African Belief System

African Belief System

              Abstract:

    Scholars have misunderstood the concept of God and spirits in the African traditional religion. Many of the scholars saw Africans as people who did not have an idea of the Supreme Being, nor did them worship him (Awolalu, 1976).  However, the paper shows that the concept of God is not new to Africans, but in traditional beliefs, it is no atheist. Most of the factors have led to this disagreement, such as the preconception by western scholars who measured the conventional view with Christianity. Lack of a precise study of African religion also led to a swift conclusion.

    The foundation, evangelization and most of the missionary activities of both Christian and Islam in many of the African countries resulted in the conversion of the indigenous people. Most of these people were from the African Traditional religion and converted to the two mission religions. Many of the religious beliefs and practices (immigrant religions) have an impact on the religious and cultural life of the traditional communities. Also, many of the indigenous religious beliefs and values have for many years served as the conciliation of expression for both the two religions (Awolalu, 1976).

To a great extent, they have also shaped the incarnation of Christianity and Islam as well as the relationship between the two groups. This proposal sets out to show the impact of traditional religious beliefs and cultural norms on the context of religious pluralist. The research tools which have been used in the past, namely, observation and interview of traditional rites make it possible to learn and understand the social, cultural history and religion of the people who existed. The local scholarly material borrows a lot from the non-indigenous sources with their fundamental assumptions and biases.

Introduction

      Most of the scholars who came to study the religion of Africans were armchair western scholars. This scholar depended on data collected by the missionaries without the awareness that most of the missionaries who based their concentration on one tribe. They found the information collected from the localities in most of the Africans states and drawn their conclusion about the knowledge of God on Africans. Also, they went as far as believing that sub-Saharan Africa has one religious belief and practice (Shaw, 1990).

        There are some of the African scholars such as John S. Mbiti who shed some light on this misunderstanding about African religion. This misunderstanding had continued until the 1970s and 1980s until the time when this indigenous scholars set out to refute and opposed some of the erroneous claims. African religion got new hope and integrity after the indigenous missionaries echoed that Africans had known God before even the missionaries visited Africa.

This paper sheds some light that there are realities present in the African religion, which have not been adequately championed by most of the Africans (Shaw, 1990).  This is because their faith has blinded the Eurocentric Africans because they refer to their God by different names in Africa. The position of spirits and other divinities do not necessarily contradict their belief in the Supreme Being. Besides, in other religions of the world, deities and spirits are set out as messengers of the Supreme Being. The work will, therefore, focus on showing clearly the place of God and other things such as spirits in the African religion.

In the Africans religious ontology, God is believed to be all-knowing. He is self-existed and has powers which sustain the whole universe. God is believed to have revealed himself in different ways, and most of the human beings have felt his presence. Some of the people, e.g. the Jews and Muslims because of receiving the revelation, have seen God as a personal being. Those who have not received the revelation and the manifestation such as the Buddhists do not see God as an individual being at all. Consequently, the greatness of this being has been echoed by most of the scholars and religious groups. Various sacred scriptures have also described God as the Supreme Being.

The greatness of the Supreme Being God has also been portrayed in most of the African religion. Even if there is a lack of written scriptures in the African traditional religion, then it does not mean that the knowledge of God does not exist in the African ontology. The knowledge of God has it has been put by S. Mbiti has been expressed in songs, proverbs, stories and myths. This means that for the western scholars to understand the concept of God, then they had to study the culture of the African people entirely.

       There are varying perspectives of scholars in Africa concerning the knowledge of God and the origin of religion. Through the reflections on the universe, Africans came to believe in God. Africans came to believe that through the complexity and the vastness of the universe, then there must be a supreme being who sustains it. Through this, they began to worship him and giving him adoration. Secondly, through observing the forces of nature, they came to believe in God. Africans came to believe in God by following the link between the earth and heaven as Mbiti put it in his argument. The man became the Centre of the universe, and the belie3f readily began to make sense. This knowledge of God through beliefs became the compass of the religion of Africa. There are also several attributes of God in Africa where God is believed to be unique, eternal and Transcendent.

Conclusion

     In conclusion, the Supreme Being has a definite place in the African religious context. Besides, he is regarded as the reliable being whose powers exceeds all powers. He is seen as the creator of everything on the universe and directs all human affairs (Okon, 2013).  In Africa, the Supreme Being is also worshipped in many of the places without even a temple. I am therefore of the view that in African traditional belief systems, God-Supreme Being plays a vital role in the mode of existence on humans on earth

References

Awolalu, J. O. (1976). What is African traditional religion. Studies in Comparative Religion, 10(2), 1-10.

Okon, E. E. (2013). Distortion of facts in western ethnographic study of African religion, culture and society. International Journal of Asian Social Science, 3(1), 92-101.

Shaw, R. (1990). The invention of ‘African traditional religion’. Religion, 20(4), 339-353.