as a burnt offering. Learn more about the similarities and differences of the religious systems of Africa, including indigenous religions, Abrahamic, Islamic, and Christian beliefs of people in the region. All work unless implicitly stated is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. They form a chain through the links of which the forces of the elders [now with the community] exercise their vitalizing influence on the living generation. For Magesa, the ancestors are primarily authority figures whose being implies moral activity in that they are the maintainers and enforcers of norms of social action. Although they are entrusted with these roles in their relationship with humans, any capriciousness of the ancestors is not taken kindly by the living, just as it would not be acceptable from any elder in society. The ancestors are beyond reproach. They claimed or argued strongly that in the light of the more objective or scientific study of religions, ATR can no longer be justifiably characterized as stupid, since the worshippers do not worship the said material objects per se, but the Spirit of the Creator reflected in them. You can download the paper by clicking the button above. Therefore, these traditional theologians condemned those who said, ATR and similar non-western religions are followed by irrational or foolish people who in their stupidity bow down to stones, trees and rivers instead of the Creator who created such objects and themselves. 1630-1633), HEBREWS' CHRISTOLOGY AND ITS CONTEMPORARY APPREHENSION IN AFRICA 1, New Mind, New Heart, New Strength (A Paradigm on the New Man), Dissertation ETD Libermann and EA in Dialogue Dec 2013, Pentecostalism and Shamanism in Asia and Beyond: An Inter-disciplinary Analysis. What the data says about gun deaths in the U.S. These are the pristine men and women, the originators of the lineage or clan or ethnic group. Peel, J. D. Y. Africans believe in the existence of a mystical, invisible, hidden, spiritual power in the universe. degree at Harvard Divinity School. Religion informs everything in traditional African society, including political art, marriage, health, diet, dress, economics, and death. Therefore we speak of African Traditional Religion thinking of those common things. Christ was tempted in all the ways While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. There is even a community deep in the American Bible Belt in Beaufort County, S.C., called Oyotunji Village that practices a type of African indigenous religion, which is a mixture of Yoruba and Ewe-Fon spiritual practices. endobj
For this reason, they can come to the saving knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ through the teaching of the Word of God because it is home going time. OLUPONA: Yes, and the pluralistic nature of African-tradition religion is one of the reasons for its success in the diaspora. Both have places of worship. However, Christians can offer animals to the church where they canbe sold or reared to give the church income. Acknowledgements, Introduction: Locations of culture, 1. (See the glossary for more information on the evil eye.). The Yoruba, however, do have a concept of a supreme being, called Olorun or Olodumare, and this creator god of the universe is empowered by the various orisa [deities] to create the earth and carry out all its related functions, including receiving the prayers and supplications of the Yoruba people. The bottom line then is that Africans who still wholly practice African indigenous religions are only about 10 percent of the African population, a fraction of what it used to be only a century ago, when indigenous religions dominated most of the continent. Jacob Olupona, professor of indigenous African religions at Harvard Divinity School and professor of African and African-American studies in Harvards Faculty of Arts and Sciences, recently sat down for an interview about his lifelong research on indigenous African religions. Like Mbiti and Green, Magesa notes that the world of African Traditional Religion is a hierarchically ordered place where, On the lowest rung of the ladder are spirits, who are active beings distinct from humans and reside in nature and phenomena such as trees, rivers, rocks, or lakes. For this reason, l am writing on the topic, which says, Comparing the concept of Spirit and Soul in the Traditional Religion of the Akan and Ewe Tribes to that of the Bible. This is called a tithe. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Traditional Africans communicated to God through ancestors. Most African communities offered animals and not humans as sacrifices. This is the kind of interlocutor who will counter an observation about violent militancy in contemporary Islam in the context, let us say, of a discussion about Boko Haram with But what about the Crusades? Published online by Cambridge University Press: ;;m]mB"DTSUD[j*3l
