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Indigenous African Religions

Background

BACKGROUND

Map

Video on Pantheons

Indigenous African religions have evolved with the introduction of bodies of faith that included Christianity and Islam.

https://youtu.be/J2se_zimj40

Traditionally, African religions have been dominated by male deities and male oriented worship.

Traditional African religion is based on oral traditions, which means that the basic values and way of life are passed from elders to younger generation. These traditions are not religious principles, but a cultural identity that is passed on through stories, myths and tales.

Traditional African religion is a way of life in which ancestors are part of every major event such as wedding, births and deaths as well as less important ones such as getting a job and finishing university

Rituals

Beliefs

There are four foundational religious beliefs in the traditional religions: (1) the belief in impersonal (mystical) power(s); (2) the belief in spirit beings; (3) the belief in divinities/gods and (4) the belief in the Supreme Being

SCRIPTURAL TRADITIONS

Scriptural

Tradition

African religions do not have sacred texts but use a symbolic language and written symbols.

Most religious texts are published as books or articles by scholars, religious leaders, and educational researchers. This is to help understand the religion since there is no sacred text.

Adrinka

  • A writing system made of cotton cloth with traditional Akan symbols stamped upon it.
  • The Adrinkra symbols represent popular proverbs and maxims, record historical events, express particular attitudes or behavior related to depicted figures, or concepts uniquely related to abstract shapes.
  • One symbol can represent a proverb or aphorism.
  • Preserves the cultural and spiritual value.

Adrinkra

http://www.ibdesignsvi.com/img/cms/adinkra-cloth-symbols.jpg

Oral Tradition

  • Oral text must be performed as a ritual of song, dance, and audience interaction.
  • The text can include myths, stories, and proverbs of philosophical worldview.

Oral Tradition

https://youtu.be/bJgD3ttyTLc?t=35

Definition:

Globalization

"Globalization is the connection of different parts of the world. Globalization results in the expansion of international cultural, economic, and political activities. As people, ideas, knowledge, and goods move more easily around the globe, the experiences of people around the world become more similar."

The United Nations Universal

Declaration of Human Rights, states that ‘everyone has the right to liberty,

“all persons” are entitled to equal protection, “no one” shall be subjected

to torture, and “everyone” has the right to an adequate standard of living’

Human Rights

Cultural Relativists believe that notions of right, wrong, and moral differ throughout

the world because the cultures in which they are found differ. Therefore,

no culture should impose its ideas on another culture.

FGM is a procedure involving partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons, and it is practiced in 28 African countries.

In some communities, FGM marks an important rite of passage into womanhood, in others it’s believed to guarantee virginity, curb female sexual desires, maintain hygiene, prevent promiscuity, and increase fertility,

FGM is often performed without anesthesia and done with a tool that is shared among all girls being circumcised at the same time, which can result in sickness or death due to infection, hemorrhage, tetanus, or blood poisoning.

Female Genital Mutilation

Boy To Man: A Rite of Passage

Boy To Man

LGBT

Child Marriage

"Females' age at marriage is slowly dropping in Sub-Saharan Africa as young virgins, considered less likely to be infected with HIV/AIDS, are sought as child brides"

Governments throughout Africa are starting to focus on the reform of early marriage, with laws outlining minimum ages for marriage - but these laws typically only apply to marriages lacking parental consent. Marriages arranged by parents can involve children well below a country's legal minimum age.

Women and Men

Gender Role and Identity

Women's role in African traditional religions is that women traditionally assume roles of leadership as priestesses, diviners, and healers. Women are viewed as predominant participants in spirit possession (Gale, 2005).

Men have authority in polity, but women control the base of men in public authority through mystical powers. Men are seen on the thrones and in official settings as rulers, yet perceived as unable to stand without the help of the invisible base which is the women (Gale, 2005).

Women are often well off financially. However they're also hardworking and prosperous, sometimes more so than their husbands (Gale, 2005).

Women and Men

According to Vaughn, women seem to have internalized this image of female inferiority and therefore somehow taken male domination as the natural order of things. Also, the Oriental world keeps women behind the veil, and they continue to be denied the right to think for themselves. It is said that women are merely as helpers to men. Women surrender to the standard of man-made world in which she finds herself, and her husband becomes her keeper in every sense. The women hardly decides anything on her own, even small details of her daily life is settled by her husband.

In Vaughn, it says women should not aspire to tasks that ultimately challenge the male authorities at home. It's also said that its unsuitable for a women to speak in public meetings, since such public roles belong to the man.

Women and Men Continued

Conflict and Violence

""Conflict usually occurs primarily as a result of a clash of interests in the relationship between parties, groups or states, either because they pursuing opposing or incompatible goals" (Oyeniyi, 2011).

Much of the conflicts and violence that stems from Africa comes from the following sources; boundary conflicts, conflict governance, conflict of economic development, conflict resulting from foreign intervention, and conflict arising from the militarization of the society (Oyeniyi, 2011).

Christians vs Muslims in Africa

Conflict between religions

Christianity and Islam are the two dominant religions in the sub-Saharan Africa, together they account for more than 93% of the population. There has been an ongoing conflict between these two religions in Africa. Results show that religion may not be the root cause of it. Instead education is the driving factor of conflict that divides these two religions (Dahir, 2017).

During the colonial era, Christian missionaries were central agents in the development of education and curriculum systems, mostly rooted in evangelicalism and scripture. While muslims families never sent their children to these schools because they feared their conversion (Dahir, 2017).

Christians vs Muslims

Muslims instead established their own Islamic education system . Often in these areas there were limited educational investments, especially by Christians, either to avoid conflict or because of perceived low demand for western style education (Dahir, 2017). Results show 57% of men in sub-Saharan Africa have no formal schooling compared with 36% of Christian women and 22% of Christian men (Dahir, 2017).

