African traditional religion

The Jamaican government reconsidering the Obeah Act in the summer of 2019 highlighted the legacy of prejudice and criminalization of Africana religious systems and practices left by colonization across ethno-linguistic borders and the broader Black Atlantic. It also highlighted how some traditions such as Béninois Vodun, Candomblé, Santería, and oriṣa worship in parts of Nigeria have successfully managed to combat state policing and prejudice to gain official recognition and legal protection. However, this article analyzes the way even the legal and conceptual success of Africana religions in the modern world places them in a Catch-22. Drawing attention to the fundamental differences between modern conceptions and assumptions of what constitutes “religion,” the article traces the history of how modern political and legal structures either exclude and oppress Africana traditions or exert subtle pressure on them to conform to conceptions of “religion” that are more intelligible and ac...

This paper covers the Pentecostal experience and theology of the Holy Spirit in comparison to Orthodox trinitarian theology, anthropology and spirituality with regard to aspects of doctrine, sacraments, spiritual practise and ecumenical dialogue. Cultural factors are taken into view such as African traditional culture, religion and philosophy as formative background of Pentecostalism, with the concepts of "spiritual power", "life force" and practises of spiritual trance in particular. Likewise common ground of Pentecostalism with Orthodoxy in view of Western Enlightenment rationalism is taken into view.
This essay is the revised edition of a paper presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for a doctoral dissertation at the UNESCO Chair of Interreligious and Intercultural Studies, at the University of Bucharest

Introduction Nigerians are highly religious people. The Gallup International (2012) ranked Nigeria as the second most religious country in the world, based on a survey that shows that 93 per cent of her population tended to be religious. Religion plays an important role in the politics, economy and security of Nigeria as a nation. The Nigerian politicians understand this position and are obediently observing a non-writing code of a Christian-Muslim ticket in a political contest. This arrangement has gone a long way to reduce religious tension in the federation. Nigeria has witnessed a series of religious conflicts since the 1980s. There are frequent incidents of Christian-Muslim conflicts, and recently Islamic fundamentalists are proliferating in Nigeria. Certain religious doctrines and rituals are often manipulated to encourage violent conflict. A recent example is the campaign of terror in the Lake Chad region by the Nigerian based Islamist Boko Haram, which has killed over 23,000...

To understand more completely the cultural heritage  and religious beliefs of the ArcelorMittal mine-affected areas of West Nimba (Poro / Sande; animal practice; witchcraft; sacred spaces and objects; traditional medicine); recommend
culturally sensitive ways to mitigate the potential impact that mining activities could have on  the communities’ beliefs and practices. This should ensure that the social impact of
ArcelorMittal’s activities are in line with IFC and World Bank Standards on cultural heritage.
The study has confirmed that those who engage in traditional practices, namely animalism,  membership of Poro and Sande societies and the recognition or worship of sacred features
(such as rocks, rivers and trees) are willing to have them moved to facilitate mining at  Tokadeh, Gangra and Yuelliton as long as sufficient care and resources are invested in the  process, including adequate financial compensation. According to IFC and World Bank  requirements, these provisions must be implemented in full and in a timely way so as to  minimize loss of cultural heritage.

Between the Kola Forest and the Salty Sea reveals the long-hidden story of those who lived in the region before Liberia was created.

Here are a few of the inspiring revelations it contains:

• The different languages and ethnic groups in Liberia share a common root.
• The barkless hunting dog found in Liberian villages were a favorite pet of Ancient Egyptian pharaohs.
• Kola - once used as an ingredient in soft drinks - was discovered by the ancestors of Liberians.
• Early European explorers learned from early Liberian seafarers how to navigate some dangerous currents and winds of the Atlantic Ocean.
• Rice growers from West African's "Grain Coast" helped teach Americans how to grow rice. Today, the United States exports rice to West Africa, including Liberia.

Between the Kola Forest and the Salty Sea took 30 years of research and uses documents first published in Arabic, Portuguese, Spanish and French. It draws on oral traditions, archaeological digs, historical linguistics, studies of cultural patterns embedded in masks and other forms of material culture, regional and continental histories, and even biological anthropology.

