Christians practice baptism. The continued influence of traditional African religion is also evident in some aspects of daily life. One of Jacob Oluponas earliest memories in Massachusetts is of nearly freezing in his apartment as a graduate student at Boston University during the great snowstorm of 1978. hand with the study of the people who practise the religion. For example, an African amulet might have inside of it a written verse from either the Koran or Christian Bible. $70.00/$25.00. Traditional African religious influences on the church and the Bible It is worth noting that Cameroonians ferociously resisted foreign religions in the 18th century to maintain their traditional religions when Christianity entered Cameroon (Betoto, 2012). Learn more about the similarities and differences of the religious systems of Africa, including indigenous religions, Abrahamic, Islamic, and Christian beliefs of people in the region. However, to them, the entire universe is filled with spirit such as trees, rocks, and rivers. We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. 1"7$X9Xyyyb GNpL!9I&mxo0++44cA@5c. Christianity is more dominant in the south, while Islam is more dominant in the north. Ancestors also serve as intermediaries (see ancestor worship). This includes five countries (Cameroon, Chad, Guinea Bissau, Mali and Senegal) where more than half the population uses traditional healers. 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. Christianity, African traditional religions, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam and Sikhism. These could be caves, forests,mountains and so on. For Christians itsa church. endobj During the early churchs initial expansion phase where congregations were established in Syria, Asia Minor, Achaia, Italy and Africa there were strong leadership structures in Alexandria, Carthage, Neo religious movements is a term often used to describe a wide range of movements that developed in the tail end of the 19 century (the 1960s and 1970s). For example, followers can seek spiritual direction and relief from healers, medicine men and women, charms [adornments often worn to incur good luck], amulets [adornments often used to ward off evil], and diviners [spiritual advisers]. Peel, J. D. Y. Religion informs everything in traditional African society, including political art, marriage, health, diet, dress, economics, and death. Diviners who go through a long educational and apprenticeship program hold the history, culture, and spiritual traditions of the African people. 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. Creative people have bypassed gatekeepers for centuries to distribute what they wanted to share so badly. They find common ground in Houghton Library exhibition. Traditional Africans didnot have this practice. Featured Image:Edo people, Queen Mother Pendant mask, circa 16th c.; Source: Wikimedia Commons, CC0 1.0. These are called Taboos. The numerous traditional African religions have in common the notion of a creator god, who made the . Authoring or editing more than half a dozen books on religion and African culture (including the recent African Religions: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press), Olupona has researched topics ranging from the indigenous religions of Africa to the religious practices of Africans who have settled in America. Whenever. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. <> Holding or maintaining to a uniform doctrine is not the essence of indigenous African religions. In this paper, Ill bring the understanding of African traditional adherents into the light of the Holy Scriptures; to explain what the Bible teaches about soul and spirit in relation to God and man. According to Mbiti, Africans came to believe in God by reflecting on their experience and through observation of the created universe. Traditional African religion does not show any belief in the Trinity. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. OLUPONA: The role of ancestors in the African cosmology has always been significant. Itis made of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit working together as one. 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. Christians acknowledge the existenceof magic and witchcraft. 2 0 obj The religious traditions and beliefs of the African peoples have enough differences to merit a study of each in its own right. 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. It is worth noting that these animals areat no time offered as burnt offerings to God. Christian teaching forbids making of any kinds ofimages to represent God. These gods are generally perceived as intermediaries between the Supreme Being and society. However,among the people of South Benin in West Africa sometimes the lesser god known asVodun would ask for human sacrifices. Christians observe the Lords supper. Both have places of worship. In the Ewe thought they are called Vodou (Vodu or Vudu in Benin and Togo; also Vodon, Vodoun, Voudou, or other phonetically equivalent spellings. This is not to say that indigenous African spirituality represents a form of theocracy or religious totalitarianism not at all. The Supreme Being is usually thought of as remote from daily religious life and is, therefore, not directly worshipped. One scholar who has written extensively on African Traditional Religion is John Mbiti, a Kenyan whom many consider the dean of living African theologians. A Journal of the McGrath Institute for Church Life, by Paulinus Ikechukwu Odozor 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. 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. It appeals more to social scientists than to those working in religious studies, particularly scholars of specific religious traditions. The bottom line then is that Africans who still wholly practice African indigenous religions are only about 10 percent of the African population, a fraction of what it used to be only a century ago, when indigenous religions dominated most of the continent. They believe that Obatala helped Olurun in creating theworld and everything in it. This hierarchy is also evident in human society, where there are chiefs, clan heads, family heads, older siblings, and so on. 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. 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. (+1) 202-857-8562 | Fax 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. While some African cosmologies have a clear idea of a supreme being, other cosmologies do not. This order, established by God, guides the functioning of the universe, preventing it from falling into chaos; and it ensures the continuance of life and the universe itself. OLUPONA: Your question underscores an important facet about African spirituality: It is not a closed theological system. In most countries surveyed, at least three-in-ten people believe in reincarnation, which may be related to traditional beliefs in ancestral spirits. <>/ExtGState<>/ProcSet[/PDF/Text/ImageB/ImageC/ImageI] >>/Annots[ 9 0 R] /MediaBox[ 0 0 595.32 841.92] /Contents 4 0 R/Group<>/Tabs/S>> Green points out that there is a rational basis to African Traditional Religion that shows, in Kantian terms, that there is a deep structure of universal moral and religious reason to it. The three requirements of reason at the heart of this structure are: first, a basic rule or procedure of moral choice; second, a metaphysic grounding the possibility of strict moral retribution; and third, . OLUPONA: No, this type of binary thinking is simplistic. 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. To understand African tradition, one needs to understand the position of African Traditional Religion on God, the human person, and creation. of the people which are all together. 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. It is therefore very important for African theology to ascertain the meaning of African Traditional Religion, both because of the service this tradition renders to Christian theology as a dialogue partner, and because the very self-awareness of the African theologian and of African theology itself to a large extent hinges on a proper articulation and appreciation of Africas pre-Christian past. Christians pray toGod through Jesus Christ. 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