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. Corrections? 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. Christians acknowledge the existenceof magic and witchcraft. Some traditional African societies like the Yoruba believed in the existence of lessergods. Human beings maintain active and real relationshipswith the spiritual world, especially with the living dead, through offerings, sacrifices, and prayers. Feature Flags: { It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. The ordering of the universe and its continuance depends on God. In some communities masks were used to representcertain gods or ancestral spirits. Conflict is a universal phenomenon that is inevitable in human interaction. 1 0 obj There are untold millions, which are outside the fold who need to come into the saving knowledge of Christ. Second, Africans believe in a moral order given by God, stipulated by the ancestors in the past. Holding or maintaining to a uniform doctrine is not the essence of indigenous African religions. Peel, J. D. Y. Modernity has not put a total stop to its influence. L_}mB)b7h; uZ4 QI,^ID-*Rj" xx>@9lCQr [GE1Hz:Aj3>^5T-FPD5|. 4 0 obj People may complain to God and the ancestors, but they will never accuse them of any moral wrongdoing. Religion informs everything in traditional African society, including political art, marriage, health, diet, dress, economics, and death. I also celebrate and honor the kings festivals and ceremonies in my hometown and other places where I live and do research. Diviners who go through a long educational and apprenticeship program hold the history, culture, and spiritual traditions of the African people. Christians observe the Lords supper. A Journal of the McGrath Institute for Church Life, by Paulinus Ikechukwu Odozor GAZETTE: What is the state of indigenous African religions today? They are not mutually exclusive. <> GAZETTE: But yet you said its a mixed bag? Sorry, preview is currently unavailable. 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. Some of the ideas from Mbitis works are pertinent to our discussion here: Africans believe in a hierarchy of beings, from the ultimate being, God, to lesser ones, divinities, spirits, the living dead, human beings, animals, plants, and inanimate beings. However, in African religious thought God is distanced from the task of moral affairs because the task of moral retribution and maintenance of effective moral norms is usually performed by spiritual agents of much lower standingthat is, by spirits of various sorts, by ghosts and even by human practitioners of spiritual arts. Other characteristics that show the contrast between (Western) Christian thought and African Traditional Religion,according to Green, are the nonexistence of concepts of heaven and hell in African Traditional Religion, the lack of messianic expectations and hope, and the absence of eschatological thought with God stepping in to right all wrongs or to punish wickedness. And although African Traditional Religion affirms the continuation of life after death, where the person is believed to join the spirit world of the ancestors to continue life in some ways similar to the life before death, this belief does not constitute a hope for improved existence or for ultimate reward and punishment since a persons moral depravity or moral rectitude [does] not count in the beyond and whatever penalties or rewards those may bring have no bearing on life after death.. It is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts. 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. Pratten, David 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. Therefore, the universe has dimensions of order and power as follows: first of all, there is order in the laws of nature. 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. O?+dOw\eOoHc_o~ Q:c qeM1ehb/j|-Xyy#=g vnxX,o"\4/I+{U40f_dX!y2#i.7Xi0}zi*_Qk({_8D2M"09E%kR`O"}Ec#O3+lwP/z[r=]jPh!eC6Ci{FKnW4 OLUPONA: We would lose a worldview that has collectively sustained, enriched, and given meaning to a continent and numerous other societies for centuries through its epistemology, metaphysics, history, and practices. This is the function of Gods providence and sustenance of the universe. %PDF-1.5 Exodus 20:3-5 tells us not to make or worship images ofanything in heaven or on earth. Christians do not offer animal sacrifices to appease God. 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. Indigenous African spirituality today is increasingly falling out of favor. ;;m]mB"DTSUD[j*3l D{k7@tB0cg]Er+e)skf6cRUiu,WdmlA#OLs81/#qs v(a6lA`O/HvX*3SME_qv&oMm?{{n So, basically, to speak of African tradition is to talk about African Traditional Religion. ^xH&M'YZ7EDi%qN^K 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. Additionally, I will not discourage, disparage, or try and convert those who practice their form of African indigenous religions. Their purpose is to summarize recent material produced by the relevant religious organizations and by some of the main academic interpreters to provide (+1) 202-857-8562 | Fax Christianity, African traditional religions, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam and Sikhism. 