Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer, By Anthony Chiorazzi Harvard Correspondent. Whilst interacting with the local African indigenous communities, and observing, The contact between African Traditional Religion (ATR) and Christianity is inextricably linkedto European economic activities that culminated into colonialism. The contact was in fact,between two. Before you discuss on how somebody is doing something, it is also good to look at the reason why the person is doing that thing, so that you can be in a better position to educate the person properly. However, Christians can offer animals to the church where they canbe sold or reared to give the church income. OLUPONA: If we lose traditional African religions, we would also lose or continue to seriously undermine the African practice of rites of passage such as the much cherished age-grade initiations, which have for so long integrated and bought Africans together under a common understanding, or worldview. <> The cup of wine symbolises the blood Jesus shedand the bread symbolises His body which was broken for us. They have also fostered a greater feeling of individual self-worth by acknowledging important milestones in ones life, including becoming an adult or an elder. The position I critique in this paper is really a complex of closely overlapping positions, some more theoretically sophisticated or better grounded empirically than others.1 Their central thrust is to emphasize the similarities rather than the differences between current movements in the world religions, particularly Christianity and Islam, but also to a lesser extent in Buddhism, Hinduism and Judaism. [D@dIS(P]y`ne]y:fjGZ3yEAVOI QFY- 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. It argues that since the coming of democracy this form of religion has occupied a more important position, Although there is some debate, Francis Oborji in this article argues that one should speak of African Traditional Religion (ATR) in the singular. Notre Dame, IN 46556 USA. Focusing on Luo Muslims in Kenya, Dr Lawrence Oseje looks at the interaction of Islam and traditional Luo practices, especially those around death and burial. 1xxp~I7m#MWjxAqN,PT2^]R6C3Y'K~Bwv4-xwE@;5 Traditional African religious beliefs, such as belief in the protective power of sacrifices to ancestors, Traditional African religious practices, such as owning sacred objects. Thus, for example, older persons not only possess a more powerful vital force but a greater responsibility in society and more intense mystical powers. Religion informs everything in traditional African society, including political art, marriage, health, diet, dress, economics, and death. Church Life Journal Indigenous African religion is primarily an oral tradition and has never been fully codified; thus, it allows itself to more easily be amended and influenced by other religious ideas, religious wisdom, and by modern development. Nevertheless, they also display enough family resemblances for us to be able to delineate their main features and to a very reasonable extent fall on them to represent the whole. These intermediary agents include the ancestors, members of the community who at death become idealized. <>>> The continued influence of traditional African religion is also evident in some aspects of daily life. Quantum computing simulation reveals possible wormhole-like dynamics. The Supreme Being is usually thought of as remote from daily religious life and is, therefore, not directly worshipped. Marshall, Ruth His research has helped to introduce and popularize new concepts in religious studies, such as the term reverse missionaries, referring to African prelates sent to Europe and the United States. ABSTRACT The concept of God in the traditional religion of Akan and Ewe ethnic groups compare to the Bible By Godwin Kwame Ofosuhene I am going to focus this writing, on how the Akan and Ewe ethnic groups of Ghana, understood God in their traditional religious practices and after that compare or discuss these beliefs in the light of the Holy Scriptures. 4 0 obj However, the reasons for the growth of Christianity in Africa significantly include the way the Africans have attempted to deal with their threatening fears, especially witchcraft. This power originates from God but is possessed hierarchically by divinities, spirits, and the living dead, and it is available to some people, in various degrees. explore the things that fall in between"adiaphora", which the proponents of contextual Christianity may have overlooked with regard to the African cultural and religious heritage. Pratten, David Like Mbiti and Green, Magesa notes that the world of African Traditional Religion is a hierarchically ordered place where, On the lowest rung of the ladder are spirits, who are active beings distinct from humans and reside in nature and phenomena such as trees, rivers, rocks, or lakes. Hostname: page-component-7f44ffd566-79tgq The conviction that people will be reborn in this world again and again tends to be more common among Christians than Muslims. He sees the other faith as complementing and even adding spiritual potency to his own spiritual practice of constructing effective amulets. Christianity is more dominant in the south, while Islam is more dominant in the north. That testifies to the