misconceptions about african traditional religion

Temperature varies from one country to another depending on the climate type. Published. It is incorrect to assume that conversion to Islam or to Christianity dealt a deathblow to indigenous traditions. with Ibramic faiths tends to deprive the African Traditional Religion its true status as an independent religion . God is the first Initiator of a people's way of Life, its tradition. African traditional religion refers to the indigenousor autochthonousreligions of the African people. 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. 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. In digging up facts I found that, while many Africans say that homosexuality is un-African, African culture is no stranger to homosexual behaviours and acts. Ritual enables supernatural beings to bless individuals and the community with sustenance, prosperity, and fecundity.14 Rites of passage, such as initiation ceremonies, are rituals marking personal transitions recognized and celebrated by the community. Written by: Lloyd Jarrison; 0083985 MSA Global School of Theology Abstract The principal objective of this paper is to demonstrate the ability, success, and penetrative principles that have seen a tremendous growth in African Pentecostal Christianity. Africa is the second-largest continent in the world. It is the religion which resulted from the sustaining faith held by the forebears of the present Africans, 3. 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). African traditional religious beliefs in East Africa. Most of these aids go into building infrastructures like schools and hospitals. Catholic moral theologian Laurenti Magesa argues that, unlike clothes, which one can wear and take off, for Africans, religion is like skin that cannot be so easily abandoned.7 Mbiti also captures this unique aspect in the following passage: Because traditional religions permeate all the departments of life, there is no formal distinction between the sacred and the secular, between the religious and non-religious, between the spiritual and the material areas of life. The problem of Africa isnt wealth but the unequal distribution of wealth. Portia Zvavahera, Cosmic Prayer, 2019, oil-based printing ink and oil bar on canvas. Required fields are marked *. a. newly birthed babies. Little wonder John Mbiti, a famous African theologian said, Wherever the African is, there is his religion. The African religion was condemned by the Early European scholars, travelers, investigators and missionaries. Nature spirits are associated with objects seen in nature, such as mountains, the sun, or trees, or natural forces such as wind and rain. During the era of Western religious and cultural encounters in Yorubaland, some children were named Oguntoyibo, signifying Ogun (god of war and iron) is as powerful as the European god. Some children received names such as Ifatoyinbo, Ifa is as powerful as the white mans god. Such names and concepts illustrate the force and creative resistance of indigenous thought and its ability to engage Western modernity in rigorous debate. Space constraints permit me to cite only one example. The idea that Africa is unsafe while statistics say otherwise shows how much misconception there is about Africa. . Prior to colonization, there was scarcely any form of writing in the majority of African tribes and cultures. 45 Francis Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138. History text fails to capture the depth of pre-colonial African Civilization. Mostly, the temperatures of these zones vary between the extremes (Either very hot or very cold). What we know as African history today is mostly based on the interpretations of our colonial masters. 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. They tend to propagate peaceful coexistence, and they promote good relations with members of other religious traditions that surround them. The most common African history begins with the colonial era. It is a well-known fact that religion continues to play a central and vital role in the lives of African people. Traditional African religions are less of faith traditions and more of lived traditions. I did ancestry and, This is the genuine list of best African president. 5.3.2 Intolerance and misconceptions about African traditional religion and Culture As already alluded, the stories told in Europe about Africa, the notion of racial and cultural superiority, and the notion of salvation, led to the western missionaries having a negative attitude toward African traditional religion and culture. Today, several myths are mixed with facts in describing African traditional religion. The myths held by the west about Africa are mostly founded on misinformation. South Africa, Tunisia, and Kenya rank among the top countries with the best health care system in Africa. 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. Why is this important to our understanding of African indigenous religions? Most Africans at home and in the diaspora have made a name for themselves and praised for their contributions to society. 