7, The Spirits, in his, One must resist the structuralist temptation that views myths as static, unchanging, and simply the productions of a peoples imagination about the cosmic order. Robert N. Bellah, Civil Religion in America,, Jacob K. Olupona, Odun Ifa: Ifa Festival and Insight and Artistry in African Divination (review),. Similarly, there are others like Henry Louis Gates who has appropriated images of the Yoruba deity of Esu in his own work. 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. Women play a key role in the practice of these traditions, and the internal gender relations and dynamics are very profound. These oral sources are intricately interwoven into arts, political and social structure, and material culture. Myths, folklores proverbs therefore become the major sources of African philosophy (Jaja, 1995:28). One of the most ridiculous myths about it is that homosexuality did not exist in the continent until white men imported it. When he heard that I came from Nigeria, he wanted to display his knowledge of Ocha tradition as a devotee of Oxhosi, God of Thunder in Afro-Brazilian heritage. There is a general misconception that the entire people of North Africa speak Arabic. Morocco and Algeria are typical examples of this misconception. 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 first encounters are fascinating. No. Will OAthers Follow Suit? In his interview with the New York Times, the theologian said, The days are over when we will be carbon copies of European Christians, Europe and America westernized Christianity. These elements are worth exploring and espousing. South Africa, Tunisia, and Kenya rank among the top countries with the best health care system in Africa. Every life stage is important in African religions, from birth and naming, to betrothal/marriage, elderhood, and eventually death. Priests, priestesses, and diviners are among the authorities who perform religious ceremonies, but the hierarchical structure is often very loose. 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. .p-summary {display: none !important} In modern-day Christianity, Pentecostalism has become a major force to reckon with, indicating a sharp growth by adapting to local [] In my view, these common misconceptions are due to ill representation of the African culture. Most importantly, the rite itself should not be condemned together with circumcision or female genital mutilation. Our parting a week later was hard for him! A frica has 54 countries and more than a billion people. The misconception about African religion Man generally is given to misconception especially in the midst of conflicting ideas or contending issues. Thus, it is easy to see why it seems that Africa needs help. Each of the more than 50 modern . This action will also remove this member from your connections and send a report to the site admin. For this reason, in many parts of Africa, the communal aspects of such rituals have been retained, due to their salience, while the circumcision practice has been dispensed with altogether, due to the health risks associated with it; this is the case among the Maasai in Kenya and in Somali culture, both in Djibouti and Somalia. Divination enables us to recognize how indigenous traditions have a foundation upon which knowledge and knowledge production is developed. Women are revered in African traditions as essential to the cosmic balance of the world. the belief that natural objects and natural phenomenon possess souls or spiritual beings. African leaders are also investing heavily in diversifying the economy. . Also, about 30 % of the earths remaining mineral resources are in Africa. Apart from a few instances in West Africa, where women actually ruled as kings, the designation queen was not often used in isolation from the position itself (which was defined in male terms). 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? African Vibes is a one-stop global platform that connects the African diaspora to opportunities for growth, development, and social impact in Africa. b. certain clan outsiders. Depending on the kind of religious activity being performed, different religious authorities can be leaders for specific events. 12. African traditional religious beliefs in East Africa. 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. In fact, the continent is the most diverse in the world. For example, James George Frazer (18541941) and Edward B. Tylor (18321917) classified indigenous religious practices of natives not as universally religious or generative of religious cultures but as forms of primitive religion or magic arising from the lower of three stages of human progress. Female circumcision is a hotly contested practice condemned by many global organizations and lumped together under the category of female genital mutilation. Few have much clarity or knowledge on what is actually involved. Their many realities that Africans have not been . Similarly, although ancestors dwell inside the earth, their activities also interject into human life, which is why they are referred to as the living dead.13 African cosmologies, therefore, portray the universe as a fluid, active, and impressionable space, with agents from each realm bearing the capabilities of traveling from one realm to another at will. Post-colonial Africa is yet to be completely free from the mental slavery and stereotype created by the colonial masters. In the primordial era, various forms of ethnic indigenous religions spread across the African continent, providing cohesive foundations of nations, peoples, and religious worldviews. Each ceremony denotes passage from one social status to another and is an opportunity to celebrate the initiates on their journey. It arose through a process of syncretism between several traditional religions of West and Central Africa and Roman Catholicism.There is no central authority in control of the religion and much diversity exists among practitioners, who are known as Vodouists, Vodouisants, or Serviteurs. Traditional African religions are not stagnant but highly dynamic and constantly reacting to various shifting influences such as old age, modernity, and technological advances. African Traditional Religions (ATRs) will be discussed within the context of which it belongs to, the African traditional life (ATL). 