Oct. 24, 2019. It is practiced around the world but there is no accurate count of how many people are Voodooists. Esu was represented as a stone mound in the front yard of ancient Yoruba compounds. 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. Unique Beliefs, and Too Many Misconceptions Traditional native sweat lodge with hot stones inside . 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. Many traditional African religions are based on guiding principles that are unfathomable to foreigners, more specifically those with interests such as historians and scholars. Kofi Johnson Fayetteville State University kjohnson@uncfsu.edu. Some of our partners may process your data as a part of their legitimate business interest without asking for consent. 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. Most importantly, the rite itself should not be condemned together with circumcision or female genital mutilation. Colonization may seem to be over but for African traditional religion, it is not. These one-sided stories or reports are among the major roots of stereotypes and myths about Africa. African traditional medicine (ATM) has been used by African populations for the treatment of diseases long before the advent of orthodox medicine and continues to carry a part of the burden of health for the majority of the population. Thus, many practitioners of African religion, particularly in the shrines of goddesses, are women, indicating the parity with which African religion treats gender and gender-related issues. Among its one billion inhabitants, more than 1,000 languages are spoken, and there is a massive variety of ethnic religions. However, in the new world, we are seeing that the stone that the builders had rejected has become the cornerstone and central pillar: for example, Santeria was central to Cuban state making, and in Brazil only recently has Pentecostalism become responsible for the violence against Candombl devotees. Published. MISCONCEPTION OF THE SUPREM BEING IN ATR There have been widespread misconceptions about the African Traditional Religion (hereinafter ATR). 3. Therefore, this article will explore African spirituality, traditional religion, culture and the present way of life. Before colonization, marriages were strictly traditional and depends on the customs, traditions, and believes of, Africa is a beautiful continent. The Ifa divination system, which produced 256 chapters of oral narratives, constitutes an encyclopedic compendium of knowledge that provides answers to nearly every meaningful human question in the Yoruba and Fon universe. It is the foundation on which the morals of pre-colonial Africa were built. The African religious worldview is primarily indigenous, although Islam and Christianity continuously respond to its viability and strength through their transitive approaches, their theologies, and their knowledge systems. As a lived religion, African tradition deploys through its ritual processesparticularly rites of passage, calendrical rituals, and divinatory practicestangible material and nonmaterial phenomena to regulate life events and occurrences, in order to ensure communal well-being. It is an accepted position that the African Initiated Churches (AICs) were formed as a result of the search for a unique African identity and culture. Myth: Slavery is a product of capitalism. To understand the social, cultural context of pregnancy, childbirth and subsequent maternal and child care and to use this information for . Myth: Slavery is a product of Western civilization. African Vibes is a one-stop global platform that connects the African diaspora to opportunities for growth, development, and social impact in Africa. Unlike other world religions that have written scriptures, oral sources form the core of indigenous African religions. inadequacies, objections and misconceptions, the practice has come to stay. Some African countries even adopted the language of their colonial masters as the Lingua Franca. Manage Settings The survey appears to support the prevailing narrative that the most . 9 years ago. Mary Slessor is accredited to ending this savage act in ancient Calabar, Nigeria. Each has a life force but no concrete physical form. Ceremonies of naming, rites of passage, death, and other calendrical rites embody, enact, and reinforce the sacred values communicated in myths. South Africa, as a member state of the World Health Organisation, has been set on the path of institutionalising African traditional medicine. Loosely, it encompasses all African beliefs and practices that are considered religious but neither Christian nor Islamic. Through a profound process of orality, Ifa as an interpretive tradition espouses an epistemology, metaphysics, morality, and a set of ethical principles and political ideology. Prior to colonization, there was scarcely any form of writing in the majority of African tribes and cultures. Voodoo, however, is a dynamic religion with no standardized dogma. The story of Mary Slessor and the killing of twins is popular. Depending on the kind of religious activity being performed, different religious authorities can be leaders for specific events. Abstract. 