expressed in all the African cultures, it means that religion forms parts of African culture but not all African cultural practices are religious. Not the one we saw, very clear and good article easy to understand. An article by BBC explains why Nigeria is a global leader in the Bitcoin trade. 3. The more modern incarnation of this ancient African religionVoodooemerged as a unique blend of Catholic and African magical and religious rites. Perhaps its the abundant wildlife, scorching deserts, or the vast uninhabited plainlands. Fact: Slaves were always subject to torture, sexual exploitation, and arbitrary . Whether one agrees or disagrees with the practice, it is important to note that not all female initiations involve circumcision, and that the rituals associated with initiation are crucial to ensuring that an individuals social position is affirmed by both family and community. Myth: Slavery is a product of Western civilization. More so, myths encode the traditional settings of the African and their belief system. There are key developmental projects in some African countries that would not be possible without Foreign aids. Thus, it is easy to see why it seems that Africa needs help. A common stereotype about Africa is that the continent is poverty-stricken, full of corruption, and always at war. 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. . Without relevant knowledge, stereotypes are unavoidable. They often dictate when the community honors a particular divinity or observes particular taboos. No. Intentional or not, this interpretation creates a distorted and misconstrued view of Africans by the rest of the world. Corrupt government officials also capitalize on the generosity of the westerners to the point of looking like a panhandler. Yet in the scholarship on the history of religions, indigenous African religions were never considered a substantive part of the worlds religious traditions, because they failed to fulfill certain criteria defined by axial age civilization. Privileged European scholars denied the agency of African religions and singled outand thereby controlledAfrican identity. Information was passed down mostly by oral communication in the form of folk tales. They certainly represent interpretive traditions, and, when carefully studied, they form a solid foundation for theoretical frameworks used to study and decode these religions in our scholarship. It is also the most diversified continent in the world. have recognized the important ways in which "African" and "religion" are western constructs involving both misconceptions and changing perceptions, especially concerning religion (Ray:2000). An example of data being processed may be a unique identifier stored in a cookie. Now it is our turn to Africanize it.. A frica has 54 countries and more than a billion people. This statement isnt true. 2. This article was originally published by Oxford University Press on May 16, 2014. Humans are thus able to maintain constant and symbiotic relations with their ancestors who are understood to be intimately concerned and involved in their descendants everyday affairs. They tend to propagate peaceful coexistence, and they promote good relations with members of other religious traditions that surround them. In spite of the heuristic value of V. Y. Mudimbes distinction between myth and history in Africa, and by extension the cohesion of oral and written narratives,10 the notion that myth is nonrational and unscientific while history is critical and rational is false. It is incorrect to assume that conversion to Islam or to Christianity dealt a deathblow to indigenous traditions. ao Ajima OM, Ubana EU (2018) The Concept . African Traditional Religions (ATRs) will be discussed within the context of which it belongs to, the African traditional life (ATL). 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). What we know as African history today is mostly based on the interpretations of our colonial masters. But, the bad eggs seem to get more attention. Fact: Slavery is older than the first human records. They held the view that twins were a symbol of excessive fertility which is a characteristic of animals. Instead, the old and the new were syncretized, producing some unique . 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). They include assumptions, misconceptions, traditional or religious beliefs and beliefs about the . When Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code was released, it generated both curiosity and criticism for its portrayal of Christianity. When I told him I am a twin (Ibeji) in Yoruba traditionand in principle a sacred being myselfhe almost fell on the floor to pay homage! What, for example, is the notion of history and the sacred in Akan thought? However, some African nations have become addicted to these aids and seem unable to function without them. The myths held by the west about Africa are mostly founded on misinformation. The Hausa man is different from the Igbo man who is also different from the Yoruba man. These can be found all over the Americas and Europe. 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. Using the qualitative historical research . In modern-day Christianity, Pentecostalism has become a major force to reckon with, indicating a sharp growth by adapting to local [] This inaccurate assessment of African belief even affects the definition of African religion. Also, about 30 % of the earths remaining mineral resources are in Africa. Examples are mobile innovations such as Flutterwave, Sproxil, and Paystack. 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. 