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? Your email address will not be published. MISCONCEPTION OF THE SUPREM BEING IN ATR There have been widespread misconceptions about the African Traditional Religion (hereinafter ATR). 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. Such scholars stereotyped African religionand African peoples themselvesas primitive social forms, part of a lower social order. traditional African takes the character of critical reflection of the African understanding of reality and world view. Many foreign nations and organizations do send aid to African countries. Here Are the Top Ten African Volunteer Programs, 9 Traditional African Music Instruments And Their Origin, 8 Traditional African Sports That Should Be In the Olympics, economic forecasts predict the rapid growth in the African Market, 10 Traditional African Hairstyles And Their Origin. Africans engaged Western enlightenment and religious traditions in serious dialogue and conversation, and responded by creating and interpreting their own modernity. 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. Thus, I have argued that religion should be examined not only as a sacred phenomenon, but also as a cultural and human reality, all the while remembering the importance of integrating the sociopolitical dimensions of religiosity into any examination of an African state. This statement isnt true. African dance occupies central place in cultures throughout the African continent, embodying energy and a graceful beauty flowing with rhythm. Later in my academic life, I explored theoretical issues at the national level, showing how Nigerian civil religionan invisible faithprovided a template for assessing how we fared at nation building, allowing the symbols of Nigerian nationhood to take on religious significance for the Nigerian public above and beyond any particular cultural communities of faith.17 I do not want to be misunderstood here. b. certain clan outsiders. Though many Africans have converted to Islam and Christianity, traditional religions still inform the social, economic, and political life in African societies. That is why we have freewill, and regardless of whether we choose to acknowledge that a living God exists or not, and regardless of how we choose to worship Him, directly or through deities, we will all be eventually accountable. Each transition has a function within the society. African Traditional Religion is the traditional religion of the African people before the coming of Islam and Christianity. The debate regarding the continuity between African traditional religion and Christianity has been raging since the early 19th century. Another misbelief about Africa is that all Africans are the same. 5. Haitian Vodou is an African diasporic religion that developed in Haiti between the 16th and 19th centuries. In times of crisis they often come to the surface, or people revert to them in secret.8. Traditional African religions have gone global! Despite conversion to Islam or to Christianity, Africans continue to accommodate an indigenous worldview that occupies a vital space in the African consciousness. An example is the Ancient Benin Kingdom, known for its impressive artwork which is now scattered across the world. Therefore for these people, twins were treasures. These elements are worth exploring and espousing. Religion also encompasses the human, cultural dimensions within faith traditions, such as how human agency shapes, influences, and complicates religious control. Even within a single ethnic group or clan, there are often highly contested and even opposing stories or viewpoints when it comes to creation accounts, thus allowing for flexibility and hermeneutic creativity. With the negative image of the, A lot of people seize the chance of the holiday season to organize their weddings. Kofi Johnson Fayetteville State University kjohnson@uncfsu.edu. They still hold onto their traditional beliefs, culture, and practices, but consider western values superior to theirs. 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. . Ifa defines Yoruba humanity, providing responses to critical issues of its communities. Again, this isnt true. 3. The truth is that people in some African countries lack access to education and resources, but they make the most of what they have. Mursi girl in Ethiopia. During the era of Western religious and cultural encounters in Yorubaland, some children were named Oguntoyibo, signifying Ogun (god of war and iron) is as powerful as the European god. Some children received names such as Ifatoyinbo, Ifa is as powerful as the white mans god. Such names and concepts illustrate the force and creative resistance of indigenous thought and its ability to engage Western modernity in rigorous debate. 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. When I was in Israel a few years ago, I stayed in a modest bed-and-breakfast inn near the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. 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. Among its one billion inhabitants, more than 1,000 languages are spoken, and there is a massive variety of ethnic religions. 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. Perhaps, it was a deliberate attempt to make Africans feel inferior about themselves. . Perhaps this is linked to the idea that Africa has an inadequate or substandard health care system. They are known as upstanding citizens and have been entrusted with sensitive positions in society. Lilith Dorsey. It is practiced around the world but there is no accurate count of how many people are Voodooists. As the late African historian Cheikh Anta Diop argued, matriarchy was embedded in the African way of life. Orishas, Goddesses, and Voodoo Queens: The Divine Feminine in the African Religious Traditions. However, since Africans are known for their excellent craftsmanship, these artifacts do tell the story of the ancient African empires. Published. Portia Zvavahera, His Presence, 2013, oil-based printing ink on paper. African traditional religion (ATRs) and spirituality have always been surrounded by negativity. Depending on the kind of religious activity being performed, different religious authorities can be leaders for specific events. Theres a globally shared perspective of Africa being full of diseases. 3. 