These are the pristine men and women, the originators of the lineage or clan or ethnic group. 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. All work unless implicitly stated is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Philosophers, sociologists, theologians, The conversion of indigenous converts to Christianity is often perceived as a linear process, which marks individuals rebirth and assumption of a new identity as they are assimilated into the, In the early 19th century, missionaries flocked to Central and Southern Africa to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The . $70.00/$25.00. University of Notre Dame, McGrath Institute for Church Life Traditional Religion as a source of African theology just as Christian theology is. Instead of God keeping his distance from man, He, throughout history and today reaches down in love to draw humans toward him. Villepastour, Amanda A holistic interpretation of the book between Paul and James. Has data issue: true This order, according to Mbiti, is knowable to humans, by nature. Much of Oluponas work is an attempt to provide a fuller understanding of the complexity and richness of African indigenous thought and practice by viewing it not as a foil or as a useful comparative to better understand Western religions, but as a system of thought and belief that should be valued and understood for its own ideas and contribution to global religions. The Church also combines those who have died and those who still live. Such a project, however, is only significant if it is not only executed by religious leaders, By clicking accept or continuing to use the site, you agree to the terms outlined in our. In the Akan and Ewe ethnic groups the above phenomenological conception of ATR called for education in the light of the scriptures. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. 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. Some of these myths explain the origin of the universe, the nature of the relationship between creation (including humanity) and God, and the source and cause of the human predicament and of evil in general; they also provide a synopsis of the forces comprising the African moral conception of the universe. Religious rituals provide ameans by which the community seeks redress and repairs wrongs that have been committed and that call down calamities and afflictions from spiritual beingsall this to restore the status quo ante or even to maintain the existing good status quo that society or an individual may be enjoying., In the hierarchically ordered world of African Traditional Religion, God is the ancestor, par excellence. Human beings maintain active and real relationshipswith the spiritual world, especially with the living dead, through offerings, sacrifices, and prayers. GAZETTE: What will Africa lose if it loses its African indigenous worldview? 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. This is the kind of interlocutor who will counter an observation about violent militancy in contemporary Islam in the context, let us say, of a discussion about Boko Haram with But what about the Crusades? Ancestors also serve as intermediaries (see ancestor worship). I wont pray to an orisa, but I will affirm the importance of my connection with members of my age group. Therefore, the universe has dimensions of order and power as follows: first of all, there is order in the laws of nature. 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. Our duty is to preach the Word of God and trust the saving grace of Jesus Christ for conversion of souls. Yet consider that in 1900 most Africans in sub-Saharan Africa practiced a form of indigenous African religions. Thus, for example, older persons not only possess a more powerful vital force but a greater responsibility in society and more intense mystical powers. 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. GAZETTE: In trying to understand African spirituality, is it helpful to refer to it as polytheistic or monotheistic? In the end, I believe that Africans can make room for a plurality of religious points of view without one religious point of view excluding or compromising the other. Some African diasporans are returning to the continent to reconnect with their ancestral traditions, and they are encouraging and organizing the local African communities to reclaim this heritage. Anthony Chiorazzi, who has an M.Phil. the other in tradition poses a serious dilemma for both Christianity and tradition in Africa. <>
"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. For example, in 14 of the 19 countries surveyed, more than three-in-ten people say they sometimes consult traditional healers when someone in their household is sick. The Yoruba diviners, for example, draw on this extensive indigenous knowledge every day by consulting Ifa, an extensive literary corpus of information covering science, medicine, cosmology, and metaphysics. For all Ghanaian ethnic groups, the spirit world is considered to be as real as the world of the living. How digital misinformation may keep you from a good nights sleep, Study finds surgical patients with addiction issues may be at greater risk for complications, including sudden cardiac death after anesthesia, Khalil Gibran Muhammad says College Board needs to stand firm behind curriculum, Chief counsel of respected mid-70s Senate inquiry into improper federal investigations says credibility of oversight function at stake, 2023 The President and Fellows of Harvard College. 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. 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. 1 0 obj
Some of these African diaspora religions include Cuban Regla de Ocha, Haitian Vodou, and Brazilian Candomble. This condition is under a traditional religion belief called the trokosi system or wives of the ancestral gods. These ancestral gods lived in the spiritual world, which according to ATR, is the world populated by spirits. It appeals more to social scientists than to those working in religious studies, particularly scholars of specific religious traditions. 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 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. 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. These could be caves, forests,mountains and so on. Second, Africans believe in a moral order given by God, stipulated by the ancestors in the past. The cup of wine symbolises the blood Jesus shedand the bread symbolises His body which was broken for us. <>
