Commonly, God is believed to dwell in the skies. When punishment comes, it comes in the present life. Whatever the difference in the deep structures that undergird the moral life in the Christian conception or in Africa Traditional Religion, Green, like Mbiti, concludes that Africans believe in a morally saturated universe: The role of intermediary agents and spirits in maintaining moral order in African Traditional Religion is quite remarkable, as we have already seen from the work of Mbiti. Therefore, the universe has dimensions of order and power as follows: first of all, there is order in the laws of nature. For example, sickness in the indigenous African worldview is not only an imbalance of the body, but also an imbalance in ones social life, which can be linked to a breakdown in ones kinship and family relations or even to ones relationship with ones ancestors. They are thus moral agents. It is the ancestors, however, the custodians of tradition, who determine the way these agents act, and it is tradition that supplies the moral code and indicates what the people must do to live ethically. African traditions carry out their role as ethical guides in many ways, including myths and rituals. 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. The reasons for this shift are varied and complex. Updates? (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Hence, it cannot be avoided in the interaction between Christianity and African Traditional Religion. These act as a link between God and the human community. An old African adage says: The sky is large enough for birds to fly around without one having to bump into the other.. <> Odozor's Morality Truly Christian, Truly Africanpublished by theUniversity of Notre Dame Press. In four countries, for instance, half or more of the population believes that sacrifices to ancestors or spirits can protect them from harm. 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. Traditional Africans worshipped in shrines. 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. These facts, however, does not necessary suggest that the educated Ghanaian has totally abandoned tradition; some educated and mission trained individuals do consult traditional oracles in times of crises. of the people which are all together. and For instance, the Yoruba religion has historically been centered in southwestern Nigeria, the Zulu religion in southern Africa, and the Igbo religion in southeastern Nigeria. Read our research on: Congress | Economy | Black Americans, Side by side with their high levels of commitment to Christianity and Islam, many people in the countries surveyed retain beliefs and rituals that are characteristic of traditional African religions. University of Notre Dame, McGrath Institute for Church Life 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. 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. The religious traditions and beliefs of the African peoples have enough differences to merit a study of each in its own right. Because many diseases are believed to have spiritual causes, traditional priests sometimes act as doctors or herbalists. 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. Commonalities between Christianity and Africa Traditional Religion. They do not offer any libation. Christian teaching forbids making of any kinds ofimages to represent God. Villepastour, Amanda OLUPONA: Indigenous African religions refer to the indigenous or native religious beliefs of the African people before the Christian and Islamic colonization of Africa. GAZETTE: It sounds like African indigenous religions are dynamic, inclusive, and flexible. $70.00/$25.00. One scholar who has written extensively on African Traditional Religion is John Mbiti, a Kenyan whom many consider the dean of living African theologians. But today that is not the case due to more exclusive-minded types of Christianity and Islam that see patronizing indigenous African beliefs and practices as violating the integrity of their Christian or Muslim principles, but I believe that one can maintain ones religious integrity and also embrace an African worldview. The Christian idea of church has similarities with African traditional life in which brotherhood and the extended family play a central role. Traditional Africans communicated to God through ancestors. |,utv2QdjrqfM7PC)2-|O7,0[i=_a/Om"X`Y2FpXBjsFxCqDd`%*g,-J1e*jjq,tm{w>qAsAqN$D The award allows Olupona a year of study and research in Germany; he is on leave this year (201516). 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. 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. 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. Furthermore, the issue is whether a strict order of retribution cannot be tolerated if human ambition gets in the way of realizing enduring moral virtue and well-being. It was believed that Vodun was a representativeof the Supreme God known as Mawu. Who Should Christians Worship? Journal of Biblical Unitarianism 1:1, 5-33, 2014. In respect and honor of my culture, I also dress in my traditional Nigerian attire when Im in my country. 1630-1633), HEBREWS' CHRISTOLOGY AND ITS CONTEMPORARY APPREHENSION IN AFRICA 1, New Mind, New Heart, New Strength (A Paradigm on the New Man), Dissertation ETD Libermann and EA in Dialogue Dec 2013, Pentecostalism and Shamanism in Asia and Beyond: An Inter-disciplinary Analysis. Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer, By Anthony Chiorazzi Harvard Correspondent. Ancestors also serve as intermediaries (see ancestor worship). However, Christians can offer animals to the church where they canbe sold or reared to give the church income. According to Mbiti, Africans believe that God has ordained a moral order for humans, through which they came to understand what is good and what is evil, so that they might live in harmony with one another and safeguard the life of the people. Africans had shrines they believedGod dwelt in. Thus, it is because of the existence of this order that different communities have worked out a code of conduct. 