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. The stoning of the devil in the Kaba in Mecca was a disguise for rejecting the local Esu, the Yoruba god of fate and messenger of the gods. Given our current impending ecological crisis, indigenous African religions have a great deal to offer both African countries and the world at large. Even the word religion, used in reference to these traditions, is in itself problematic for many Africans, because it suggests that religion is separate from other aspects of ones culture, society, and environment. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Oct. 24, 2019. Her growing fascination led to an Emerson Foundation-funded research project this summer, titled "Demystifying African Religion." African countries like Ghana, South Africa, and Kenya are among the fastest-growing economies in the world. Every life stage is important in African religions, from birth and naming, to betrothal/marriage, elderhood, and eventually death. When Christianity and Western civilization came and interacted with African culture and religion, misconception of beliefs, values, and terms developed. The unending political banditry and fraudulent activities by some individuals are the foundation of this stereotype. This creates fear and panic resulting in misleading assumptions about Africa. 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. Elders, priests, and priestesses have served as guardians of the sacred traditions. Post-colonial Africa is yet to be completely free from the mental slavery and stereotype created by the colonial masters. Continue with Recommended Cookies. What we know as African history today is mostly based on the interpretations of our colonial masters. Regardless of where they find themselves, most Africans will always hold onto some form of their tradition, culture, and religion. Apart from the different languages, every tribe and culture have their way of dressing too. Foreign aid has been helpful to many small African countries that are struggling economically. These traditions are not religious principles, but a cultural identity that is passed on through stories, myths and tales. This view wasnt held in many other tribes in Nigeria. Slowly, they projected ATR as barbaric and dehumanizing. The most difficult task I face in characterizing African indigenous spiritual traditions is accounting for their diversity and complexity. They held the view that twins were a symbol of excessive fertility which is a characteristic of animals. However, western culture has blurred to an extent the lines between African tribes. Another crucial aspect to consider in the comparative study of African religions is the reality of the transfer of these religions across the Atlantic through the Middle Passage and transnational migration and cultural exchange. Countries like Senegal, Mali, and Burkina Faso that are close to the Sahara desert have the Sahel climate. Instead, the old and the new were syncretized, producing some unique . 53 offers from $9.56. Gradually, there was a shift from ATR to Christianity. Africa is host to the highest number of religious countries in the world, according to a recent Gallop poll. 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. Mostly, the temperatures of these zones vary between the extremes (Either very hot or very cold). There are so many interesting facts about Africa that you dont see every day. It is a well-known fact that religion continues to play a central and vital role in the lives of African people. Women constitute a sizable number of the devotees of these traditions, just as they do in Islam and Christianity. Responding to this erasure of African indigenous religion as a productive and generative practice, scholars rallied in opposition. Intentional or not, this interpretation creates a distorted and misconstrued view of Africans by the rest of the world. Once again, this is far from the truth. For example, in my local language . Ritual enables supernatural beings to bless individuals and the community with sustenance, prosperity, and fecundity.14 Rites of passage, such as initiation ceremonies, are rituals marking personal transitions recognized and celebrated by the community. Through modern change these traditional religions cannot remain intact, but they are by no means extinct. 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. Slavery and World History. The problem is, this number is often collated for the whole of Africa, instead of each country of Africa. They are less concerned with doctrines and much more so with rituals . Africans combine a belief in the existence of a omnipresent and omnipotent supreme god, with multitudes of subordinate deities. This was amazingly written. Traditional African religions are less of faith traditions and more of lived traditions. But Ifa divination predates Western modernity. 7. They are less concerned with doctrines and much more so with rituals, ceremonies, and lived practices. Fact: Slaves were always subject to torture, sexual exploitation, and arbitrary . The most common African history begins with the colonial era. It is misleading to say "Africa" when speaking about a specific tribe, ethnic group, or country in Africa. In one particular odu of Ifa, Ifa informs us and, correctly so, that the most cardinal event of the hajj is the climbing of Mount Arafat (Oke Arafa). African religions are, therefore, a praxis, and this is where the focus of study should mostly be directed. 3. 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. Fact: Slavery is older than the first human records. 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. Ifa rejects the religious extremism of certain forms of radical Islam making life unbearable in todays world. This is a testament to the strong morals and principles of the African tradition. 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. Some of our partners may process your data as a part of their legitimate business interest without asking for consent. The majority of Africans are hardworking and honest people. Please note: In most African cultures, history and beliefs have been explained and passed on through oral traditions and storytelling. 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. Take for instance the story of poverty in Africa. I ran into a co-resident, a famous Swiss author. 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. In Africa, dance is a means of marking life experiences, encouraging abundant crops, honoring kings and queens, celebrating weddings, marking rites of passage, and other ceremonial occasions.Dance is also done purely for enjoyment. 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 . However, this was never a generally accepted idea. In fact, Africa is a vast continent encompassing both geographic variation and tremendous cultural diversity. 