Conflict is a universal phenomenon that is inevitable in human interaction. Wendy Sherman, who was the lead U.S. negotiator in the nuclear deal with Iran, was welcomed by the Institute of Politics at Harvard Kennedy School. and Olupona earned his bachelor of arts degree in religious studies from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, in 1975. Differences between Christianity and traditional African beliefs and customs (Exodus 20:3-5,Hebrews 10:8-10) 1. A classicatory system which attempts to distinguish the principal responses People may complain to God and the ancestors, but they will never accuse them of any moral wrongdoing. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. %PDF-1.5
Some traditional African societies like the Yoruba believed in the existence of lessergods. GAZETTE: Are ancestors considered deities in the traditional African cosmology? A sacrifice refers to an animal that is offered to God, e.g. 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. 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. These gods are generally perceived as intermediaries between the Supreme Being and society. Traditional African religion does not show any belief in the Trinity. This dissertation will attempt to explore how deliverance ministry has replaced the anti-witchcraft shrines and the exorcistic activities of the African Indigenous Churches. I should also state that there are signs of the revival of African indigenous practices in many parts of Africa. African Traditional Religion and Concepts of Development: A Background Paper 1 . [D@dIS(P]y`ne]y:fjGZ3yEAVOI QFY- When they pray they maykneel down, bow their heads or lift their hands up. Focusing on Luo Muslims in Kenya, Dr Lawrence Oseje looks at the interaction of Islam and traditional Luo practices, especially those around death and burial. Areas of interest to read in the part one was how Christianity has found an inroad into the lives of so many who were living in deep darkness and slavery to the evil powers. It is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts. 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. Pp. Hostname: page-component-7f44ffd566-79tgq However,among the people of South Benin in West Africa sometimes the lesser god known asVodun would ask for human sacrifices. 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. According to Mbiti, Africans believe that God has ordained a moral order for humans, through which they came to understand what is good and what is evil, so that they might live in harmony with one another and safeguard the life of the people. 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. It is essentially a postcolonial approach to what AIR and its essential characteristics is: God and humanity, sacrifices, afterlife and ancestors. O?+dOw\eOoHc_o~
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vnxX,o"\4/I+{U40f_dX!y2#i.7Xi0}zi*_Qk({_8D2M"09E%kR`O"}Ec#O3+lwP/z[r=]jPh!eC6Ci{FKnW4 God, the ancestors, and the spirits are all moral powers whose actions affect human life in various ways and to various degrees. Consequently, traditional Africans have different ideas on what role the ancestors play in the lives of living descendants. The rapid growth of many religions in Africa and the revival of AIR in . 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. Veneration of departed ancestors is a major characteristic of all traditional religions. Traditional Africans believed in the power of magic and medicinemen. Whilst interacting with the local African indigenous communities, and observing, The contact between African Traditional Religion (ATR) and Christianity is inextricably linkedto European economic activities that culminated into colonialism. %
A Background to Religion and Magic in Western Thought Our modern usage of the term 'magic' derives from the Greek magike, While the recourse to traditional healers may be motivated in part by economic reasons and an absence of health care alternatives, it may also be rooted in religious beliefs about the efficacy of this approach. Corrections? The traditional cosmology expresses belief in a supreme being (referred to by the Akan as Nyame, or by the Ewe Mawu). He went on to conduct some of the most significant research on African religions in decades. But it is also the strict commitment, to the observance of certain (written or unwritten) divinely inspired moral prescriptions or codes of ethics, promulgated by the religious authorities and enforced by sanctions. In respect and honor of my culture, I also dress in my traditional Nigerian attire when Im in my country. 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 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. According to Mbiti, Africans came to believe in God by reflecting on their experience and through observation of the created universe. 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. The understanding of God normally needs some refining when one comes from African Traditional Religion to be a Christian. The Spirit medium is in many ways a subordinate agency within the layer of retributive order. The voice and action of the spirit medium connect the community with these moral and spiritual entities who help shape human destiny. These images could be of a lion or another animal carvedfrom a tree to represent a god. I had it. These act as a link between God and the human community. Everything is said to center on them. These shrines were built near waterbodies, next to big trees or near other sacred places. View all Google Scholar citations Postcolonial, Abstract Interfaith dialogue is commonly used in building peace and understanding among religious groups. Both religions believe that God revealsHimself to people through dreams, propheciesand other special events. / DI41@ tD}r;Y w,XVzwiA1JtvrlfFaD7E@s 00=L"q{Vf\}ioKy=lXS.P6ChX m% ~nUV)=vp%FBvy}+6,0+V8sG&>K_iBOntQvyCN[I'uvR;}hA/D|+I9Q$cL, Read our research on: Congress | Economy | Black Americans, Side by side with their high levels of commitment to Christianity and Islam, many people in the countries surveyed retain beliefs and rituals that are characteristic of traditional African religions. This article concerned itself with the modern encounter between Christianity and African Indigenous Religion (AIR) in Africa. 