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v(a6lA`O/HvX*3SME_qv&oMm?{{n In the part two of my writing, l will expand on the world populated by spirits called Vodou alongside that of the Akan. Since God is seen as the Creator, various aspects of the universe are permeated by the sense of the sacredthe religious mentality affects the way people see the universe. Prayers and sacrificial offerings are usually directed toward secondary divinities, who are intermediaries between the human and sacred realms. The success of Christianity and Islam on the African continent in the last 100 years has been extraordinary, but it has been, unfortunately, at the expense of African indigenous religions. L_}mB)b7h;
uZ4 QI,^ID-*Rj" xx>@9lCQr [GE1Hz:Aj3>^5T-FPD5|. The continued influence of traditional African religion is also evident in some aspects of daily life. These intermediary agents include the ancestors, members of the community who at death become idealized. In African Traditional Religion, they do believe in a genderless god with the three names: Umvelingqangi, uNkulunkulu, and uThixo (Badoian, 2014). Devoid of essential personal characteristics they represent the essence of what might be called structural personality. OLUPONA: Indigenous African religions refer to the indigenous or native religious beliefs of the African people before the Christian and Islamic colonization of Africa. Instead of God keeping his distance from man, He, throughout history and today reaches down in love to draw humans toward him. The amount of devotees to indigenous practices has dwindled as Islam and Christianity have both spread and gained influence throughout the continent. He is not only the covenant giver He gives the power to keep the covenant. 1 0 obj
OLUPONA: If we lose traditional African religions, we would also lose or continue to seriously undermine the African practice of rites of passage such as the much cherished age-grade initiations, which have for so long integrated and bought Africans together under a common understanding, or worldview. Christians pray toGod through Jesus Christ. "The success of Christianity and Islam on the African continent in the last 100 years has been extraordinary, but it has been, unfortunately, at the expense of African indigenous religions," said Olupona. In the Akan and Ewe ethnic groups the above phenomenological conception of ATR called for education in the light of the scriptures. For instance, the Yoruba religion has historically been centered in southwestern Nigeria, the Zulu religion in southern Africa, and the Igbo religion in southeastern Nigeria. Modernity has not put a total stop to its influence. Belief in the ancestors presents the idea of reciprocity in the African traditional moral world. &RcIX6Wa). However, the reasons for the growth of Christianity in Africa significantly include the way the Africans have attempted to deal with their threatening fears, especially witchcraft. Maybe this is why I am not an Anglican priest. In addition, roughly a quarter or more of the population in 11 countries say they believe in the protective power of juju (charms or amulets), shrines and other sacred objects. But it is also the strict commitment, to the observance of certain (written or unwritten) divinely inspired moral prescriptions or codes of ethics, promulgated by the religious authorities and enforced by sanctions. 1 Their central thrust is to emphasize the similarities rather than the differences between current movements in the world religions, particularly Christianity and Islam, but Before you discuss on how somebody is doing something, it is also good to look at the reason why the person is doing that thing, so that you can be in a better position to educate the person properly. The traditional theologians also emphasized that as in all religious traditions, the belief and worship of the Supreme Being in ATR does not just mean the strict performance of certain rituals. Indigenous African practices tend to be strongest in the central states of Africa, but some form of their practices and beliefs can be found almost anywhere in Africa. Furthermore, the issue is whether a strict order of retribution cannot be tolerated if human ambition gets in the way of realizing enduring moral virtue and well-being. That would be a serious loss not only for Africans, but also for academics, researchers, writers, and general seekers of wisdom the world over. The Church also combines those who have died and those who still live. Africans had shrines they believedGod dwelt in. This condition is under a traditional religion belief called the trokosi system or wives of the ancestral gods. These ancestral gods lived in the spiritual world, which according to ATR, is the world populated by spirits. OLUPONA: Yes, its a mixed bag because in the African diaspora mostly due to the slave trade starting in the 15th century indigenous African religions have spread and taken root all over the world, including in the United States and Europe. The . How digital misinformation may keep you from a good nights sleep, Study finds surgical patients with addiction issues may be at greater risk for complications, including sudden cardiac death after anesthesia, Khalil Gibran Muhammad says College Board needs to stand firm behind curriculum, Chief counsel of respected mid-70s Senate inquiry into improper federal investigations says credibility of oversight function at stake, 2023 The President and Fellows of Harvard College. TraditionalAfricans gave offerings but they did not give tithes. Hence, it cannot be avoided in the interaction between Christianity and African Traditional Religion. Render date: 2023-03-01T10:31:12.538Z Veneration of departed ancestors is a major characteristic of all traditional religions. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings. Editorial Statement: This essay is a slightly modified excerpt from the section "Evaluating African Traditional Religion: The Descriptive Task" (98-107) in Fr. 4 0 obj
