Generally, these traditions are oral rather than scriptural, include belief in a supreme creator, belief in spirits, veneration of the dead, use of magic, and traditional medicine. In African religion you must distinguish between the term “deity” and the term “divinity”, because in the west, we often use the word divinity or deity almost interchangeably because we’re in a context where monotheism has been dominant. Usually it’s in the context of moral issues. The traditional belief systems, spirituality and faith of West African peoples has been described in more or less disparaging terms over the course of history, broad terms that fail to reflect the complexity and depth of these beliefs: “paganism”, “animism”, “ancestor-worship”, “idolatry”, “fetishism”, “heathenism”, etc. And so you should always view this kind of shading going on. For example, the Iroko tree is not an ordinary tree; it is believed to be inhabited by a spirit; the Oshun River (in Western Nigeria) is believed to be more than an ordinary river because the spirit (Oshun) dwells in it and this makes the river efficacious in many respects, especially during barrenness. Religion in Igbo traditional society partakes fully of all the features of world traditional religion, including its beliefs, sacred myths, oral qualities, strong appeal to the hearts of adherents, high degree of ritualization, and possession of numerous participatory personages such as officiating elders, kings, priests, and diviners. But certainly there’s no single codified system of beliefs and practices. When they talk about philosophical and religious principles, they do not think of African traditional religion. Every culture strives to protect and promote its values. We have this in Islam, we have this in Christianity, we have this in Judaism (Judaism has Bar Mitzvahs, Bat Mitzvahs where men and women will go into accepting the yoke of the Torah and the responsibilities of Jewish life). These five elements he called the structures of African Traditional Religion, while Awolalu and Dopamu see them as the features of West African Traditional Religion (1979: 32-35). What we want to do is to construct an African traditional cosmology. And, as such, there is no one physical and iconic image of him. So this shaman figure is used quite a bit in these societies. That is, a belief in a single god in which there exist other powers which get diffused out in to subordinates who serve that one god. You’ll find for example that many African Traditional Religions are monotheistic and poli-divinistic simultaneously. These statements await further exploration by African theologians. This belief, just as in the case of the previous one, has a theological basis – the plurality of divinities (polytheism). They are as numerous as the ethnic groups that are present on the continent of Africa, and so therefore there’s no single creed or orthodoxy that can easily summarize the belief systems of African religions. He calls this the flaw of the excluded middle. AFRICAN TRADITIONAL RELIGION Religion is a difficult subject to inquiry including attempts at definition and conception. Like Eastern belief systems, the Dagara see the universe and life as circular rather than linear. And the world of the enlightenment only gives us the world obtainable by the five senses. The term “fetish” comes from the Portuguese word “feitico”, which originated from the Latin “facticius”, which suggests a thing made by art. *Hiebert, Paul G. , Anthropological Reflections on Missiological Issues, 1994. The purpose of this is to help to orient a person who would like to work in the context of Africa. Traditional African religion is very popular and arrived here with our North and West African ancestors. But if you want just a quick and overly broad answer, the "Basics" section of my source is better than nothing. The major focus of the book is discussing the need for studying ATR in twenty-first-century Africa whereby … And so these were named “witch doctors”; they’re often sometimes called “medicine men”. And it can create great problems if you don’t do that. 3. African Traditional religion (ATR) is one of the world religions with a great people and a great past. In our society, we want to portray the idea that even important people, even powerful people are very approachable. Africa is a massive continent with diverse religious traditions, to the extent that within the same tradition there have been variations. The third level in African Traditional Religion is the earthly tier, which is the functionaries who are responsible for maintaining the harmony, balance, and order in the African traditional system. The number of traditional elements in medieval alchemy varies from 4, 5, or 8. The religious beliefs, practices and the provision of social services of these immigrant religions have impacted on the religious and cultural life of the traditional communities. This book highlights and discusses the common elements which introduce African Traditional Religion as one unified religion an… The fourth element common to most religions is the need for believers to belong to a faith community in order to practice sacred rituals and reinforce the truth of sacred stories. The second tier is often, though not always, bifurcated between a group of non-human divinities and a cult of human but divinized ancestors. We had a Christian overlay that gave us a strong sense of heaven, of God, eternal life, of the life to come – the eternal verities of the Christian faith we all accepted. Every religion of course has important rites of passage. A member of the RJRGLEANER Communications Group. ...Elements of Religion James Morales REL-133 April 17, 2013 Joseph Becker Elements of Religion Religion is a way of life for much of mankind, and though all religions are not the same, do all religions do the same thing? Now let me explain what a cosmology is, as opposed to traditional examination of a world religion. This is part of the way a lot of rituals are done, based on your age and your relationship to other people in your clan, and this is laid out through a totem, which is a way of showing the relationship of different people to other people. So we will often ask the question: “What does a Hindu believe about God or man, or sin, or whatever?”; “What do Muslims believe about salvation?”; and so forth. When they function as single individuals, we usually call them “healers”, or sometimes they’re called “shamans”. Rosalind J. Hackett as a guest-editor has been responsible for those pages. The major focus of the book is discussing the need for studying ATR in twenty-first-century Africa whereby … It is embraced by