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. Divination enables us to recognize how indigenous traditions have a foundation upon which knowledge and knowledge production is developed. All Religions has truth hidden in them for those who objectively seek them through the path of the religion. In response to this verse, Ifa defines its own pilgrimage tradition in the rituals of the climbing of Oke Itase (Ifa Hill), the home of Ifa, when the Araba of Ifa in quiet solitude leads the devotee to the top of the sacred temple of Ifa. These elements are worth exploring and espousing. There are few religions as globally misunderstood as African traditional religions. African cosmogonic narratives posit the creation of a universe and the birth of a people and their indigenous religions. on. Introduction: Some Standard Misconceptions There have been widespread misconceptions about the African Traditional Religion (hereinafter ATR). These stages characterized European perceptions of human evolution. Second, spirit beings occupy the next tier in the cosmology and constitute a pantheon of deities who often assist the supreme God in performing different functions. Also, about 30 % of the earths remaining mineral resources are in Africa. Traditional African religions are not stagnant but highly dynamic and constantly reacting to various shifting influences such as old age, modernity, and technological advances. This creates fear and panic resulting in misleading assumptions about Africa. Just as rituals are an expression of this . Each transition has a function within the society. 5. . They counteracted various derogatory names given to AIR. The battle between the African traditional religion and western civilization has been raging on for years. This lack of knowledge as well as understanding of essentials has led to burgeoning of myths on African . The misconception about African religion Man generally is given to misconception especially in the midst of conflicting ideas or contending issues. 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. Another crucial aspect to consider in the comparative study of African religions is the reality of the transfer of these religions across the Atlantic through the Middle Passage and transnational migration and cultural exchange. 10. On the other hand, countries like South Africa, Morocco, and Tunisia sometimes experience snowfalls. Although it is difficult to generalize about African traditional cosmology and worldviews, a common denominator among them is a three-tiered model in which the human world exists sandwiched between the sky and the earth (including the underworld)a schema that is not unique to Africa but is found in many of the worlds religious systems as well. c. medicine men and women. Some African countries even adopted the language of their colonial masters as the Lingua Franca. All rights reserved. A 1685 law, for instance, prohibited the practice of African religions, and required all masters to Christianize their slaves within eight days of their arrival in Haiti. African Traditional Religion: A Definition (1973), Omosade Awolalu in Yoruba Belief and Sacrificial Rites and John Mbiti in The Concept of God in Africa (1970) are a few examples of postcolonial scholars of religion who have resisted and denounced colonial idea that Africans do not know God. As many might know, one type of ritualinitiations for adolescent African girlscauses great consternation among Westerners, because these often involve rites like female circumcision or other bodied practices. Religion also encompasses the human, cultural dimensions within faith traditions, such as how human agency shapes, influences, and complicates religious control. This is far from the truth. 9. In African traditional religions guidance is provided through myths, which are handed down orally. . Many foreigners who come to Africa become fascinated by ancestral spirits and spirits in general, as if the mystique of African religions is the only aspect of African spirituality that can hold scholarly interest.4 There are several common features of African indigenous religions that suggest similar origins and allow African religions to be treated as a single religious tradition, just as Christianity and Islam are. Traditional African religions are not stagnant but highly dynamic and constantly reacting to various shifting influences such as old age, modernity, and technological advances. 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. To understand the social, cultural context of pregnancy, childbirth and subsequent maternal and child care and to use this information for . Because it enables us to theorize questions of syncretism and hybridization and, more importantly, raises the issue of why African religion is flowering and spreading in the Americas, especially in the United States, while it is declining in Africaa phenomenon that we need to understand. 