The spiritual world, or world of spirits, is central in almost all African religions. Spirits (like Angels and demons in the Jewish, Islamic, and Christian traditions) directly communicate with and impact the lives of human beings, as individuals and as communities.
Good spirits provide protection against harm, misfortune, and disease, heal illness, provide children, rain for crops, fish, and wild game, and protection for livestock. The realization of these blessings are dependent on the appropriate behavior on the part of individuals. Good behavior, according African religious beliefs, includes following and practicing values and behavior established by society and culture, participation in religious rituals and practices, and proper respect for family, neighbors, and community. Failure to follow these behavioral guidelines often results in the good spirits withdrawing their blessing and protection. The result? Illness, death, draught, and other misfortune.
Good spirits can be divided into the following categories:
Human Spirits: Most African religions firmly believe that people continue to live, through their spirits, after death. These spirits are often referred to as ancestral spirits. It is believed that spirits of the ancestors remain very interested in what happens in their families and communities. Most African religions divide ancestral spirits into two groups:
- The Recent Dead Ancestors: After an elder dies her or his spirit remains actively interested and engaged in the life of their family and community for many years. The ancestral spirits are most concerned about the prosperity and security of their families and communities. They intercede with God on the behalf of their communities. However, if individual members of their families or communities as a group engage in inappropriate behavior, the ancestors show their displeasure by withdrawing their protection-their willingness to seek God's blessing on their descendants. Although this results in illness and misfortune, it is not the desire of the ancestors that their families and communities be destroyed. Rather, the ancestors hope that illness and misfortune will be seen as warning and result in people and communities stopping the inappropriate and offensive behaviors. Remember that African religions hold that following social and cultural norms and values is the only way to guarantee security and prosperity. No wonder the ancestral spirits want their descendents to behave appropriately!
- The Spirits of the Long Dead: As time passes, the spirits of the recently dead gradually withdraw from the lives of their descendents and communities. It is believed that these spirits live with God. However, some ancestral spirits remain actively engaged for many generations. This is particularly true of the spirits of important individuals. For example, it is believed that the spirits of great rulers or founders of nations maintain their interest and power for a long time, perhaps centuries after their deaths. These ancestors are most interested in promoting the longevity of their kingdoms, nations, and communities. As with the regular ancestral spirits, these spirits intervene to protect their communities. In Module Seven B: African History there are examples from Kenya, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe of ancestral spirits encouraging people to resist colonial rule that was perceived by the ancestors as destroying African nations, cultures, and societies.
Given the importance of spirits of the ancestors, most African religions taught great respect for the ancestors. In addition to living appropriately, special shrines were often built to commemorate the ancestors. These shrines, while different in style, have a similar function to grave-stones in the Christian and Jewish traditions.
In addition, respect is shown by giving libations to the ancestors. That is, at least once a day, symbolic drink and food is presented to the ancestors. When Europeans first encountered these practices, they wrongfully thought that the people were worshiping the ancestors. In African religions, ancestors are not gods and they are not worshiped, but just as living elders are given great respect, even more so the spirits of the ancestors are remembered and respected. Moreover, ancestral spirits are not feared. Although their blessings are important to personal and community well-being, appropriate behavior is all that is required to maintain social harmony, longevity, and the ancestral contentment.
Nature Spirits
All African religions believe in the existence and importance of human spirits, however, not all African religions believe in nature spirits. Nature spirits are spirits that inhabit or live in nature. For example, several African religions teach that there are spirits that live in the skies. These spirits are important since they are believed to control the rain that is so important to the raising of crops and animals.
Other African religions hold that spirits live in and control rivers, lakes and oceans. These water spirits are also very important since they are believed to control the fish that live in the waters. Still other religious traditions believe that important ancestral spirits inhabit rocks, mountains, and trees.
As is the case with ancestral spirits, nature sprits are held to be good since they help to protect people and to provide people with essential items like water and food. In order to guarantee the good will of these spirits, African religions practice rituals and ceremonies that honor these spirits.
