Given our current impending ecological crisis, indigenous African religions have a great deal to offer both African countries and the world at large. Most are watered-down versions of what was truly a thriving civilization. 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 Hausa man is different from the Igbo man who is also different from the Yoruba man. Reclaim the Ancestral Traditions of African Religion! On the other hand, countries like South Africa, Morocco, and Tunisia sometimes experience snowfalls. Truly opening my eyes on traditions, cultures and rituals that I did not know existed. A frica has 54 countries and more than a billion people. Today, several myths are mixed with facts in describing African traditional religion. One of my favorite Ifa narratives acknowledges to Yoruba Muslims that climbing Mount Arafat was the most significant act of the hajj. In whatever way it happens, African cosmological narratives are similarly complex, unsystematized, and multivariate, and they are the bedrock for indigenous value systems. To understand the social, cultural context of pregnancy, childbirth and subsequent maternal and child care and to use this information for . Myths reveal critical events and episodesinvolving superhuman entities, gods, spirits, ancestorsthat are of profound and transcendent significance to the African people who espouse them. The terms 'traditional' and 'religion' (in its singular form) have each been targets of criticism. 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. One of the most ridiculous myths about it is that homosexuality did not exist in the continent until white men imported it. Let's begun by saying that ATR, refer to the indigenous religious beliefs and practices of Africans. Again, this isnt true. 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. They include assumptions, misconceptions, traditional or religious beliefs and beliefs about the . Please confirm you want to block this member. Also, about 30 % of the earths remaining mineral resources are in Africa. Ifa rejects the religious extremism of certain forms of radical Islam making life unbearable in todays world. Advertisement. 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. 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). traditional African takes the character of critical reflection of the African understanding of reality and world view. Every life stage is important in African religions, from birth and naming, to betrothal/marriage, elderhood, and eventually death. Portia Zvavahera, Cosmic Prayer, 2019, oil-based printing ink and oil bar on canvas. But, the continent of Africa is far from poor. But, the bad eggs seem to get more attention. 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. MISCONCEPTION OF THE SUPREM BEING IN ATR There have been widespread misconceptions about the African Traditional Religion (hereinafter ATR). 2. 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. It is also the most diversified continent in the world. Many traditional African religions are based on guiding principles that are unfathomable to foreigners, more specifically those with interests such as historians and scholars. Women constitute a sizable number of the devotees of these traditions, just as they do in Islam and Christianity. 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. Significant as these studies are, there seems to be no systematic exploration of African traditions in African American culture.21. Gender dynamics are important in African indigenous religions and in cultural systems, so much so that women goddesses and women-invented rituals are commonplace. Photo: Pinterest. Traditional African religions are not stagnant but highly dynamic and constantly reacting to various shifting influences such as old age, modernity, and technological advances. 3. 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. 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. 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. Our parting a week later was hard for him! African religions do not rely on a single individual to be a religious leader, but rather depend on an entire community to make the religion work. African Traditional Religion is the traditional religion of the African people before the coming of Islam and Christianity. Although the slaves accepted Roman Catholicism, they did not give up their traditional beliefs either. They are less concerned with doctrines and much more so with rituals . African identity and culture are preserved in African Traditional Religion. First, there is a supreme being who created the universe and every living and nonliving thing to be found within the universe. . They still hold onto their traditional beliefs, culture, and practices, but consider western values superior to theirs. It is the religion which resulted from the sustaining faith held by the forebears of the present Africans, 3. 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). It is the foundation on which the morals of pre-colonial Africa were built. 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. 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. ao Ajima OM, Ubana EU (2018) The Concept . Such scholars stereotyped African religionand African peoples themselvesas primitive social forms, part of a lower social order. 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. If you take these reports at face value, you may start to believe that all Africans are poor. John Mbiti divides spirit beings into two types, nature spirits and human spirits. More so, myths encode the traditional settings of the African and their belief system. Kofi Johnson Fayetteville State University kjohnson@uncfsu.edu. Myths, folklores proverbs therefore become the major sources of African philosophy (Jaja, 1995:28). During the colonial era, most of these traditional believes became a target of the colonial religion. 