misconceptions about african traditional religionmisconceptions about african traditional religion

John Mbiti, a prominent Christian theologian from Kenya who helped debunk entrenched ideas that traditional African religions were primitive, giving them equal weight with major . Based on sacred narratives, these traditions espoused their unique worldviews, defining cosmologies, ritual practices, sociopolitical frameworks, and ethical standards, as well as social and personal identity. Each of the more than 50 modern . No. The problem is, this number is often collated for the whole of Africa, instead of each country of Africa. Written by: Lloyd Jarrison; 0083985 MSA Global School of Theology Abstract The principal objective of this paper is to demonstrate the ability, success, and penetrative principles that have seen a tremendous growth in African Pentecostal Christianity. There are so many interesting facts about Africa that you dont see every day. Because it enables us to theorize questions of syncretism and hybridization and, more importantly, raises the issue of why African religion is flowering and spreading in the Americas, especially in the United States, while it is declining in Africaa phenomenon that we need to understand. Like Mbiti and Green, Magesa notes that the world of African Traditional Religion is a hierarchically ordered place where, God is seen as the Great ancestor, the first Founder and the Progenitor, the Giver of Life behind everything that exists. Many economic forecasts predict the rapid growth in the African Market. Traditional African religions are less of faith traditions and more of lived traditions. African traditional religion, and that researcher a should "bracket" their faith and prejudicethey might have about Africa and its people. 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. 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). According to the Global peace index, Malaysia, Botswana, and Ghana are among the top 50 most peaceful countries, beating the United Kingdom and the United States that were ranked 45 and 128 respectively. Though many Africans have converted to Islam and Christianity, traditional religions still inform the social, economic, and political life in African societies. Religion creates a significant part of African life. African leaders are also investing heavily in diversifying the economy. . 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. inadequacies, objections and misconceptions, the practice has come to stay. The Bambara and Malinke people of Mali believed that the primordial beings were twins. Another misbelief about Africa is that all Africans are the same. Static.COOKIE_BANNER_CAPABLE = true; Unlike the Christian community, recited stories of creation are not performed by a single God, who ordered, by fiat, the creation of the universe with mere spoken words. The consent submitted will only be used for data processing originating from this website. Loosely, it encompasses all African beliefs and practices that are considered religious but neither Christian nor Islamic. It is misleading to say "Africa" when speaking about a specific tribe, ethnic group, or country in Africa. These elements are worth exploring and espousing. . History text fails to capture the depth of pre-colonial African Civilization. However, the Efik people of Calabar were not the only ones who believed twin children were an abomination. Each of these has its peculiar characteristics. In summary, it is not every part of Africa that is hot. It is also the most diversified continent in the world. Today, several myths are mixed with facts in describing African traditional religion. Women play a key role in the practice of these traditions, and the internal gender relations and dynamics are very profound. When Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code was released, it generated both curiosity and criticism for its portrayal of Christianity. All over the continent, cosmological myths describe a complicated process, whether the universe evolves from preexisting objects or from Gods mere thought or speech. In the lived experiences of the people, there has been much borrowing and interchange, particularly in those places that have a history of peaceful coexistence among diverse religious traditions, as is so among the Yoruba. Religion occupies a reasonable space in the life of the traditional African/Igbo people. What we know as African history today is mostly based on the interpretations of our colonial masters. .p-summary {display: none !important} John Mbiti, chap. Let's begun by saying that ATR, refer to the indigenous religious beliefs and practices of Africans. Please allow a few minutes for this process to complete. They are known as upstanding citizens and have been entrusted with sensitive positions in society. 6. More so, myths encode the traditional settings of the African and their belief system. It is incorrect to assume that conversion to Islam or to Christianity dealt a deathblow to indigenous traditions. African Cosmology. Similarly, indigenous religion, worldviews, and rituals such as rites of passage and other religious performances are permeated by other religions, culture, and society in general. 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. This corrective scholarship and critical intervention helped to redefine African worldviews and spirituality and, as such, showed how African religion is pivotal to the individual and communal existence of the people. Traditional African religion has common themes such as a Creator or High God, positive ancestor influences as well as tricksters, and an afterlife with spirit worlds. Copyright 2023 President and Fellows of Harvard College. The expression is also used almost as a technical term for a particular reading of such beliefs and practices, one that purports . Required fields are marked *, Hello my question is how can I find a list of African countries that offers citizenship. Among its one billion inhabitants, more than 1,000 languages are spoken, and there is a massive variety of ethnic religions. But Ifa divination predates Western modernity. If you take these reports at face value, you may start to believe that all Africans are poor. A common stereotype about Africa is that the continent is poverty-stricken, full of corruption, and always at war. African Traditional Religion and medicine are integral parts of life and culture of the Africans and have greatly influenced their conceptions about human health and wholeness. However, this was never a generally accepted idea. Hence to call African traditional religion ancestral worship would cause problems in the study of ATR. Your email address will not be published. Traditional African religions are not stagnant but highly dynamic and constantly reacting to various shifting influences such as old age, modernity, and technological advances. Giving opportunity to stereotypes like Africa are poor and Africa is corrupt. 3. An Ifa song warns those embarking on the pilgrimage to be pure and those who possess witchcraft not to embark on the pilgrimage. The misconception about African religion Man generally is given to misconception especially in the midst of conflicting ideas or contending issues. Some African countries even adopted the language of their colonial masters as the Lingua Franca. This lack of knowledge as well as understanding of essentials has led to burgeoning of myths on African . Corrupt government officials also capitalize on the generosity of the westerners to the point of looking like a panhandler. 