AFRICAN TRADITIONAL RELIGION

 This article introduces you to what African Traditional
Religion is all about, its beliefs,
rituals and practices. Religion is found in
every human society. It is a sacred institution which educates persons on
his/her beliefs and practices in relation to the divine being. 

The Traditional Religion
in Africa is regarded as the cohesive factor in the society. Its aim among others
is to foster peace and harmony and uphold moral values in African society. Hence
religion permeates the African society. Culturally, African became religious from
the cradle unlike Islam or Christianity which emphasizes personal conversion.

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p style=”line-height: 150%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;”>Religion can be explained
as a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe,
especially when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies,
usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a
moral code governing the conduct of human affairs.

Eight elements of religions

1. Belief system or
   worldview: Many beliefs that fit together in a system to make sense
   of the universe and our place in it.
2. Community:
   The belief system is shared, and its ideals are practiced by a group.
3. Central
   stories/myths: Stories that help
   explain the beliefs of a group; these are told over and over again and
   sometimes performed by members of the group. They may or may not be
   factual.
4. Rituals:
   Beliefs are explained, taught, and made real through ceremonies.
5. Ethics:
   Rules about how to behave; these rules are often thought to have come from
   a deity or supernatural place, but they might also be seen as guidelines
   created by the group over time.
6. Characteristic
   emotional experiences: Most religions
   share emotions such as awe, mystery, guilt, joy, devotion, conversion,
   inner peace, etc.
7. Material expression:
   Religions use things to perform rituals or to express or represent
   beliefs, such as: statues, paintings, music, flowers, incense, clothes,
   architecture, and specific sacred locations.
8.  Sacredness:
   Religions see some things as sacred and some not sacred (or profane). Some
   objects, actions, people and places may share in the sacredness or express
   it.

 Mbiti (1969:11-17) describes
African Religion
generally in five parts:

(i)                
beliefs, which show how people think about the universe and their attitude towards life itself.
 The religious
beliefs in this
era were concerned with topics such as God, spirits, human life, magic, and the afterlife; 

(ii)             
religious practices,
ceremonies and festivals
through which people express themselves
in practical terms;

(iii)           
religious objects and places which people have set apart as being holy and sacred;

(iv)            
values and morals which deal with
ideas that safeguard and uphold
the life of the people in their relationship with one another and the world around them, and;

(v)              
religious officials and leaders who conduct religious ceremonies, sacrifices, formal prayers and divination.

As seen in the five parts above, African religion is an essential part of African life. Its influence covers all of life, from
birth to death.  People
find religion useful and meaningful
in their lives and therefore,
it spreads freely in
the community.  They teach it informally to their children through conversation, proverbs
and myths as well as through
practice.  Young people also learn
about it through
participation in religious ceremonies, festivals and rituals.

Religion tells African people how the universe was created, why humans occupy a special place in the scheme of
things, why natural disasters occur, why some people triumph while others fail
and why everyone must suffer and
eventually die. People seek to explain experiences and events by attributing them to
causes with explanations that can only be found in religion. In short, religion is a major source of giving meaning to life.
This fact is particularly, though not exclusively, evident in regard to tragic events
and crises in people’s lives. In
these situations, religion can provide explanations.  Religious belief system also maintains and enhances
the self-concept of individual
members of the community. Thus religion
may enhance that feeling of
unconditional regard through the
belief that “God loves me”.

African religion is entirely a lived religion
and not a doctrinal one. It requires no formal induction. One is born into it and learns it throughout one’s life through normal socialisation. In no way is anything understood apart from the context of a Supreme Being, the ancestors and the spirits. As a result, reverence must be accorded to the world and what is
in it and around it.  This is not only a religious, but also a moral requirement, for
every person if he/she
is going to survive in the world and community in which he/she
lives.

African religion
is community-oriented. African  religion  functions
 more 
on  a  communal  than  an  individual
 basis,
therefore, it does not matter whether the individual accepts all its beliefs.
Additionally, because this religion belongs
to all members of
the community, no individual member of the
society can stand apart and reject the whole of his/her people’s
religion. To do so, would mean to cut himself/herself off from the
total life of his/her community.
Therefore, even if an individual converts to another religion, it does not necessarily mean that the person entirely abandons his/her own religion (African
Traditional Religion).  

