He went on to conduct some of the most significant research on African religions in decades. Aujourd'hui, la plupart des Zariens sont soit catholiques, soit protestants; les Biras pour leur part sont principalement catholiques. I have seen the quest more sharply. OLUPONA: If we lose traditional African religions, we would also lose or continue to seriously undermine the African practice of rites of passage such as the much cherished age-grade initiations, which have for so long integrated and bought Africans together under a common understanding, or worldview. In most countries, however, less than one-in-twenty say this is their primary religious affiliation. This was an extremely liberating word in my theological thinking. In contrast, witchcraft beliefs persist. 0000003641 00000 n The conviction that people will be reborn in this world again and again tends to be more common among Christians than Muslims. <<6D546C3FADADB2110A00A09A6B9CFF7F>]/Prev 416812>> Spiritual activities like prayer, thanksgiving, and the making of sacrifices were well-established facts of life for the existence and continuation of the community. African immigrants and slaves worked to maintain traditional religious and social practices in their new surroundings. The church is composed largely of people who come out of the African religious background. Jacob 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. My findings were used in teaching, but eventually I put them together in a book, Concepts of God in Africa, published by the British publisher SPCK (1970). Alternate titles: Vaudou, Vodun, Voodoo, Voudou, vodon, Elizabeth McAlister Associate Professor of Religion, Weslyan University. degree at Harvard Divinity School. 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. 0000014025 00000 n At Makerere University I taught New Testament, African religion and other courses. 0000014207 00000 n Some of these African diaspora religions include Cuban Regla de Ocha, Haitian Vodou, and Brazilian Candomble. This is in sharp contrast with the religious composition of the region about 100 years ago, when, according to a Pew Forum analysis of historical information from the World Religion Database, less than a quarter of the population identified as either Christian or Muslim. Revelation is given not in a vacuum but within particular historical experiences and reflections. Some Africans believe that the ancestors are equal in power to deities, while others believe they are not. ), 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. Sign up for daily emails to get the latest Harvardnews. In February 1974 a group of 120 anthropologists launched the Canadian Ethnology Society/socit canadienne d'ethnologie (CESCE), because they felt there was room for an association of anthropologists separate from the Canadian Sociology and Anthropology Association (CSAA) which was dominated by sociologists. That which had been seen as the enemy of the gospel turns out (to me) to be indeed a very welcoming friend. Islam has experienced a similar rapid growth. I completed my doctoral studies at the University of Cambridge in 1963, the year that Honest to God, by J.A.T. x\u}4`P}E#(9q"%LCl'KLb)Sfgdq N GAZETTE: In trying to understand African spirituality, is it helpful to refer to it as polytheistic or monotheistic? 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. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. The God described in the Bible is none other than the God who is already known in the framework of our traditional African religiosity. Prayers and sacrificial offerings are usually directed toward secondary divinities, who are intermediaries between the human and sacred realms. I wont pray to an orisa, but I will affirm the importance of my connection with members of my age group. AR-Ndhdnn}H\{%jC!a,]c8F`1LE(3%"w+tj}](q w[,p8i$dd$GrMRD K4wLG4@h\WfPY Omissions? I want to see his healing hand, to hear his word that exorcises evil spirits. In these congregations, knowledge is passed on through a ritual of initiation (kanzo) in which the body becomes the site of spiritual transformation. But they used the names of the God who was and is already known by African peoples -- such as Mungu, Mulungu, Katonda, Ngai, Olodumare, Asis, Ruwa, Ruhanga, Jok, Modimo, Unkulunkulu and thousands more. The concept of the church as the body of Christ in the whole world is another growing development for me. We have already noted that the overseas missionaries did not bring God to Africa. That testifies to the enduring power of indigenous religion and its ability to domesticate Christianity and Islam in modern Africa. Updates? I want to make a pilgrimage into Christ. v6 -j>,>Or%I&!To !{vgrh7xxDs}d[!$8k1zX+@}~ /// Dans le nord-est du Zare, la communaut rurale Bira a t expose depuis plus de cinquante ans au message chrtien. Yet . Indigenous African practices tend to be strongest in the central states of Africa, but some form of their practices and beliefs can be found almost anywhere in Africa. Their culture, history, world views and spiritual aspirations cannot be taken away from them. It is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts. While Islam and Christianity tend to be overtly resistant to adopting traditional African religious ideas or practices, indigenous African religions have always accommodated other beliefs. He later earned both an M.A. OLUPONA: No, this type of binary thinking is simplistic. My interpretation of Israels history demands a new look at the history of African peoples, among whom this same God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob has indeed been at work. African scholars The primary goal and activity of Vodou is to sevi lwa (serve the spirits)to offer prayers and perform various devotional rites directed at God and particular spirits in return for health, protection, and favour. Yet consider that in 1900 most Africans in sub-Saharan Africa practiced a form of indigenous African religions. A follower of African diaspora religions has many choices in terms of seeking spiritual help or succor. African spirituality has always been able to adapt to change and allow itself to absorb the wisdom and views of other religions, much more than, for example, Christianity and Islam. OLUPONA: Thats a mixed bag. Download chapter 3 in full (3-page PDF, <1MB), Photo credit: Sebastien Desarmaux/GODONG/Godong/Corbis, Part of the Pew-Templeton Global Religious Futures Project, 1615 L St. NW, Suite 800Washington, DC 20036USA According to the 2003 Demographic and Health Survey, for example, Muslims constituted 50% of the population, while the 2008 DHS figure is 45% and the Nigerian Ministry of Healths 2008 estimate is 50%. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. The Yoruba diviners, for example, draw on this extensive indigenous knowledge every day by consulting Ifa, an extensive literary corpus of information covering science, medicine, cosmology, and metaphysics. OLUPONA: Indigenous African religions refer to the indigenous or native religious beliefs of the African people before the Christian and Islamic colonization of Africa. Christianity has scored a triumph over the traditional religious life of the Bira. Africans consequently played a crucial role in establishing the doctrines and theology of the early church. 1996 Canadian Anthropology Society Nevertheless, I am convinced that the World Council of Churches is a great witness of the Christian response to the prayer of our Lord that we may all be one. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Authoring or editing more than half a dozen books on religion and African culture (including the recent African Religions: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press), Olupona has researched topics ranging from the indigenous religions of Africa to the religious practices of Africans who have settled in America. %%EOF But in practical terms, there is a Christian Yes to African religiosity. The amount of devotees to indigenous practices has dwindled as Islam and Christianity have both spread and gained influence throughout the continent. mixing of Christianity and traditional African religions What were maroon communities? I told my father that I was coming home, he recalled. What is African Traditional Religion? Then was he not there in other times and in such places as Mount Fuji and Mount Kenya, as well as Mount Sinai? The original constitution defined the organization's mandate as providing a forum for the exchange of ideas among ethnologists. Dr. Mbiti is on the staff of the Ecumenical Institute at Bossey, Switzerland. For example, in 14 of the 19 countries surveyed, more than three-in-ten people say they sometimes consult traditional healers when someone in their household is sick. Since Christianity came in contact with the traditional religion, there has always been a sharp conflict between traditionalists and Christians. Maybe this is why I am not an Anglican priest. Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer, By Anthony Chiorazzi Harvard Correspondent. It is essentially a postcolonial approach to what AIR and its essential characteristics is: God and humanity, sacrifices, afterlife and ancestors. GAZETTE: How would you define indigenous African religions? Par contre, les croyances en la sorcellerie ont persist. They are not mutually exclusive. Indigenous Religion (AIR) in Africa. Anthropologica is published for CASCA by University of Toronto Press. In most of the 19 countries surveyed by the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life, 90% or more of the respondents say they belong to one of these faiths. 0000003217 00000 n I simply and honestly answered him that "for us in Africa, God is not dead." Updates? He must have been active among African peoples as he was among the Jewish people. That would be a serious loss not only for Africans, but also for academics, researchers, writers, and general seekers of wisdom the world over. 0 1"7$X9Xyyyb GNpL!9I&mxo0++44cA@5c. In Nigeria, the population in 1900 included 4.2 million Muslims and 180,000 Christians. 43. The statistical expansion of the Christian faith in Africa in this century is one of the considerations that led me back to the issue of its relation with African religion. I am tantalized by the fact that my vision cannot cope with that horizon. For over 200 years, Africans, largely from the west coast of Africa, were brought to the United States in the slave trade. First, the association of traditional African religion with an other-worldly orientation may appear problematic, given the "pragmatic" basis of this religion. I am very excited, for example, by the estimate that in 1987 there will be a statistical balance of Christian population between the north (Europe, Soviet Union and America) and the south (Latin America, Africa, Asia and Oceania). ancient Rome: Religious and cultural life in the 3rd century, This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/topic/religious-syncretism, Academia - Religious Syncretism as a Syncretistic Concept: The Inadequacy of the " World Religions " Paradigm in Cross-Cultural Encounter. There is no centralized hierarchy, no single leader, and no official spokesperson, but various groups sometimes attempt to create such official structures. The first and most intriguing topic that immediately engaged my attention was the thinking of African peoples about God. 0000005005 00000 n The introduced religions of Islam (in northern Africa) and Christianity (in southern Africa) are now the continent's major religions, but traditional religions still play an important role, especially in the interior of sub-Saharan Africa. This chapter includes information on: Download chapter 1 in full (6-page PDF, <1MB), 1 The Horn of Africa is a peninsula in the easternmost part of North East Africa, on the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean. That book was followed by a flurry of literature on the so-called "death of God" theology (if "theology" it was, for I would call it "atheology"). He sees the other faith as complementing and even adding spiritual potency to his own spiritual practice of constructing effective amulets. Most people in sub-Saharan Africa now identify with either Christianity or Islam. 