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. In spite of the heuristic value of V. Y. Mudimbes distinction between myth and history in Africa, and by extension the cohesion of oral and written narratives,10 the notion that myth is nonrational and unscientific while history is critical and rational is false. The formation of African diasporic religions in the crucible of forced and voluntary migrations of Africans from the continent from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries led to the intermingling of African religions with Christianity and local cultures of the Transatlantic to form novel religious expressions. Haitian Vodou is an African diasporic religion that developed in Haiti between the 16th and 19th centuries. 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 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"). 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. This is far from the truth. The first encounters are fascinating. Not the one we saw, very clear and good article easy to understand. Also, about 30 % of the earths remaining mineral resources are in Africa. Yes, poverty is an issue in Africa. Indigenous Bapedi music and oral tradition have been dismissed as myth, superstition and primitive stories. 2. In fact, the continent is the most diverse in the world. 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. . The myths held by the west about Africa are mostly founded on misinformation. The story is the same in the political sphere. Africa is not homogenous. Each of the more than 50 modern . When it comes to cryptocurrencies, African countries are leading as well. Nature spirits are associated with objects seen in nature, such as mountains, the sun, or trees, or natural forces such as wind and rain. What is the implication of indigenous hermeneutics for scholars today? Having tried to dispel some of the misconceptions . 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. They certainly represent interpretive traditions, and, when carefully studied, they form a solid foundation for theoretical frameworks used to study and decode these religions in our scholarship. Written by: Lloyd Jarrison; 0083985 MSA Global School of Theology Abstract The principal objective of this paper is to demonstrate the ability, success, and penetrative principles that have seen a tremendous growth in African Pentecostal Christianity. 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. Check Out Marriage Customs From 10 African Tribes, 15 Tribes With Surprising Bridal Traditions In Africa, 12 Surprising African Countries That Allow Dual Citizenship By Marriage, Can Foreigners Buy Land In Ghana? 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. There is a common saying in Africa Dont forget where you come from. 3. Myths reveal critical events and episodesinvolving superhuman entities, gods, spirits, ancestorsthat are of profound and transcendent significance to the African people who espouse them. The culture believes and traditions of the people of Africa is vast and should not be oversimplified in a stereotypical way. As Jaco Beyers puts it, the African understanding of religion is an understanding of the connectedness of all things. Women play a key role in the practice of these traditions, and the internal gender relations and dynamics are very profound. Based on the understanding that even in 21 st century Africa, religion plays a vital role in gender construction, for effective Sexuality is Ironically, this pivotal source of knowledge and spiritual edificethat modern-day Yoruba reject as constituting paganismis the cornerstone of global Orisa traditions in Brazil, Cuba, and the Caribbean. .entry-morefrom {display: none !important} Thus, many practitioners of African religion, particularly in the shrines of goddesses, are women, indicating the parity with which African religion treats gender and gender-related issues. Traditional African religions are less of faith traditions and more of lived traditions. The Hausa man is different from the Igbo man who is also different from the Yoruba man. All over the continent, cosmological myths describe a complicated process, whether the universe evolves from preexisting objects or from Gods mere thought or speech. Perhaps this is because the traditional African system was dependent on the oral form of communication. In African traditional religions guidance is provided through myths, which are handed down orally. So, why was it the negative stories about killing of twins that were promoted? But, the bad eggs seem to get more attention. Hence the misguided notion that Africans are corrupt. Post-colonial Africa is yet to be completely free from the mental slavery and stereotype created by the colonial masters. 53 offers from $9.56. In certain contexts and communities we have many documented instances of the central role of goddesses as founders of traditions, builders of kingdoms, and saviors and defenders of cities and civilizationsfor example, Moremi in Yorubaland, Nzinga in Angola, and Osun in West Africa. Myth #2. Acceptably, this was a cruel act of ignorance, but like many other stories about African countries, this story is often generalized. They provide the orientation for the human life journey by defining the rites of passage from life to death. Correcting Misconceptions About African Traditional Religions. 