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. They believe in Please allow a few minutes for this process to complete. the earlier idea was that African Traditional Religion was incompatible with monotheism. 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. However, since Africans are known for their excellent craftsmanship, these artifacts do tell the story of the ancient African empires. Not the one we saw, very clear and good article easy to understand. Mostly, the temperatures of these zones vary between the extremes (Either very hot or very cold). African Traditional Religion is the traditional religion of the African people before the coming of Islam and Christianity. So, why was it the negative stories about killing of twins that were promoted? In this postcolonial period, it has come to be established that there is what we may call . In fact, we should not misunderstand the notoriety in some people's religious life, just like Esu was represented as a stone mound in the front yard of ancient Yoruba compounds. those misconceptions and misrepresentations of the facts pre sented by Eurocent . As the late African historian Cheikh Anta Diop argued, matriarchy was embedded in the African way of life. In times of crisis they often come to the surface, or people revert to them in secret.8. This is based on misconceptions that these religions are antithetical to . The traditional religions of Africa are human in the deepest sense, because they focus on people and their everyday problems. Take for instance the story of poverty in Africa. Traditional African religions are less of faith traditions and more of lived traditions. Published. The battle between the African traditional religion and western civilization has been raging on for years. Humans are thus able to maintain constant and symbiotic relations with their ancestors who are understood to be intimately concerned and involved in their descendants everyday affairs. John Mbiti, chap. My essay Om ptadran, an Africanist Griot: Toni Morrison and African Epistemology, Myths, and Literary Culture, in. Among its one billion inhabitants, more than 1,000 languages are spoken, and there is a massive variety of ethnic religions. It is practiced around the world but there is no accurate count of how many people are Voodooists. 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. Lilith Dorsey. Why is this important to our understanding of African indigenous religions? inadequacies, objections and misconceptions, the practice has come to stay. Voodoo, however, is a dynamic religion with no standardized dogma. Every tribe and culture have their beliefs and way of life. 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. There are so many interesting facts about Africa that you dont see every day. However, the missionaries of the two foreign religions succeeded in converting some African people to the new religions. Voodoo has no scripture or world authority. Prior to colonization, there was scarcely any form of writing in the majority of African tribes and cultures. The most difficult task I face in characterizing African indigenous spiritual traditions is accounting for their diversity and complexity. 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. Today as a minority tradition, indigenous African religions have suffered immensely from human rights abuses. According to theologian Tony Evans, W. E. B. 53 offers from $9.56. An example of data being processed may be a unique identifier stored in a cookie. 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: One-third of Moroccans and one-quarter of Algerians do not speak Arabic as their first language. 8. 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. 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. 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. Africans combine a belief in the existence of a omnipresent and omnipotent supreme god, with multitudes of subordinate deities. During the colonial era, most of these traditional believes became a target of the colonial religion. Whether one agrees or disagrees with the practice, it is important to note that not all female initiations involve circumcision, and that the rituals associated with initiation are crucial to ensuring that an individuals social position is affirmed by both family and community. Ritual practices are central to the performance of African religion. 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). . Manage Settings Most Africans at home and in the diaspora have made a name for themselves and praised for their contributions to society. 13. Inasmuch as androcentric authority is more prominent within social structures and systems and patriarchy is more pronounced in the social order, women are considered the cornerstone of the African family system.19 The African mother is a vibrant life force, central to African religious understandings of the interrelatedness between the human and the divine, as she embodies the production and sustaining of life. Here Is What You Have To Know. .pagination {display: none !important} Such scholars stereotyped African religionand African peoples themselvesas primitive social forms, part of a lower social order. Gender dynamics are important in African indigenous religions and in cultural systems, so much so that women goddesses and women-invented rituals are commonplace. They are less concerned with doctrines and much more so with rituals . Indigenous traditions, however, did not capitulate to these forms, but, rather, creatively domesticated the new faiths, absorbing new rituals and tenets into their own belief systems and responding to the exogenous modernity in its wake. They provide the orientation for the human life journey by defining the rites of passage from life to death. Kofi Johnson Fayetteville State University kjohnson@uncfsu.edu. Narratives about the creation of the