Christians vs Muslims

Root of the violence in Africa

Roots

Much of Africa’s current predicaments of poverty, corruption, and violent conflicts are not solely the result of African decisions, but are also the consequence of foreign intrusion into African affairs. Many of today’s challenges are the outcome of colonial political and economic practices, Cold War alliances, and attempts by outsiders to influence African political and economic systems during the decolonization and post-independence periods. Although local issues sparked numerous recent disputes, external political and military interventions altered their dynamics and rendered them more lethal (Schmidt, 2016).

When colonialism in Africa collapsed after World War II, Cold War powers jockeyed with imperial powers to control the decolonization process. During a period characterized by political competition, economic rivalry, and military friction between the United States and the Soviet Union, the United States hoped to replace the European imperial powers as the dominant external force in Africa (Schmidt, 2016).

Root of violence in Africa

Roots Continued

When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 it brought the Cold War to an end. Schmidt mentions following the collapse free market austerity policies imposed by Western-dominated international financial institutions and weak postcolonial states contributed to deadly struggles over power and resources. African dictators, no longer useful to their former patrons, were cut adrift, and African nations were left with a legacy of looted resources, massive debt, dysfunctional states, and multiple regional wars over the spoils (Schmidt, 2016). Also distinctions in power and privilege and conflicts over natural resources predated the colonial period. According to Schmidt, "The plundering of African riches through unequal exchange was rooted in colonial economic practices, as well as enduring ethnic and regional hierarchies established during the colonial period. Internal corruption, mismanagement, and the privileging of some groups over others had resulted in volatile societies characterized by vast disparities in wealth and power. However, the influx of weapons and money during the Cold War entrenched power differentials and rendered local conflicts more deadly. When the Cold War ended, unstable countries were flooded with leftover weapons that fueled new competition for riches and power. Years of war and repression had destroyed organized political opposition in many countries. Hence, when indigenous pro-democracy movements and rebel insurgencies ousted Cold War dictators who were no longer bolstered by foreign powers, local strongmen and neighboring states frequently moved into the power vacuum" (Schmidt, 2016).

Root of violence in Africa

Roots continued

Schmidt mentions, "Since the Cold War, new justifications for foreign intervention in Africa have emerged. The Cold War paradigm has been replaced by those of the “responsibility to protect” and the “war on terror.” Some foreign governments and multilateral organizations have interceded in conflicts to protect civilian lives or to restore regional stability. However, outside powers have tended to engage selectively, choosing conflict zones that advance their own political, economic, and strategic interests, while ignoring others. International humanitarian and peacekeeping efforts have often been marred by conflicting interests that have sometimes hurt the people they intended to assist. The war on terror, like its Cold War antecedent, has increased American and European military presence on the continent, generated new external support for repressive governments, and contributed to an escalation of violence in many regions. Rather than promoting security, outside intervention has often intensified strife and undermined prospects for peace, demonstrating once again how failure to learn from the past has obscured the pitfalls of the future" (Schmidt, 2016).

Causes of violence

Causes

Causes of violence stems from; inter-state borders, ethnicity, military, political (international and domestic), persecution, and poor economic performance (Oyeniyi, 2011).

Types of conflict and violence

Types

Conflicts afflicting African states are brought about by a variety of factors; elite conflicts, factional conflicts, communal and mass conflicts, revolutionary conflicts, and foreign intervention (Oyeniyi, 2011).

Bibliography

Boy To Man National Geographic. (2007, December 19). Retrieved April 8, 2019, from https://youtu.be/81JPj8BqBBQ

Child Marriage Is A Growing Issue In Central African Republic (HBO). (2018, May 01). Retrieved April 8, 2019, from https://youtu.be/c8_4PGwexA4

Ilesanmi, S. (1995). Human Rights Discourse in Modern Africa: A Comparative Religious Ethical Perspective. The Journal of Religious Ethics, 23(2), 293-322. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.gvsu.edu/stable/40017853

LGBT Rights in Africa - the Oslo Conference on Human Rights, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity. (2013, April 15). Retrieved April 8, 2019, from https://youtu.be/tzzBbOLbtI4

Lukale, N., Holstein, Å, Rizvi, I., Wiklander, J., & Gorp, A. L. (2019, March 19). Harmful Traditional Practices: A Great Barrier to Women's Empowerment. Retrieved April 8, 2019, from https://www.girlsglobe.org/2014/02/24/harmful-traditional-practices-a-great-barrier-to-womens-empowerment/

National Geographic Society. (2012, October 09). Globalization. Retrieved April 8, 2019, from https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/globalization/

Nyangweso M. (2017) ‘Religion, Human Rights, and the African Widow’,

Peace Human Rights Governance, 1(3), 365-391.

Gale, Thomson. (2005). Gender and Religion: Gender and African Religious Traditions. Encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://www.encyclopedia.com/environment/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps

Oyeniyi, Adeleye. (2011, Feb. 28). Conflict and Violence in Africa: Causes, Sources and Types. Transcend Media Service. Retrieved from https://www.transcend.org/tms/2011/02/conflict-and-violence-in-africa-causes-sources-and-types/

Dahir, L. Abdi. (2017, Jan. 10). The biggest divide between African Muslims and Christians isn't their religion. Quartz Africa. Retrieved from https://qz.com/africa/880933/education-levels-are-the-biggest-divide-between-christians-and-muslims-in-africa/

Schmidt, Elizabeth. (2016, Jul. 26). Conflict in Africa: The Historical Roots of Current Problems. Perspectives on History. Retrieved from https://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/summ

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