what is a common belief in most african religions?
A heritage from the past, yet not treated as a thing of the past but that which connects the past with the present and the present with eternity. One religious ceremony practiced in Gabon and Cameroon is the Okuyi, practiced by several Bantu ethnic groups. Animism is a common feature of African religions, and misfortune is often attributed to witchcraft and sorcery. Christianity, major religion stemming from the life, teachings, and death of Jesus of Nazareth (the Christ, or the Anointed One of God) in the 1st century ce.It has become the largest of the world's religions and, geographically, the most widely diffused of all faiths. About half of African Buddhists are now living in South Africa, while Mauritius has the highest Buddhist percentage in the continent, between 1.5%[45] to 2%[46] of the total population. The essence of this school of thought is based mainly on oral transmission; that which is written in people's hearts, minds, oral history, customs, temples and religious functions. 10, No. The debate on the existence of religion in Africa is far from over; it reverberates in new dimensions but asking the same old questions in newer ways. The priests (both male and female) of the Yoruba thunder god Shango also experience possession trances, and they carry staffs to represent their access to Shangos power. Blacks - Religion in America: U.S. Religious Data, Demographics and The possessed are referred to as horsemen, because they are mounted by the spirits and submit to their control. African religions emphasize maintaining a harmonious relationship with the divine powers, and their rituals attempt to harness cosmic powers and channel them for good. The staff depicts a woman kneeling in supplication, the symbolic two-headed ax extending from her head. And eight-in-ten Protestants who attend religious services at least a few times a year say this, regardless of the racial composition of their congregation. Prayers and sacrificial offerings are usually directed toward secondary divinities, who are intermediaries between the human and sacred realms. 38%. 80% of African population identify as either Christian or Muslim today. Nevertheless, long cultural contact, in degrees ranging from trade to conquest, has forged some fundamental commonalities among religions within subregions, allowing for some generalizations to be made about the distinguishing features of religions indigenous to Africa. [36], When this trance-like state is witnessed and understood, adherents are privy to a way of contemplating the pure or symbolic embodiment of a particular mindset or frame of reference. All aspects of weather, thunder, lightning, rain, day, moon, sun, stars, and so on may become amenable to control through the cosmology of African people. Polytheistic? Cambridge, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishers, 1996. Rituals are aimed at maintaining a harmonious relationship with cosmic powers, and many have associated myths that explain their significance. Ancestor veneration has always played a "significant" part in the traditional African cultures and may be considered as central to the African worldview. Witches are humans who are thought to possess intermediating power; they are called the owners of the world because their power to intercede surpasses that of the ancestors or the divinities. [7], According to Dr J Omosade Awolalu, The "olden" in this context means indigenous, that which is foundational, handed down from generation to generation, meant as to be upheld and practised today and forevermore. Most African societies believe in several high gods and a large amount of lower gods and spirits. Ritual often marks a transition between physiological stages of life (such as puberty or death) and a change in social status (as from child to adult). 1 ), "Religious Identity Among Muslims | Pew Research Center", "Government Must Find Solution for Baha'i Egyptians", "Regional Conferences of the Five Year Plan; November 2008March 2009", "The Hindu Diaspora | Religious Literacy Project", "Most Buddhist Nations (2010) - QuickLists - The Association of Religion Data Archives", "Most Chinese Universist Nations (2010) - QuickLists - The Association of Religion Data Archives", "Religious Adherents, 2010 Mauritius (0.2% Buddhist + 1.3% Chinese Folk Religion)", https://books.google.com/books?id=pOcWLGktIYoC&pg=PA254, http://www.missiology.org.uk/pdf/cotterell-fs/15_ferdinando.pdf, "The World Factbook Central Intelligence Agency", "Numbers and Percentage of Muslims in African Countries", "Muslims of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)", Global Religious Landscape Table - Percent of Population - Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, "Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project: Kenya", "Malawi Facts and Figures | RIPPLE Africa", "Welcome religiousintelligence.co.uk BlueHost.com", "UGANDA 2016 INTERNATIONAL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM REPORT", "Religious Composition by Country, 2010-2050", "Refworld - 2008 Report on International Religious Freedom - Swaziland", "African Traditional Religion" in "The Story of Africa" from the BBC World Service, African Religions at Africa Missions Resource Center, Tutelary deities of the Akan people of West Africa, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Religion_in_Africa&oldid=1159641556, All articles with bare URLs for citations, Articles with bare URLs for citations from January 2022, Articles with PDF format bare URLs for citations, Short description is different from Wikidata, Wikipedia articles needing clarification from January 2012, All articles with vague or ambiguous time, Vague or ambiguous time from February 2021, Articles with unsourced statements from October 2015, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 4.0, This page was last edited on 11 June 2023, at 16:14. These persons are essential in the spiritual and religious survival of the community. 2. The impact of the French in their new colonies is directly related to the prevalence of Catholicism in Haiti as it was their colonial master. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. 