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African Traditional Religion
African Traditional Religion
•Very diverse
–Tribes vary in size; few hundred to hundreds of thousands; no easy method to study
•A oral tradition
–Myths, legends, folklore, names, riddles, blessing or curses, oaths, spells, proverbs
–There is no “systematic theology”
• A “withdrawn” God
• There is a Supreme God, but the African experience is more on a practical, real everyday
level; a pluralistic world of ancestors, spirits, magical powers, etc.
Reality
• Everything was created by God; all things created are necessary to human existence
– Especially food and water – things most important to people in their daily life
• There are many creation myths
• Spirit world is real and very much involved with this life (and people are very involved
with the spirit world)
• All of life is arranged in a hierarchy of souls and powers
– Supreme being
– Nature divinities
– Ancestors
– Magical powers
– Daily life is involved with “lesser gods”
• [Experience teaching “resurrection”]
Human Being
• A dominant thread in the fabric of African myth and ritual is stories of creation
or beginnings, especially of human beings
• The subject of nearly all African mythology:
– How the first people came to be
– How they lived
– What they experienced
• God created humans as male and female; original state was innocent (WS 144a)
• The human being has a body and a variety of souls ( a unit, no conflict, no Greek
dualism)
• An existence-in-relation (WS 189)
• All of life is arranged in a hierarchy of souls and powers
• The human being is a living force in active communion with other living forces in the
universe
• The true concept of being human is lost if the person is considered in isolation
• True individuality and character cannot come in isolation, but from integration
• There is a general African sense that every moment involves transcendental forces in
delicate equilibrium, many of which are more powerful than we are.
• Progressive integration of all roles and responsibilities (WS 238)
• One is not considered a full human being until she/he has gone through the whole process
of birth, naming, puberty and initiation, marriage and family ---- and death.
• We must harmonize with all the forces in the world
forces
forces
• These transcendental forces are the immediate focus of belief and practice
• One usually approaches God through intermediaries
• The desire for power, safety, protection, and life is the driving force in African religion.
• There are so many ways in which one can get hurt or injured or lose one’s soul or have it
stolen, etc.
Salvation. Healing
• The African image of the happy life is one in which God is among the people,
His presence supplying them with food, shelter, peace, immortality, and a
moral code.
• WS 525a
• Self-realization: participation in the socio-cosmic web of relationships
Conduct
• WS 114; 123; 125; 179; 187; 280; 344; 515***; 626b; 655
• The rituals which accompany the major stages of maturation illustrate the ever-
widening circles of the self and its increasing definition.
Destiny
• Once out of memory, the process of dying is complete, the personal name is lost,
as is the personality, and one becomes an “it.” The worst fate is to be in isolation,
like a wandering ghost, completely cut off from the family/the lineage.
• There is little speculation about last things (nature of the after life, immortality, or
final judgment).
• Speculation about human existence is focused on the here-and-now.