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. But Ifa divination predates Western modernity. Religious contexts are shaped and determined by the identity of these religions. Theres a globally shared perspective of Africa being full of diseases. Religion occupies a reasonable space in the life of the traditional African/Igbo people. Truly opening my eyes on traditions, cultures and rituals that I did not know existed. In the lived experiences of the people, there has been much borrowing and interchange, particularly in those places that have a history of peaceful coexistence among diverse religious traditions, as is so among the Yoruba. So it is the responsibility of the religious leaders in these . To understand Africans, one must understand the African religion. Africans who follow a traditional religion rely on no scriptures, canonical texts, or holy books to guide them. This is based on misconceptions that these religions are antithetical to modernity. Initially, Christian missionaries and propagators of Islam assumed that indigenous religion would eventually fizzle out, while Islam and Christianity would dominate the African religious scene. Some biblical cosmological narratives have parallels in African cosmogony, for example, when the Supreme Being summons the hosts of heaven and declares to them, Come let us make man in our own image. This same script appears in the creation of the Yoruba world, when Olodumare designates to the Orisa (deities), the job of creating the universe. In fact, Africa is a vast continent encompassing both geographic variation and tremendous cultural diversity. If you take these reports at face value, you may start to believe that all Africans are poor. 53 offers from $9.56. 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. There are so many interesting facts about Africa that you dont see every day. Africa is not homogenous. The Trans-Atlantic slave trade led to the growth of African-inspired traditions in the Americas such as Candombl in Brazil, Santera in Cuba, or Vodun in Hati. Many economic forecasts predict the rapid growth in the African Market. 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. Designed by Elegant Themes | Powered by WordPress, HARVARD DIVINITY SCHOOL I ran into a co-resident, a famous Swiss author. In my view, these common misconceptions are due to ill representation of the African culture. Since growth and innovation come as a pair, it is impossible to say that African countries are growing without being innovative. It is a well-known fact that religion continues to play a central and vital role in the lives of African people. Most importantly, the rite itself should not be condemned together with circumcision or female genital mutilation. Due to the centrality of ancestral tradition to the African lifeworld, death itself is a significant transition from the current life to the afterlife and marks a continuity in life for those living and those to come. 15. In modern-day Christianity, Pentecostalism has become a major force to reckon with, indicating a sharp growth by adapting to local [] During the colonial era, most of these traditional believes became a target of the colonial religion. Africa is host to the highest number of religious countries in the world, according to a recent Gallop poll. In one particular odu of Ifa, Ifa informs us and, correctly so, that the most cardinal event of the hajj is the climbing of Mount Arafat (Oke Arafa). Understanding 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. Another misbelief about Africa is that all Africans are the same. Absolute as Supreme, infinite and everlasting mind. Benin Is Getting Back 26 Of Its Looted Artifacts from The Colonial Era. Your email address will not be published. Scholarship has since proved, however, that the tenacity of indigenous religion is evident in all spheres of African life. African Traditional Religion is the traditional religion of the African people before the coming of Islam and Christianity. For African-American parents, transmitting an awareness of cultural values and norms . Therefore for these people, twins were treasures. . This article analyses the legal processes of recognising customary and religious (Muslim) marriages in South Africa's constitutional democracy. 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. Using the qualitative historical research . One reason that might account for the gap in African history is the unavailability of any written document. Traditional African religions are not stagnant but highly dynamic and constantly reacting to various shifting influences such as old age, modernity, and technological advances. . Narratives about the creation of the universe (cosmogony) and the nature and structure of the world (cosmology) provide a useful entry to understanding African religious life and worldviews. A porous border exists between the human realm and the sky, which belongs to the gods. Slowly, they projected ATR as barbaric and dehumanizing. Myths reveal critical events and episodesinvolving superhuman entities, gods, spirits, ancestorsthat are of profound and transcendent significance to the African people who espouse them. Courtesy Of Stevenson, Amsterdam/Cape Town/Johannesburg. As spirits, the ancestors are more powerful than living humans, and they continue to play a role in community affairs after their deaths, acting as intermediaries between God and those still living.6 Finally, I would add that Africans live their faith rather than compartmentalize it into something to be practiced on certain days or in particular places. African religions are antithetical to modernity very hot or very cold ) who objectively seek them through the path the., according to a recent Gallop poll their colonial masters as the Lingua Franca ;! Which resulted from the sustaining faith held by the identity of these aids go into infrastructures. 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