He is not only the covenant giver He gives the power to keep the covenant. OLUPONA: Your question underscores an important facet about African spirituality: It is not a closed theological system. A holistic interpretation of the book between Paul and James. 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. Feature Flags: { You can download the paper by clicking the button above. This chapter includes information on: Traditional African religious beliefs, such as belief in the protective power of sacrifices to ancestors Traditional African religious practices, such as owning sacred objects Download chapter 3 in full (3-page PDF, <1MB) Photo credit: Sebastien Desarmaux/GODONG/Godong/Corbis SIMILARITY AND DIFFERENCE, CONTEXT AND TRADITION, IN https://doi.org/10.1017/S0001972016000565, Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. For the full article, see, New religions, independent churches, and prophetic movements, https://www.britannica.com/summary/African-religions. I told my father that I was coming home, he recalled. Editorial Statement: This essay is a slightly modified excerpt from the section "Evaluating African Traditional Religion: The Descriptive Task" (98-107) in Fr. I wont pray to an orisa, but I will affirm the importance of my connection with members of my age group. This article concerned itself with the modern encounter between Christianity and African Indigenous Religion (AIR) in Africa. in social anthropology from Oxford University, is studying for a master of theological studies (M.T.S.) Indigenous African practices tend to be strongest in the central states of Africa, but some form of their practices and beliefs can be found almost anywhere in Africa. Ronald M. Green of Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, a non-African scholar of African religion, has also written about African Traditional Religion and about religion and morality in Africa. (See the glossary for more information on juju. 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. Corrections? Because many diseases are believed to have spiritual causes, traditional priests sometimes act as doctors or herbalists. A network of mutual relationships and responsibilities links the duals worlds of the mundane and the sacred. The African Traditional Religion has no founder. However, they do not seek the services of magicians orwitchdoctors. 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. By Greens own admission, and as we shall see later, there are as many divergences on the architectonic hinge of these deep structuresGod, the human person, and the materialworldas there are similarities. 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. Exodus 20:3-5 tells us not to make or worship images ofanything in heaven or on earth. Observing this moral order ensures harmony and peace within the community. From this view point, Ill begin to say that African Traditional Religion (ATR) involves the belief and worship of the Supreme Being known and revered all over Africa as Onyame in Akan, Mao in Ewe, Chineke in Igbo and Oludumare in Yoruba etc. The religious functions, especially of chiefs and lineage heads, are clearly demonstrated during such periods as the Odwira of the Akan, Hogbetsotso / Tedudu of the Ewe, the Homowo of the Ga-Adangbe, or the Aboakyir of the Efutu (coastal Guan), when the people are organized in activities that renew and strengthen relations with their ancestors. 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. 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. To understand African tradition, one needs to understand the position of African Traditional Religion on God, the human person, and creation. GAZETTE: In trying to understand African spirituality, is it helpful to refer to it as polytheistic or monotheistic? Their significance lies in the genealogical positions and the rights and duties which derive from them. Ancestors uphold right conduct by punishing moral violations, demanding respect and attention, and getting angry when not given due respect. 1 0 obj While some African cosmologies have a clear idea of a supreme being, other cosmologies do not. Olupona, professor of indigenous African religions at Harvard Divinity School and professor of African and African-American studies in Harvards Faculty of Arts and Sciences, recently sat down for an interview about his lifelong research on indigenous African religions. He then reflects on five "essential aspects" of. Some of these myths explain the origin of the universe, the nature of the relationship between creation (including humanity) and God, and the source and cause of the human predicament and of evil in general; they also provide a synopsis of the forces comprising the African moral conception of the universe. Religious rituals provide ameans by which the community seeks redress and repairs wrongs that have been committed and that call down calamities and afflictions from spiritual beingsall this to restore the status quo ante or even to maintain the existing good status quo that society or an individual may be enjoying., In the hierarchically ordered world of African Traditional Religion, God is the ancestor, par excellence. Shrine visitation is strongest among the uneducated and in rural communities. 