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. Religion is closely bound up with the traditional way of African life; therefore, religion has shaped the lives of Africans, at the same time life has shaped religion as well. 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. Moreover, the religions developed in the Americas impact Africa in that devotees of the African diaspora have significant influence on practices in Africa. Traditional African religious beliefs, such as belief in the protective power of sacrifices to ancestors, Traditional African religious practices, such as owning sacred objects. In four countries, for instance, half or more of the population believes that sacrifices to ancestors or spirits can protect them from harm. Youll never experience a black hole, but Avi Loeb can help you imagine one. But after braving that first blizzard in a land far from his native Nigeria, Olupona stuck it out and earned his Ph.D. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. As judge, God is understood to uphold this standard by ultimately punishing its violations and by rewarding the righteous (usually in some eschatological domain). Pentecostalism and Shamanism in Asia and Beyond, A Critical Analysis of Byang Kato's Demonology and Its Theological Relevance for an Evangelical Demonology, INITIATION IN AFRICAN TRADITIONAL RELIGION, Veli-Matti Karkkainen, Kirsteen Kim, Amos Yong: Interdisciplinary and Religio-Cultural Discourses on a Spirit-Filled World, Encounter - Journal of African Life and Religion, 12 (2017), REGNUM STUDIES IN MISSION Pentecostal Mission and Global Christianity An Edinburgh Centenary Reader, Van Rheenen, Gailyn: Missions - biblical foundations. OLUPONA: Your question underscores an important facet about African spirituality: It is not a closed theological system. KEYWORDS: African Culture, Christian God, Deities, Religion, Values. As I have discussed elsewhere in Morality Truly Christian, Truly African, for example, some African societies are so conscious of the implications of crossing the line on some ethical matters, like adultery, incest, and murder, that anyone who engages in these acts is considered automatically to be putting the very survival of the community in danger. Yet consider that in 1900 most Africans in sub-Saharan Africa practiced a form of indigenous African religions. 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. Neglect, it is believed, might spell doom. 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. Render date: 2023-03-01T10:31:12.538Z Creative people have bypassed gatekeepers for centuries to distribute what they wanted to share so badly. They find common ground in Houghton Library exhibition. This is called the Trinity. 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. (See the glossary for more information on the evil eye.). This is not to say that indigenous African spirituality represents a form of theocracy or religious totalitarianism not at all. When we speak of African Traditional Religion, we mean the indigenous religious beliefs and practices of the Africans. The rapid growth of many religions in Africa and the revival of AIR in postcolonial Africa have made inter-religious . Devoid of essential personal characteristics they represent the essence of what might be called structural personality. The traditional cosmology expresses belief in a supreme being (referred to by the Akan as Nyame, or by the Ewe Mawu). 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. Instead of God keeping his distance from man, He, throughout history and today reaches down in love to draw humans toward him. 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. In respect and honor of my culture, I also dress in my traditional Nigerian attire when Im in my country. Postcolonial, Abstract Interfaith dialogue is commonly used in building peace and understanding among religious groups. For the full article, see, New religions, independent churches, and prophetic movements, https://www.britannica.com/summary/African-religions. stream While the universe has a beginning, many Africans believe that it does not have an endeither spatially or temporally. 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. It was believed that Vodun was a representativeof the Supreme God known as Mawu. Level of cannabis use could determine post-op outcomes, Historian says Fla. dispute shows why AP class in African American studies is needed, Why Church Committee alums urged new House panel to avoid partisanship, One small step toward understanding gravity, Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is. Eternal Rest of the Soul. However, Christians can offer animals to the church where they canbe sold or reared to give the church income. To ensure that a natural balance is maintained between the world of the sacred and that of the profane, the roles of the chief within the state, family elders in relation to the lineage, and the priest within society, are crucial. His research has helped to introduce and popularize new concepts in religious studies, such as the term reverse missionaries, referring to African prelates sent to Europe and the United States. OLUPONA: The role of ancestors in the African cosmology has always been significant. Because many diseases are believed to have spiritual causes, traditional priests sometimes act as doctors or herbalists. The defining line between deities and ancestors is often contested, but overall, ancestors are believed to occupy a higher level of existence than living human beings and are believed to be able to bestow either blessings or illness upon their living descendants. A holistic interpretation of the book between Paul and James. In some communities masks were used to representcertain gods or ancestral spirits. $70.00/$25.00. According to all the major surveys, Christianity and Islam each represent approximately 40 percent of the African population. % These include the pragmatic nature of the African cultural and religious heritage, and the African traditional methods of healing. Islam has experienced a similar rapid growth. This article concerned itself with the modern encounter between Christianity and African Indigenous Religion (AIR) in Africa. 