Just as the early European missionaries misunderstood the role of ancestral spirits in African religions, so too they often misunderstood the beliefs regarding nature spirits. These outside observers thought that African religions held that God inhabits all of nature-trees, rocks, water, land-a religious system scholars call animism. African religions do not worship rocks, trees, the sky or rivers, as is the case in animism. Rather, important spirits who control the forces of nature are believed to live in the sky, rocks, trees and rivers.
Bad Spirits
African religious traditions, as with Islam, Christianity, Judaism, and other major world religions, hold that just as there is good in the world, there is also evil. Goodness is the result of the blessings of God and the spiritual world in response to good behavior on the part of individuals and communities. Suffering and misfortune to individuals and communities, in all of these traditions, are believed to be the result of either:
Just as there are good spirits these religious traditions hold that there are bad spirits (referred to as the devil or Satan in Christianity, Islam, and Judaism). In African religious traditions, bad spirits are responsible for causing much of the misfortune that individuals and communities suffer.
- Inappropriate behavior on the part of individuals or communities, OR
- The intervention of bad or disruptive spirits.
Most African societies have specially trained spiritual professionals who through special medicines and communication with the ancestral spirits can provide protection against the wiles of evil spirits.
Religious Leaders
Every religious tradition have individuals who perform specific religious tasks and duties. Each religious tradition has special titles for religious officials-rabbi, imman, minister, pastor or priest. In African religious traditions, there are different religious roles, these include priests, rain-makers, and healers (diviners, herbalists) In some African traditions, these various roles may be served by the same individual, in other traditions different persons may serve each position.
We should consider religious leaders to be professionals in that each position requires a long period of training. Moreover, these positions are often full-time leaving little time for activities beyond the fulfillment of their duties. We should also note that in most African religious traditions women and men serve as priests and healers.
Priests
The role of priests varies between religious traditions. One of the most important functions of priests in many traditions is to officiate at religious ceremonies and rituals. Religious ceremonies and rituals are very important to maintaining religious and cultural traditions. Ritual ceremonies celebrating birth, transition to adulthood, marriage, death, planting and harvest, or commemorating the life of a deceased ancestor are vital to maintaining a close-knit community. Such rituals also help to reinforce values and appropriate behavior within the community. Priests, who officiate at these rituals and ceremonies, play a central rule in promoting a strong and united community.
In some religious traditions, priests will be affiliated with a particular spirit or group of spirits. In this situation, priests will be in charge of a special shrine dedicated to the spirit, and she or he officiates at special ceremonies commemorating that spirit. For example in many African religious traditions, there are special shrines to commemorate the founding ancestor of the community. In addition to officiating at special ceremonies celebrating the ancestor, the shrine priest(s) serves as the voice of the ancestor spirit, communicating advice and admonition to the community.
How do the ancestral spirits communicate to their priests? As part of her or his religious practice, a priest will enter a trance-like condition during which time it is believed that the spirit of the ancestor enters or "possesses" the body of the priest. During the possession, the ancestor directly communicates with the priest, passing on information to the people. History gives an account how ancestral spirits in Kenya, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe communicated through shrine priests their wish for the local community to resist European colonialism which was destroying local cultures, traditions, and communities.
Rain-Makers
With the exception of the area of tropical rain forests in West and Central Africa, much of Africa is either arid or semi-arid and suffers from fairly regular cycles of drought. In vast areas of East, West, Central, and Southern Africa, farmers are dependent on rain for their very survival. Throughout these regions, rain is an important focus of religious practice. As you learned, many religious traditions in Africa view misfortunes such as drought to be a result of inappropriate behavior on the part of community members, or of the disruptive influence of bad spirits. Rain-makers are special priests who are responsible for finding out the cause of a drought and to devise a remedy to the problem that has caused the drought.