enduring power of indigenous religion and its ability to domesticate Christianity and Islam in modern Africa. OLUPONA: I was raised in Africa during the 1960s, when the Yoruba community never asked you to chose between your personal faith and your collective African identity. Philosophers, sociologists, theologians, The conversion of indigenous converts to Christianity is often perceived as a linear process, which marks individuals rebirth and assumption of a new identity as they are assimilated into the, In the early 19th century, missionaries flocked to Central and Southern Africa to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Christian idea of church has similarities with African traditional life in which brotherhood and the extended family play a central role. Mystical power is found in all of them, in diminishing degrees. He went on to conduct some of the most significant research on African religions in decades. Barrenness is, therefore, considered a great misfortune because it prevents ancestors from returning to life. This bitter conflict has led to wanton destruction of lives and property, and this has become a source of great worry to the writers. 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. In addition, roughly a quarter or more of the population in 11 countries say they believe in the protective power of juju (charms or amulets), shrines and other sacred objects. He has useful insights to add to our discussion and in many ways corroborates the statements other scholars like Mbiti have made about African religion. They consultedtraditional healers who used various herbs and charms to cure diverse illnesses. Instead of God keeping his distance from man, He, throughout history and today reaches down in love to draw humans toward him. Villepastour, Amanda I utilised this view as hermeneutical point. These images could be of a lion or another animal carvedfrom a tree to represent a god. 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. I answered two, The paper discusses the state of traditional African religion in post-apartheid South Africa. According to Mbiti, Africans came to believe in God by reflecting on their experience and through observation of the created universe. Such activities include the making of sacrifices and the pouring of libations. Ritual sacrifices and witchcraft beliefs are still common. It is a way of life, and it can never be separated from the public sphere. There is also a mystical order of the universe. endobj The African Traditional Religion, which is still in place today, can be compared to Christianity through their similarities and differences. When one becomes a Christian he/she is baptised. (I myself have consulted with several diviners for my research on specific academic topics regarding African culture and history; consequently, if we were to lose Africas diviners, we would also lose one of Africas best keepers and sources of African history and culture. African religions behavior is centered mainly on the human person and his or her life in this world, with the consequence that religion is clearly functional, or a means to serve people to acquire earthly goods (life, health, fecundity, wealth, power and the like) and to maintain social cohesion and order.. GAZETTE: What else would we lose if we lost traditional African Religions? It evolved through many centuries, before the westerner come to Africa. The vigor with which the African Traditional Religion (ATR) has continued to resist the onslaught of Christianity is a cause of academic preoccupation. OLUPONA: We would lose a worldview that has collectively sustained, enriched, and given meaning to a continent and numerous other societies for centuries through its epistemology, metaphysics, history, and practices. Paulinus Ikechukwu Odozor, C.S.Sp., is Professor of moral theology, the theology of the world church, and Africana studies at the University of Notre Dame. Itis made of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit working together as one. There are also the lesser gods that take residency in streams, rivers, trees and mountains. Christians acknowledge the existenceof magic and witchcraft. About Pew Research Center Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. Dependence here functions like a two-way street, with the dead needing continued respect from and support by the living, and the living needingat least benign neutrality on the part of the dead. Both believe that God is the creator ofhumankind. 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. It doesnt have a fixed creed, like in some forms of Christianity or Islam. The Yoruba, however, do have a concept of a supreme being, called Olorun or Olodumare, and this creator god of the universe is empowered by the various orisa [deities] to create the earth and carry out all its related functions, including receiving the prayers and supplications of the Yoruba people. The religious activities of chiefs and lineage heads are generally limited to the more routine biweekly and annual festivities, but traditional priests given their association with specific shrines are regarded as specialized practitioners through whom the spirits of the gods may grant directions. This is called a tithe. You can download the paper by clicking the button above. Since God is seen as