African Religion: some basic concepts

All African religions are monotheistic Single high God Creator Central source of order

Creator God Not blamed for calamities and misfortune Explains creation and existence

Many African religions are polytheistic Pantheon of gods Large number of spirits Ancestors Other divinities

The pantheon of divinities Stands between people and God

Monotheism -Supreme God 1 Polytheism -Major spirits 1 1 1 1 1 1 Animism -Countless spirits 111111111111

Animism Belief in spiritual beings Belief that things (objects) have spiritual powers

Unlike world religions African religions--precise 1 to 1 association with a particular group

African religions Continuation of life after death But not a heaven or hell Ancestor devotion “keeping in touch”

African religions Not over concern with orthodoxy Like “many strings on the bow” Several ritual ways of doing things

Rituals achieve alignment With the ancestors With the living people tend to neglect ritual until demanded by divinities

Ancestor devotion/worship Keeping in touch Remembering your relatives (high mortality)

After death, a person is remembered Eventually not well remembered Recently departed is still of current interest Living need their ancestors to sanction events

Ancestors remind the living Send some misfortune to make you remember

No sacred scriptures Oral tradition Ritual experts Everyone is a “carrier” of religion

Religious journey of the individual of the ritual expert of the group based on the life cycle birth to death

Ritual experts Priests, priestesses Diviners Healers, curers Rainmakers

Ritual experts The M.D.s and Ph.D.s of their society Highly intelligent people Devoted to their work

Divination Links the physical and spiritual world Keeps you aligned

Diviners Excellent knowledge about people Often intuitive Can make the unknown explicit Were sick and recovered

Diviners Often men, but in some women Dr. Spring apprenticed to two diviners for 1 and a half years each

Basket diviner (multiple objects)

Rod diviner (binary system)

World religions Judaism, Christianity, Islam, etc. see themselves are more highly evolved African religions--operate on a variety of levels

Rites of Passage (Rites de passage) Changes in status Changes in state of being Important markers in people’s lives

What types? Do we have them? Sociological Graduation, 21 Quince, 15, sweet 16 Drivers license Engagement, marriage, divorce Confirmation/ bar/bas mitzvah Retirement Biological/Physiological Puberty Birth, parturition Menopause Death

3 phases Separation Liminality (in limbo) Reintegration

Initiation Rituals Life crisis or changes rituals Social and physical passages Situation triggers ritual Art, music, dance in relation to the sacred

Reinforces adult authority and governance Social control Instruction Entertainment

Puberty rituals: Luvale of Zambia For boys and girls, but differ Boys -- include circumcision Girls -- do not

Boys Ritual for group of boys Outside the village Not based on physiological event Not connected to marriage

Girls Individual Based on menarche (14 to 16 years old in past) In village Connected to marriage