Page 146 - Berkshire Encyclopedia Of World History Vol I - Abraham to Coal

african religions 31

Religious belief is a fine guide around which a person might
organize his own life, but an awful instrument around which to
organize someone else’s life. • Richard D. Mohr

Davidson, B. (1992). The black man’s burden: Africa and the curse of the ceremony) every three or four years.Women of the Sande
nation-state. New York: Times Books. society are in complete control of the ceremony and
Fage, J. D. (1969). A history of West Africa:An introductory survey. Cam-
bridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. school. Members of the initiation class are all girls
Fieldhouse, D. K. (1986). Black Africa, 1945–1980: Economic decolo- between nine and fifteen years of age.They learn all they
nization and arrested development. London: Allen and Unwin.
Griffiths, I. L. (1995). The African Inheritance. London: Routledge. need to know to be Kpelle women from Sande members
Werbner, R., & Ranger, T. (Eds.). (1996). Postcolonial identities in during the school session, which lasts from six weeks to
Africa. London; New Jersey: Zed Books.
three months.
During this period, Sande members perform clitero-
dectomy operations (cliterodectomies and circumcisions
are common rites of passage in Africa), which are part of
African Religions the transition from girlhood to womanhood. Sande
members then perform rituals for those who have com-
frica is home to numerous “traditional” religions as pleted the bush school, marking their entrance into
Awell as various forms of Islam and Christianity and Kpelle society as women. Men of the Poro society dress
various more recent religious developments. There are in ritual regalia to welcome the women back into society.
certain religious characteristics that can be found in
African spirituality that transcend any particular religion. A Supreme Deity
Examining a sampling of traditional religions and Islamic Most traditional African religions acknowledge one
and Christian denominations provides an insight into Supreme Being, though that creator god is often thought
those overarching African spiritual characteristics. to have removed himself from the human sphere after cre-
ation, so that more focus is placed on lesser deities. In
Secret Societies Sudan, for example, shrines exist in great numbers to
Secret societies, common among certain African peoples lesser spirits but not to the creator god. The Yoruba of
found mainly in West Africa, especially those among Nigeria acknowledge a Supreme Being, Olorun, but it is
whom age-determined groups are not as common, often the host of secondary deities, or orisha, that is the focus
have religious functions. Like age grades they not only of Yoruba attention. Mulungu, the Supreme Being of the
cross-cut kinship ties, they unite people in different resi- peoples of the great lakes region of East Africa, is only
dence areas. turned to in prayer after all other prayers have failed.
The religious or ritual knowledge of the secret society However, numerous African scholars and scholars of
is not revealed to nonmembers. The fact that a secret is Africa dispute the interpretation that the creator god is
known only to members, and, perhaps, only to members viewed as remote. These scholars argue that the creator
of a certain rank adds to a secret society’s mystery. More- god is not remote, and rather that people can and do
over, membership is limited to people of a given cate- approach this god quite frequently. They indicate that
gory. Categories can be as broad as all married women there is a parallel with Christianity and its hierarchy of
or all initiated men. There are categories for fishermen, angels and saints.
hunters, craftsmen of all types, and marketwomen, In Sudanic religions, people are said to consult with
among others. the Creator before their birth, telling him what they
The Poro and Sande societies (for men and women, want to do in life.The Creator gives each person what is
respectively) in Liberia have long interested anthropolo- needed to accomplish his or her fate. If a person fails,
gists because these societies are major forces aiding gov- then he or she is said to be struggling against his or her
ernment and facilitating social change. The Kpelle tribe chosen fate. Luck is focused in the head, so a person who
opens a Sande bush school (which performs an initiation has been lucky in life is said to have a good head.