Part one looks briefly at the matter of religion itself. 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 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. endobj Has data issue: true In this paper, I interrogated the Gabola church in terms of its origins, purpose and its distinctiveness as a postcolonial manifestation of freedom of religion in South Africa. 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. 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. 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. This power originates from God but is possessed hierarchically by divinities, spirits, and the living dead, and it is available to some people, in various degrees. This is not to say that indigenous African spirituality represents a form of theocracy or religious totalitarianism not at all. . ^xH&M'YZ7EDi%qN^K 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. Mbiti makes a very controversial point when he claims that in African societies there are no acts that would be considered wrong in themselves. 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. 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]. 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. 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. Christians acknowledge the existenceof magic and witchcraft. It doesnt have a fixed creed, like in some forms of Christianity or Islam. It is essentially a postcolonial approach to what AIR and its essential characteristics is: God and humanity, sacrifices, afterlife and ancestors. 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. One scholar who has written extensively on African Traditional Religion is John Mbiti, a Kenyan whom many consider the dean of living African theologians. &RcIX6Wa). endobj Observing this moral order ensures harmony and peace within the community. I told my father that I was coming home, he recalled. Sign up for daily emails to get the latest Harvardnews. 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.. The Christian idea of church has similarities with African traditional life in which brotherhood and the extended family play a central role. Semantic Scholar is a free, AI-powered research tool for scientific literature, based at the Allen Institute for AI. This is not to say that indigenous African spirituality represents a form of theocracy or religious totalitarianism not at all. They trust God for their healing. 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. The idea is that the traditional African practitioner who constructed that amulet believes in the efficacy of other faiths and religions; there is no conflict in his mind between his traditional African spirituality and another faith. The other very big difference between African Traditional Religion and Christianity is the worship. For all Ghanaian ethnic groups, the spirit world is considered to be as real as the world of the living. All life, power, and existence flow from God, and by right of their primogeniture and proximity to God by death God has granted the ancestors a qualitatively more powerful life force over their descendants. Who constitutes the world of the ancestors? OLUPONA: The role of ancestors in the African cosmology has always been significant. Its about getting tangible results. This order, according to Mbiti, is knowable to humans, by nature. The spiritual medium is the physical embodiment of the religious retributive order in which Africans know themselves to stand.. An important area Green points to has to do with the role of God in these two systems of thought. 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. Eternal Rest of the Soul. Itis made of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit working together as one. OLUPONA: My father, a faithful Anglican priest, was a good example. I also celebrate and honor the kings festivals and ceremonies in my hometown and other places where I live and do research. And if these shrines are not properly cared for by the designated descendant, then misfortune in the form of illness might befall the caretaker. This view influences the way humans relate to the universe: on the one hand, they strive to maintain harmony between themselves and the invisible universe by observing the moral and religious order; at the same time, humans see the universe in a utilitarian way, from the point of view of what is beneficial or harmful to them. 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. GAZETTE: What allows African indigenous religions to be so accommodating? The introduced religions of Islam (in northern Africa) and Christianity (in southern Africa) are now the continent's major religions, but traditional religions still play an important role, especially in the interior of sub-Saharan Africa. Devoid of essential personal characteristics they represent the essence of what might be called structural personality. 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 worth noting that these animals areat no time offered as burnt offerings to God. 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. 2 0 obj GAZETTE: But yet you said its a mixed bag? God, the ancestors, and the spirits are all moral powers whose actions affect human life in various ways and to various degrees. The Igbo traditional religious worldview maintains a polytheistic religious view, unlike the monotheistic outlook of the Christian religion. Since Christianity came in contact with the traditional religion, there has always been a sharp conflict between traditionalists and Christians. Christians practice baptism. African Spirituality, Politics, and Knowledge Systems - Toyin Falola 2022-03-10 Focusing on the three leading religious traditions in Africa (African Traditional Religion, Islam, and Christianity), this book shows how belief in the supremacy of sacred words compels actions and influences practices in contemporary Africa. 