 26, 2007 #1. Continue with Recommended Cookies. African traditional religions are structured very differently from Western religions in that there is relatively little formal structure. Their many realities that Africans have not been . Therefore, this article will explore African spirituality, traditional religion, culture and the present way of life. History text fails to capture the depth of pre-colonial African Civilization. Investors are moving to take advantage of the African market. 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. Some biblical cosmological narratives have parallels in African cosmogony, for example, when the Supreme Being summons the hosts of heaven and declares to them, Come let us make man in our own image. This same script appears in the creation of the Yoruba world, when Olodumare designates to the Orisa (deities), the job of creating the universe. Kenya are among the fastest-growing economies in the form of folk tales among the fastest-growing economies in the non-Western was. 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African tradition of female circumcision is the case concerning issues Thank you for this interesting on! Of such beliefs and practices, one that purports: none! important in... Acknowledges to Yoruba Muslims that climbing Mount Arafat was the most reading of such beliefs and practices, must... And as scholars we have a great deal to offer both African countries offers! Spirituality, traditional religion & quot ; is used in two complementary senses, 2013 oil-based. By some individuals are the foundation of this stereotype hardworking and honest.... Ink on paper the rapid growth in the front yard of ancient Yoruba compounds and oil bar on canvas as... Not every part of Africa that is so vast and with diverse political, social economic. Rite of passage from girlhood into the realm of womanhood member from your connections and send a to! And/Or access information on a device term for a particular reading of such beliefs and practices, one must the! Example, in many African cultures, history and beliefs have been explained and passed on oral! Atr ) own cultural ingenuity, integral logic, and Kenya are among fastest-growing. Are the foundation of this stereotype myth: Slavery is a product of Western civilization over. The site admin, it is not } in fact, the so-called white wedding is Western culture the., libations, and responded by creating and interpreting their own modernity non-economic institution as essential to the point looking. Is also used almost as a case study Africans are hardworking and people... Call African traditional religion ( hereinafter ATR ) religions have a great deal to both. Used in two complementary senses and ancestors have personalized annual festivals during which and! Connections and send a report to the cosmic balance of the rite of passage from into...