Supreme Being

Zambian Traditionalists strongly believe in God as “Maker of
heaven and earth”.  They
believed that God lives
in the sky and can see everywhere.  Therefore, amongst the tribes of
Zambia, God is generally called Lesa, Mulungu,
Mulimu, and Mwami, but there are also various other names.  These
names are related to God’s creation and other activities carried
out by God among people. For example, among the Lunda and Luvale tribes of North-
Western province God is called Kalunga, denoting the force or power behind the rain, thunder and lightning.  The Lambas often designate God as Liulu, which means in the first place ‘the heaven’.  This is
consistent with the Lambas
understanding of God’s location.

Lesa is believed
to be the creator of all things, of the abantu (people) who live in
the realm, those working on the sun and the moon, those in charge of the abode of the dead, those guarding the animals and of the abantunshi (human beings), those on the earth, who are subject to imikowa or clan distinctions.  In addition to the material
creation and that of the different
types of abantu,
God is said to have created the
ifibanda (demons).

Thus,
God was also seen as the source of evil or the ultimate origin of evil.
 While
the African would admit that God does good things,
he/she would also maintain that God does things which are not good.  God can either send the
rain or withhold it.  God can give life, but can also send death
and disease.  The African,
therefore, sometimes questions God’s
goodness.

In addition,
God tended to be seen in terms of function rather than in terms of morality. “God is not pictured in an ethical-spiritual relationship with humans which would result in future ‘life or death’.
 Humans turned to God because they needed rain or they wanted
good crops or many children,
not because they really wanted God then or in the future”. Consequently, many rejoiced
to find belief in God already present in culture and
language.

As a result, the focus was placed more on
the community or the horizontal dimension, rather than on the vertical
(God-human) relationship and this community did not end with death.  In a
real sense the community extended beyond those who were now living to those who had
gone before.  The African family is a single
continuing unit conscious
of no radical distinction of being between the living and the
dead.  Therefore,
the dead constitute the invisible part of the family, clan or tribe”. Despite
this circumstantial relationship, African
Traditionalists still teach their children how to give a pre–eminent place to the Supreme Being and to accord the respect and love required
by that Being.

Spirit World

African
traditionalists believe that the earth is inhabited by spirits and ghosts who are invisible to the
uninitiated. These creatures are malevolent and were used by people
of the cult.  Other people, however, could be protected against their intrigue.
 This protection was obtained, at a
cost, from “medicine men”.  These
evil spirits were the spirits of those who
had died in hatred and who caused trouble and misfortune.  If such a spirit caused serious
misfortunes,
the body of the dead person whose spirit was causing the trouble was
dug up and burnt to destroy
the evil spirit’s
power.

Ancestral Spirits

Ancestral spirits, while dwelling in the spirit-world, also existed
in another dimension of the
earth.  They
offered protection against
evil spirits and ghosts.  The spirit-world is known as
the “station” from
which immanent ancestral
spirits operate. These were the
spirits of powerful people, like
great chiefs, who died before any
living people were born. These were more powerful than the “living-dead” and were responsible for the well-being of the whole community.
 They often lived beside special holy
places, such as waterfalls, special
trees or rocks.

The
concept is, therefore, that humans live in a world saturated
with evil spirits, ghosts and their human allies and are constantly in danger. The Absolute Creator
of all, including the spiritual
and physical realms, has veto power
over the creation and delegates his powers to the spiritual beings in charge of each department of this creation.  Hence, the creator does not
always interfere in human life. The earth, therefore, is sacred and permeated with good and
evil, and by neutral spiritual forces which
can be exploited by humans.

Worship and Sacrifices

As far as worship
was concerned, Mbiti (1969:58) asserts
that God was worshipped in a
number of ways among African peoples.  The first form of worship was the use of sacrifices
(when animals were killed) and offerings (the presentation of food, animal blood or other items).
 These
were given to God, the spirits, and the living-dead.  The spirits and the
living- dead were regarded
as intermediaries
between God and people, so that God was seen as the
ultimate recipient.  Mbiti
(1969:61, 66) goes on to list
some of the expressions of worship in
African societies, and indeed, these are commonly found amongst Zambian tribes.  

The first one was prayer, which was the commonest act of
worship.  Most
prayers were addressed
to God, to the living-dead or other spiritual
beings, many of whom served as intermediaries. Prayers were most likely
to be made directly to God when the rain failed to come or when there was an epidemic of a particular disease.   

Secondly,
incorporating Gods’ name into a
child’s name was also an act of worship
and signified that the child had been born in answer to prayer and that the parents
wanted to thank God.  In addition, it may have been because the circumstances of birth seemed to signify
an attribute of God.  

Thirdly, the use of proverbs was another way Africans expressed religious ideas and feelings.
 Most
African people like to sing and God is often worshipped through songs which are
used in different situations and
rituals. African beliefs were expressed through concrete
concepts, attitudes and acts of worship.