I want to make a pilgrimage into Christ. Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer, By Anthony Chiorazzi Harvard Correspondent. In this overpowering environment, one simply accepted this stand and looked at the world from its perspectives. There is some regional difference in ritual practice across Haiti, and branches of the religion include Rada, Daome, Ibo, Nago, Dereal, Manding, Petwo, and Kongo. Ritual functionaries include priests, elders, rainmakers, diviners, and prophets. 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. (+1) 202-857-8562 | Fax 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. For instance, in a few years time, I pray that I will be participating in an age-grade festival for men around 70 years of age called Ero in my native Nigerian community in Ute, in Ondo state. All too often, the result is conflict and radicalisation. <<6D546C3FADADB2110A00A09A6B9CFF7F>]/Prev 416812>> Because of this, Africa is now home to some of the world's largest Christian and Muslim communities. Updates? And this witness deserves ones support through service and prayer. X0#J++?U;_3_gmx9[F\"{,Um1yu 9 ?ce%9EG`N: &U0EHC$p4=$'=DlX6M_7,--" During religious rites, believers sometimes enter a trancelike state in which the devotee may eat and drink, perform stylized dances, give supernaturally inspired advice to people, or perform medical cures or special physical feats; these acts exhibit the incarnate presence of the lwa within the entranced devotee. When this happens, then a passage such as Hebrews 1:1-3 rolls down like mighty waters, full of exciting possibilities of theological reflection. Many other familial feasts (for the sacred children, for the poor, for particular ancestors) as well as initiations and funerary rituals occur throughout the year. Faith in The One God in Christian and African Traditional Religions: a Request Permissions, Published By: Canadian Anthropology Society. 0000002264 00000 n 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. 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. African religions, Indigenous religions of the African continent. <>stream 0000008365 00000 n (+1) 202-419-4372 | Media Inquiries. This is not an empty coincidence. Today most Zairians belong to either the Catholic or Protestant church, and the Bira themselves are predominantly Catholic. While some African cosmologies have a clear idea of a supreme being, other cosmologies do not. Foreign religions simply dont have that same connection to the African continent. Chapter 1: Religious Affiliation | Pew Research Center African spirituality simply acknowledges that beliefs and practices touch on and inform every facet of human life, and therefore African religion cannot be separated from the everyday or mundane. Aujourd'hui, la plupart des Zariens sont soit catholiques, soit protestants; les Biras pour leur part sont principalement catholiques. He sees the other faith as complementing and even adding spiritual potency to his own spiritual practice of constructing effective amulets. "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. The Encounter of Christian Faith and African Religion I want to reflect and write on this topic, but somehow it makes me feel frightened. The Yoruba, however, do have a concept of a supreme being, called Olorun or Olodumare, and this creator god of the universe is empowered by the various orisa [deities] to create the earth and carry out all its related functions, including receiving the prayers and supplications of the Yoruba people. While the recourse to traditional healers may be motivated in part by economic reasons and an absence of health care alternatives, it may also be rooted in religious beliefs about the efficacy of this approach. For over 200 years, Africans, largely from the west coast of Africa, were brought to the United States in the slave trade. Ethiopia's Christian population, at 6 million in 1900, will grow to a projected 100 million in 2050. The concept of the church as the body of Christ in the whole world is another growing development for me. Sign up for daily emails to get the latest Harvardnews. (1981) and Ph.D. (1983) in the history of religions from Boston University. Some scholars choose to call it the African Traditional Religion, while others prefer to name it the African traditional Religions. Ritual sacrifices and witchcraft beliefs are still common. Chapter 1: Religious Affiliation. For example, followers can seek spiritual direction and relief from healers, medicine men and women, charms [adornments often worn to incur good luck], amulets [adornments often used to ward off evil], and diviners [spiritual advisers]. With it, one began to explore afresh the realm of Gods revelation and other treasures of our faith. This is, obviously, a general statement, one which needs detailed elaboration. Since Christianity came in contact with the traditional religion, there has always been a sharp conflict between traditionalists and Christians. Mozambique, Botswana and South Africa are the only countries surveyed where a significant number of people (roughly one-in-ten) describe their religion as atheist, agnostic or nothing in particular. In all the other countries, the figure is closer to zero. Ifa is an indispensable treasure trove of knowledge that cant be duplicated elsewhere; much of its knowledge has been handed down from babalawo [Ifa priest/diviner] to babalawo for centuries. 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. No viable theology can grow in Africa without addressing itself to the interreligious phenomenon at work there. Author of. 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. African spirituality is truly holistic. They constitute an important channel of the churchs prophetic witness today. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. After that date there will be more Christians in the south than in the north. (See the glossary for more information on the evil eye.). Currently I am about to complete a book on this question of the encounter between the biblical faith and African religion. 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$! Christianity has scored a triumph over the traditional religious life of the Bira. Focuses on the influences of Africans and African ideas on the mission enterprise, conversion, religious innovation, and church life, but it neglects to cover the . It sensitized my thinking in many areas, one of these being the quest for Christian unity. The idea is that the traditional African practitioner who constructed that amulet believes in the efficacy of other faiths and religions; there is no conflict in his mind between his traditional African spirituality and another faith. The recipient of many prestigious academic honors and research fellowships, Olupona also received the 20152016 Reimar Lust Award for International and Cultural Exchange, considered one of Germanys most prestigious academic honors. It is essentially a postcolonial approach to what AIR and its essential characteristics is: God and humanity, sacrifices, afterlife and ancestors. 9_r'v>#z2"syiBm?mry8%;m8v L,WNHitMJk#RZwEl+M3N1n[nt4]C$i2y]_6Iasrt One of Jacob Oluponas earliest memories in Massachusetts is of nearly freezing in his apartment as a graduate student at Boston University during the great snowstorm of 1978. For instance, if we were to lose indigenous African religions in Africa, then diviners would disappear, and if diviners disappeared, we would not only lose an important spiritual specialist for many Africans, but also an institution that for centuries has been the repository of African history, wisdom, and knowledge. Spirit possession plays an important role in Afro-Haitian religion, as it does in many other world religions. I had it. There is no room to describe them, and I can mention only two or three of them briefly. Reuben Kigame, the Kenyan Christian musician and apologist, has rightly suggested that considering the fact that Christianity existed in Africa for a good eighteen centuries before the. I wish to apply "change of mind" here to mean theological growth, and not necessarily a rejection of or turnaround from ideas that I may have held ten years ago. 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. The WCCs very existence as a council of churches is a living hope. It is here that I have discovered the church in Burma, in the Pacific islands, the house church in China, the basic Christian communities in Latin America, the struggling church in South Africa, plus countless other endeavors of Christians all over the world. All these spirits are believed to live in a mythic land called Ginen, a cosmic Africa. The God of the Christian Bible is understood to be the creator of both the universe and the spirits; the spirits were made by God to help him govern humanity and the natural world. 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. Yet . 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. In the 17th century a movement led by the German Protestant theologian George Calixtus aimed at reconciling the differences between the Protestants in Germany, but his efforts were disparaged by orthodox Christian leaders as syncretistic. trailer (See the glossary for more information on juju. Liberia is the only country where more than one-in-ten (12%) identify primarily with an African traditional religion. Thus, Mbali-God is a creative response on the part of the Bira to the syncretic religious encounter. The award allows Olupona a year of study and research in Germany; he is on leave this year (201516). Subscriptions are available to libraries and individuals who are not members of CASCA. In respect and honor of my culture, I also dress in my traditional Nigerian attire when Im in my country. 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 The numerous traditional African religions have in common the notion of a creator god, who made the world and then withdrew, remaining remote from the concerns of human life. What is African Traditional Religion? (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. GAZETTE: How have ancestors played a role in traditional societies? And in Botswana, Rwanda, South Africa and Zambia, the survey finds that 5% or less identify as Muslim. A calendar of ritual feasts, syncretized with the Roman Catholic calendar, provides the yearly rhythm of religious practice. Holding or maintaining to a uniform doctrine is not the essence of indigenous African religions. Anthropologica, journal of the Canadian Anthropology Society (CASCA) was created from the merger of the Society's former journal, Culture, with Canada's oldest anthropology journal, Anthropologica. interaction between the Christian churches and West African religious culture. Following a period of parish work in England, I went to teach at Makerere University, Uganda, where I remained for ten years until 1974. Spiritual activities like prayer, thanksgiving, and the making of sacrifices were well-established facts of life for the existence and continuation of the community. As the map in the preface to this report shows, sub-Saharan Africa is much more religiously mixed than northern Africa, where the population is overwhelmingly Muslim. Indigenous African religion is primarily an oral tradition and has never been fully codified; thus, it allows itself to more easily be amended and influenced by other religious ideas, religious wisdom, and by modern development. That finished the interview. 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. In addition, roughly a quarter or more of the population in 11 countries say they believe in the protective power of juju (charms or amulets), shrines and other sacred objects. In Nigeria, the population in 1900 included 4.2 million Muslims and 180,000 Christians. Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World, Tolerance and Tension: Islam and Christianity in Sub-Saharan Africa, Next: Chapter 2: Commitment to Christianity and Islam, Chapter 2: Commitment to Christianity and Islam, Chapter 3: Traditional African Religious Beliefs and Practices, Chapter 4: Interreligious Harmony and Tensions, In the U.S. and Western Europe, people say they accept Muslims, but opinions are divided on Islam, In Western Europe, familiarity with Muslims is linked to positive views of Muslims and Islam, Q&A: Measuring attitudes toward Muslims and Jews in Western Europe, Europes Muslim population will continue to grow but how much depends on migration, The Growth of Germanys Muslim Population, Size & Demographic Characteristics of Religious Groups, Pew-Templeton Global Religious Futures Project, 60% of Americans Would Be Uncomfortable With Provider Relying on AI in Their Own Health Care, Gender pay gap in U.S. hasnt changed much in two decades. In Kenya I grew up in home, school and church milieus which held that the African religious and cultural background was demonic and anti-Christian. Maybe this is why I am not an Anglican priest. A semi-annual journal, it publishes peer-reviewed articles in both French and English devoted to social and cultural issues whether they are pre-historic, historic, contemporary, biological, linguistic, applied or theoretical in orientation. The more I peeped into African religious insights about God, the more I felt utterly unable to use the word "only" in this case. Much of Oluponas work is an attempt to provide a fuller understanding of the complexity and richness of African indigenous thought and practice by viewing it not as a foil or as a useful comparative to better understand Western religions, but as a system of thought and belief that should be valued and understood for its own ideas and contribution to global religions. 0000000016 00000 n Anthropologica is published for CASCA by University of Toronto Press. They include the work of missionaries (of whom there are about 40,000 today, without counting their family members); the work of African Christians in evangelism and pastoral care (their numbers are infinitely greater than those of overseas missionaries, and include men, women and children, both lay and ordained); the role of Christian schools; the translation and distribution of the Bible (which is now available in full or in part in nearly 600 of Africas 1,000 languages); and the ending of the colonial era during the decades 1960-1980. This item is part of a JSTOR Collection. hb```b``g`a`.ef@ aV68+ +$.0t9$r8A2Or}6=<4. While Islam and Christianity tend to . Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). (back to text), Photo credit: Sebastien Desarmaux/GODONG/Godong/Corbis, Part of the Pew-Templeton Global Religious Futures Project, 1615 L St. NW, Suite 800Washington, DC 20036USA Corrections? One of the things these diaspora African religions testify to is the beauty of African religions to engage a devotee on many spiritual levels. For instance, the Yoruba religion has historically been centered in southwestern Nigeria, the Zulu religion in southern Africa, and the Igbo religion in southeastern Nigeria. Its aims were to encourage formal and informal dissemination of knowledge through an annual conference and publications; promote relations with other academic and professional associations, aboriginal groups, and governments; and publicize ethnological research and activities to further understanding of ethnological practices. En ce qui concerne la croyance en Dieu, il semblerait que les Biras se soient servis de la chrtient pour rendre leur dieu traditionnel Mbali plus accessible et plus comprhensif, un changement qui a rendu le Dieu des chrtiens plus compatissant et indulgent vis vis du pch. 0000014025 00000 n Pew Research Center does not take policy positions. The amount of devotees to indigenous practices has dwindled as Islam and Christianity have both spread and gained influence throughout the continent. It is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts. Supreme Court may halt health care guarantees for inmates, Why police resist reforms to militarization, Historian says Fla. dispute shows why AP class in African American studies is needed, Low-carb diet can help manage progression of Type 2 diabetes, Those breezy TV drug ads? 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. In 1900 there were an estimated 9 million Christians (accounting for about 7 per cent of the population of Africa). In contrast, witchcraft beliefs persist. I want to see his healing hand, to hear his word that exorcises evil spirits. A close geographical correlation exists between the location of African religion and the rapid expansion of the Christian faith. 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). v6 -j>,>Or%I&!To !{vgrh7xxDs}d[!$8k1zX+@}~ African development. There is not space here to argue the case for the role played by African religion in the establishment of the Christian faith in Africa. 75 0 obj There is no centralized hierarchy, no single leader, and no official spokesperson, but various groups sometimes attempt to create such official structures. Par contre, les croyances en la sorcellerie ont persist. The unseen world is populated by lwa (spirits), myst (mysteries), anvizib (the invisibles), zanj (angels), and the spirits of ancestors and the recently deceased. Muslim populations are especially concentrated in a large geographic belt running west to east from Senegal to the Horn of Africa.1 Southern Africa is predominantly Christian. Chapter 3: Traditional African Religious Beliefs and Practices in social anthropology from Oxford University, is studying for a master of theological studies (M.T.S.) This was an extremely liberating word in my theological thinking.