universe (cosmogony) and the nature and structure of the world (cosmology) provide a useful entry to understanding African religious life and worldviews. To understand the social, cultural context of pregnancy, childbirth and subsequent maternal and child care and to use this information for . Ifa defines Yoruba humanity, providing responses to critical issues of its communities. This inaccurate assessment of African belief even affects the definition of African religion. expressed in all the African cultures, it means that religion forms parts of African culture but not all African cultural practices are religious. Traditional African religions are not stagnant but highly dynamic and constantly reacting to various shifting influences such as old age, modernity, and technological advances. Fact: Slavery is older than the first human records. For example, in many African cultures, intending couples MUST perform both traditional and white weddings. One approach is to outline, in a systematic way, the essential features of these traditions without paying much attention to whether or not the traditions fit into the pattern of religions already mapped out by Western theologians and historians, who use Western religious traditions as the standard by which to measure religions in other parts of the world. Representation matters, and as scholars we have a responsibility to advocate for religions in their contexts. Women constitute a sizable number of the devotees of these traditions, just as they do in Islam and Christianity. By civil religion, I have in mind not only institutional religion and the beliefs and practices as they relate to the sacred and transcendent, but also practices not always defined as religious, including the rites of passage offered by our various youth brigades, and also the values of communalism and national sacrifice. Haitian Vodou is an African diasporic religion that developed in Haiti between the 16th and 19th centuries. Especially if you have never been to Africa. 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. 10. Such an approach should endeavor to provide not only an awareness of sociocultural contexts but also to narrate the historical dimensions of these traditions. 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. African religions, religious beliefs and practices of the peoples of Africa. Please confirm you want to block this member. They are known as upstanding citizens and have been entrusted with sensitive positions in society. In African traditional religions guidance is provided through myths, which are handed down orally. The problem of Africa isnt wealth but the unequal distribution of wealth. Although the slaves accepted Roman Catholicism, they did not give up their traditional beliefs either. The story is the same in the political sphere. Countries like Senegal, Mali, and Burkina Faso that are close to the Sahara desert have the Sahel climate. They counteracted various derogatory names given to AIR. They tend to propagate peaceful coexistence, and they promote good relations with members of other religious traditions that surround them. Your email address will not be published. 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 reason for this is quite simply the misunderstanding of the relevance and foundation of the African tradition. Long before the arrival of Christianity and Islam, Africans practiced African traditional religion (ATR). Another false impression often given about African religions is that women do not play any central or leadership roles in the performance of African religious traditions. 5. Whether these words carry weight or simply make for a good quote, the fact remains that Africans are unique. Giving opportunity to stereotypes like Africa are poor and Africa is corrupt. It was just the belief of a few groups of people known as Efik people, the predominant tribe in Calabar. Indeed indigenous African religions have provided the blueprint for robust conversations and thinking about community relations, interfaith dialogue, civil society, and civil religion. Indigenous religions are definitive of the African identity, as African religion and cultures provide the language, the ethos, the knowledge, and the ontology that enable the proper formation of African personhood, communal identity, and values that constitute kernels of African ethnic assemblages. Common misconceptions of Africa include the idea that it is behind the rest of the world, lacking in innovative technology. 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. Please note: 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. . It is the foundation on which the morals of pre-colonial Africa were built. Indigenous traditions continue to define the African personality. 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. Unique Beliefs, and Too Many Misconceptions Traditional native sweat lodge with hot stones inside . There are abundant natural resources scattered across the 54 countries of Africa. Portia Zvavahera, His Presence, 2013, oil-based printing ink on paper. A classic example is how the Ifa divination text of the Yoruba provides deep commentary on the practice of Islam by the Yoruba people, such as the hajj tradition. This is based on misconceptions that these religions are antithetical to modernity. My credentials as a Harvard professor made little impression on him. Africa is not homogenous. Your email address will not be published. Designed by Elegant Themes | Powered by WordPress, HARVARD DIVINITY SCHOOL ao Ajima OM, Ubana EU (2018) The Concept . That is the ultimate and absolute being who originated and gives meaning to all existence.9 III. Without relevant knowledge, stereotypes are unavoidable. Instead, the old and the new were syncretized, producing some unique . Hence the misguided notion that Africans are corrupt. This is a testament to the strong morals and principles of the African tradition. The term "African Traditional Religion" is used in two complementary senses. 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.
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