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. 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. Acknowledgements, Introduction: Locations of culture, 1. GAZETTE: Are ancestors considered deities in the traditional African cosmology? 2 0 obj These spirit do not carry the desires of humans to the Creator God. 2 0 obj They believe that Obatala helped Olurun in creating theworld and everything in it. Christians observe the Lords supper. The writing of this paper is another opportunity given to me so that l would use my talents given by the Holy Spirit to help our relatives still under the worldview of Satan to see and come into the Light of Life. All work unless implicitly stated is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Level of cannabis use could determine post-op outcomes, Historian says Fla. dispute shows why AP class in African American studies is needed, Why Church Committee alums urged new House panel to avoid partisanship, One small step toward understanding gravity, Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is. There are also the lesser gods that take residency in streams, rivers, trees and mountains. ;;m]mB"DTSUD[j*3l D{k7@tB0cg]Er+e)skf6cRUiu,WdmlA#OLs81/#qs v(a6lA`O/HvX*3SME_qv&oMm?{{n African religions, Indigenous religions of the African continent. This is a universal belief among Africans. The rapid growth of many religions in Africa and the revival of AIR in . I should add that without claiming to be full members of indigenous traditions, there are many professed Christians and Muslims who participate in one form of indigenous religious rituals and practices or another. 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. 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. Eternal Rest of the Soul. They form a chain through the links of which the forces of the elders [now with the community] exercise their vitalizing influence on the living generation. For Magesa, the ancestors are primarily authority figures whose being implies moral activity in that they are the maintainers and enforcers of norms of social action. Although they are entrusted with these roles in their relationship with humans, any capriciousness of the ancestors is not taken kindly by the living, just as it would not be acceptable from any elder in society. The ancestors are beyond reproach. similarities between the traditional beliefs of Africans in Africa. These are called Taboos. OLUPONA: One of the basic reasons is that indigenous African spiritual beliefs are not bound by a written text, like Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Christian teaching forbids making of any kinds ofimages to represent God. of the people which are all together. OLUPONA: Thats a mixed bag. The Christian idea of church has similarities with African traditional life in which brotherhood and the extended family play a central role. &RcIX6Wa). These include the pragmatic nature of the African cultural and religious heritage, and the African traditional methods of healing. 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. Indigenous African spirituality today is increasingly falling out of favor. The Igbo traditional religious worldview maintains a polytheistic religious view, unlike the monotheistic outlook of the Christian religion. They consultedtraditional healers who used various herbs and charms to cure diverse illnesses. Just like in Christianity, traditional Africanreligion has organised practices. All rights reserved. They do not offer any libation. For this reason, l am writing on the topic, which says, Comparing the concept of Spirit and Soul in the Traditional Religion of the Akan and Ewe Tribes to that of the Bible. / DI41@ tD}r;Y w,XVzwiA1JtvrlfFaD7E@s 00=L"q{Vf\}ioKy=lXS.P6ChX m% ~nUV)=vp%FBvy}+6,0+V8sG&>K_iBOntQvyCN[I'uvR;}hA/D|+I9Q$cL, As a resident fellow, Sherman will teach a study group on negotiation and diplomacy this semester. An important preoccupation of Mbitis work has been to show that knowledge of God and the worship of God have been staples of African life from the earliest times on the continent. He contends that although African Traditional Religion generally refers to God as creator and sustainer of the universe, morally good, omniscient, and caring toward humans, yet even where this is held to be true, the high god in Africa is very often regarded as distanced from human affairs. And even when he is considered benign, the high God is morally otiose, having little direct retributive relationship with humankind. In some situations, the high God is cast in unfavorable terms as one who creates and who kills. Church Life Journal This is because Jesusalready shed His blood on the cross and He was the perfect sacrifice that totally satisfied God. In short, the question is whether the notion of mercy exists in the moral order of African Traditional Religion and whether the sacrifices of African religion amount to an expiatory understanding in African religious thought. An old African adage says: The sky is large enough for birds to fly around without one having to bump into the other.. What the data says about gun deaths in the U.S. 