the Creator, various aspects of the universe are permeated by the sense of the sacredthe religious mentality affects the way people see the universe. The spirit medium is required to possess moral probity and integrity. <> African spirituality simply acknowledges that beliefs and practices touch on and inform every facet of human life, and therefore African religion cannot be separated from the everyday or mundane. This article concerned itself with the modern encounter between Christianity and African Indigenous Religion (AIR) in Africa. But for many Africans, religion can never be separated from all these. Published online by Cambridge University Press: For instance, if we were to lose indigenous African religions in Africa, then diviners would disappear, and if diviners disappeared, we would not only lose an important spiritual specialist for many Africans, but also an institution that for centuries has been the repository of African history, wisdom, and knowledge. When they pray they maykneel down, bow their heads or lift their hands up. Traditional Africans did not practice baptism. 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. This paper uses a qualitative research approach in the form of document analysis to critically explore the religious intersectionalities between Christianity and African Traditional. Christianity forbids human sacrifices in worshipas it is murder. Part two provides a condensed historical survey of the, The Bible and the Third World: Precolonial, Colonial and Postcolonial Encounters, by R. S. Sugirtharajah. These include the pragmatic nature of the African cultural and religious heritage, and the African traditional methods of healing. For the full article, see, New religions, independent churches, and prophetic movements, https://www.britannica.com/summary/African-religions. Holding or maintaining to a uniform doctrine is not the essence of indigenous African religions. It is the religion which resulted from the sustaining faith held by the forebears of the present Africans, and which is being practised today in various forms and various shades and intensities by a very large number . In many communities across the world traditional beliefs and practices are passed down generations and are a feature of day-to-day life, despite the influence of outside sources. They are not mutually exclusive. 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. For myself, I negotiate between my Yoruba and Christian identity by, for example, affirming those aspects of African culture that promote good life and communal human welfare. In African Traditional Religion, they do believe in a genderless god with the three names: Umvelingqangi, uNkulunkulu, and uThixo (Badoian, 2014). The Church also combines those who have died and those who still live. 24 October 2016. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. While some African cosmologies have a clear idea of a supreme being, other cosmologies do not. When a missionary asked Africans in Zanzibar to tell him something about their God, they simply said, "God thunders!" The cleric had travelled across the seas in the 19th century to tell "the heathens without religion" or "people with a primitive religion" about God. <> Download chapter 3 in full (3-page PDF, <1MB), Photo credit: Sebastien Desarmaux/GODONG/Godong/Corbis, Part of the Pew-Templeton Global Religious Futures Project, 1615 L St. NW, Suite 800Washington, DC 20036USA (See the glossary for more information on juju. Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World, Chapter 3: Traditional African Religious Beliefs and Practices, Tolerance and Tension: Islam and Christianity in Sub-Saharan Africa, Next: Chapter 4: Interreligious Harmony and Tensions, Chapter 2: Commitment to Christianity and Islam, Chapter 4: Interreligious Harmony and Tensions, In the U.S. and Western Europe, people say they accept Muslims, but opinions are divided on Islam, In Western Europe, familiarity with Muslims is linked to positive views of Muslims and Islam, Q&A: Measuring attitudes toward Muslims and Jews in Western Europe, Europes Muslim population will continue to grow but how much depends on migration, The Growth of Germanys Muslim Population, Size & Demographic Characteristics of Religious Groups, Pew-Templeton Global Religious Futures Project, 60% of Americans Would Be Uncomfortable With Provider Relying on AI in Their Own Health Care, The changing face of Congress in 8 charts, As Russian invasion nears one-year mark, partisans grow further apart on U.S. support for Ukraine. A network of mutual relationships and responsibilities links the duals worlds of the mundane and the sacred. Copyright 2023 These are the pristine men and women, the originators of the lineage or clan or ethnic group. The missionaries succeeded in spreading Christianity in Africa at a time when tribal religions were ignored or denigrated. This view influences the way humans relate to the universe: on the one hand, they strive to maintain harmony between themselves and the invisible universe by observing the moral and religious order; at the same time, humans see the universe in a utilitarian way, from the point of view of what is beneficial or harmful to them. Traditional Africans worshipped in shrines. 