Just as West African farmers burn a field to remove weeds, Between the Kola Forest and the Salty Sea demolishes many negative stereotypes. For centuries, African cultures have been portrayed as "strange," "weird," even "evil" through the use of words like "fetish," "witch," and "country devil."

This book will change Liberian history - and Liberians - for good!

A simplified go-to document that shall the give the reader an overview of the pillars of African Traditional Religion. It also promises to be a book that urges the reader to find out more about African Traditional Religion because it demystifies a religion shrouded in secrecy and persecution from the major religions of the world. The Axioms of Kemet are advices and instructions from Ancient Egypt.

The way God is conceived and portrayed in any religion is a reflection of the world-view and beliefs of the culture that gave birth to that religion. For every religion, without exception is the product of a culture and part of that culture. Islam for example, is the product of the Arabic culture and an integral part of the culture of the Arabs, Christianity is the product of the complex Jewish-Hellenistic-Roman culture and an integral part of the culture of that complex culture, Hinduism is a product of the Indian Culture and an integral part of that culture. Confucianism and Taoism are products of the Chinese culture and integral parts of that Culture; Igbo traditional religion is the product of African culture and an integral part of it and so on. No religion can be separated from the cultural worldview that gave birth to it. Culture is an epistemological determinant, for it is the framework within which a people live their lives and interpret their life experiences. It serves as the lenses through which people look at reality and interpret it. This explains why it is impossible for the people of one culture to have identical worldview and values as those of the people of other cultures, because they look at reality and interpret it through different cultural lenses. This also explains why different religions have different conceptions of God; each according to it's culturally-conditioned view and interpretation of reality. A man of one culture can therefore understandably find it difficult or impossible to accept the conception of God by another culture, because he does not look at reality through the cultural lenses of that culture, nor does he consequently share its world-view. History bear witness that there is no culture or people without a world view and that it is difficult to come by two groups of people who have identical world views. Even within one group, different segments or individuals may have different worldviews consequently; we have as many world views as there are cultures and groups of people. There is the Western world view, the Eastern Asiatic world view, the Christian view, the African Traditional world view, etc. Different people often make use of the word " word view " in their daily conversations. But ask them to define what they mean by it they find it rather very difficult and elusive. Let us therefore attempt a working definition of world view. According to C.A Mbagbu Enerib Onuoha defines it thus:

Religion is a study that has sprang to infiltrate the social science and humanities. How it is interconnected to the human behaviour and how it is affecting the socio-political fronts can be explained in its complexity and relationship with all aspects of human living. Is religion beneficial to the existence of mankind or probably it is an impediment for human development in Africa. This paper seeks to look at the merits and demerits of religion in Africa.
This paper is an overview of  the Merits and Demerits of Religion in Africa focusing generally on the three major Religious Traditions; Christianity, Islam and African Tradition Religion.

This paper critically examines such terminologies like juju, paganism, savage, ancestral worship and heathenism in relationship to the African experience, considering that such misleading terminologies are not appropriate in describing the religion and spirituality of African people. Thus, it was suggested that researchers should adopt in an Afrocentric approach to studying African traditional religion, and that a researcher should "bracket" their faith and prejudicethey might have about Africa and its people. Finally, it is suggested that Afrocentric terminologies should be introduced by African people to guide foreign researchers and others from continually using misleading and racially motivated terms in reference to the religion and spirituality of African people.

Vodun is an important religion in Benin, with roots going back to the precolonial kingdom of Danxome and persisting to the present day. However, it has at times been treated as backwards, especially during the French colonial regime in the first half of the 20th century and the Marxist-Leninist regime in the 1970s and 1980s. Since the 1990s, however, it has been embraced as an important part of Benin’s cultural heritage.
Differing perspectives on Vodun raise questions about its role in the country’s economic development. This paper begins by briefly introducing Vodun and its role in Beninese society over time. It then examines the religion’s relationship to development at the individual, communal, and national levels. At the individual level, this paper considers the religion’s role in spending, saving, and dealing with redistributive pressure. At the communal level, this paper will examine the effect of Vodun in such areas as public health, the environment, and gender equity in education. Finally, it will discuss the implications of the emphasis on Vodun at the national level for the purposes of tourism. Overall, it finds that the role of Vodun in many of these areas is ambiguous, sometimes supporting and at other times opposing development efforts, most likely due to heterogeneity in the practice of the religion across space and time.