1 0 obj They are thus moral agents. It is the ancestors, however, the custodians of tradition, who determine the way these agents act, and it is tradition that supplies the moral code and indicates what the people must do to live ethically. African traditions carry out their role as ethical guides in many ways, including myths and rituals. Thus, everythingis not completely unpredictable and chaotic because of this order. Like Ronald Green, Magesa argues that African Traditional Religion is in the background of all African religiosity, both in Christianity and Islam, and supplies the basic attitude or worldview of most African Christians. 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.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 also to a lesser extent in Buddhism, Hinduism and Judaism. for this article. These facts, however, does not necessary suggest that the educated Ghanaian has totally abandoned tradition; some educated and mission trained individuals do consult traditional oracles in times of crises. Its about getting tangible results. 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. These included interviews he conducted with pastors, exorcists, traditional priests, so-called witches and delivered witches. endobj A third scholar of interest to us here is Laurenti Magesa, the central thesis of whose book on African religion is captured quite succinctly in the subtitle: African religion constitutes a tradition of abundant life. 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. In most cases, the earth is conceived as a living thing, a goddess, Mother Earth. According to Mbiti, the earth is symbolically viewed as the mother of the universe, while the heavens/sky are seen as its male counterpart. ufF'dXeA^l4a*0(1l HLtA@a2O>bOk)x6*. Traditional Africans did not practice baptism. 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. Ronald M. Green of Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, a non-African scholar of African religion, has also written about African Traditional Religion and about religion and morality in Africa. Shrine visitation is strongest among the uneducated and in rural communities. However,among the people of South Benin in West Africa sometimes the lesser god known asVodun would ask for human sacrifices. For Christians itsa church. We will return to these issues later in Morality Truly Christian, Truly African, but for now it is enough to ask whether the similarities in the deep structure between the two religions are indeed as similar as Green suggests. Witchcraft was also feared and witchdoctors were respected as they had power tocurse, make people get sick or end their life. 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 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. This is one of the most amazing opportunities l have to speak or write in the hope of bringing freedom, to show the value of every human life, and to help girls who are in immense suffering. Traditional Africans had to go to specific sacred placesfor them to worship but Christians can worship God anywhere at any time. 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. Belief in the power of such objects is highest in Senegal (75%) and lowest in Rwanda (5%). endobj 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. 1xxp~I7m#MWjxAqN,PT2^]R6C3Y'K~Bwv4-xwE@;5 For example, an African amulet might have inside of it a written verse from either the Koran or Christian Bible. Commonly, God is believed to dwell in the skies. In lieu of these traditional African ways of defining oneself, Christianity and Islam are gradually creating a social identity in Africa that cuts across these indigenous African religious and social identities. These include the pragmatic nature of the African cultural and religious heritage, and the African traditional methods of healing. This article concerned itself with the modern encounter between Christianity and African Indigenous Religion (AIR) in Africa. The religious activities of chiefs and lineage heads are generally limited to the more routine biweekly and annual festivities, but traditional priests given their association with specific shrines are regarded as specialized practitioners through whom the spirits of the gods may grant directions. You can download the paper by clicking the button above. The final aspect of this deep structure of moral reason in African Traditional Religion Green refers to as morally intentional trans-moral safety valves such as are found in the doctrine of grace or atonement in Weston religions (Christianity) or of liberation from the world of moral causation in Eastern religions. the other in tradition poses a serious dilemma for both Christianity and tradition in Africa. Despite the presence of Christianity, traditional religions in Ghana have retained their influence because of their intimate relation to family loyalties and local mores. This article concerned itself with the modern encounter between Christianity and African Indigenous Religion (AIR) in Africa. Devoid of essential personal characteristics they represent the essence of what might be called structural personality. It doesnt have a fixed creed, like in some forms of Christianity or Islam. This power is not accessible to everyone, and in most cases it is inborn, but the person has to learn how to use it. A sacrifice refers to an animal that is offered to God, e.g. 