3 0 obj African spirituality is truly holistic. GAZETTE: What is the state of indigenous African religions today? The Yoruba believe in the existence of the Supreme God called Olurun andthe lesser god, Obatala. The ancestors are believed to be the most immediate link with the spiritual world, and they are thought to be constantly near, observing every thought and action of the living. Our duty is to preach the Word of God and trust the saving grace of Jesus Christ for conversion of souls. 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. In other words, he shows that the sense of the divine was not something introduced to Africa by missionaries or by anyone else; that the knowledge of God in African religion was not much different from the idea of God that Christian missionaries preached in Africa; and, more specifically to our purpose here, that belief in God engendered a moral response that for centuries before Christian arrival in Africa directed moral life and interaction on the continent and among its peoples. The ordering of the universe and its continuance depends on God. Green opines that although superficially regarded, this may seem to be a minimal moral relationshipmore like a kind of egoism on one side and fearful propitiation on the otherit also shows, however, the profound role that respect for age and for the fulfillment of lineage and familial duties play in this traditional setting. Fardon, Richard GAZETTE: What else would we lose if we lost traditional African Religions? %PDF-1.5 These shrines were built near waterbodies, next to big trees or near other sacred places. African communities at the time but was also poised to become a site of religious and cultural conflict both within and between different communities in postcolonial South Africa. (+1) 202-857-8562 | Fax In the part two of my writing, l will expand on the world populated by spirits called Vodou alongside that of the Akan. Part two provides a condensed historical survey of the, The Bible and the Third World: Precolonial, Colonial and Postcolonial Encounters, by R. S. Sugirtharajah. OLUPONA: I was raised in Africa during the 1960s, when the Yoruba community never asked you to chose between your personal faith and your collective African identity. Semantic Scholar is a free, AI-powered research tool for scientific literature, based at the Allen Institute for AI. endobj Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. 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. We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Maybe this is why I am not an Anglican priest. Nevertheless, they also display enough family resemblances for us to be able to delineate their main features and to a very reasonable extent fall on them to represent the whole. 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. Peel, J. D. Y. As a resident fellow, Sherman will teach a study group on negotiation and diplomacy this semester. Christians give a tenth of all their earnings to God. endobj Some ancestors may even be reincarnated to replenish the lineage. GAZETTE: What will Africa lose if it loses its African indigenous worldview? Taboos and customs cover all aspects of human life: words, foods, dress, relations among people, marriage, burial, work, and so forth: A part of this belief in the moral and religious order is belief in the invisible universe, which consists of divinities, spirits, and the ancestors (the living dead). It is the religion which resulted from the sustaining faith held by the forebears of the present Africans, and which is being practised today in various forms and various shades and intensities by a very large number . The other very big difference between African Traditional Religion and Christianity is the worship. 1"7$X9Xyyyb GNpL!9I&mxo0++44cA@5c. ;;m]mB"DTSUD[j*3l D{k7@tB0cg]Er+e)skf6cRUiu,WdmlA#OLs81/#qs v(a6lA`O/HvX*3SME_qv&oMm?{{n (1981) and Ph.D. (1983) in the history of religions from Boston University. 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. Religion informs everything in traditional African society, including political art, marriage, health, diet, dress, economics, and death. 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. GAZETTE: It sounds like African indigenous religions are dynamic, inclusive, and flexible. Barrenness is, therefore, considered a great misfortune because it prevents ancestors from returning to life. An important preoccupation of Mbitis work has been to show that knowledge of God and the worship of God have been staples of African life from the earliest times on the continent. OLUPONA: Yes, and the pluralistic nature of African-tradition religion is one of the reasons for its success in the diaspora. The Church is the Christian family, in which all are accompanied to one another through belief and baptism in Jesus Christ. 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