Morality is a fundamental value in human life. Without stable moral order no true human development can be realized. With conflicts, tensions, theft, disputes, wars, corruption, drug abuse, alcoholism, prostitution, laziness and violence nothing substantial can be done as far as societal development is concerned. Different forms of immorality and abuse of human rights endanger the community’s moral order and so hinder human development.
In traditional African Societies, elders were the main agent of moral formation. These were people of outstanding moral conduct, highly respected and who have undergone all necessary rites of passage from childhood to adulthood. Though there were other agents of moral formation such as parents, grand-parents, family and peer groups (age-set), elders were the main agents who oversaw other agents. They made sure that everybody was taking his duty of moral formation properly. They were the real moral formators who arranged and planned for initiation ceremonies of young boys and girls. During initiation ceremonies some of the elders could be called to educate the initiates on moral issues and responsibilities. Traditionally, elders used different rites, wise sayings, proverbs, riddles and traditional customs and traditions to impart moral values. They were also models in the society because they had strong moral integrity. However, today the society has shunned its elders especially when it comes to moral instruction. 
The advent of Christianity and western form of education, African cultural heritage, specifically the Agĩkũyũ culture that placed high value to elders as custodians of morality and religion, was severely affected. Christianity introduced pastors and priests who acted as a new form of elders, meanwhile in schools there were teachers who acted as elders. Pastors, catechists, priests and teachers have taken over the role of elders in moral formation. All these are different from traditional African elders because they have little moral authority and unlike traditional elders they are not experienced in life. The young generation does not care to listen to the elders as the moral formators; they value their professors, teachers, religious leaders, musicians, artisans and politicians as their moral leaders as well as their role models. The educators, political and religious leaders who are expected to be champions of morality in modern African societies have become facilitators of moral decadence
The ethnic clashes, conflicts, tensions, corruption, armed robbery and other forms of violence in Africa is a clear indication that there is a problem with the contemporary moral formators. While traditional elders had a strong moral authority, the moral authority of the modern agents of moral formation is week. This has rendered them to become ineffective in playing the role of moral formation.
Contemporary agents of moral formation can borrow a leaf from the traditional institutions of elderhood such as Meru’s Njuri Njeke, Gĩkũyũ’s Kiama, Borana’s Gauda, Mijikenda’s Kaya, Maasai’s Laibon and Kamba’s atumia which were instrumental in maintaining moral order in their respective communities. Instead of being self-centered; ruined by the culture of money worship, the contemporary agents of moral formation have to be serious enough on their role of moral formation. The Gĩkũyũ’s Kiama institution of elderhood can be used as an example to emulate in restoring moral society’s order today.

This study was carried out between 2005 and the last quarter of 2008 covering spirit mediums in Mashonaland Central and their clients in Mashonaland Central, Mashonaland East, Manicaland and Harare Provinces. The clients of leading spirit mediums, maGombwe, are from all over the country and across the borders. They include other maGombwe, ancestral spirit mediums, mashave mediums, spiritual healers, and herbalists, other patients who include church leaders, business people, politicians, and ordinary people. The maGombwe officiate at gatherings at their residential place, on mountains, by rivers, and in forests, depending on the specific purpose. They also attend to gatherings assembled at clients' places for different types of celebrations, including thanksgiving by families. Members of families and clans contribute to meet the expenses of such gatherings, which will be attended by maGombwe, ancestral spirit mediums, mashave mediums, traditional healers, relatives, and neighbors. The food and beer consumed at such gatherings must be of African origin and prepared the customary way. Different spirits may compete to possess one medium, and each such spirit may have its own pantheon of mashave spirits. Many spirits may end up possessing one medium for a variety of reasons. Some spirits possess a medium because they are attracted to the medium, while some possess a medium because they have nowhere else to go to, and others possess a medium as payback for services rendered. The different spirits will come in with their entourage of mashave spirits to possess a medium who has become attractive as a result of cleansing that removes unwanted spirits. Spirits cause people to gather, exchange views, and enjoy themselves in the name of the spirits and God. God and spirits are believed to enjoy such gatherings, which demonstrate the oneness of people, spirits, and God.