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. Mbiti emphasizes that Africans view the universe religiously. (See the glossary for more information on the evil eye.). As judge, God is understood to uphold this standard by ultimately punishing its violations and by rewarding the righteous (usually in some eschatological domain). Traditional Africans made images of the Supreme God or other supernatural beingswhich they worshipped. 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. The missionaries succeeded in spreading Christianity in Africa at a time when tribal religions were ignored or denigrated. x\s6Q|jyLd*{-Jb"$e~ $@ 6G"F@w? 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. I had it. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. It appeals more to social scientists than to those working in religious studies, particularly scholars of specific religious traditions. 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. 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. Christians pray toGod through Jesus Christ. %PDF-1.5 These spirit do not carry the desires of humans to the Creator God. For myself, I negotiate between my Yoruba and Christian identity by, for example, affirming those aspects of African culture that promote good life and communal human welfare. The other very big difference between African Traditional Religion and Christianity is the worship. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Just as within the traditional political and diplomatic contexts, one cannot formally contact the king without the agency of his linguists or sub-chiefs. OLUPONA: Yes, and the pluralistic nature of African-tradition religion is one of the reasons for its success in the diaspora. These gods are generally perceived as intermediaries between the Supreme Being and society. Dependence here functions like a two-way street, with the dead needing continued respect from and support by the living, and the living needingat least benign neutrality on the part of the dead. But today that is not the case due to more exclusive-minded types of Christianity and Islam that see patronizing indigenous African beliefs and practices as violating the integrity of their Christian or Muslim principles, but I believe that one can maintain ones religious integrity and also embrace an African worldview. I wont pray to an orisa, but I will affirm the importance of my connection with members of my age group. Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link. 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. Traditional Africans believed in the power of magic and medicinemen. Christians do not believe in the existence of any other godapart from the Supreme Being. For example, followers can seek spiritual direction and relief from healers, medicine men and women, charms [adornments often worn to incur good luck], amulets [adornments often used to ward off evil], and diviners [spiritual advisers]. ABSTRACT PART II: Comparing the concept of Spirit and Soul in the Traditional Religion of the Akan and Ewe Tribes to that of the Bible By Godwin Kwame Ofosuhene In the part one of my writing, with the titled The concept of God in the traditional religion of Akan and Ewe ethnic groups compare to the Bible - dated 31st May 2006, l explained how the Akan and Ewe ethnic groups of Ghana understood God in their traditional religious practices. <> It is also present in relationships between persons, based on age and function. It argues that since the coming of democracy this form of religion has occupied a more important position, Although there is some debate, Francis Oborji in this article argues that one should speak of African Traditional Religion (ATR) in the singular. I utilised this view as hermeneutical point. A Background to Religion and Magic in Western Thought Our modern usage of the term 'magic' derives from the Greek magike, endobj (+1) 202-419-4300 | Main Traditional Africans communicated to God through ancestors. Thus, to assert as Mbiti does that there are no secret sins or that something or someone is bad or good only according to outward conduct is too careless a statement to make. Some scholars have rightly observed that the centre of gravity of Christianity is shifting from the West to the two-thirds world, that is Asia, South America and Africa. 2 0 obj Green points out that there is a rational basis to African Traditional Religion that shows, in Kantian terms, that there is a deep structure of universal moral and religious reason to it. The three requirements of reason at the heart of this structure are: first, a basic rule or procedure of moral choice; second, a metaphysic grounding the possibility of strict moral retribution; and third, . 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