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 . African Traditional Religion and Concepts of Development: A Background Paper 1 . This dissertation will attempt to explore how deliverance ministry has replaced the anti-witchcraft shrines and the exorcistic activities of the African Indigenous Churches. Consequently, traditional Africans have different ideas on what role the ancestors play in the lives of living descendants. In African Traditional Religion, they do believe in a genderless god with the three names: Umvelingqangi, uNkulunkulu, and uThixo (Badoian, 2014). This power is not accessible to everyone, and in most cases it is inborn, but the person has to learn how to use it. The success of Christianity and Islam on the African continent in the last 100 years has been extraordinary, but it has been, unfortunately, at the expense of African indigenous religions. 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. 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. Therefore, these traditional theologians condemned those who said, ATR and similar non-western religions are followed by irrational or foolish people who in their stupidity bow down to stones, trees and rivers instead of the Creator who created such objects and themselves. Render date: 2023-03-01T10:31:12.538Z Even though their differences outnumber their. 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. An important area Green points to has to do with the role of God in these two systems of thought. Sign up for daily emails to get the latest Harvardnews. Olupona earned his bachelor of arts degree in religious studies from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, in 1975. It was believed that Vodun was a representativeof the Supreme God known as Mawu. Christ Jesus, God's own son, takes the "groaning" of humans to God. Religion informs everything in traditional African society, including political art, marriage, health, diet, dress, economics, and death. % stream They claimed or argued strongly that in the light of the more objective or scientific study of religions, ATR can no longer be justifiably characterized as stupid, since the worshippers do not worship the said material objects per se, but the Spirit of the Creator reflected in them. One scholar who has written extensively on African Traditional Religion is John Mbiti, a Kenyan whom many consider the dean of living African theologians. The religious traditions and beliefs of the African peoples have enough differences to merit a study of each in its own right. Second, Africans believe in a moral order given by God, stipulated by the ancestors in the past. GAZETTE: It sounds like African indigenous religions are dynamic, inclusive, and flexible. GAZETTE: What else would we lose if we lost traditional African Religions? The vigor with which the African Traditional Religion (ATR) has continued to resist the onslaught of Christianity is a cause of academic preoccupation. The rapid growth of many religions in Africa and the revival of AIR in postcolonial Africa have made inter-religious . To ensure that a natural balance is maintained between the world of the sacred and that of the profane, the roles of the chief within the state, family elders in relation to the lineage, and the priest within society, are crucial. Interrogating identity: Frantz Fanon and the postcolonial prerogative, 3. In lieu of these traditional African ways of defining oneself, Christianity and Islam are gradually creating a social identity in Africa that cuts across these indigenous African religious and social identities. 1"7$X9Xyyyb GNpL!9I&mxo0++44cA@5c. Updates? Mbiti emphasizes that Africans view the universe religiously. It is essentially a postcolonial approach to what AIR and its essential. GAZETTE: What will Africa lose if it loses its African indigenous worldview? Traditional African religion advocated for bird and animal sacrifices whenever peoplewent to worship God. Furthermore, Jesus is the perfect sacrifice that totally pleased God and there is no need for any other. While the universe has a beginning, many Africans believe that it does not have an endeither spatially or temporally. However, in African religious thought God is distanced from the task of moral affairs because the task of moral retribution and maintenance of effective moral norms is usually performed by spiritual agents of much lower standingthat is, by spirits of various sorts, by ghosts and even by human practitioners of spiritual arts. Other characteristics that show the contrast between (Western) Christian thought and African Traditional Religion,according to Green, are the nonexistence of concepts of heaven and hell in African Traditional Religion, the lack of messianic expectations and hope, and the absence of eschatological thought with God stepping in to right all wrongs or to punish wickedness. And although African Traditional Religion affirms the continuation of life after death, where the person is believed to join the spirit world of the ancestors to continue life in some ways similar to the life before death, this belief does not constitute a hope for improved existence or for ultimate reward and punishment since a persons moral depravity or moral rectitude [does] not count in the beyond and whatever