4 0 obj Furthermore, Jesus is the perfect sacrifice that totally pleased God and there is no need for any other. I also celebrate and honor the kings festivals and ceremonies in my hometown and other places where I live and do research. endobj between African traditional religion and the Christian faith. OLUPONA: Yes, its a mixed bag because in the African diaspora mostly due to the slave trade starting in the 15th century indigenous African religions have spread and taken root all over the world, including in the United States and Europe. OLUPONA: Thats a mixed bag. ), In addition to expressing high levels of belief in the protective power of sacrificial offerings and sacred objects, upwards of one-in-five people in every country say they believe in the evil eye, or the ability of certain people to cast malevolent curses or spells. Priests undergo vigorous training in the arts of medicine, divination and other related disciplines and are, therefore, consulted on a more regular basis by the public. 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. This is one of the most amazing opportunities l have to speak or write in the hope of bringing freedom, to show the value of every human life, and to help girls who are in immense suffering. Akiki Nyabongos novel, Africa answers back, reveals that religious syncretism in Africa is a reality that has persistently painted Christianity as an offshoot of traditional African religions. 1"7$X9Xyyyb GNpL!9I&mxo0++44cA@5c. Human beings maintain active and real relationshipswith the spiritual world, especially with the living dead, through offerings, sacrifices, and prayers. I had it. The Church is the Christian family, in which all are accompanied to one another through belief and baptism in Jesus Christ. Conflict is a universal phenomenon that is inevitable in human interaction. GAZETTE: But yet you said its a mixed bag? Render date: 2023-03-01T10:31:12.538Z 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]. African communities at the time but was also poised to become a site of religious and cultural conflict both within and between different communities in postcolonial South Africa. However, to them, the entire universe is filled with spirit such as trees, rocks, and rivers. Therefore we speak of African Traditional Religion thinking of those common things. For Christians itsa church. African religions, Indigenous religions of the African continent. Rituals are aimed at maintaining a harmonious relationship with cosmic powers, and many have associated myths that explain their significance. One scholar who has written extensively on African Traditional Religion is John Mbiti, a Kenyan whom many consider the dean of living African theologians. $70.00/$25.00. Sorry, preview is currently unavailable. Encyclopedia of religious and spiritual development, Adopting Primary Taoism as a Protoevangelion for Contextualization of the Gospel into Asian Culture, Toward a Liturgical Approach to Re-Routing Mission, TOWARDS A THEOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE ON THE MYSTERY OF SUFFERING IN THE MIDST OF PROSPERITY THEOLOGY WITHIN THE PENTECOSTAL AND EVANGELICAL CHURCHES IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA, PARTICULARLY YANGORU, Mission in the Spirit: Towards a Pentecostal/Charismatic Missiology (with Julie C. Ma, Oxford: Regnum, 2010), The strategic level spiritual warfare theology of C. Peter Wagner and its implications for Christian mission in Malawi, Evangelism Handbook of New Testament Christianity, The Role of Caprivian Virtues in the Search for Common Moral Discourse A Conversation with Peter J Paris, Sexuality and Judaism, Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion (pg. They did this as theyoffered libation by pouring water or any other drink to the ground. A follower of African diaspora religions has many choices in terms of seeking spiritual help or succor. Anthony Chiorazzi, who has an M.Phil. The ordering of the universe and its continuance depends on God. View all Google Scholar citations SUMMARY OF REFORMED THEOLOGY IN 10 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. Traditional Religion as a source of African theology just as Christian theology is. All rights reserved. Wendy Sherman, who was the lead U.S. negotiator in the nuclear deal with Iran, was welcomed by the Institute of Politics at Harvard Kennedy School. This practice, no matter how limited it is, again shows how untenable the blanket assertion is that African moral traditions are those of abundant life. So, basically, to speak of African tradition is to talk about African Traditional Religion. This happened in the past, and these codes were stipulated, considered sacred and binding, by the community leaders: The moral and religious order in the universe is articulated and expressed in a variety of taboos and customs that prohibit specific actions contravening such order. Keywords: contextualization . African Traditional Religion appears to be a self-sufficient system, both from atheological point of view, in that it provides answers to questions of ultimate reality and meaning, at least to its adherents; and from the point of view of morality, in that it provides the moral rules, norms, and instruction in virtues by which human beings can live upright moral lives. The commitment to theory, 2. 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