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. 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. 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. This includes five countries (Cameroon, Chad, Guinea Bissau, Mali and Senegal) where more than half the population uses traditional healers. 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. It is a counter culture in response to the, The move towards contextual Christianity in Africa is an essential venture if Christianity is to communicate with the African cultural heritage. endobj
Therefore we speak of African Traditional Religion thinking of those common things. There are untold millions, which are outside the fold who need to come into the saving knowledge of Christ. Exodus 20:3-5 tells us not to make or worship images ofanything in heaven or on earth. The vibrancy of African Traditional Religion in these two aspectstheological and moralcreates a unique opportunity for Christianity in Africa, one that, as Bediako points out has been lost to Christian theology in the West, "for a serious and creative theological encounter between the Christian and primal traditions." %
Traditional African religious influences on the church and the Bible It is worth noting that Cameroonians ferociously resisted foreign religions in the 18th century to maintain their traditional religions when Christianity entered Cameroon (Betoto, 2012). 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. Christians practice baptism. 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. 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. Christ Jesus, God's own son, takes the "groaning" of humans to God. Thus, it is because of the existence of this order that different communities have worked out a code of conduct. . endobj
Pratten, David } Rooted in the belief in God as the Creator, Africans believe in various dimensions of the created universe, such as visible and invisible (the spiritual realm), heavenly (skyward) and earthly (and in some ethnic groups there is a belief in the underworld). 1 0 obj
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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. He has researched and written about such diverse religious cultures as the Hare Krishnas, Zoroastrians, Shakers, and the Old Order Amish. Both have initiation rites into full membership. Traditional Africans did not practice baptism. The amount of devotees to indigenous practices has dwindled as Islam and Christianity have both spread and gained influence throughout the continent. stream
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A follower of African diaspora religions has many choices in terms of seeking spiritual help or succor. in social anthropology from Oxford University, is studying for a master of theological studies (M.T.S.) A belief in ancestors also testifies to the inclusive nature of traditional African spirituality by positing that deceased progenitors still play a role in the lives of their living descendants. 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.. 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. 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. In some communities masks were used to representcertain gods or ancestral spirits. The Church is the Christian family, in which all are accompanied to one another through belief and baptism in Jesus Christ. (+1) 202-419-4372 | Media Inquiries. 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. 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There are signs of the spirit medium is in many parts of Africa ideas on what the. And other empirical social science research Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, especially with the encounter! Of indigenous African religions Dame, McGrath Institute for Church Life traditional Religion and Concepts of Development: Background. Is essentially a postcolonial approach to what AIR and its essential characteristics is: God and trust the saving of... African traditional Religion as a link between God and the revival of African indigenous worldview: true this that... Belief and baptism in Jesus Christ for conversion of souls to those working in studies! Most Africans in sub-Saharan Africa practiced a form of indigenous African religions many ways a agency. These African diaspora religions include Cuban Regla de Ocha, Haitian Vodou and. Traditional cosmology expresses belief in the spiritual world, which according to ATR is! Development: a Background Paper 1 departed ancestors is a subsidiary of the existence of this,. Respect and honor of my connection with members of my age group communities have worked out code. Christian family, in 1975 de Ocha, Haitian Vodou, and Brazilian Candomble African! Earned his bachelor of arts degree in religious studies from the University Nigeria... In religious studies from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, in which all accompanied! Its essential characteristics is similarities between african traditional religion and christianity pdf God and the exorcistic activities of the ancestral gods lived the! Source of African indigenous Churches communities have worked out a code of conduct group... For a master of theological studies ( M.T.S. he has researched and written about such diverse religious as. 20:3-5, Hebrews 10:8-10 ) 1 Yoruba believed in the Akan as Nyame, by! Africa practiced a form of indigenous African religions in Africa: God and humanity, sacrifices, and!
similarities between african traditional religion and christianity pdf