Yet consider that in 1900 most Africans in sub-Saharan Africa practiced a form of indigenous African religions. Mbiti says that: According to Mbiti, human beings have a privileged position in the universe. Updated: 10 . (+1) 202-857-8562 | Fax Both have initiation rites into full membership. And if these shrines are not properly cared for by the designated descendant, then misfortune in the form of illness might befall the caretaker. According to Mbiti, Africans believe that God has ordained a moral order for humans, through which they came to understand what is good and what is evil, so that they might live in harmony with one another and safeguard the life of the people. These include the pragmatic nature of the African cultural and religious heritage, and the African traditional methods of healing. No matter how one looks at it, to offer the female members of ones family as a mark of hospitality to a stranger is morally wrong, not just from the point of view of Christian morality but from a purely natural law point of view as well. For example, sickness in the indigenous African worldview is not only an imbalance of the body, but also an imbalance in ones social life, which can be linked to a breakdown in ones kinship and family relations or even to ones relationship with ones ancestors. February 21, 2019. Christians observe the Lords supper. As a resident fellow, Sherman will teach a study group on negotiation and diplomacy this semester. a trans-moral suspension of retribution in the face of self-confessed and inescapable human wrongdoing. Green notes a similarity between this deep structure and that which has developed in Christian theology over centuries of effort at grounding human moral striving in the face of the experiential difficulties that assault moral idealism. In this Christian theological system, the idea of God as creator and sovereign expresses the moral requirements of impartial regard for all. The other very big difference between African Traditional Religion and Christianity is the worship. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. African spirituality simply acknowledges that beliefs and practices touch on and inform every facet of human life, and therefore African religion cannot be separated from the everyday or mundane.. OLUPONA: The role of ancestors in the African cosmology has always been significant. This supreme . African spirituality simply acknowledges that beliefs and practices touch on and inform every facet of human life, and therefore African religion cannot be separated from the everyday or mundane. Acts are wrong if they hurt or damage relationships or if they are discovered to constitute a breach of custom or regulation. To buttress his point Mbiti states that in certain African societies to sleep with someone elses wife is not considered evil if these two are not found out by the society which forbids it, and in other societies is in fact an expression of friendship and hospitality to let a guest spend the night with ones wife or daughter or sister. Mbitis assertions must be read as a limited reference to some African societies and in some limited settings. About Pew Research Center Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. This practice, no matter how limited it is, again shows how untenable the blanket assertion is that African moral traditions are those of abundant life. Villepastour, Amanda One scholar who has written extensively on African Traditional Religion is John Mbiti, a Kenyan whom many consider the dean of living African theologians. From this view point, Ill begin to say that African Traditional Religion (ATR) involves the belief and worship of the Supreme Being known and revered all over Africa as Onyame in Akan, Mao in Ewe, Chineke in Igbo and Oludumare in Yoruba etc. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. Below is the article summary. Other spirits with a significant role in maintaining the African traditional moral world include ancestors and lineage spirits who operate in specific social contexts where their will is expressed through misfortunes, and some other spirits who do not act directly but who rely on human agents to effect their will. These spirits underlie the power of spirit mediums who, as mediators between space and the human world and by virtue of the moral authority this confers, are able to arbitrate between living human beings. endobj
There are also the lesser gods that take residency in streams, rivers, trees and mountains. endobj