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. In the cities, local hierarchies of priestesses or priests (manbo and oungan), children of the spirits (ounsi), and ritual drummers (ountgi) comprise more formal societies or congregations (sosyete). Traditional African religions and practices were brought to the Western hemisphere through the African diaspora and the slave trade, often resulting in a syncretic blending with Christianity. A belief in ancestors also testifies to the inclusive nature of traditional African spirituality by positing that deceased progenitors still play a role in the lives of their living descendants. After that date there will be more Christians in the south than in the north. w?0t7/Oa84P]T}T}?gHq.qsRnkc;]X*s1!E"l^~K_/|j p z|9~p uf:}[Mc|4!#"Zg!/vc _~|oyuQ'dX :?NmU)?oPSw?6#?[OUN@6oz{j;\e7nWsV~XyU4vMm4#f4c:[Wefkd&88XB|cMh6)mt<4M8}; *:7??+0:0$! (back to text), 3 Nigerias 2006 census did not ask about religious affiliation, and recent estimates of the numbers of Muslims and Christians in the country vary. African spirituality is truly holistic. Humans are spirits who inhabit the visible world. Foreign religions simply dont have that same connection to the African continent. Copyright by The Christian Century Foundation; used by permission. I am not a historian, and I have not done careful thinking in this direction. I was like a snail shyly peeping out of its house after a heavy thunderstorm. Additionally, I will not discourage, disparage, or try and convert those who practice their form of African indigenous religions. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. But whatever the shortcomings of these and my other publications, the materials that went into these two have raised extremely important issues for me that have continued to engage my reflection. They derive from traditional African religions with some influence from other religious traditions, notably Christianity and Islam . The recipient of many prestigious academic honors and research fellowships, Olupona also received the 20152016 Reimar Lust Award for International and Cultural Exchange, considered one of Germanys most prestigious academic honors. Syncretistic movements in the Orient, such as Manichaeism (a dualistic religion founded by the 3rd-century-ce Iranian prophet Mani, who combined elements of Christianity, Zoroastrianism, and Buddhism) and Sikhism (a religion founded by the 15th16th-century Indian reformer Guru Nnak, who combined elements of Islam and Hinduism), also met with resistance from the prevailing religions of their respective areas. Today most Zairians belong to either the Catholic or Protestant church, and the Bira themselves are predominantly Catholic. <>stream African diaspora religions, also described as Afro-American religions, are a number of related beliefs that developed in the Americas in various nations of the Caribbean, Latin America and the Southern United States. Fewer say it is paramount to their faith to attend religious services (39%), avoid sex before marriage (30%) or oppose abortion . "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," said Olupona. Overall, however, Christians outnumber Muslims in sub-Saharan Africa by about two-to-one. This bitter conflict has led to wanton destruction of lives and property, and this has become a source of great worry to the writers. In this overpowering environment, one simply accepted this stand and looked at the world from its perspectives. We can list some obvious and often publicized factors. One African theologian, Gabriel Setiloane, has even argued that the concept of God which the missionaries presented to the Sotho-Tswana peoples was a devaluation of the traditional currency of Modimo (God) among the Sotho-Tswana. African religions, Indigenous religions of the African continent. These statements await further exploration by African theologians. It is in this complex of religiosity that the preaching of the gospel makes sense; it is this preparedness that has undergirded the spreading of the gospel like wildfire among African societies which had hitherto followed and practiced traditional religion. On returning home, the learned professor wrote an article using my brief answer as his title. The continued influence of traditional African religion is also evident in some aspects of daily life. God is not insensitive to the history of peoples other than Israel. The book comprised ideas that I had gathered from 300 African peoples ("tribes" -- a term that today is sometimes used in derogatory ways). While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Oral tradition says the first Muslims appeared while the prophet Mohammed was. GAZETTE: Are ancestors considered deities in the traditional African cosmology? They were names of one and the same God, the creator of the world, the father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Moreover, the religions developed in the Americas impact Africa in that devotees of the African diaspora have significant influence on practices in Africa. Again, it doesnt reflect the multiplicity of ways that traditional African spirituality has conceived of deities, gods, and spirit beings. Indeed, ten years ago I had no significant theological position. One important task, then, is to see the nature, the method and the implications of Gods revelation among African peoples, in the light of the biblical record of the same revelation.
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