Rain-makers through possession communicate with ancestral spirits to find the cause of the draught. Once the cause of the draught has been identified, the ancestral spirits will provide the rain-maker with a remedy. The remedy usually involves changing an inappropriate behavior that is believed to have caused the drought and offering special librations to the offended spirits.
Healers
Healers, often referred to as traditional doctors, are important in all African societies. Given what we know about African religious traditions, including healers as religious leaders should not be surprising. Good health is the believed to be the result of appropriate behavior, that is living in accordance to the values, norms of traditions of the society. One of the primary causes of illness, then, comes from inappropriate behavior. In addition, illness can be the result of the work of bad spirits.
In either case, illnesses have a spiritual basis, that in turn, requires a spiritual remedy. In most African religious traditions, there are two methods of healing. In some traditions, these two methods are practiced by the same healer; in other traditions, there are separate practitioners. To be a practitioner of either type of healing takes experience and great skill developed over many years of training. Training to be a healer in Africa takes time and effort just as does training to be medical doctor in North America.
In addition to treating specific illnesses, African healers-herbalist and diviners- also practice preventative medicine. Patients may come to the healer seeking protection from misfortune. Or a person undertaking a long journey may want a remedy that will provide safety on her trip. Another patient may want a remedy that will provide wisdom and clarity in making an important decision.
- Herbalists: Extracts from plants-fruits, berries, roots, leaves, bark-provide the basis of the medicines used by traditional healers in Africa. Herbalist healers go through a rigorous training through which they learn about the healing properties of a wide variety of plants. When they finish their training, herbalist healers will be able to prescribe herbal remedies for many different illnesses. On occasion, a healer will be confronted with a new and strange disease. In these situations, the herbalist will seek assistance from the spiritual world. As described above, the healer will enter a trance in which she or he is possessed by a spirit. The spirit will lead the healer to an appropriate remedy.
- Spiritualists/Diviners: Diviners treat illness primarily through facilitating the direct intervention of the spiritual world. If an illness is believed to be caused by inappropriate behavior on the part of the patient, a remedy or cure for the illness can only come through spiritual intervention. While a herbal healer uses plants to treat diseases, a diviner seeks input from the spiritual world to understand the cause of the illness and prescribe a cure. Usually a diviner is possessed by the same ancestral spirit with whom she or he has developed a special relationship.
When Europeans were first observed African medicine and healing practices, they often had a negative reaction. They viewed these practices as being based on magic and not on science. These judgments were based on a misunderstanding of African views on disease and healing. Indeed, like "western" medicine, African healing is based on close observation of the patient and his or her disease and on the use of remedies-medicines-that have a track record for successfully treating a particular ailment.
During the past thirty years, Western trained doctors have gained a greater appreciation for African healing techniques and practices. Indeed, throughout Africa it is now fairly common to have Western trained doctors working with traditional healers in the treatment of patients.
Global Impact of African Religions
Indigenous African religions continue to be very important in many African societies. However, African religious beliefs and practices have not remained unchanged. The spread of Islam and Christianity has influenced the practice of indigenous religious practice. But just as importantly, as will be demonstrated in the next two sections, African religious belief and practice has influenced the way Islam and Christianity are practiced in Africa.
African religious belief and practice have also had an impact outside of Africa. Just as trade from Asia and Europe helped to facilitate the spread of Islam and Christianity in Africa, so too travel and trade facilitated the spread of African religious traditions into Europe and the Americas (See Module 15: Africa and the World). The Atlantic slave trade and more recently the new wave of immigration of African to Europe and North America assisted the transfer of religious practice to these areas.
Priest/Spirit Medium, rural Ethiopia
Women participating in religious ceremony: Ethiopia
Shrine to river spirit: Oshun River, Nigeria
Ritual masquerader dance celebrating Agbo Water Spirit, Nigeria
Two of the most important examples of African religious expression in the Americas are the religions of Santeria in Cuba, and Brazil, and Vodou in Haiti. Both of these religious traditions have a growing following in the United States.
No comments:
Post a Comment