I answered two, The paper discusses the state of traditional African religion in post-apartheid South Africa. This dissertation will attempt to explore how deliverance ministry has replaced the anti-witchcraft shrines and the exorcistic activities of the African Indigenous Churches. These gods are generally perceived as intermediaries between the Supreme Being and society. Much of Oluponas work is an attempt to provide a fuller understanding of the complexity and richness of African indigenous thought and practice by viewing it not as a foil or as a useful comparative to better understand Western religions, but as a system of thought and belief that should be valued and understood for its own ideas and contribution to global religions. Updates? Since Christianity came in contact with the traditional religion, there has always been a sharp conflict between traditionalists and Christians. Nevertheless, since 1900, Christians in Africa have grown from approximately 7 million to over 450 million today. It is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts. 24 October 2016. African religions behavior is centered mainly on the human person and his or her life in this world, with the consequence that religion is clearly functional, or a means to serve people to acquire earthly goods (life, health, fecundity, wealth, power and the like) and to maintain social cohesion and order.. The African Traditional Religion has no founder. At stake here is nothing less than the question of human culpability and ultimate redemption, which has to do with the traditional Christian topic of sin and grace. Foreign religions simply dont have that same connection to the African continent. For all Ghanaian ethnic groups, the spirit world is considered to be as real as the world of the living. Differences between Christianity and traditional African beliefs and customs (Exodus 20:3-5,Hebrews 10:8-10) 1. Christians practice baptism. They believe that Obatala helped Olurun in creating theworld and everything in it. To understand African tradition, one needs to understand the position of African Traditional Religion on God, the human person, and creation. GAZETTE: How would you define indigenous African religions? The other question: Stereotype, This essay deals with the relationship between Christianity and other religions. In the Ewe thought they are called Vodou (Vodu or Vudu in Benin and Togo; also Vodon, Vodoun, Voudou, or other phonetically equivalent spellings. Semantic Scholar is a free, AI-powered research tool for scientific literature, based at the Allen Institute for AI. They do this by having Africans increasingly identify themselves as either Muslim or Christian, thus denying their unique African worldview that has always viewed as evidenced in their creation myths everything as unified and connected to the land, the place were ones clan, lineage, and people were cosmically birthed. OLUPONA: My father, a faithful Anglican priest, was a good example. Pp. When a missionary asked Africans in Zanzibar to tell him something about their God, they simply said, "God thunders!" The cleric had travelled across the seas in the 19th century to tell "the heathens without religion" or "people with a primitive religion" about God. A network of mutual relationships and responsibilities links the duals worlds of the mundane and the sacred. The rapid growth of many religions in Africa and the revival of AIR in . Ancestors also serve as intermediaries (see ancestor worship). As judge, God is understood to uphold this standard by ultimately punishing its violations and by rewarding the righteous (usually in some eschatological domain). Indigenous African religions are pragmatic. The position I critique in this paper is really a complex of closely overlapping positions, some more theoretically sophisticated or better grounded empirically than others. These could be caves, forests,mountains and so on. O?+dOw\eOoHc_o~
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vnxX,o"\4/I+{U40f_dX!y2#i.7Xi0}zi*_Qk({_8D2M"09E%kR`O"}Ec#O3+lwP/z[r=]jPh!eC6Ci{FKnW4 Mbiti emphasizes that Africans view the universe religiously. GAZETTE: It sounds like African indigenous religions are dynamic, inclusive, and flexible. Commonalities between Christianity and Africa Traditional Religion. The commitment to theory, 2. Rooted in the belief in God as the Creator, Africans believe in various dimensions of the created universe, such as visible and invisible (the spiritual realm), heavenly (skyward) and earthly (and in some ethnic groups there is a belief in the underworld). Authoring or editing more than half a dozen books on religion and African culture (including the recent African Religions: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press), Olupona has researched topics ranging from the indigenous religions of Africa to the religious practices of Africans who have settled in America. With regard to the issue of offering ones wife in generosity, this practice, as Laurenti Magesa has shown, applied to a very limited number of African ethnic groups, such as the Masai, and in very tightly controlled situations among friends within the same age group fraternity and on very limited occasions. Akiki Nyabongos novel, Africa answers back, reveals that religious syncretism in Africa is a reality that has persistently painted Christianity as an offshoot of traditional African religions. endobj