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. Each ceremony denotes passage from one social status to another and is an opportunity to celebrate the initiates on their journey. This is based on misconceptions that these religions are antithetical to modernity. 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. Robert Mugabe . The survey appears to support the prevailing narrative that the most . For African-American parents, transmitting an awareness of cultural values and norms . Yes, poverty is an issue in Africa. There are key developmental projects in some African countries that would not be possible without Foreign aids. Among its one billion inhabitants, more than 1,000 languages are spoken, and there is a massive variety of ethnic religions. About | Commentary Guidelines | Harvard University Privacy | Accessibility | Digital Accessibility | Trademark Notice | Reporting Copyright Infringements 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. The problem is, this number is often collated for the whole of Africa, instead of each country of Africa. 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. Traditional African religions have gone global! African countries like Ghana, South Africa, and Kenya are among the fastest-growing economies in the world. They believe in Copyright 2023 President and Fellows of Harvard College. We and our partners use data for Personalised ads and content, ad and content measurement, audience insights and product development. Du Bois argued . However, western culture has blurred to an extent the lines between African tribes. Indeed indigenous African religions have provided the blueprint for robust conversations and thinking about community relations, interfaith dialogue, civil society, and civil religion. Finally, it suggested that Afrocentric terminologiesis . Though many Africans have converted to Islam and Christianity, traditional religions still inform the social, economic, and political life in African societies. 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. On the continent early modernizers assumed that African religion was part of the problem of the antimodernity project and that uprooting African indigenous religion would auger well for the modern African state. Africa is a Continent Full of Corruption, Poverty and War. They are known as upstanding citizens and have been entrusted with sensitive positions in society. What, for example, is the notion of history and the sacred in Akan thought? Africans engaged Western enlightenment and religious traditions in serious dialogue and conversation, and responded by creating and interpreting their own modernity. Designed by Elegant Themes | Powered by WordPress, HARVARD DIVINITY SCHOOL In fact, Africa is a vast continent encompassing both geographic variation and tremendous cultural diversity. 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. 4. Myth: Slavery is a product of Western civilization. African traditional religious beliefs in East Africa. All Religions has truth hidden in them for those who objectively seek them through the path of the religion. Without relevant knowledge, stereotypes are unavoidable. By Jacob K. Olupona. 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. Just as Muslim traders and sojourners introduced new world religions to North and West Africa, Western traders and missionaries introduced new world religions to the continent. It is a well-known fact that religion continues to play a central and vital role in the lives of African 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. Especially if you have never been to Africa. One reason that might account for the gap in African history is the unavailability of any written document. 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. These elements are worth exploring and espousing. Majority of countries on the continent are . Through their mixing, a new kind of religion emerged, forming the basis for what we have come to know as African diaspora religion. Your email address will not be published. Post-colonial Africa is yet to be completely free from the mental slavery and stereotype created by the colonial masters. Continue with Recommended Cookies. The stoning of the devil in the Kaba in Mecca was a disguise for rejecting the local Esu, the Yoruba god of fate and messenger of the gods. It goes a long way to show that information is power and the way a story is told matters a lot. Giving opportunity to stereotypes like Africa are poor and Africa is corrupt. 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. Similarly, there are others like Henry Louis Gates who has appropriated images of the Yoruba deity of Esu in his own work. Divination enables us to recognize how indigenous traditions have a foundation upon which knowledge and knowledge production is developed. a. newly birthed babies. c. medicine men and women. Robert N. Bellah, Civil Religion in America,, Jacob K. Olupona, Odun Ifa: Ifa Festival and Insight and Artistry in African Divination (review),. The most difficult task I face in characterizing African indigenous spiritual traditions is accounting for their diversity and complexity. Myth #2. I did ancestry and, This is the genuine list of best African president. Even the word religion, used in reference to these traditions, is in itself problematic for many Africans, because it suggests that religion is separate from other aspects of ones culture, society, and environment. Your email address will not be published. That is why we have freewill, and regardless of whether we choose to acknowledge that a living God exists or not, and regardless of how we choose to worship Him, directly or through deities, we will all be eventually accountable. 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misconceptions about african traditional religion