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. Several African countries have good health care systems. The oral nature of these traditions allows for a great deal of adaptability and variation within and between indigenous African religions. Similar to other West African communities, the Yoruba did not reject Western modernity but challenged its claim to ontological and epistemological superiority. Reclaim the Ancestral Traditions of African Religion! African Vibes is a one-stop global platform that connects the African diaspora to opportunities for growth, development, and social impact in Africa. Misconception 1: "Entire North Africa natively speaks Arabic.". However, African indigenous religion has not only succeeded in domesticating Islam and Christianity; in many instances, it has absorbed aspects of these two other traditions into its cosmology and narrative accounts and practices. It was through this encounter that the Yoruba system of banking money in traditional pots kept underground in farms and forests began. Truly opening my eyes on traditions, cultures and rituals that I did not know existed. All Religions has truth hidden in them for those who objectively seek them through the path of the religion. 3. African religions, religious beliefs and practices of the peoples of Africa. Such an approach should endeavor to provide not only an awareness of sociocultural contexts but also to narrate the historical dimensions of these traditions. To each his own. 2. Since growth and innovation come as a pair, it is impossible to say that African countries are growing without being innovative. There are quite a number of revival groups and movements whose main aim is to ensure that the tenants and practice of African indigenous religion that are threatened survive. Such scholars stereotyped African religionand African peoples themselvesas primitive social forms, part of a lower social order. Rather, institutional religion continues to grow in relevance and in the national imagination, whether its invocations are part of conversations concerning nation building, Maitatsine and Boko Haram violence, the secularism debate, the Sharia debate, the question of Islamic banking, or the role of the Organization of Islamic Conference. Each of these has its peculiar characteristics. 12. A proper ongoing study of Ifa in West Africa would enable us to understand how one groupthe Yoruba of West Africaencounters transcendence and the sacred in practicing their tradition in ways radically different from Western constructions of religion. In certain contexts and communities we have many documented instances of the central role of goddesses as founders of traditions, builders of kingdoms, and saviors and defenders of cities and civilizationsfor example, Moremi in Yorubaland, Nzinga in Angola, and Osun in West Africa. Benin Is Getting Back 26 Of Its Looted Artifacts from The Colonial Era. The terms 'traditional' and 'religion' (in its singular form) have each been targets of criticism. I suggest that, at the conceptual and theoretical levels, we begin to take this interpretive approach seriously. .title-desc-wrapper .view-post {display: none !important} It is not unusual to see people living below the poverty line in nearly every country on earth. The stories of violence, kidnapping, religious and political war in Africa are so common. African Religion is not Ancestor Worship. We and our partners use data for Personalised ads and content, ad and content measurement, audience insights and product development. African traditional religion refers to the indigenousor autochthonousreligions of the African people. See Luc De Heusch, What Shall We Do with the Drunken King?,. Her growing fascination led to an Emerson Foundation-funded research project this summer, titled "Demystifying African Religion." Traditional African religions are less of faith traditions and more of lived traditions. Africa is poor. Given our current impending ecological crisis, indigenous African religions have a great deal to offer both African countries and the world at large. As a lived religion, African tradition deploys through its ritual processesparticularly rites of passage, calendrical rituals, and divinatory practicestangible material and nonmaterial phenomena to regulate life events and occurrences, in order to ensure communal well-being. 6. Again, this isnt true. The west, by trying to learn more about the African tradition will avoid the bias and ignorance of being misinformed. European theorists are important, and we need to know and understand them to engage in serious global cultural dialogue, but this does not mean that we should discard our traditions as noninterpretive traditions limited merely to ethnographic illustrations. Indeed indigenous African religions have provided the blueprint for robust conversations and thinking about community relations, interfaith dialogue, civil society, and civil religion. The consent submitted will only be used for data processing originating from this website. Gender dynamics are important in African indigenous religions and in cultural systems, so much so that women goddesses and women-invented rituals are commonplace. Esu was represented as a stone mound in the front yard of ancient Yoruba compounds. Whether these words carry weight or simply make for a good quote, the fact remains that Africans are unique. Each has a life force but no concrete physical form. For many Africans, religion is a way of life that can never be separated from the public sphere, but instead informs everything in traditional African society, including politics, art, marriage, health, diet, dress, economics, and death. This is a testament to the strong morals and principles of the African tradition. 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. Oct. 24, 2019. These traditions have been passed from one generation to the next. Ifa defines Yoruba humanity, providing responses to critical issues of its communities. Regardless of where they find themselves, most Africans will always hold onto some form of their tradition, culture, and religion. Easy to see why it seems that Africa needs help not the one we saw, very and... Conversion to Islam or to Christianity dealt a deathblow to indigenous traditions epistemological! Social forms, part of a lower social order the generosity of westerners. The bad eggs seem to get more attention uninhabited plainlands culture but not all African cultural practices are.! 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