9 August 2012. The Benin Monarchy, Olokun & Iha Ominigbon. a. that the irreligious comprise 20% in South Africa, 16% in Botswana, 13% in Mozambique, 13% in Togo, 12% in Ivory Coast, 10% in Ethiopia and Angola, 9% in Sudan, Zimbabwe and Algeria, 8% in Namibia and 7% in Madagascar. Corrections? In Nigeria the Yoruba hold that the Almighty Creator, Olorun, oversees a pantheon of secondary divinities, the orisha. Instead, failure is part of a successful life. There are mystics that are responsible for healing and 'divining' - a kind of fortune telling and counseling, similar to shamans. They provide common doctrines and styles of worship. Followers believe in the guidance of their ancestors spirits. Various "doctoring" spiritual traditions also exist such as Obeah and Hoodoo which focus on spiritual health. For example, sickness in the indigenous African worldview is not only an imbalance of the body, but also an imbalance in one's social life, which can be linked to a breakdown in one's kinship and family relations or even to one's relationship with one's ancestors. Nine-in-ten churchgoing Black Protestants (regardless of the racial makeup of their churches) and a similar share of churchgoing Black Catholics believe that God can direct or change world events. African religions | Traditional Beliefs & Practices | Britannica So who are they? They believed that all plants, animals and objects had spirits. It means you're challenging yourself. Nevertheless, traditional beliefs and practices continue to play significant roles in society. Most Black Americans say religion is very important to them About six-in-ten Black adults (59%) say religion is very important in their lives. Fewer say it is paramount to their faith to attend religious services (39%), avoid sex before marriage (30%) or oppose abortion (23%). Almost all Black Americans (97%) say they believe in God or a higher power. Because religion is a way of life, it relates to culture and society as they affect the worldview of the African people. According to the mythology of the Dogon of Mali, the Creator, Amma, brought the world into existence by mixing the primordial elements with the vibration of his spoken word, though the principal cult is directed to the Nommo, primordial beings and first ancestors, rather than to Amma. Umewaen: Journal of Benin & Edoid Studies: Osweego, NY. Monistic? It should be noted that any attempt to generalize about the nature of African religions risks wrongly implying that there is homogeneity among all African cultures. [37], Followers of traditional African religions pray to various spirits as well as to their ancestors. About Pew Research Center Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. [39] On the other hand, Sub-Saharan Bahs were able to mobilize for nine regional conferences called for by the Universal House of Justice 20 October 2008 to celebrate recent achievements in grassroots community-building and to plan their next steps in organizing in their home areas. Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World, 3. Among Black Christians, Catholics (28%) are less likely than Protestants (56%) to say they take the Bible literally, word for word. 1. [34] The Association of Religion Data Archives (relying on World Christian Encyclopedia) lists many large and smaller populations of Bahs in Africa[35] with Kenya (#3: 512,900), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (#5: 282,900), South Africa (#8: 238,500) and Zambia (#10: 190,400) among the top ten numerical populations of Bahs in the world in 2010, and Mauritius (#4: 1.8% of population) joining Zambia (#3: 1.8%) and Kenya (#10: 1.0%) in the top ten in terms of percentage of the national population. 8%. When serious illness strikes, therefore, it is assumed that the ultimate cause is interpersonal and social conflict; serious illness is thus a moral dilemma as much as a biological crisis. Are African religions monotheistic? The Scramble for Religion and Secularism in Pre-Colonial Africa - MDPI This builds skills at separating the feelings elicited by this mindset from their situational manifestations in daily life. East African Religions: An Overview | Encyclopedia.com While Black Americans in the two youngest generations (Millennial and Generation Z) are generally less likely than those in older generations (Baby Boomer and older) to express many of the religious beliefs asked about in this survey, they are more likely than older adults to believe in reincarnation and that prayers to ancestors can protect them. New religions, independent churches, and prophetic movements, https://www.britannica.com/topic/African-religions, South African History Online - African Traditional Religion. Black Catholics, on the other hand, are no more likely to say belief in God is essential to their faith (73%) than they are to say the same about opposing racism (77%) and sexism (75%). This includes the worship of tutelary deities, nature worship, ancestor worship and the belief in an afterlife, comparable to other traditional/nature religions around the world, such as Japanese Shinto or traditional European paganism. Shrines and altars are generally not imposing or even permanent structures and can be as insubstantial as a small marker in a private courtyard. Caused by these persecution and discrimination, but also by incompatibility with traditional society, culture and native beliefs, the Dinka people largely rejected or ignored Islamic and Christian (Abrahamic) teachings.[56]. Africa is home to thousands of different ethnic groups. Divinatory ritual is the centrepiece of African religions, because it opens to all a channel of mediation with the gods. The consequences under this definition, according to missiologist Keith Ferdinando, are a fatal compromise of the religion's integrity. Religiously unaffiliated respondents, most of whom report that they were raised Christian, were asked for their views on the Bible. Yale University historian Lamin Sanneh stated, that "African Christianity was not just an exotic, curious phenomenon in an obscure part of the world, but that African Christianity might be the shape of things to come. African spirituality is truly holistic. And Black nones are more likely than Black Protestants to believe in reincarnation, and slightly more likely to believe that prayers to ancestors can protect them. Roughly nine-in-ten churchgoing Black Protestants believe this, regardless of the racial composition of their church. African Traditional Religion | South African History Online [10][11], Although most Africans today are adherents of Christianity or Islam, African people often combine the practice of their traditional beliefs with the practice of Abrahamic religions. Encyclopdia Britannica. There are an estimated 2-2.5 million adherents of Hinduism in Africa. Regardless of age or gender, most Black Americans who are affiliated with a religion see opposing racism and opposing sexism as essential to their religious identity, while far fewer say the same about attending religious services or opposing abortion. [14] According to the author Lugira, the Traditional African religions are the only religions "that can claim to have originated in Africa. The core characteristics and beliefs of the world's major religions are described below. Each of the more than 50 modern countries that occupy the continent has its own particular history, and each in turn comprises numerous ethnic groups with different languages and unique customs and beliefs. Among Black Protestants, those who go to Black churches or multiracial congregations are more likely than those who attend White or other churches to believe in reincarnation and that prayers to ancestors can protect them. "[25] The statistics from the World Christian Encyclopedia (David Barrett) illustrate the emerging trend of dramatic Christian growth on the continent and supposes, that in 2025 there will be 633 million Christians in Africa. Kenya is a country in East Africa. African religions and corresponding beliefs and practices
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