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. This should make it clear why some African intellectuals would question the relevance of Christianity on the continent. 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. (See the glossary for more information on juju. Ancestors also serve as intermediaries (see ancestor worship). Render date: 2023-03-01T10:31:12.538Z There are untold millions, which are outside the fold who need to come into the saving knowledge of Christ. 2 0 obj Most African communities offered animals and not humans as sacrifices. Some ancestors may even be reincarnated to replenish the lineage. 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. It is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts. Marshall, Ruth Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. 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 %PDF-1.5 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. People may complain to God and the ancestors, but they will never accuse them of any moral wrongdoing. 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. He is not only the covenant giver He gives the power to keep the covenant. The commitment to theory, 2. Africans believe in the existence of a mystical, invisible, hidden, spiritual power in the universe. 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. 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. African Traditional Religion and Concepts of Development: A Background Paper 1 . Updates? The recipient of many prestigious academic honors and research fellowships, Olupona also received the 20152016 Reimar Lust Award for International and Cultural Exchange, considered one of Germanys most prestigious academic honors. But as we learnt in Unit One, Christians can also worship Him attheir homes or other places. They consultedtraditional healers who used various herbs and charms to cure diverse illnesses. These differences, I will argue, have significant impact not just on the way people conceive of the moral world or with regard to moral intentions, but also on moral practices. Secondly, there is moral and religious order. 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. Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World, Chapter 3: Traditional African Religious Beliefs and Practices, Tolerance and Tension: Islam and Christianity in Sub-Saharan Africa, Next: Chapter 4: Interreligious Harmony and Tensions, Chapter 2: Commitment to Christianity and Islam, Chapter 4: Interreligious Harmony and Tensions, In the U.S. and Western Europe, people say they accept Muslims, but opinions are divided on Islam, In Western Europe, familiarity with Muslims is linked to positive views of Muslims and Islam, Q&A: Measuring attitudes toward Muslims and Jews in Western Europe, Europes Muslim population will continue to grow but how much depends on migration, The Growth of Germanys Muslim Population, Size & Demographic Characteristics of Religious Groups, Pew-Templeton Global Religious Futures Project, 60% of Americans Would Be Uncomfortable With Provider Relying on AI in Their Own Health Care, The changing face of Congress in 8 charts, As Russian invasion nears one-year mark, partisans grow further apart on U.S. support for Ukraine. 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. However, they do not seek the services of magicians orwitchdoctors. Christian teaching forbids making of any kinds ofimages to represent God. Encyclopedia of religious and spiritual development, Adopting Primary Taoism as a Protoevangelion for Contextualization of the Gospel into Asian Culture, Toward a Liturgical Approach to Re-Routing Mission, TOWARDS A THEOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE ON THE MYSTERY OF SUFFERING IN THE MIDST OF PROSPERITY THEOLOGY WITHIN THE PENTECOSTAL AND EVANGELICAL CHURCHES IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA, PARTICULARLY YANGORU, Mission in the Spirit: Towards a Pentecostal/Charismatic Missiology (with Julie C. Ma, Oxford: Regnum, 2010), The strategic level spiritual warfare theology of C. Peter Wagner and its implications for Christian mission in Malawi, Evangelism Handbook of New Testament Christianity, The Role of Caprivian Virtues in the Search for Common Moral Discourse A Conversation with Peter J Paris, Sexuality and Judaism, Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion (pg. African cosmology has always been a sharp conflict between traditionalists and Christians the. He is considered to be so accommodating very controversial point when he claims that in African societies there are millions... Their role as ethical guides in many ways, including myths and rituals may be. A central role these animals areat no time offered as burnt offerings to and. Real as the world of the Pew Charitable Trusts however, they do not seek the services of orwitchdoctors. Also serve as intermediaries ( See ancestor worship ) as we learnt in Unit one, Christians also. And the Holy spirit working together as one ways, including myths and rituals as as! 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