The history of African Traditional Religion is complex, but fairly new in academic study. It is hard to pinpoint an exact date for when African Traditional Religion started since it is ingrained in the lives of the people and their culture, and their cultures have “shaped their religion” (Mbiti 2015, 10).  However, the interest in African Traditional Religion started in the late 1800s to early 1900s during Imperialism for the purpose of effectively ruling Africans in Europeans colonies. This interest also saw a rise in missions to Africa since key missionaries saw their religion as pagan and the people in dire need of saving. In this paper, I examine the rise of African religion studies during Imperialism as well as missions and the churches attempt to evangelize Africa. I argue that it is because of these enterprises that led to the belief of African religion being judged as pagan and animistic, instead of another world religion; and this is exactly why John Mbiti writes his Concepts of God in Africa to counter the claims against African religion and show that it deserves to be on the same scale as major world faiths.

God may not always play an overt role in the everyday religious affairs of people, but he is nevertheless always there in a sense, for he is the First Cause and the Final Consummation of the "one thing needful", namely, "life" and all that this entails. God’s role is thus analogous to that of a “father” (uncle) in a matrilineal society, a person who is both near to his children (in terms of physical proximity) but also far from them (in terms of social responsibility and authority).  This circular concept of the relationship between God, man, and life is always mediated by the ancestors, that is, of life both coming from and returning to God. This is a theological principle of utmost significance not only for conceptualizing the belief system of African natural religion, but more important, for understanding how people view and respond to their own personal situation in life (on earth). In the remainder of this chapter, we will explore some of the details of this theological model, namely, as it is manifested in categories such as the knowledge, attributes, activities, relevance, and function of God in a traditional religious framework. (chapter 2 in "Galu Wamkota" -- Zomba, Kachere Press, 2007)

“Bantu Religion“ is an abstraction, an ideal-type of the consensus between different forms among the Bantu peoples. With the arrival of Bantu people in Brazil five centuries ago, a process of amalgamation began. Core features and structure have reasserted themselves interacting with non-Bantu religious and cultures around, assimilating ideas and practices. According to a systemic theory of syncretism this follows definite rules. It will be shown that Umbanda has preserved a core of Bantu beliefs, ritual practises and spiritual perceptions, in spite of all syncretistic adoptions. Thus Umbanda remains essentially a vital and complex Bantu Traditional Religion in a largely non-Bantu cultural environment persevering in an ongoing syncretistic process. It is thus a source for the retrieval of an ideal-type of African Traditional Religion. In this analytical perspective the comparison of rituals by the water in Umbanda and in South African Bantu culture presented in this study discloses a deeper understanding of their meaning and essence.

Zimbabwe’s Education Ministry recommended the teaching of African Traditional Religion in recognition of its multi-religious society. This study sought to establish the extent to which African Traditional Religion is taught in primary schools, the challenges
faced by teachers, and opportunities for promoting its teaching. A descriptive survey design was used. A sample of 171 Bachelor of Education (In-Service) primary students of Great Zimbabwe University participated in the study. Data was collected through questionnaires and analysis of Religious and Moral Education syllabi. The study revealed
that African Traditional Religion is not given due attention. Recommendations for effective teaching were made.

This study examined traditional Shona beliefs and practices in light of HIV/AIDS in the rural communities of the Chipinge District in Zimbabwe. The focus of the study was to examine selected Shona traditional beliefs and practices, and evaluate how they respond to the HIV/AIDS threat. The study aimed to examine the traditional beliefs and practices that people in Chipinge rural communities still practise, have stopped practising, or have modified due to the encroachment of HIV/AIDS into the communities’ socio-moral space. It also aims to discuss the traditional beliefs and practices that are safe and those that expose people to HIV infection, in addition to the communities’ knowledge about HIV/AIDS. Grounded in the traditional Shona religious landscape, and from a phenomenological perspective, the study utilised a qualitative survey research design. Using purposive and snowball sampling procedures, 72 study participants, knowledgeable in the Shona people’s traditional beliefs and practices, were selected. The study used non-scheduled structured interviews and a questionnaire, with both closed and open-ended questions, to gather data from the participants. Most participants defined HIV/AIDS as a blend of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) that take time to treat. They believed that AIDS results from ‘pollution’ caused by sexual intercourse with ‘unclean’ women, while a few attributed it to having unprotected sex with an infected partner. Results show that kuputsa (pledged or child marriage), barika (polygamy), and kugara nhaka (wife inheritance) are harmful marriage practices that expose people to HIV infection. As old habits die hard, the study suggests modifications to such marriage practices, where people willing to be involved should take an HIV antibody test. Given that information about HIV/AIDS is communicated through posters and pamphlets written in English, it would benefit the community, if the Ministry of Health and Child Care could provide information in the Ndau language.