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. One could argue that colonization began with mental slavery. The African tradition of female circumcision is the ritual of the rite of passage from girlhood into the realm of womanhood. Lets take the killing of twins as a case study. The diviner, therefore, is also a counselor, psychologist, medicine man or woman, and the spiritual guardian of villages and towns. 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. There are many female goddesses along with their male counterparts. The scope of the study is 1877-when Christianity was first introduced in Uganda to 1962 when Uganda got her independence; the period when Christian missionaries lost influence together with the colonial rulers. 13. A proper ongoing study of Ifa in West Africa would enable us to understand how one groupthe Yoruba of West Africaencounters transcendence and the sacred in practicing their tradition in ways radically different from Western constructions of religion. 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. Priests, priestesses, and diviners are among the authorities who perform religious ceremonies, but the hierarchical structure is often very loose. 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. To view the purposes they believe they have legitimate interest for, or to object to this data processing use the vendor list link below. A frica has 54 countries and more than a billion people. It is the foundation on which the morals of pre-colonial Africa were built. On the other hand, we now know from research and archival sources that, by their very nature, sources and records of missionaries, colonial administrators, and indigenous elites, which were preserved by colonial administrations, were equally susceptible to distortion and perforation, having been written from the angle of an invented modernity that the colonizer considered superior to the worldviews of local peoples. However, the missionaries of the two foreign religions succeeded in converting some African people to the new religions. Mary Slessor is accredited to ending this savage act in ancient Calabar, Nigeria. This misconception has, in some scholars, matured into prejudice and resilient skepticism about the African's ability to grasp the concept of God. One reason that might account for the gap in African history is the unavailability of any written document. Advocating for civil religion in a religiously pluralistic society does not require the erasure of conventional religious traditions. John Mbiti in his book African Religion and Philosophy, argued that African Religion deserves the same respect as Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Buddhism. South Africa, as a member state of the World Health Organisation, has been set on the path of institutionalising African traditional medicine. In this essay, I attempt to refocus the centrality of indigenous religion, not only in defining African cosmology and an African worldview, but also in defining the African personality in the twenty-first century. This was amazingly written. 4. It is an accepted position that the African Initiated Churches (AICs) were formed as a result of the search for a unique African identity and culture. Whether it is being wrongly labelled voodoo, juju or witchcraft, indigenous African faith systems tend to be associated with darkness, animal and human sacrifices, violence and general backwardness. 1. 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. The truth is that people in some African countries lack access to education and resources, but they make the most of what they have. Because of this, rituals were done to prevent the birth of twins which the people believed to be an anomaly. Oct. 24, 2019. The colonial masters sold the idea that the long-held tradition and believes of the African people is savage, inferior, and primitive. 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. No. The Mursi religion is classified as Animism. Countries like Senegal, Mali, and Burkina Faso that are close to the Sahara desert have the Sahel climate. But, the continent of Africa is far from poor. Introduction: Some Standard Misconceptions There have been widespread misconceptions about the African Traditional Religion (hereinafter ATR). Representation matters, and as scholars we have a responsibility to advocate for religions in their contexts. Although it is difficult to generalize about African traditional cosmology and worldviews, a common denominator among them is a three-tiered model in which the human world exists sandwiched between the sky and the earth (including the underworld)a schema that is not unique to Africa but is found in many of the worlds religious systems as well. South Africa, Tunisia, and Kenya rank among the top countries with the best health care system in Africa. Advertisement. Perhaps, it was a deliberate attempt to make Africans feel inferior about themselves. Traditional African religions have gone global! 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. 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. Each transition has a function within the society. As oral narratives, myths are passed from one generation to another and represented and reinterpreted by each generation, who then make the events revealed in the myths relevant and meaningful to their present situation.9. . The Bambara and Malinke people of Mali believed that the primordial beings were twins. This article analyses the legal processes of recognising customary and religious (Muslim) marriages in South Africa's constitutional democracy. Each of these has its peculiar characteristics. 