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. These narratives come to us in the form of myths. Unlike its popular usage, in scholarly language myths are sacred stories believed to be true by those who hold on to them. Perhaps, it was a deliberate attempt to make Africans feel inferior about themselves. Benin Is Getting Back 26 Of Its Looted Artifacts from The Colonial Era. Myths reveal critical events and episodesinvolving superhuman entities, gods, spirits, ancestorsthat are of profound and transcendent significance to the African people who espouse them. It argues that the best interpretation of the Constitution requires laws that address cross-cutting issues of recognition and redistribution relating to religion/culture and gender, and that the best . It was through this encounter that the Yoruba system of banking money in traditional pots kept underground in farms and forests began. In African traditional religions guidance is provided through myths, which are handed down orally. Introduction. These 11 Traditional African Clothing Will Help You Identify Ethnic Groups At A Glance, 10 Facts And Myths About African Traditional Religion - African Vibes, 10 Prominent Ways Africans Showcase Their Culture, 10 Traditional African Dances That Showcase Africa’s Rich Culture, more than 3000 ethnic groups, and 2100 unique languages, the most diversified continent in the world, 30 % of the earths remaining mineral resources, Thinking Of Volunteering? Thus, I have argued that religion should be examined not only as a sacred phenomenon, but also as a cultural and human reality, all the while remembering the importance of integrating the sociopolitical dimensions of religiosity into any examination of an African state. 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. Africans who follow a traditional religion rely on no scriptures, canonical texts, or holy books to guide them. See Luc De Heusch, What Shall We Do with the Drunken King?,. I ran into a co-resident, a famous Swiss author. When Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code was released, it generated both curiosity and criticism for its portrayal of Christianity. 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. This action will also remove this member from your connections and send a report to the site admin. If you would like to change your settings or withdraw consent at any time, the link to do so is in our privacy policy accessible from our home page.. In the Americas and the Caribbean, it is thought to be a combination of various African, Catholic and Native American traditions. The diversity of Native American religions could fill whole libraries with descriptions of belief, tales of lore, definitions, explanations, and insights into spiritual practices and ceremonies. It deals with their cosmology, ritual practices, symbols, arts, society, and so on. For example, in many African cultures, intending couples MUST perform both traditional and white weddings. Yet in the scholarship on the history of religions, indigenous African religions were never considered a substantive part of the worlds religious traditions, because they failed to fulfill certain criteria defined by axial age civilization. Privileged European scholars denied the agency of African religions and singled outand thereby controlledAfrican identity. 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. 7. For instance, the Asante people of Ghana see twins as sacred beings. These countries are often very hot. Header Photo:Traditional African Necklace Photo: Wikimedia Commons, Copyright 2016-2022, The Interfaith Observer | Site by FaithlabTIO is part of the Religica Theolab inside the Center for Ecumenical and Interreligious Engagement (CEIE) at Seattle University, Donna Bollinger Tapped to Lead Religions for Peace-USA, Interfaith Themes in Sub-Saharan African Tales (for Kids), Interreligious Literacy and Why It Matters, Religious Literacy & the Flying Spaghetti Monster, Thou Shalt Not Hate: The Role of Religious Actors in Addressing Hate Speech, When Wiccans & Evangelical Christians Become Friends, The Interfaith Rainforest Initiative: A Case Study of Religious Literacy, The Chinese Jews of Kaifeng (and what Ive learned from them), Reimagining Interfaith: Taking Our Lead from Kids. Since growth and innovation come as a pair, it is impossible to say that African countries are growing without being innovative. The colonial masters sold the idea that the long-held tradition and believes of the African people is savage, inferior, and primitive. Slavery and World History. Traditional African religions are less of faith traditions and more of lived traditions. Paperback. 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. Religions such as Candombl, Vodun, Santeria, and the Caribbean and Orisa tradition historically came about from African transactions with the new world and the old Euro-Christian worldview. Post-colonial Africa is yet to be completely free from the mental slavery and stereotype created by the colonial masters. With the negative image of the, A lot of people seize the chance of the holiday season to organize their weddings. Hence to call African traditional religion ancestral worship would cause problems in the study of ATR. John Mbiti divides spirit beings into two types, nature spirits and human spirits. African religions, religious beliefs and practices of the peoples of Africa. Required fields are marked *. 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. African Traditional Religion is the traditional religion of the African people before the coming of Islam and Christianity. Given our current impending ecological crisis, indigenous African religions have a great deal to offer both African countries and the world at large. African religions command their own cultural ingenuity, integral logic, and authoritative force. Voodoo is a religion that originates in Africa. Long before the arrival of Christianity and Islam, Africans practiced African traditional religion (ATR). Today, several myths are mixed with facts in describing African traditional religion. Indeed indigenous African religions have provided the blueprint for robust conversations and thinking about community relations, interfaith dialogue, civil society, and civil religion. Another misbelief about Africa is that all Africans are the same. Similarly, there are others like Henry Louis Gates who has appropriated images of the Yoruba deity of Esu in his own work. All Religions has truth hidden in them for those who objectively seek them through the path of the religion. African people do not worship their deceased relatives or ancestors. 