In South Africa, previous analyses of religious nationalism turn on the apartheid regime and its close ties to the Dutch Reformed Church. Since the fall of apartheid, democracy and pluralism have been emphasized as the discourse of the new South Africa, which aims to accommodate all of South Africa’s many religious traditions. Together with decades of neoliberal economic policy, the outcome is that in South Africa private individuals and organizations make claims on public spaces as rate-payers and property-owners, in the process revealing normative assumptions about proper and improper religions. Drawing attention to two instances of the manipulation of animal bodies in public spaces, the chapter reveals the close connections between religion, animal sacrifice, racial hierarchy and conflicts over the use of and access to public spaces. The public practice of animal sacrifice reveals the existence of a sensory politics enacted by marginalized groups through which entrenched normativities about proper and improper bodies, substances and religions are contested in the name of a future nation to come.

Within the framework of Yoruba trado-religious understanding, this essay seeks to evaluate the reasoning behind the possibility of describing Jesus as an ancestor-a Proto-Ancestor-and the theological implications of such a description. The essay appraises specifically, the African ancestral Christology within the Yoruba trado-religious understanding. The essay ends with the author's response to the theologically controversial practice.

The article evaluates David Chidester's Wild religion (2012) for what it teaches us about tracking and studying the 'indigenous sacred' in contemporary South Africa, and, by extension, in Africa more generally, and the diaspora. By adopting a more dynamic and open-ended approach to religion as a set of resources and strategies, Chidester provides critical insights on the production, appropriation, and interpretation of indigenous religious myths and rituals in the post-apartheid setting.

Abstract: South Africa is one of some few countries where sizeable communities of black and white people live together which have preserved their distinct cultures. Other than in the Americas, South Africa has a black majority with the Bantu African languages and cultural institutions largely preserved – and it has the most marked history of segregation. Thus few elements of Bantu cultures have been adopted by white South Africans. Yet in recent years a core element of Bantu culture, the shamanism and mediumism of the “Sangomas”, has begun to manifest itself among whites in South Africa – in the characteristic forms of such “calling”. Interestingly this has not happened by “cultural learning” in significant cases. This requires a different model of explanation. In this essay Rupert Sheldrake’s theory of “morphogenetic fields” will be applied to this phenomenon and its implications considered.
Resumo: A África do Sul é um dos poucos países onde grandes comunidades de pessoas brancas e negras convivem e preservaram suas culturas distintas. Além das Américas, a África do Sul tem uma maioria negra com as línguas africanas bantus e instituições culturais amplamente preservadas – e tem a história mais evidente da segregação. Por  isso, poucos elementos das culturas Bantus são adotados pelos sul-africanos brancos. Porém, nos últimos anos um elemento central da cultura bantu, o xamanismo e a mediunidade dos “sangomas”, começou a se manifestar entre os brancos na África do Sul – nas formas características desse “chamado”.
Curiosamente, isso não aconteceu significativamente pro “aprendizagem cultural”, o que requer um modelo diferente de explicação. Nesse artígo, a teoria dos “campos morfogenéticos” de Rupert Sheldrake será aplicada ao fenômeno es suas implicações serão consideradas.

The work sets out to articulate selected Nigerian Traditional religious belief which would serve as a fair representation of religions described and classified as African Traditional Religion in Nigeria. The work sets out to highlight the values and symbols that function in these belief system and the cultural philosophies that animate and promote these belief for which they stand to function as worthy cultural heritage in the Nigerian context. We shall attempt a general overview of the term African Traditional Religion, what it is and what it is not. Some Traditional Religions in Nigeria would be identified from Northern, Southern, Western and the Eastern parts of Nigeria and would be used as examples. The important tenets of these Religions starting with their belief in Supreme Being, divinities, Ancestors, and the Spirit World would be discussed. The rituals and symbols of these religious beliefs will also be examined. Finally, the work will discuss values that define these religious beliefs and how they serve as worthy demonstration of cultural heritage from a spiritual dimension.

