Africa - religion
By African religion is meant the traditional
religions on the sub-Saharan African continent. In
the history of religion, African religion has often
been placed at the bottom of the ladder of
religions. Terms such as "primitive religion",
"tribal religions", "animism" or "ancestral cult",
which were previously commonly used, reflect the
Christian missionaries' view and thus Europe's
general image of African religion up to the middle
of the 20th century.
Two factors have proved crucial for both the
previously prevailing interpretation and for the
breakthrough in the understanding of African
religion that has occurred since the years around
1960. First, African religion has existed in a
culture without written language, i.e. it has
primarily found expression in actions, rituals, and
in myths handed down by oral tradition. It was
Christian missionaries who, after acquiring African
languages, collected the orally transmitted myths
and gave an initial description of the religion in
their area. Secondly, these descriptions, which have
since been followed up by anthropologists and
especially African religious scholars, have focused
on the frequently debated question: Are there a
number of individual religions, each with its own
distinctive features that reflect the natural
environment and ethnic groups?
Some often overlooked unity-creating factors on
the African continent are the reason why the answer
to this question now points in the latter direction.
Recent archaeological studies and studies of the
migration pattern dispel the myth of small isolated
communities. Both internal communication and
external influences have been significant. Music and
dance are of central importance for the practice of
religion, and the spread of musical instruments
reveals a high degree of mutual influence between
the population groups. The religious myths also
reveal that ancient connections to North Africa, the
Middle East, the Arabian Peninsula and even across
the Indian Ocean have not gone unnoticed across the
continent. Draw in the notions of the supreme
god suggests such a filtering process, and there are
in the myth-like accounts of the myths memories of
Judeo-Christian and Muslim tradition. Among
virtually all population groups is the idea of the
supreme god, who is the cause of all life's
resurrection (a creator god), and with whom an
explanation of all life's creations must be sought.
African religion thus has a clear monotheistic
character, although the supreme god in the
individual areas may assume different forms, such as
the Kikuyu Ngai who live on Mount Kenya, or the
Yoruba Oludumare who live in the clouds.
Central to human relations with the supreme god
is the question of the nearness or remoteness of the
god. It is widely believed that God has withdrawn
from direct and close contact with humans; the
withdrawal is explained by the fact that man in a
distant past violated the precepts given by God;
from several places are known myths that contain
accounts of a kind of fall.
The religious universe necessarily includes
divine figures or powerful persons who can mediate
the contact between god and humans. There is a
faceted world of gods populated by "functional
gods", to whom the highest god has delegated certain
functions, such as rain, fertility or war. They play
a significant role in the rituals, but they act on
behalf of God and thus do not violate the basic
monotheistic principle. Closely connected with the
needs of the tribe or lineage are its founders, the
ancestors, who, as mythological figures, as a result
of their closeness to the supreme god, possess a
special power and are able to intervene on behalf of
the descendants.
Furthermore, the religious universe is populated
by the recently deceased ancestors, who are referred
to as "the living dead", as long as their names are
retained in the memory of the living today,
preferably four to five generations back. Their
close relationships with and sanction options
towards living family members make them extremely
present in people's life course. Their task is to
maintain the survivors in their duties towards the
family and to ensure that the inherited precepts are
observed. Sickness, death, obsession, miscarriage
and other unexplained events are attributed to the
ancestors, which the living have to constantly seek
to appease, e.g. by gifts on the graves, shedding of
the first crop, slaughter of livestock, etc. In
particular, has led to the talk of ancestral
worship. It is important to establish that the
ancestors are not the object of actual worship; by
virtue of their control over the resources of the
family, they stand as the co-players and opponents
of the present-day in the religious universe.
The notion of the supreme god is one side of the
breakthrough in the interpretation of African
religion. The other side consists in the pointing
out of a particular spiritual force, sometimes
called the life force, which binds the different
parts of the religious universe together and creates
the dynamics. This power, which emanates from the
supreme god, has people in it, but at the same time
it is a universe where it is for man to keep the
spiritual forces in balance. This is done primarily
through rituals and symbols that are perceived as
highly realistic and transcend the normal
distinction between reality and symbol for Western
thought. This is behind the use of fetishes and
amulets and emerges not least in connection with the
important rites of passage - birth, puberty,
marriage and death - also called "parties of life".
Explanation of the destinies of life must be found
within this world of thought and with the use of its
particular rationality.
People with special insight into the spiritual
universe play a powerful and absolutely necessary
role. The medicine man is such an expert who manages
to read the workings of the forces and to advise on
the means to be used to restore the balance of
forces. This is also true when evil in the form of
witchcraft threatens to undermine life by attacking
the community and the network of mutual obligations
that are essential to human existence.
According to this modern view, African religion
is a fully-fledged, logically coherent system, in
which the power emanating from God is the governing
principle, and in which man through his actions is
the central actor. Therefore, daily life on Earth
becomes crucial, not - as in Christianity and Islam
- the longing for life after death; nor is the goal
to get away from the down-to-earth life, as is the
case in Hinduism and Buddhism. The work of the
spiritual power, ie. god, belongs in the everyday
life of man, and the quality of life depends on the
relationship with God. The life-affirming therefore
remains the fundamental feature of African religion.
In Africa, religion has fostered a collective
mindset and strengthened the sense of community,
which has often determined how the encounter with an
immigrant religion such as Christianity has turned
out.
Africa religion (Islam)
Islam spread from the Arab world to North Africa
and from the 1000's. further across the Sahara to
West Africa. Knowledge of Islam was especially
prevalent by Islamic scholars who traveled with the
trade caravans.
In West Africa, Islam predominated in the cities
until the end of the 1700's. Subsequently, West
African Muslims, most often organized into Sufi
fraternities (see Sufism), launched an armed
campaign, a jihad, which led to the Islamization of
most of West Africa's savannah areas. A number of
Islamic states - such as the emirates of northern
Nigeria - were established and the Malikit law
school became dominant. Often the political elite
closely followed the Qur'an and Islamic legal
traditions, while the general population united
Islam with local religious features, for example in
connection with healing.
Islam came from the 800's. to East Africa from
the Arab world and followed - as in West Africa -
the caravan routes. In East Africa, Islam was
concentrated along the coast and has only penetrated
into the country in a few places. Islam is dominated
here by the Shafiti law school. From the 1800's.
Asian Muslims have immigrated to eastern and
southern Africa.
The spread of Islam in Africa has probably been
strongest during the colonial era in the 1900's, and
by the end of the century there are probably more
than 150 million people in sub - Saharan Africa.
African Muslims. North Africa - from Morocco to
Egypt - is predominantly Islamic, but Islam also has
great political and cultural significance in
countries such as Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina
Faso, Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Sudan and Somalia.
Source:
https://www.countryaah.com/african-countries/ |