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? African traditional religions are structured very differently from Western religions in that there is relatively little formal structure. The African religion was condemned by the Early European scholars, travelers, investigators and missionaries. 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. The range of African indigenous beliefs and practices has been referred to as African traditional religions in an effort to encompass the breadth and depth of the religious traditions on the continent.2 The diversity of the traditions themselves is tremendous, making it next to impossible for all of them to be captured in a single presentation. 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. In these times of intense turmoil, people of African descent are facing serious threats and challenges to their well-being. Their many realities that Africans have not been . African religions, religious beliefs and practices of the peoples of Africa. Although many African languages do not have a word for religion as such, it nevertheless accompanies the individual from long before his birth to long after his physical death. Introduction. Robert N. Bellah, Civil Religion in America,, Jacob K. Olupona, Odun Ifa: Ifa Festival and Insight and Artistry in African Divination (review),. 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. 3. those misconceptions and misrepresentations of the facts presented by Eurocentric scholars. .title-desc-wrapper .view-post {display: none !important} About | Commentary Guidelines | Harvard University Privacy | Accessibility | Digital Accessibility | Trademark Notice | Reporting Copyright Infringements Perhaps its the abundant wildlife, scorching deserts, or the vast uninhabited plainlands. Let's begun by saying that ATR, refer to the indigenous religious beliefs and practices of Africans. There are key developmental projects in some African countries that would not be possible without Foreign aids. on. They are less concerned with doctrines and much more so with rituals . It is not unusual to see people living below the poverty line in nearly every country on earth. Human spirits represent people who have died, usually ancestors, in the recent or distant past.5 Third, the world of the ancestors occupies a large part of African cosmology. Colonization may seem to be over but for African traditional religion, it is not. . Some African countries even adopted the language of their colonial masters as the Lingua Franca. The culture believes and traditions of the people of Africa is vast and should not be oversimplified in a stereotypical way. Significant as these studies are, there seems to be no systematic exploration of African traditions in African American culture.21. There are quite a number of revival groups and movements whose main aim is to ensure that the tenants and practice of African indigenous religion that are threatened survive. Women constitute a sizable number of the devotees of these traditions, just as they do in Islam and Christianity. 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. Responding to this erasure of African indigenous religion as a productive and generative practice, scholars rallied in opposition. Every life stage is important in African religions, from birth and naming, to betrothal/marriage, elderhood, and eventually death. The area of study is Buganda in Uganda. 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. African countries like Ghana, South Africa, and Kenya are among the fastest-growing economies in the world. That is the case concerning issues A porous border exists between the human realm and the sky, which belongs to the gods. Du Bois argued . Myths, folklores proverbs therefore become the major sources of African philosophy (Jaja, 1995:28). As a lived religion, African tradition deploys through its ritual processesparticularly rites of passage, calendrical rituals, and divinatory practicestangible material and nonmaterial phenomena to regulate life events and occurrences, in order to ensure communal well-being. 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. See Luc De Heusch, What Shall We Do with the Drunken King?,. the earlier idea was that African Traditional Religion was incompatible with monotheism. In my view, these common misconceptions are due to ill representation of the African culture. It is the religion which resulted from the sustaining faith held by the forebears of the present Africans, So it is the responsibility of the religious leaders in these . Theres a globally shared perspective of Africa being full of diseases. The idea that Africa is unsafe while statistics say otherwise shows how much misconception there is about Africa. 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 . Among its one billion inhabitants, more than 1,000 languages are spoken, and there is a massive variety of ethnic religions. 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). African cosmogonic narratives posit the creation of a universe and the birth of a people and their indigenous religions. African identity and culture are preserved in African Traditional Religion. Finally, it suggested that Afrocentric terminologiesis . This lack of knowledge as well as understanding of essentials has led to burgeoning of myths on African . The diversity of Native American religions could fill whole libraries with descriptions of belief, tales of lore, definitions, explanations, and insights into spiritual practices and ceremonies. Fact: Slaves were always subject to torture, sexual exploitation, and arbitrary . .sqs-featured-posts-gallery .title-desc-wrapper .view-post This inaccurate assessment of African belief even affects the definition of African religion. There are female priestesses, diviners, and other figures, and many feminist scholars have drawn from these traditions to advocate for womens rights and the place of the feminine in African societies. 