Mbiti emphasizes that Africans view the universe religiously. L_}mB)b7h; uZ4 QI,^ID-*Rj" xx>@9lCQr [GE1Hz:Aj3>^5T-FPD5|. . 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. These intermediary agents include the ancestors, members of the community who at death become idealized. I had it. The commitment to theory, 2. hasContentIssue true, Copyright International African Institute 2016. Mbiti says that: According to Mbiti, human beings have a privileged position in the universe. Semantic Scholar is a free, AI-powered research tool for scientific literature, based at the Allen Institute for AI. the other in tradition poses a serious dilemma for both Christianity and tradition in Africa. This hierarchy is also evident in human society, where there are chiefs, clan heads, family heads, older siblings, and so on. 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. OLUPONA: The role of ancestors in the African cosmology has always been significant. 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. 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. Traditional theologians explained that one could not worship the Supreme Being formally, without the agency of the divinities or ancestors. But after braving that first blizzard in a land far from his native Nigeria, Olupona stuck it out and earned his Ph.D. Some ancestors may even be reincarnated to replenish the lineage. 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. These differences, I will argue, have significant impact not just on the way people conceive of the moral world or with regard to moral intentions, but also on moral practices. People may complain to God and the ancestors, but they will never accuse them of any moral wrongdoing. 24 October 2016. The award allows Olupona a year of study and research in Germany; he is on leave this year (201516). 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. Christians do not believe in the existence of any other godapart from the Supreme Being. Again, it doesnt reflect the multiplicity of ways that traditional African spirituality has conceived of deities, gods, and spirit beings. GAZETTE: How do you balance your Christian and indigenous African identity? 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. GAZETTE: What is the state of indigenous African religions today? To understand African tradition, one needs to understand the position of African Traditional Religion on God, the human person, and creation. It was believed that the animals blood appeased God. psC68k}(`eMTO} }3sUO?JH`dMQois6I{r[}Doq?L0}ze^WZ\|r?3Z %g~bs_*@F`b, vw`qRk3xnnH6NSKF vFK](S?I.$@\$OC(N#a6oJc!0 sm!$!'TGzmSvw)+Na?1s K{o?!I <>>> He has researched and written about such diverse religious cultures as the Hare Krishnas, Zoroastrians, Shakers, and the Old Order Amish. This article concerned itself with the modern encounter between Christianity and African Indigenous Religion (AIR) in Africa. These are the pristine men and women, the originators of the lineage or clan or ethnic group. Traditional Africans communicated to God through ancestors. Some Africans believe that the ancestors are equal in power to deities, while others believe they are not. x + 306. 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. Acts are wrong if they hurt or damage relationships or if they are discovered to constitute a breach of custom or regulation. To buttress his point Mbiti states that in certain African societies to sleep with someone elses wife is not considered evil if these two are not found out by the society which forbids it, and in other societies is in fact an expression of friendship and hospitality to let a guest spend the night with ones wife or daughter or sister. Mbitis assertions must be read as a limited reference to some African societies and in some limited settings. Observing this moral order ensures harmony and peace within the community. 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. 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. It is essentially a postcolonial approach to what AIR and its essential characteristics is: God and humanity, sacrifices, afterlife and ancestors. 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. endobj Notre Dame, IN 46556 USA. What the data says about gun deaths in the U.S. 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. Traditional Africans didnot have this practice. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. For instance, in the southern Volta Region of Ghana, and in Togo and Benin, thousands of young girls of the Ewe (say Ay-vay) tribe are held as slaves in unspeakable conditions under a traditional religion belief called the trokosi system or wives of the ancestral gods. 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. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. Fardon, Richard 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. The traditional theologians also emphasized that as in all religious traditions, the belief and worship of the Supreme Being in ATR does not just mean the strict performance of certain rituals. Both believe that God is the creator ofhumankind. 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. Janson, Marloes 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, . 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. 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. $70.00/$25.00. Corrections? When one becomes a Christian he/she is baptised. So, basically, to speak of African tradition is to talk about African Traditional Religion. 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 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. But as we learnt in Unit One, Christians can also worship Him attheir homes or other places. Such a project, however, is only significant if it is not only executed by religious leaders, By clicking accept or continuing to use the site, you agree to the terms outlined in our. This work investigates the conflicts existing between the two . This order, according to Mbiti, is knowable to humans, by nature. 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. For all Ghanaian ethnic groups, the spirit world is considered to be as real as the world of the living. 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. Baptismis by being sprinkled on water or being dipped in water. 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. Its about getting tangible results. 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. <> OLUPONA: No, this type of binary thinking is simplistic. OLUPONA: Thats a mixed bag. These shrines were built near waterbodies, next to big trees or near other sacred places. 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 African Traditional Religion has no founder. The Supreme Being is usually thought of as remote from daily religious life and is, therefore, not directly worshipped. 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. Some of the ideas from Mbitis works are pertinent to our discussion here: Africans believe in a hierarchy of beings, from the ultimate being, God, to lesser ones, divinities, spirits, the living dead, human beings, animals, plants, and inanimate beings. Christ was tempted in all the ways Traditional Africans did not practice baptism. / 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, Religion informs everything in traditional African society, including political art, marriage, health, diet, dress, economics, and death. for this article. That testifies to the enduring power of indigenous religion and its ability to domesticate Christianity and Islam in modern Africa. The African Traditional Religion, which is still in place today, can be compared to Christianity through their similarities and differences. 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. , demanding respect and attention, and getting angry when not given due respect Africans believe that ancestors! Traditions carry out their role as ethical guides in many ways, including myths rituals... Humanity, sacrifices, afterlife and ancestors content analysis and other empirical social science research moral! World is considered benign, the spirit world is considered benign, the high God morally. 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