4 0 obj 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. As I have discussed elsewhere in Morality Truly Christian, Truly African, for example, some African societies are so conscious of the implications of crossing the line on some ethical matters, like adultery, incest, and murder, that anyone who engages in these acts is considered automatically to be putting the very survival of the community in danger. Both religions believe that God revealsHimself to people through dreams, propheciesand other special events. It is a way of life, and it can never be separated from the public sphere. (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. (See the glossary for more information on juju. 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. Some traditional African societies like the Yoruba believed in the existence of lessergods. The final aspect of this deep structure of moral reason in African Traditional Religion Green refers to as morally intentional trans-moral safety valves such as are found in the doctrine of grace or atonement in Weston religions (Christianity) or of liberation from the world of moral causation in Eastern religions. Inculturation, as we will argue later in Morality Truly Christian, Truly African, sheds the light of the gospel on cultural practices like this one to reveal what is sinful in them and to show that human beings, especially women, in this case, deserve better treatment than this. 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. 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. Christians practice baptism. 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. Just as within the traditional political and diplomatic contexts, one cannot formally contact the king without the agency of his linguists or sub-chiefs. But for many Africans, religion can never be separated from all these. 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. Notre Dame, IN 46556 USA. Both have initiation rites into full membership. This supreme . There is even a community deep in the American Bible Belt in Beaufort County, S.C., called Oyotunji Village that practices a type of African indigenous religion, which is a mixture of Yoruba and Ewe-Fon spiritual practices. However, they do not seek the services of magicians orwitchdoctors. Mbiti emphasizes that Africans view the universe religiously. 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. Feature Flags: { Different fathers played a role in the development of this religion. These images could be of a lion or another animal carvedfrom a tree to represent a god. The other question: Stereotype, This essay deals with the relationship between Christianity and other religions. Religion is part and parcel of daily life. 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. Fardon, Richard The Igbo traditional religious worldview maintains a polytheistic religious view, unlike the monotheistic outlook of the Christian religion. Modernity has not put a total stop to its influence. 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. Part two provides a condensed historical survey of the, The Bible and the Third World: Precolonial, Colonial and Postcolonial Encounters, by R. S. Sugirtharajah. They are not mutually exclusive. OLUPONA: The role of ancestors in the African cosmology has always been significant. Youll never experience a black hole, but Avi Loeb can help you imagine one. It is essentially a postcolonial approach to what AIR and its essential characteristics is: God and humanity, sacrifices, afterlife and ancestors. African spirituality is truly holistic. Belief in the Trinity While both Christianity and African religion have a concept of a Supreme Being, Christians believe in a God who exists in three persons. The Supreme Being is usually thought of as remote from daily religious life and is, therefore, not directly worshipped. between African traditional religion and the Christian faith. 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. They consultedtraditional healers who used various herbs and charms to cure diverse illnesses. the other in tradition poses a serious dilemma for both Christianity and tradition in Africa. To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds toupgrade your browser. Janson, Marloes I am going to use the research reports of Opoky Onyinah , which he carried out among Ghanaian Christians between 1997 and 1999. 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. Much of Oluponas work is an attempt to provide a fuller understanding of the complexity and richness of African indigenous thought and practice by viewing it not as a foil or as a useful comparative to better understand Western religions, but as a system of thought and belief that should be valued and understood for its own ideas and contribution to global religions. This dissertation will attempt to explore how deliverance ministry has replaced the anti-witchcraft shrines and the exorcistic activities of the African Indigenous Churches. Therefore we speak of African Traditional Religion thinking of those common things. GAZETTE: But yet you said its a mixed bag? For starters, the word religion is problematic for many Africans, because it suggests that religion is separate from the other aspects of ones culture, society, or environment. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. What the data says about gun deaths in the U.S. All work unless implicitly stated is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Its about getting tangible results. endobj So, basically, to speak of African tradition is to talk about African Traditional Religion. OLUPONA: Thats a mixed bag. 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. 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. Traditional Religion as a source of African theology just as Christian theology is. O?+dOw\eOoHc_o~ Q:c qeM1ehb/j|-Xyy#=g vnxX,o"\4/I+{U40f_dX!y2#i.7Xi0}zi*_Qk({_8D2M"09E%kR`O"}Ec#O3+lwP/z[r=]jPh!eC6Ci{FKnW4 That would be a serious loss not only for Africans, but also for academics, researchers, writers, and general seekers of wisdom the world over. The amount of devotees to indigenous practices has dwindled as Islam and Christianity have both spread and gained influence throughout the continent. Witchcraft has been a prevailing belief in African cultures and has continually posed problems for the African people groups. Specifically, by reflecting on the wonder and magnitude of the universe, they came to the conclusion that God must exist: they posited the existence of God to explain the existence and sustenance of the universe. This should make it clear why some African intellectuals would question the relevance of Christianity on the continent. Christians do not have regard for their powers because they believethat they overcome all evil through the name of Jesus. 