ipl-logo

Essay On Traditional African Religions

773 Words4 Pages

Learning about the African religions made for a very interesting week. The aspect I chose that interests me the most was Animism in relation to Christianity in traditional African religions. Religion is closely related to the culture and society of an area. In Africa, many religions are practiced because they are accepting, tolerant of each other, and they can coexist in peace. Even though they differ, they all share in the belief of one supreme God who made heaven and earth.
I found a good article written by Jacob K. Olumpona, who was a Professor and a noted scholar of indigenous African religions. In 2007, he received the Nigerian National Order of Merit, which is one of the most prestigious honors that a person can be awarded. Some of the highlights he wrote about regarding traditional African religions is as follows:
African traditional religion is a way of life that is related to society and cultures and is …show more content…

Animism’s followers will suffer spiritually, mentally, and emotionally, if their god is unhappy. The difference between the Animistic and Christian ways of life is that Christians are to spread the word of God, be of service to others, and repent for their sins. In doing those things, they don’t need to fear God. Animists make sacrifices to their gods, and hope they are not angry with them. Most Africans believe their rewards and punishments come in this life, and not in the afterlife. If a person has broken a code, is a wizard, thief, or murderer, has suffered an unnatural death or had an improper burial, they may be punished in the afterlife and be a wandering ghost. They may be tortured by their ancestors for a period of time according to the things they have done wrong. This is much like the Catholic’s view of purgatory. For Africans to be cut off from their ancestors in death is the equivalent of hell in the Catholic

Show More
Related

  • Afrocentric Cultural Values

    954 Words  | 4 Pages

    There is an importance in the black community of embracing Afrocentric Cultural Values and sharing to our younger generations and adolescents. I chose a scholarly article that utilize this factor in its hypothesis. From the Journal of Black Psychology, the article is titled Examining Afrocentric Cultural Values, ethnic Identity, and Substance Use Abstinence in Low-Income, Early Adolescent, African American Girls. This very extensive article was written or experimented by our fellow professors at the University of Austin: Delida Sanchez, Emma Hamilton, Dorie Gilbert, and Elizabeth Vandewater. Their study is about finding a possible link of cultural factors and substance use abstinence among low income African American girls.

    Read More

  • African American Religion

    1143 Words  | 5 Pages

    People generally agree that the religious life of African American forms the foundation of their community life. However, in the 1770s, less than 1% of African Americans were connected to a church. Was the church/ Christianity force upon African Americans while enslaved? Scholars estimated that about 30% of African Americans that came to the United States as slaves were Muslims while 70% practiced indigenous forms of worship. Today, in the 21st century, more than 87% of African Americans identify as Christian and claims that religion plays a major role in their everyday life.

    Read More

  • Essay On Primitive Baptist

    632 Words  | 3 Pages

    Primitive Baptist of the South During the 1930’s religion was a major component of people’s lives. They had a plethora of strong views for and against certain things in the world. One denomination discussed in To Kill A Mockingbird is the “Foot Washing Baptist”. This denomination is better known as Primitive Baptist. Scout and Mrs. Maudie have a discussion about the Primitive Baptist.

    Read More

  • Black Death DBQ

    843 Words  | 4 Pages

    Most of the known world was devoured by the most notorious epidemic in history. In the 1351 , the infamous Black Death began to chew up and spit out Europe along with Asia and Africa as if being a victim of the Black Death once wasn’t horrific enough, The Great Pestilence hit Europe for the second time in the 18th century, along side that, in the 20th century Asia and Africa were revisited by The Great Plague. According to the background essay, “In five short years, the plague killed between 25 and 45% of the population it encountered.” During the time of the gruesome Black Death, two religions were widely practiced in this region of the world, Christianity and Islam. These were two religions with some different views and reasoning for this merciless period of terror and death.

    Read More

  • Narrative Essay On African American Culture

    651 Words  | 3 Pages

    I am an African American female whom is a descendent from the African Slave and a native American refugee. My culture runs deep in my veins and I am a product of the strength of my mother and father. While growing up I understood we were on the poverty line. My family lived in a small home with 3 bedrooms and occupied 7 people. I grew up in a small southeast Georgian town named Statesboro.

    Read More

  • Essay On African Slavery

    531 Words  | 3 Pages

    How big of impact could slavery have done to Africa at least that’s what they said? The slave trade had huge and horrible impact on Africa because it resulted in a tremendous loss of life, Africa has not developed economically as a result of the Slave trade, and Africa still suffers and is unable to provide food and water for its people. Africa had a huge loss of people but to be exact “nearly 90 percent of the Africans in these two major regions came from only four zones in Africa. ”(“The Transatlantic Slave Trade”, para 48) all had to go even against their will 10 million enslaved men, women, and children from West and East Africa to North Africa, the Middle East, and India.

