|
|
The early
Westerners first thought that African religions were borrowed from
Europe and the
Middle East and not native to the African peoples. Westerners described
the traditional beliefs of Africans
to be "primitive" and "savage". This notion came from their belief in
the evolution of religions in which it
was thought that religion evolves from a polytheism into monotheism.
This puts Judaism, Christianity, and
Islam at the higher end of the spectrum and left the traditional
African religions at the bottom as "lesser"
religions. On the other hand, Africans saw the evolution the other way:
as it evolves from monotheism into
polytheism. All African religions contain Creation Narratives in which
there are prevailing characteristics
of god, man, and nature. God is portrayed as the Creator and supreme
being. He created man out of
loneliness using the clay of the earth to form him and then breathing
into him to give him life. This god is
not necessarily all powerful as he relies on charms and trickery
instead of a self sustaining power. He is
jealous of his power in that he is constantly having to protect it from
man.
Man is always the created and not the creator. He is constantly trying to attain the power of the god[s] such as in the two stories of the towers that men were trying to build to reach god (in both stories god destroyed the towers and thwarted man's attempts). Nature is a servant of god. There is a very intimate relationship between the natural and spiritual worlds. It is from nature that man was created. There are many similarities as well as differences between the African creation narratives and the Christian creation account. In both instances God is the Creator and man is created from clay with life being given through a breath from God. In both cases it is sin that separates man from God; in most instances the first sin is the killing of a human. Both accounts include a story of men trying to build a tower to God and failing. Some of the differences include the monotheism of Christianity as opposed to the polytheism of African religions. Christianity does not portray God as having any sexual relations or producing off spring nor does He rely on trickery or magic as a means of power as does the traditional African religions.
Magic was thought to be the "mother of religion". The two were seen as being so intricately woven that one could not be separated from the other. Westerners saw this connection as a sign of the Africans not being as advanced as they. They saw the process of the separation of religion and magic as an evolutionary process in which the Africans had yet to reach (but they had).
The Asante Praise Poems paint a beautiful picture of how Creation is dependent on God; man is dependent on Creation; and therefore, man is dependent oN God. The main theme of these poems if that man and nature come from the same source. This means that man has no dominance over nature. Man and nature are both servants of god. This is why there is no evidence of any abuse of nature in Pre Colonial Africa -- they view the spiritual and natural worlds as being so entangled that to harm nature was to "harm" the gods.
The themes of the Ga Libation are a good illustration of practices common to most traditional African religions. First was supplication-- they acknowledged their need for divine intervention for protection, food, clothing, and shelter. Second was ceremonies for special events such as political gatherings. Next, rituals were important for specific occasions such as harvest time, reaping time, etc. Rites were also very important in the lives of the Ga peoples which included important passages in people's lives such as puberty, marriage, divorce, enstoolment and disstoolment of chiefs. Finally was confirmation- this was important in agreements between people. The purpose of these was to ensure peace, good health, good character, and harmony with the gods. The Gikuyu religion upheld the practices of ceremonies for special occasions, rituals, sacrifices, communion with ancestors and the worship of a "High God". The Igbo people practiced these with a focus on supplication to the gods for protection and provision and sacrifices to the spirits.
Communion with the ancestors was a focal point of African religions. Although it is mistaken by many other cultures as ancestor worship, it is not so. The Africans do not worship their deceased they merely continue to commune with them as though they were still among the living. Some traditions include pouring out the first bit of your drink on the ground for the ancestors before you partake. This illustrates the intimacy between the natural and spiritual worlds. According to the African belief, they are basically one and operate as one. Ancestors and seen a mediators between man and the spiritual world. It is through this mediation that they are sought to bring protection and provision.
Westerners have come up with three ways in which to view African Religions. First, one can view African religion as the basis for all African life. Second, it can be viewed systematically by combining compiled facts from several sources and presenting the data. Finally, one can view it through the sociological relationships and environment.
African philosophy is the basis of Africans view the world and their beliefs. It is how Africans view the nature of humans, evil, morality, and sociological relationships. It is not necessarily held by all Africans, it is just the perspective form which Africans as a whole view the world.
The Ifa Literary
Corpus is the basis of the Yoruba belief system. It is a collection of
historical
and mythical poems that instruct people how to live in a way where they
are at peace with god, others, the
supernatural, and themselves. The bottom line is to cultivate good
character in order to live a long peaceful
life. Good character is what determines the quality of a person's
existence and allows one to live in
harmony with the rest of creation. It allows one of avoid conflict with
the supernatural and with other
people. It is essentially the essence of religion. This means one
without good character one cannot truly
worship god. To live a good live IS worship in itself. The symbol for
good character is "Iwa" which
means "woman". According to African philosophy, women are seen on
either extreme. They are
sometimes portrayed as good, loving, tender, caring, and beautiful.
While in other cases they are portrayed
as wicked, evil, manipulative, Jezebel types.
Africans view the world through their religion. There was no separation of religion from politics, family life, communal live, agriculture, or day to day living. Europeans, on the other hand, kept their religion very much separated from their politics, geography, and medicine. The draw back this caused for Africans was they it caused them not to "advance". They relied on prayer and the intervention of the gods as opposed to inventing something to help protect them from the weather. They viewed the world as metaphysical- meaning the physical and spiritual worlds were not to be so easily separated. This caused them not to take advantage of raw materials. They produced and used only what they needed.
Africans skipped over the stage of slavery and were transitioning from an agricultural communal society to an agricultural feudal society where as most other nations went from communalism to slavery to feudalism. Slavery in Africa was minimal and not very harsh. Slaves were generally POWs and were able to earn their freedom in a matter of years and they held some rights. Slavery was prevalent in the Middle East and Europe.
African society was Communal (as mentioned above) meaning it was based on kinship. The production and distribution of land, goods, and food was based on kinship. For this reason they did not need many advancements because they needed only to produce enough for themselves.
African technology
was based on their knowledge of the total environment. They invented
ways of
swamp farming, crop rotations, crop mixing, and iron tools such as axes
and hoes. The weakness of these
was that they did not seek scientific improvement because they produced
sufficient amounts for their
community and had no interest in mass production. Manufacturing was
also a big part of African life. Manufacturing in Africa was small
scale production but they had a reputation for producing high quality
goods such a Moroccan leather, bark cloth, and cotton cloth.
The social stratification in Africa began with the elders of the tribes. These men, because of their wisdom and place of respect, were the "higher ups". This group of men gave was to secret societies who somehow gained the upper hand and began to hold the power of the communities. This system was taken over by families who owned the most livestock taking control. These families held political and economic power. These families created "king ships". The king ships began fighting amongst each other leading powers dominating each other which lead to the rise of social stratification. People were now put in classes based on hierarchy of power and dominance.
The rise of the state went hand in hand with the rise of social stratification. As kingdoms fought they began to set physical boundaries which in turn produced statehoods. These statehoods were able to produce greater amounts of food and other necessities for the people. They also had a form of military and government administrators.
Those societies that were referred to as
being stateless meant they had no governmental body and no machinery.
Page created November 21, 2003.