Abstract: Three words in the title call for comment: African, traditional and religion. Africa, a vast continent, at least three times the size of the U.S.A., presents an abundance and pluralism of cultures and peoples. Homo Africanus is a multiheaded hydra which today manifests itself as a negroid or an Arab or even a Caucasian. Our concern in this paper is with the negroidst particularly as they appear in West Africa and especially with the Akan2 group of Ghana. Again, homo afiicanus as of now has had several outside influences at work on him, particularly as in the case of West Africa the Western culture and Christianity that came with the appearance of Europeans in Africa since the fifteenth century. The result is that African culture has not been static. And so the question is how traditional is traditional and how indigenous is indigenous? Suffice it to say here that by traditional we understand what is aboriginal, natural or fundamental. Finally, religion includes the beliefs and practices of historic native African communities with regard to the supernatural and the meaning and purpose of life. In view of the pluralism of Africanness, the religion tends to be ethnocentric. Consequently, it is more accurate to speak of African religions, even if some of the ideas in one ethnic group will find parallels in other African groups. Again in view of the various new influences at work in Africa, we understand the phrase African Traditional Religion to include the beliefs and practices of Native African peoples with regard to the supernatural, those which were handed down by the ancestors and which people hold on to as their link with both the past and eternity.
Publication Year: 1976
Publication Date: 1976-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 25
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