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. An Ifa song warns those embarking on the pilgrimage to be pure and those who possess witchcraft not to embark on the pilgrimage. 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. There is a general misconception that the entire people of North Africa speak Arabic. Advertisement. . What is the implication of indigenous hermeneutics for scholars today? On the other hand, countries like South Africa, Morocco, and Tunisia sometimes experience snowfalls. It is the religion which resulted from the sustaining faith held by the forebears of the present Africans, There are abundant natural resources scattered across the 54 countries of Africa. there is a diversity of religion in Africa; rather, it is the extent of that diversity and the degree to which the term 'African traditional religion' might misleadingly mask both that extent and the mutability of the forms it encompasses. Although the slaves accepted Roman Catholicism, they did not give up their traditional beliefs either. Another generalization about Africa is that they are all corrupt. Most of these aids go into building infrastructures like schools and hospitals. Please confirm you want to block this member. We must be careful not to give the impression that African religious lives are compartmentalized into what is often called the triple heritage (Islam, Christianity, and African traditional religion). The traditional approach of indigenous African religions to gender is one of complementarity in which a confluenceof male and female forces must operate in harmony. Connecting With Your Ancestors (African Spirituality Beliefs and Practices) Monique Joiner Siedlak. African countries are also top the list of the 2021 WHO health care index. 3. John Mbiti, chap. Here Is What You Have To Know. The African religion was condemned by the Early European scholars, travelers, investigators and missionaries. c. medicine men and women. It is also the most diversified continent in the world. Continue with Recommended Cookies. In these times of intense turmoil, people of African descent are facing serious threats and challenges to their well-being. In this way, the visible and invisible are in tandem, leading practitioners to speak about all objects, whether animate or inanimate, as potentially sacred on some level. However, this was never a generally accepted idea. 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. African Religion is not Ancestor Worship. The much-cited dictum by the doyen of African religious studies, the recently deceased John Mbiti, that "Africans are notoriously religious" still holds true (though I prefer to use the word "deeply"). 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. Each of the more than 50 modern . African traditional religion (ATRs) and spirituality have always been surrounded by negativity. They certainly represent interpretive traditions, and, when carefully studied, they form a solid foundation for theoretical frameworks used to study and decode these religions in our scholarship. Slowly, they projected ATR as barbaric and dehumanizing. However, since Africans are known for their excellent craftsmanship, these artifacts do tell the story of the ancient African empires. 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. Traditional African religion is based on oral traditions, which means that the basic values and way of life are passed from elders to younger generation. An article by BBC explains why Nigeria is a global leader in the Bitcoin trade. These elements are worth exploring and espousing. Let's begun by saying that ATR, refer to the indigenous religious beliefs and practices of Africans. Gradually, there was a shift from ATR to Christianity. with Ibramic faiths tends to deprive the African Traditional Religion its true status as an independent religion . Having tried to dispel some of the misconceptions . Nature spirits are associated with objects seen in nature, such as mountains, the sun, or trees, or natural forces such as wind and rain. Jacob K. Olupona is Professor of African Religious Traditions at Harvard Divinity School and Professor of African and African American Studies in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University. Such an approach should endeavor to provide not only an awareness of sociocultural contexts but also to narrate the historical dimensions of these traditions. 2. This article was originally published by Oxford University Press on May 16, 2014. An example of data being processed may be a unique identifier stored in a cookie. What we know as African history today is mostly based on the interpretations of our colonial masters. Such scholars stereotyped African religionand African peoples themselvesas primitive social forms, part of a lower social order. Du Bois argued . But, the bad eggs seem to get more attention. 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. .p-summary {display: none !important} All over the continent, cosmological myths describe a complicated process, whether the universe evolves from preexisting objects or from Gods mere thought or speech. Implication of indigenous African religions are less of faith traditions and more lived. A traditional religion ancestral worship would cause problems in the Americas and the present way of life spirit beings two! 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