This essay explores Jean Price-Mars’ reasonable arguments and propositions for the religious life and experience of African people. It seeks to demonstrate that religion pervades every aspect and dimension of the African experience. In rereading Price-Mars’ ideas on the faith of African people, this essay employs the comparative method used in religion, anthropology, and ethnology to evaluate the fundamental elements of religious life and experience; particular attention is given to African traditional religion. Using the pluralist approach to religion promoted by the philosopher of religion John Hick, this essay is also an attempt to bridge an important gap in the comparative study of religion, Africana Studies, Price-Mars’ scholarship, and Haitian studies. The basic argument of this essay suggests Price-Mars as one of the earliest pioneers who has offered a scientific study of African traditional religion in the Black Diaspora, and that he was one of the precursors who had laid the intellectual foundations for contemporary scholarship on African traditional religion as well as anticipated the academic study of African theology and theological ethics, by employing the comparative method.

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, we are confronted by two entwined global developments: the resurgence of religion in the public sphere and the spread of audiovisual mass media. All over the world, religious movements and audiovisual media increasingly engage and overlap as part and parcel of attempts to address and captivate an ever-expanding public. As both religion and film-film understood here in a broad sense as audiovisual technologies, such as cinema, television, and video, which produce moving images-work together and act upon each other, it is increasingly difficult to differentiate the two as distinct fields of activity and meaning. Whether in Hollywood, Bombay, or Lagos, religion and film are involved in complicated and productive relationships. The boundaries between modern mass entertainment and sacred traditions such as Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity are continually being redrawn and blurred. That religion and filmic media are now so reciprocally implicated in such new and powerful ways calls for a more rigorous and nuanced scholarly engagement.

Zimbabwe's Education Ministry recommended the teaching of African Traditional Religion in recognition of its multi-religious society. This study sought to establish the extent to which African Traditional Religion is taught in primary schools, the challenges faced by teachers, and opportunities for promoting its teaching. A descriptive survey design was used. A sample of 171 Bachelor of Education (In-Service) primary students of Great Zimbabwe University participated in the study. Data was collected through questionnaires and analysis of Religious and Moral Education syllabi. The study revealed that African Traditional Religion is not given due attention. Recommendations for effective teaching were made.

Nigerian literature has evolved over the past fifty years and no longer looks like it used to when first generation writers Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka and their contemporaries first started to write in the late 1950’s. Nigeria itself has changed greatly since the time of colonialism and nationalism. But, present generation Nigerian literary artist even though swamped by globalization and neo-colonialism, continue to tread the path of the writers before them by the reiterating in their works, the need to engage with and confront the distorted and sometimes, untold histories of their societies. Helon Habila in Measuring Time (2007), presents the simple statement that a society’s present is better understood if its history is better known in all its glory and shame. He goes on to show a concern with the need for the people to be the ones to voice or relate that history. Writing on issues, that are not only relevant but also timely, he shows how that the more fully we understand our past, the better we are likely to understand ourselves.  With this background, the present paper aims to explore Helon Habila’s concern with history, culture and tradition in Measuring Time with the intention of highlighting his presentation and reassessment of these within the threshold of governance in Keti in particular and in Nigeria in general.

This study interrogates the threat of kidnapping for ritual in Nigeria, a subject that has not received sufficient academic attention, and its socio-political and economic underpinnings have largely been overlooked in state responses. Relying on available public data, this article examines the phenomenon and its motivations and implications for security, and the efficacy of state responses, and possible ways forward.