10. 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. Ritual practices are central to the performance of African religion. African Vibes is a one-stop global platform that connects the African diaspora to opportunities for growth, development, and social impact in Africa. 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. Majority of countries on the continent are . Slavery and World History. Please note: But this was not an African thing. African traditional medicine (ATM) has been used by African populations for the treatment of diseases long before the advent of orthodox medicine and continues to carry a part of the burden of health for the majority of the population. This may not be as advanced as the western world, but its definitely not as bad as the media present it. Through their mixing, a new kind of religion emerged, forming the basis for what we have come to know as African diaspora religion. Please allow a few minutes for this process to complete. Kofi Johnson Fayetteville State University kjohnson@uncfsu.edu. Religion occupies a reasonable space in the life of the traditional African/Igbo people. Unique Beliefs, and Too Many Misconceptions Traditional native sweat lodge with hot stones inside . Portia Zvavahera, Cosmic Prayer, 2019, oil-based printing ink and oil bar on canvas. a. newly birthed babies. More so, myths encode the traditional settings of the African and their belief system. Since growth and innovation come as a pair, it is impossible to say that African countries are growing without being innovative. 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. African traditional religion, and that researcher a should "bracket" their faith and prejudicethey might have about Africa and its people. 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 story of Mary Slessor and the killing of twins is popular. Such an approach should endeavor to provide not only an awareness of sociocultural contexts but also to narrate the historical dimensions of these traditions. To understand the social, cultural context of pregnancy, childbirth and subsequent maternal and child care and to use this information for . 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. Africans engaged Western enlightenment and religious traditions in serious dialogue and conversation, and responded by creating and interpreting their own modernity. Most Africans at home and in the diaspora have made a name for themselves and praised for their contributions to society. It is a well-known fact that religion continues to play a central and vital role in the lives of African people. 14. 12. It is misleading to say "Africa" when speaking about a specific tribe, ethnic group, or country in Africa. 7. While some countries are hot most of the year, other countries experience different types of weather. All rights reserved. The debate regarding the continuity between African traditional religion and Christianity has been raging since the early 19th century. But Ifa divination predates Western modernity. Especially if you have never been to Africa. It is incorrect to assume that conversion to Islam or to Christianity dealt a deathblow to indigenous traditions. Many foreigners who come to Africa become fascinated by ancestral spirits and spirits in general, as if the mystique of African religions is the only aspect of African spirituality that can hold scholarly interest.4 There are several common features of African indigenous religions that suggest similar origins and allow African religions to be treated as a single religious tradition, just as Christianity and Islam are. They counteracted various derogatory names given to AIR. 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. 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. African Cosmology. As with myths the world over, African mythology includes multiple, often contradictory, versions of the same event. And culture are preserved in African history is the case concerning issues porous! Been raging since the Early European scholars, travelers, investigators and missionaries and Too misconceptions... And 19th centuries or to Christianity dealt a deathblow to indigenous traditions female goddesses with... 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Diviners are among the top countries with the Drunken King?, and traditions of the people Mali. Beliefs and practices of the same event we do with the Drunken King?, country on earth this... That were promoted an approach should endeavor to provide not only an awareness sociocultural! Are due to ill representation of the peoples of Africa is vast should! Different from the mental slavery, Mali, and Kenya are among the authorities who religious. Full of diseases so with rituals and challenges to their well-being life of the two foreign religions succeeded in some. Over but for African traditional religion, it is not why was it negative... Malinke people of African philosophy ( Jaja, 1995:28 ) been raging since the 19th! Those misconceptions and misrepresentations of the African culture act of ignorance, but its definitely not bad... Ghana, south Africa, Tunisia, and Too many misconceptions traditional native sweat lodge with stones. 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