Indigenous African spirituality today is increasingly falling out of favor. In some communities masks were used to representcertain gods or ancestral spirits. Christians acknowledge the existenceof magic and witchcraft. $70.00/$25.00. Some of these African diaspora religions include Cuban Regla de Ocha, Haitian Vodou, and Brazilian Candomble. Consequently, traditional Africans have different ideas on what role the ancestors play in the lives of living descendants. GAZETTE: Are ancestors considered deities in the traditional African cosmology? Odozor's Morality Truly Christian, Truly Africanpublished by theUniversity of Notre Dame Press. In this paper, Ill bring the understanding of African traditional adherents into the light of the Holy Scriptures; to explain what the Bible teaches about soul and spirit in relation to God and man. hasContentIssue true, Copyright International African Institute 2016. The worship can be direct , but is done (mostly) indirectly through divine agents like the gods or divinities (abosom in Akan , legbaa in Ewe ) and the ancestors. of the people which are all together. Those to whom this power is accessible can use it for good, such as healing, rainmaking, or divination, while others can use it for harm, through magic, witchcraft, and sorcery. In short, the question is whether the notion of mercy exists in the moral order of African Traditional Religion and whether the sacrifices of African religion amount to an expiatory understanding in African religious thought. (+1) 202-419-4300 | Main Ifa is an indispensable treasure trove of knowledge that cant be duplicated elsewhere; much of its knowledge has been handed down from babalawo [Ifa priest/diviner] to babalawo for centuries. While both Christianity and African religion have a concept of a Supreme Being,Christians believe in a God who exists in three persons. When punishment comes, it comes in the present life. Whatever the difference in the deep structures that undergird the moral life in the Christian conception or in Africa Traditional Religion, Green, like Mbiti, concludes that Africans believe in a morally saturated universe: The role of intermediary agents and spirits in maintaining moral order in African Traditional Religion is quite remarkable, as we have already seen from the work of Mbiti. I told my father that I was coming home, he recalled. Anthony Chiorazzi, who has an M.Phil. That testifies to the enduring power of indigenous religion and its ability to domesticate Christianity and Islam in modern Africa. / DI41@ tD}r;Y w,XVzwiA1JtvrlfFaD7E@s 00=L"q{Vf\}ioKy=lXS.P6ChX m% ~nUV)=vp%FBvy}+6,0+V8sG&>K_iBOntQvyCN[I'uvR;}hA/D|+I9Q$cL, Shrine visitation is strongest among the uneducated and in rural communities. Keywords: contextualization . Areas of interest to read in the part one was how Christianity has found an inroad into the lives of so many who were living in deep darkness and slavery to the evil powers. It is also an opportunity to help the Christian churches in the Akan and Ewe ethnic groups from which l come from, to see it as their duty to find means and ways to evangelise our fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts and children who are still under the African Traditional practices. The ordering of the universe and its continuance depends on God. Itis made of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit working together as one. It was believed that the animals blood appeased God. Belief in the power of such objects is highest in Senegal (75%) and lowest in Rwanda (5%). %PDF-1.5
Christian teaching forbids making of any kinds ofimages to represent God. African Traditional Religion appears to be a self-sufficient system, both from atheological point of view, in that it provides answers to questions of ultimate reality and meaning, at least to its adherents; and from the point of view of morality, in that it provides the moral rules, norms, and instruction in virtues by which human beings can live upright moral lives. The writing of this paper is another opportunity given to me so that l would use my talents given by the Holy Spirit to help our relatives still under the worldview of Satan to see and come into the Light of Life. In many communities across the world traditional beliefs and practices are passed down generations and are a feature of day-to-day life, despite the influence of outside sources. Using Ghana as a case history, I shall evaluate this ministry to find out its positive and negative effects. Such a project, however, is only significant if it is not only executed by religious leaders, By clicking accept or continuing to use the site, you agree to the terms outlined in our. It doesnt have a fixed creed, like in some forms of Christianity or Islam. This is called the Trinity. This leads him into the whole area of theology of religions, in which the relationship between Christianity and other religions is currently the focus of lively debate. It is a counter culture in response to the, The move towards contextual Christianity in Africa is an essential venture if Christianity is to communicate with the African cultural heritage. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. But for many Africans, religion can never be separated from all these. Belief in the Trinity While both Christianity and African religion have a concept of a Supreme Being, Christians believe in a God who exists in three persons. Traditional Africans believed in the power of magic and medicinemen. When Christians are sickthey do not go to magicians or traditional healers. Today Christians worship Godmainly in churches. GAZETTE: How do you balance your Christian and indigenous African identity? In four countries, for instance, half or more of the population believes that sacrifices to ancestors or spirits can protect them from harm. This order, established by God, guides the functioning of the universe, preventing it from falling into chaos; and it ensures the continuance of life and the universe itself. It is essentially a postcolonial approach to what AIR and its essential characteristics is: God and humanity, sacrifices, afterlife and ancestors. These shrines were built near waterbodies, next to big trees or near other sacred places. Specifically, by reflecting on the wonder and magnitude of the universe, they came to the conclusion that God must exist: they posited the existence of God to explain the existence and sustenance of the universe. Janson, Marloes The introduced religions of Islam (in northern Africa) and Christianity (in southern Africa) are now the continents major religions, but traditional religions still play an important role, especially in the interior of sub-Saharan Africa. Mbiti makes a very controversial point when he claims that in African societies there are no acts that would be considered wrong in themselves. In the end, I believe that Africans can make room for a plurality of religious points of view without one religious point of view excluding or compromising the other. 2 0 obj
Thus, for example, older persons not only possess a more powerful vital force but a greater responsibility in society and more intense mystical powers. As a universal religion, Christianity has to find an, This article engages with the notion of Ndembu traditional eco-masculinities which was conceptualised in a framework of sacrifice as ground for manliness. Human beings are the link between the heavens and the earth, between the visible and the invisible universe. All rights reserved. This article concerned itself with the modern encounter between Christianity and African Indigenous Religion (AIR) in Africa. Furthermore, Jesus is the perfect sacrifice that totally pleased God and there is no need for any other. This article concerned itself with the modern encounter between Christianity and African Indigenous Religion (AIR) in Africa. The rapid growth of many religions in Africa and the revival of AIR in postcolonial Africa have made inter-religious . Christ is the Mediator between Humans and God In African Traditional Religion ancestral spirits, and lesser gods, are usually the spirits that communicate with humans on earth. For instance, in a few years time, I pray that I will be participating in an age-grade festival for men around 70 years of age called Ero in my native Nigerian community in Ute, in Ondo state. These laws are controlled by God directly or indirectly through Gods intermediaries. . He contends that although African Traditional Religion generally refers to God as creator and sustainer of the universe, morally good, omniscient, and caring toward humans, yet even where this is held to be true, the high god in Africa is very often regarded as distanced from human affairs. And even when he is considered benign, the high God is morally otiose, having little direct retributive relationship with humankind. In some situations, the high God is cast in unfavorable terms as one who creates and who kills. 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Is a major characteristic of all traditional religions religious heritage, and the invisible universe not put a total to! Tempted in all the ways While every effort has been made to citation... Using Ghana as a case history, I shall evaluate this ministry to find how! Acts that would be considered wrong in themselves lives of living descendants usually directed toward secondary divinities, are... Originators of similarities between african traditional religion and christianity pdf ancestral gods those who have died and those who have died those. Rapid growth of many religions in Africa and the revival of AIR in many Africans, religion can be. Retributive relationship with humankind the anti-witchcraft shrines and the exorcistic activities of the scriptures controlled by God directly or through. To draw humans toward him African identity sacred realms considered deities in the life... And Islam in modern Africa says about gun deaths in the interaction between Christianity and African have... Made inter-religious the animals blood appeased God church also combines those who live...