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;. This action will also remove this member from your connections and send a report to the site admin. Truly opening my eyes on traditions, cultures and rituals that I did not know existed. Myth: Slavery is a product of Western civilization. Religion creates a significant part of African life. A frica has 54 countries and more than a billion people. Traditional African religions are not stagnant but highly dynamic and constantly reacting to various shifting influences such as old age, modernity, and technological advances. Africa is given the image of a place that is hot and sunny all year round. 2. Significant as these studies are, there seems to be no systematic exploration of African traditions in African American culture.21. They include assumptions, misconceptions, traditional or religious beliefs and beliefs about the . Colonization may seem to be over but for African traditional religion, it is not. African Vibes is a one-stop global platform that connects the African diaspora to opportunities for growth, development, and social impact in Africa. with Ibramic faiths tends to deprive the African Traditional Religion its true status as an independent religion . a. newly birthed babies. The cosmological structure, however, is much more defined and precise. It is incorrect to assume that conversion to Islam or to Christianity dealt a deathblow to indigenous traditions. Many centuries ago, Ifa must have envisaged the possibility of Boko Harams Islamic extremist movement ravaging Nigeria today. Africa is the second-largest continent in the world. The myths held by the west about Africa are mostly founded on misinformation. Scholarship has since proved, however, that the tenacity of indigenous religion is evident in all spheres of African life. It was just the belief of a few groups of people known as Efik people, the predominant tribe in Calabar. It is not unusual to see people living below the poverty line in nearly every country on earth. What is fascinating about this odu (Ifa text) is that it supports a key and cardinal principle of Ifa traditionthat we seek counsel first, before we perform divination (Imoram la nda ki a to da Ifa). My earlier scholarship was propelled by the insight that the ideology and rituals of Yoruba sacred kingship are what define Yoruba civil religion and, indeed, the center of Yoruba identity.15 Sociologist Robert Bellah understands civil religion as the sacred principle and central ethic that unites a people, without which societies cannot function.16 Civil religion incorporates common myths, history, values, and symbols that relate to a societys sense of collective identity. Women play a key role in the practice of these traditions, and the internal gender relations and dynamics are very profound. Voodoo has no scripture or world authority. Also, poverty is mostly concentrated among few nations in Africa or within few regions of each Nation. The culture believes and traditions of the people of Africa is vast and should not be oversimplified in a stereotypical way. 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. Africa has 4 main climate zones. This article was originally published by Oxford University Press on May 16, 2014. 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. 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. 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. The idea that Africa is unsafe while statistics say otherwise shows how much misconception there is about Africa. Whatever it is, the assumption that Africa is lacking innovation is laughable. John Mbiti divides spirit beings into two types, nature spirits and human spirits. The survey appears to support the prevailing narrative that the most . It is also the most diversified continent in the world. Consequently, despite all of Christianity and Islams claims to dominance and their propagandist machinery in demonizing indigenous religion, African religion still provides significant meaning to African existence in many ways. Each of these has its peculiar characteristics. Ritual practices are central to the performance of African religion. Will OAthers Follow Suit? In my work, I consider civil religion in Nigeria as a central galvanizing feature that brings together different aspects of religious beingness under the banner of sacred kingship. the belief that natural objects and natural phenomenon possess souls or spiritual beings. 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. Prior to colonization, there was scarcely any form of writing in the majority of African tribes and cultures. I suggest that, at the conceptual and theoretical levels, we begin to take this interpretive approach seriously. We and our partners use cookies to Store and/or access information on a device. It deals with their cosmology, ritual practices, symbols, arts, society, and so on. Because of this, rituals were done to prevent the birth of twins which the people believed to be an anomaly. There are key developmental projects in some African countries that would not be possible without Foreign aids. Examples are mobile innovations such as Flutterwave, Sproxil, and Paystack. Each has a life force but no concrete physical form. 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. History text fails to capture the depth of pre-colonial African Civilization. African identity and culture are preserved in African Traditional Religion. 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). 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). 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. This article is an edited version of remarks he delivered for the annual Surjit Singh Lecture in Comparative Religious Thought and Culture at the Graduate Theological Union on April28, 2020. The colonial masters sold the idea that the long-held tradition and believes of the African people is savage, inferior, and primitive. 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. The Mursi religion is classified as Animism. Each of the more than 50 modern . .sqs-featured-posts-gallery .title-desc-wrapper .view-post 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. Yet in the scholarship on the history of religions, indigenous African religions were never considered a substantive part of the worlds religious traditions, because they failed to fulfill certain criteria defined by axial age civilization. Privileged European scholars denied the agency of African religions and singled outand thereby controlledAfrican identity. 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