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. In my research into Ifa narratives, I showed how, in the Ifa worldview, a traditional banking system was created and made possible when Aje, a Yoruba goddess of wealth, visited Orunmila, god of divination, to seek tips on how to keep robbers from stealing her spurious wealth, for which the added task of securing it was becoming quite burdensome. 13. African cosmogonic narratives posit the creation of a universe and the birth of a people and their indigenous religions. 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. Therefore, this article will explore African spirituality, traditional religion, culture and the present way of life. Courtesy Of Stevenson, Amsterdam/Cape Town/Johannesburg. While some Christian mission historians, such as J. D. Y. Peel, for example, correctly argue that the Yoruba had their own enlightenment (Olaju), this is always presented in the context of Christian conversion and is very much tied to the escalating Christian missionary movement. The orthodox Easternize it. Without relevant knowledge, stereotypes are unavoidable. c. masculine, feminine. 1. . 53 offers from $9.56. 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. Myth: Slavery in the non-Western world was a mild, benign, and non-economic institution. Women are revered in African traditions as essential to the cosmic balance of the world. As many might know, one type of ritualinitiations for adolescent African girlscauses great consternation among Westerners, because these often involve rites like female circumcision or other bodied practices. Africans who follow a traditional religion rely on no scriptures, canonical texts, or holy books to guide them. According to theologian Tony Evans, W. E. B. To each his own. Introduction. 1 While, officially, statistics suggest that African . They held the view that twins were a symbol of excessive fertility which is a characteristic of animals. 4. A 1685 law, for instance, prohibited the practice of African religions, and required all masters to Christianize their slaves within eight days of their arrival in Haiti. 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. For African-American parents, transmitting an awareness of cultural values and norms . 2. The unending political banditry and fraudulent activities by some individuals are the foundation of this stereotype. John Mbiti in his book African Religion and Philosophy, argued that African Religion deserves the same respect as Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Buddhism. c. medicine men and women. Indeed indigenous African religions have provided the blueprint for robust conversations and thinking about community relations, interfaith dialogue, civil society, and civil religion. Many foreign nations and organizations do send aid to African countries. Religious contexts are shaped and determined by the identity of these religions. One of the more fascinating conversations that has emerged in the debate about African indigenous traditions is about the central role of women as bearers and transmitters of the traditions, and also the negotiation of gender dynamics. Mursi girl in Ethiopia. Courtesy of Stevenson, Amsterdam/Cape Town/Johannesburg. However, African indigenous religion has not only succeeded in domesticating Islam and Christianity; in many instances, it has absorbed aspects of these two other traditions into its cosmology and narrative accounts and practices. In African traditional religions guidance is provided through myths, which are handed down orally. Another generalization about Africa is that they are all corrupt. Ifa defines Yoruba humanity, providing responses to critical issues of its communities. His many publications include African Religions: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2014); City of 201 Gods: Il-If in Time, Space, and the Imagination (University of California Press, 2011); and Kingship, Religion, and Rituals in a Nigerian Community: A Phenomenological Study of Ondo Yoruba Festivals (Almqvist & Wiksell, 1991), which has become a model for ethnographic research among Yoruba-speaking communities. 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. 8. Oct. 24, 2019. 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. Truly opening my eyes on traditions, cultures and rituals that I did not know existed. . Voodoo, however, is a dynamic religion with no standardized dogma. Africa is not homogenous. The most difficult task I face in characterizing African indigenous spiritual traditions is accounting for their diversity and complexity. The problem of Africa isnt wealth but the unequal distribution of wealth. There are many female goddesses along with their male counterparts. Such dismissal has been based on the misconception and assumption that indigenous Bapedi . When Christianity and Western civilization came and interacted with African culture and religion, misconception of beliefs, values, and terms developed. Elders, priests, and priestesses have served as guardians of the sacred traditions. 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. Traditional African religions are less of faith traditions and more of lived traditions. My credentials as a Harvard professor made little impression on him. The Hausa man is different from the Igbo man who is also different from the Yoruba man. Although it is difficult to generalize about African traditional cosmology and worldviews, a common denominator among them is a three-tiered model in which the human world exists sandwiched between the sky and the earth (including the underworld)a schema that is not unique to Africa but is found in many of the worlds religious systems as well. Orishas, Goddesses, and Voodoo Queens: The Divine Feminine in the African Religious Traditions. African dance occupies central place in cultures throughout the African continent, embodying energy and a graceful beauty flowing with rhythm. Myth #2. There are key developmental projects in some African countries that would not be possible without Foreign aids. However, the so-called white wedding is Western culture. Fact: One-third of Moroccans and one-quarter of Algerians do not speak Arabic as their first language. Gradually, there was a shift from ATR to Christianity. Thank you for this interesting essay on African religion. 2. .title-desc-wrapper .post-title {display: none !important} Many people have bought into the narrative of African traditional religious beliefs as something untrue and based on delusions, but they have also forgotten that all religions have the same thing in common. See Luc De Heusch, What Shall We Do with the Drunken King?,. This unified the tribes in a way, making it seem as if they are all the same. Indigenous traditions continue to define the African personality. It is the foundation on which the morals of pre-colonial Africa were built. Whether these words carry weight or simply make for a good quote, the fact remains that Africans are unique. In whatever way it happens, African cosmological narratives are similarly complex, unsystematized, and multivariate, and they are the bedrock for indigenous value systems. Slowly, they projected ATR as barbaric and dehumanizing. 9. Take for instance the story of poverty in Africa. 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