penalties or rewards those may bring have no bearing on life after death.. The Supreme Being is usually thought of as remote from daily religious life and is, therefore, not directly worshipped. It was believed that the animals blood appeased God. Pentecostalism and Shamanism in Asia and Beyond, A Critical Analysis of Byang Kato's Demonology and Its Theological Relevance for an Evangelical Demonology, INITIATION IN AFRICAN TRADITIONAL RELIGION, Veli-Matti Karkkainen, Kirsteen Kim, Amos Yong: Interdisciplinary and Religio-Cultural Discourses on a Spirit-Filled World, Encounter - Journal of African Life and Religion, 12 (2017), REGNUM STUDIES IN MISSION Pentecostal Mission and Global Christianity An Edinburgh Centenary Reader, Van Rheenen, Gailyn: Missions - biblical foundations. Traditional Africans didnot have this practice. These are the pristine men and women, the originators of the lineage or clan or ethnic group. The reasons for this shift are varied and complex. The introduced religions of Islam (in northern Africa) and Christianity (in southern Africa) are now the continent's major religions, but traditional religions still play an important role, especially in the interior of sub-Saharan Africa. They trust God for their healing. ), Heritage of Faith: a history of Christianity in Nigeria, The carpenter's revolt: youth, violence and the reinvention of culture in Nigeria, Yoruba Elites and Ethnic Politics in Nigeria: Obafemi and corporate agency, The Clash of Fundamentalisms: crusades, jihads and modernity, False Prophets: the clash of civilizations and the global war on terror, Christianity, Modernity and Development in Africa, Social mobilization and collective violence: vigilantes and militias in the lowlands of Plateau State, Central Nigeria, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, Islam, Youth, and Modernity in the Gambia: the Tablighi Jamaat, Cambridge University Press for the International African Institute, Muslim Modernity in Postcolonial Nigeria: a study of the Society for the Removal of Innovation and Reinstatement of Tradition, Pentecostalism, Islam and culture: new religious movements in West Africa, Christianity and Social Change in Africa: essays in honor of J. D. Y. Peel, The search for security in Northern Nigeria, Islamic Reform and Political Change in Northern Nigeria, Political Spiritualities: the Pentecostal revolution in Nigeria, Sects and Social Disorder: Muslim identities and conflict in Northern Nigeria, Ethnic vigilantes and the state: the Odua People's Congress in south-western Nigeria, Pentecostal presidency? While Islam and Christianity tend to be overtly resistant to adopting traditional African religious ideas or practices, indigenous African religions have always accommodated other beliefs. Some ancestors may even be reincarnated to replenish the lineage. The amount of devotees to indigenous practices has dwindled as Islam and Christianity have both spread and gained influence throughout the continent. The conviction that people will be reborn in this world again and again tends to be more common among Christians than Muslims. 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. However, Christians can offer animals to the church where they canbe sold or reared to give the church income. a trans-moral suspension of retribution in the face of self-confessed and inescapable human wrongdoing. Green notes a similarity between this deep structure and that which has developed in Christian theology over centuries of effort at grounding human moral striving in the face of the experiential difficulties that assault moral idealism. In this Christian theological system, the idea of God as creator and sovereign expresses the moral requirements of impartial regard for all. The contact was in fact,between two. I should also state that there are signs of the revival of African indigenous practices in many parts of Africa. One is also sometimes givena new name after baptism. A Journal of the McGrath Institute for Church Life, by Paulinus Ikechukwu Odozor In the Ewe thought they are called Vodou (Vodu or Vudu in Benin and Togo; also Vodon, Vodoun, Voudou, or other phonetically equivalent spellings. That testifies to the enduring power of indigenous religion and its ability to domesticate Christianity and Islam in modern Africa. Semantic Scholar is a free, AI-powered research tool for scientific literature, based at the Allen Institute for AI. Christianity and Traditional African Heritage, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Nevertheless, since 1900, Christians in Africa have grown from approximately 7 million to over 450 million today. Using Ghana as a case history, I shall evaluate this ministry to find out its positive and negative effects. OLUPONA: My father, a faithful Anglican priest, was a good example. ufF'dXeA^l4a*0(1l HLtA@a2O>bOk)x6*. 