Africans within and outside the continent despite the various ethnic religious practices and beliefs. They had a lot of trade with the Arabs along the coast of east Africa, and this is where Islam is actually the strongest, in this area. In Africa the traditional religions are a major source for the study of the African experience of God. His omnipotence is demonstrated by his control over man and nature. In the African context, the wall doesn’t exist. Abstract. The hominid race was walked the land of Africa around 8 million to 5 million years ago. Before religions such as Christianity, Islam, and Judaism permeated African societies, African people had an awareness and acknowledgement of a god, a supreme being, greater than all things. In the African culture, it’s more natural to assume that the reason is spiritual, and therefore you go to a healer that will conduct rituals or chants, or use these fetish objects or whatever is necessary in order to deliver you from this spiritual problem. Course: Essentials of African Traditional Relgions, Lecture: Introduction to African Traditional Religion. Now I just mention in passing that this has been beautifully written about by Paul Hiebert, who wrote in his article, and later placed in his book on anthropological reflections on missionary issues *[sic. Instead, we should see at the top tier a supreme being, but this supreme being is frequently a distant figure, maybe associated with creation or some kind of larger power to keep things in order or in harmony, but is not the focus of the daily religion of Africa. It may involve some kind of ordeal or some kind of torture; it may involve special marks being placed – tattoos and various things – in order to identify that the person is now an adult, and will accept the full responsibilities of adult work in their society. Can religion be considered as a way to unite mankind, or viewed as a way to segregate them. Religion 20 [1990] contains some articles on the study of African Religions that are worth reading. Yet, he strikes a balance. African Traditional Religions are still practiced today, along with Christianity and Islam. Last week, in a veiled comparison between African traditional religions and Christianity, which is the major religion in Jamaica, some of the key elements of African traditional religions were discussed using Kenya-born Professor John S. Mbiti, a well-known scholar and researcher of African religions, as the main reference. Many different languages, religions and types of economic activities developed on this continent. ‘The Healing Wisdom of Africa‘ is designed more as a guide for people looking to reconnect with nature, within and without, using the Medicine Wheel and the five elements as a framework. In “taboo”, the meaning, though, is beyond simply a word for “forbidden”. In order to conceal the underlying nature of their religious beliefs from the slavemasters, the practitioners of these religions identified the ancestral gods and goddesses of Africa with certain Catholic saints, a practice that continues today. To efficiently study the African Traditional Religion (ATR), one must also study the people who practice this religion. - UWI valedictorian reminds graduates they are Equipped, Necessary, Occupied with Unique tasks, Grateful and Humble, Kerr-Jarrett wants gun smugglers unmasked and prosecuted, Digital Archives: Online editions 2006-Now. This is part of the essential nature of God.". connotes some element of primitiveness, I have nevertheless used it in this essay for lack of a better term. So what you should envision is a spectrum that does not have clear demarcation, and sometimes the categories can become confused or overlap. On the other hand, the scholars that have attempted to dismiss approaching African religions as if it’s impossible have been nevertheless brought back to the fact that there are a number of fundamental similarities in the structure of indigenous religions in general, and of African religion in particular. Normally, when you are born, that is considered a rite of passage, and there are certain kinds of religious activities and rituals and magic chants and various things that are done at the time of birth to protect the child from spiritual danger. But in my view none of these terms will ever be fully adequate to describe the African religious tradition. You also have in this same second tier oftentimes ancestors who have been divinized. Traditionally, east Africans were farmers and livestock herders. Normally, when you are born, that is considered a rite of passage, and there are certain kinds of religious activities and rituals and magic chants and various things that are done at the time of birth to protect the child from spiritual danger. So in other words you basically have mediators such as priests or sometimes chiefs or what used to be called “witch doctors” (we’ll call these “herbalists”), mediums, diviners, prophets – these are all people that are exercising ritualized power in order to keep the system in harmony. So others have suggested terms like “animism”. So things are done with levels of power. Read reviews from world’s largest community for readers. A divinity is another spiritual power, oftentimes non-human though sometimes in some cases the ancestors can evolve into these non-human figures. But they know that he is immanent, being manifested in natural objects and phenomena, and they can turn to him in acts of worship, at any place any anytime," Mbiti writes. But what is the nature of that supreme being who is so near (immanent) and so far away (transcendental) from the realities of traditional African peoples? And so therefore divinity and deity are separate in Africa. The BiblicalTraining app gives you access to 2,100 hours of instruction (129 classes and seminars). Although animism still is in fact present in Africa like fetishism or juju, it is simply inadequate as an all-encompassing expression that is descriptive properly of African Traditional Religion. Now I want to stop right there and say that in the early missionary encounters with Africa, many of the missionaries did not believe that the Africans worshipped a supreme being, and so they came back and said they were polytheistic, that is, they believe in many gods rather than monotheistic belief in one god. That’s what Idowu refers to as “diffused monotheism”. African Traditional religion (ATR) is one of the world religions with a great people and a great past. Well that’s fine, that is a Christian adaptation of the enlightenment world-view, and it leaves the basic structure or cosmology of the west intact. 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