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. 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, . At stake here is nothing less than the question of human culpability and ultimate redemption, which has to do with the traditional Christian topic of sin and grace. 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. 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. Render date: 2023-03-01T10:31:12.538Z While both Christianity and African religion have a concept of a Supreme Being,Christians believe in a God who exists in three persons. The . Some ancestors may even be reincarnated to replenish the lineage. Total loading time: 0 Despite the presence of Christianity, traditional religions in Ghana have retained their influence because of their intimate relation to family loyalties and local mores. 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 . According to all the major surveys, Christianity and Islam each represent approximately 40 percent of the African population. In the Akan and Ewe ethnic groups the above phenomenological conception of ATR called for education in the light of the scriptures. 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. 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. This order, according to Mbiti, is knowable to humans, by nature. 1xxp~I7m#MWjxAqN,PT2^]R6C3Y'K~Bwv4-xwE@;5 In most countries surveyed, at least three-in-ten people believe in reincarnation, which may be related to traditional beliefs in ancestral spirits. These gods are generally perceived as intermediaries between the Supreme Being and society. by Richard Chowning [ ATR Topics Page | Africa Missions Research and Strategy Page | Africa Missions Main Page | Help ] [ QuickStart ] Creator God The supreme being in most African Traditional Religions is seen as the creator of humans and all other living things. It is essentially a postcolonial approach to what AIR and its essential characteristics is: God and humanity, sacrifices, afterlife and ancestors. Consequently, traditional Africans have different ideas on what role the ancestors play in the lives of living descendants. Quantum computing simulation reveals possible wormhole-like dynamics. February 21, 2019. Observing this moral order ensures harmony and peace within the community. Omissions? They take the communion to remember thedeath and resurrection of Jesus. Part one looks briefly at the matter of religion itself. Traditional Africans did not practice baptism. 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. A classicatory system which attempts to distinguish the principal responses Everywhere he went in southwestern Nigeria, he never opposed or spoke out against African culture including initiation rites, festivals, and traditional Yoruba dress as long as it didnt directly conflict with Christianity. To achieve its goal, the paper adopts the method of . ), 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. Religion informs everything in traditional African society, including political art, marriage, health, diet, dress, economics, and death. Anthony Chiorazzi, who has an M.Phil. Like Ronald Green, Magesa argues that African Traditional Religion is in the background of all African religiosity, both in Christianity and Islam, and supplies the basic attitude or worldview of most African Christians. inequality and class divide, dreams and interpretation, names and religious identity. %PDF-1.5 In the Ewe thought they are called Vodou (Vodu or Vudu in Benin and Togo; also Vodon, Vodoun, Voudou, or other phonetically equivalent spellings. (+1) 202-419-4372 | Media Inquiries. This is called the Trinity. Prayers and sacrificial offerings are usually directed toward secondary divinities, who are intermediaries between the human and sacred realms. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings. 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). Traditional theologians explained that one could not worship the Supreme Being formally, without the agency of the divinities or ancestors. There are also the lesser gods that take residency in streams, rivers, trees and mountains. (Hebrews 1:1,Matthew 5:17,Exodus 34:10-28). I answered two, The paper discusses the state of traditional African religion in post-apartheid South Africa. Pratten, David Everything is said to center on them. <> Traditional Africans didnot have this practice. Conflict is a universal phenomenon that is inevitable in human interaction. Traditional Africans made images of the Supreme God or other supernatural beingswhich they worshipped. Maybe this is why I am not an Anglican priest. Ancestors can offer advice and bestow good fortune and honor to their living dependents, but they can also make demands, such as insisting that their shrines be properly maintained and propitiated. "useRatesEcommerce": false I should also state that there are signs of the revival of African indigenous practices in many parts of Africa. Taboos and customs cover all aspects of human life: words, foods, dress, relations among people, marriage, burial, work, and so forth: A part of this belief in the moral and religious order is belief in the invisible universe, which consists of divinities, spirits, and the ancestors (the living dead). In other words, he shows that the sense of the divine was not something introduced to Africa by missionaries or by anyone else; that the knowledge of God in African religion was not much different from the idea of God that Christian missionaries preached in Africa; and, more specifically to our purpose here, that belief in God engendered a moral response that for centuries before Christian arrival in Africa directed moral life and interaction on the continent and among its peoples. The religious traditions and beliefs of the Christian idea of church has similarities with African traditional religion as a of. Africans made images of the scriptures of magicians orwitchdoctors 40 percent of the existence of this religion can! To represent God order, according to Mbiti, is knowable to humans, By.... Traditions and beliefs of the existence of this religion code of conduct diet, dress, economics and! Living descendants of this order, according to all the major surveys Christianity... 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