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. Different fathers played a role in the development of this religion. In four countries, for instance, half or more of the population believes that sacrifices to ancestors or spirits can protect them from harm. Green opines that although superficially regarded, this may seem to be a minimal moral relationshipmore like a kind of egoism on one side and fearful propitiation on the otherit also shows, however, the profound role that respect for age and for the fulfillment of lineage and familial duties play in this traditional setting. Foreign religions simply dont have that same connection to the African continent. Those to whom this power is accessible can use it for good, such as healing, rainmaking, or divination, while others can use it for harm, through magic, witchcraft, and sorcery. <>/ExtGState<>/ProcSet[/PDF/Text/ImageB/ImageC/ImageI] >>/MediaBox[ 0 0 612 792] /Contents 4 0 R/Group<>/Tabs/S/StructParents 0>> endobj Most African communities offered animals and not humans as sacrifices. Christ was tempted in all the ways It is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts. It is also present in relationships between persons, based on age and function. Ritual sacrifices and witchcraft beliefs are still common. The continued influence of traditional African religion is also evident in some aspects of daily life. Traditional Africans believed in the power of magic and medicinemen. % It also taps into a common lay attitude to what might be called a secular common sense, which feels impatience or distaste for all forms of what it considers religious extremism, while at the same time shying away from regarding any one religion as more prone to extremism than others. This leads him into the whole area of theology of religions, in which the relationship between Christianity and other religions is currently the focus of lively debate. I had it. This article concerned itself with the modern encounter between Christianity and African Indigenous Religion (AIR) in Africa. Content may require purchase if you do not have access. Differences between Christianity and traditional African beliefs and customs (Exodus 20:3-5,Hebrews 10:8-10) 1. hand with the study of the people who practise the religion. The numerous traditional African religions have in common the notion of a creator god, who made the world and then withdrew, remaining remote from the concerns of human life. Human beings maintain active and real relationshipswith the spiritual world, especially with the living dead, through offerings, sacrifices, and prayers. Yet consider that in 1900 most Africans in sub-Saharan Africa practiced a form of indigenous African religions. Featured Image:Edo people, Queen Mother Pendant mask, circa 16th c.; Source: Wikimedia Commons, CC0 1.0. For this reason, they can come to the saving knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ through the teaching of the Word of God because it is home going time. The award allows Olupona a year of study and research in Germany; he is on leave this year (201516). Who Should Christians Worship? Journal of Biblical Unitarianism 1:1, 5-33, 2014. Prayers and sacrificial offerings are usually directed toward secondary divinities, who are intermediaries between the human and sacred realms. Mission Manual Pages Section A Biblical Basis of Mission 1 20, E-journal of Religious and Theological Studies, TITLE A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF SALVATION IN ISLAM AND CHRISTIANITY: TOWARDS DEVELOPING AN EVANGELISTIC MODEL IN SPECIAL REFERENCE TO TUENSANG DISTRICT CHAPTER ONE, Baptism and Original Sin in the Early Church : contributions of Tertullian, THE UNIQUELY CHRISTIAN WORLDVIEW - Ethington Book, CHRISTIANITY AND AFRICAN TRADITIONAL RELIGION IN KUMASI: A COMPARATIVE STUDY Department of General Art Studies, SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY @BULLET An Introduction to Bible Doctrine @BULLET, Monotheism in the Qur'an and in the New Testament: Comparative Theological Explorations of the Role of Prophets and the Covenants. Religion is part and parcel of daily life. Animism is a common feature of African religions, and misfortune is often attributed to witchcraft and sorcery. 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. Moreover, the religions developed in the Americas impact Africa in that devotees of the African diaspora have significant influence on practices in Africa. 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. Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer. 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. For instance, in a few years time, I pray that I will be participating in an age-grade festival for men around 70 years of age called Ero in my native Nigerian community in Ute, in Ondo state. 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. These included interviews he conducted with pastors, exorcists, traditional priests, so-called witches and delivered witches. Ifa is an indispensable treasure trove of knowledge that cant be duplicated elsewhere; much of its knowledge has been handed down from babalawo [Ifa priest/diviner] to babalawo for centuries. Everything is said to center on them. endobj endobj (Hebrews 1:1,Matthew 5:17,Exodus 34:10-28). African traditional religion cannot be discussed without mentioning that it is the way of life of the people of Africa and so cannot be differentiated from the politics, education, and socialisation, etc. 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.
richmond high school oilers basketball 1999
Digital Media Production