    Read More

  • Research Paper On African American Culture

    1218 Words  | 5 Pages

    The people from Africa were generally part of early American history; however, Africans had experience slavery under better conditions compared to the conditions imposed by other civilized society. From the Egyptian Empire to the Empire of Songhai, slavery was practice for the betterment of their society, however, foreigners invaded these regions and took their slave, their ports and impose these people to a life of servitude in the Caribbean islands and in the English’s colonies. Furthermore, the African American slaves were an active agent of society in the earliest period of American history; they have brought new religious practices to their community; for instance, they constructed networks of communities; they had fought in war alongside

    Read More

  • African Diaspora Essay

    1404 Words  | 6 Pages

    Kacie Lee 1/14/17 Tomasetti AP World P.6 ID #16 1. African Diaspora (428-430) The African Diaspora was the dispersion of Africans and their kin. The majority of African slaves went to plantations in the western hemisphere.

    Read More

  • How Did Colonialism Affect African Culture

    1753 Words  | 8 Pages

    Culture, an assortment of human activities and principles, leads a group of people with common beliefs and values; but after it was taken away by the Europeans, all they felt was lost and with no identity. (Arowolo 2010, 4) Colonialism caused an abrupt decline of culture and tradition in the colonies because the Europeans imposed a new culture on the African’s traditional one. Due to Africa’s subjugation and it being controlled by the Europeans, Western civilization and life style began shaping the colonies. (2) One can say that European culture is characterized by a Christian worldview and individualism. (7) Consequently, imperialism caused African cultural heritage to become replaced by a prosperous European-based one.

    Read More

  • Essay On Religion In Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart

    846 Words  | 4 Pages

    Religion in Things Fall Apart Religion is the belief in a greater power, which shapes the way someone lives their life. Religion can bring people together, or it can pull them apart. The novel Things Fall Apart, a work by Chinua Achebe, is about a man named Okonkwo and how he and his village deal with the colonization of Christianity. In the end, it pulled Okonkwo away from his people, leading him to his death.

    Read More

  • Definition Essay On Religion

    1183 Words  | 5 Pages

    South Africa has a vast range of religious groups. To list a few of the many religions we will be briefly discussing, are Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and African Culture. However there are many more. Every religious group serves a significant purpose to promote oneself as being spiritually motivated, with each individual possessing unique moral teachings, a code of conduct, values and norms.

    Read More

  • Essay On Culture And Religion

    1514 Words  | 7 Pages

    Culture and Religion seem to be working hand in hand in society, when looking at culture we look at characteristics and knowledge of a particular group of people, defined by everything from language, religion, food, social habits (things that are done natural e.g. saying please and thank you), music and arts. With religion people often use the word to mean the worship of a god or gods. However, some religions do not have gods. One thing that all religions have in common is that they help their believers to find meaning and comfort in the world by using some aspects from that particular religion. With culture and religion playing a big role in our everyday and life choices contraceptives go against a lot of cultural and religion choices and

    Read More

  • Essay On African Culture

    820 Words  | 4 Pages

    Different parts of our culture today have roots in history. The production culture, how a product gets from creation to us, is based off of the historical “outwork” process. Today, different jobs have unions that protect the workers. This working culture has evolved from the working conditions during the Industrial Revolution. In 1884 Europeans met to decide the future of Africa.

    Read More

  • Essay On African Literature

    1473 Words  | 6 Pages

    African Literature contains traditional oral and written literatures in Afro-Asiatic and African languages merge with the Africans works in European languages. Traditional written literature limits to a small geographic area than oral literature. Oral literature is the most characteristic of sub-Saharan cultures and it participates in the cultures of Mediterranean. In particular, they write literatures in both Hausa and Arabic languages. It creates by the scholars of Northern Nigeria and the Somali people produces a traditional literature in written form.

    Read More

  • Essay On African Pottery

    1292 Words  | 6 Pages

    In Africa, pottery began in 6000 B.C. Throughout history, African ceramics has been not only used for utilitarian purposes but also for spiritual and esthetic purposes. Different regions of Africa were influenced by the ceramics of other cultures. For example, in 75 AD african pottery was influenced by the importation of roman pottery and they actually ended up taking over the pottery business and most pots in Rome were made in Africa. Another example of the influence of another culture's ceramics was in the 600s AD when Africans began to use glass and metal glazes after importing ceramics from China. The potters in Africa were mostly women, however there were a few men.

    Read More

More about Essay On Traditional African Religions

Open Document