Volume 13 of BiAS series brings out into prominence issues at the heart of dialogue between African and Christian attitudes to nature. The Shona notion of hierarchy of sacredness of nature as opposed to the intrinsic value of nature forms a barrier to a possible reconciliation between Shona and Christian attitudes to nature. This is largely based on the belief that some aspects of nature in Shona are imbued with spirits. Although sacred aspects may be accidentally protected, there is a weakness in the discriminative attitudes that leaves other aspects vulnerable. It appears the Shona have yet to extricate themselves from an ethic based on fear of ancestral spirits to conscious assessment of scientific causes of ecological imbalances. Shona attitudes to nature fail to take account of the denial of the sacredness of some aspects of nature. The Christian attitudes to nature on the other hand, propound the doctrine of the equal worth and equal integrity of all aspects of nature, rather than a discriminative sacredness of nature.  The attitudes are, however, based on the assumption that nature is purely material. This position results into divergent attitudes to nature. Attitudes to nature presented from a Christian perspective appear reluctant to identify divinity with natural phenomena. Christianity suggests the idea of creation value to bridge this gap. To this end, the creation value to which Christian attitudes tend to lend support, might well act as common denominator between Shona and Christian attitudes to nature particularly in the light of eco-spirituality and move towards African-Christian environmental ethics.

The African continent has always been looked at as being barbaric,
ungodly and all its practices are seen as nothing but a way to hell.
The whole continent is masterminded by the Europeans who set in
to determine the African fate and destiny something that has made
Africans vulnerable to the European religions and forgot about their
own religious practices. Things like Islam, Christianity, are what has
made Africans fall short of their own fate. They have forsaken their
ancestral gods and now days they follow the European historical
legends and personalities. To me this is bulshit; it is what has made
the whole African continent to continue suffering and living under
bad conditions. I have written this therefore to let you the reader
know that before the coming of the so-called perfect religions Africans
knew about their God and he is not a new person taught to them by
the whites but someone that has been in existence from the time
Africans started to live.

This paper examines the Ulale ensemble as one of the traditional musical instruments of Egbe people Ijebu of Ijebu-Ode in order to examine and provides the full description of its structure and construction, performance practice and techniques; as well as rhythmic construction and styles in its performances. This work is hinged on ethnomusicological theory as premise for discourse, while both oral and bibliographic methods were employed in gathering the needed information. Research findings revealed that Ulale ensemble is an indispensable group of drums used for multipurpose life events among the Egbe people of Ijebu-Ode. This ranges from religious/rituals, social events and other entertainment purposes in the community. Ulale enesemble also constitues the musical instruments used for accompanying Apepe, Magbo and Yegbe music among the people of Egbe. The paper concludes that Ulale constitutes the most valueable and indispensable ensemble among the Egbe people of Ijebu-Ode because of its ubiquitos functions and roles it plays in all musical acyivities which exists in Egbe community. This work therefore highlights and document the ethnomusicological value and imports of the ensemble as unique Yoruba indegenous musical instruments.

In 2010 and 2011, female students at my field site in southern Trinidad experienced ‘mass possessions’ that closed down the secondary school. While Pentecostal-charismatic Christians figured African traditions (particularly ‘Obeah’) as atavisms that caused the events, observers also blamed the ‘possessions’ on salient markers of a twenty-first-century modernity – particularly the Internet, ‘science’, citizen insecurity, and illicit transnational networks. I argue that this seeming temporal disjuncture in causal narratives points towards some common problems with sovereignty that have marked representations of both African religions of ‘possession’ and (neo)Liberal politics. African spirit manifestation religions have often been characterised by the trope of slavery, as a relation of non-sovereign possession between spirit and human, while Liberal politics (or born-again Christianity) have ostensibly promoted a contrasting ideal of self-determination and national (or spiritual) sovereignty. While these seemingly opposed representations show how ‘spirit possession’ has shaped modern ideals of sovereignty through a racialised ‘labour of the negative’, I examine how practitioners of an African religion at my field site questioned these terms of (dis)possession at the school. These practitioners’ conceptions of ‘catching power’ suggest alternatives to both political models of sovereign ‘possession’ and anthropological models of ‘spirit possession’. I close by arguing that African religious practices of ‘catching power’ can provide a critical alternative to these racialised and gendered dynamics of ‘possession’, modifying the conceptual and geographic province of Foucault’s critique of Western political theories of sovereignty.

The present study is based on research carried out among the Chewa people of south-central Africa in the last century (1970-90s). It surveys the various beliefs and practices surrounding ufiti, which constitutes the principal traditional explanation of evil in most societies of this region. This indigenous theory of causation, which incorporates such notions as “witchcraft” and “sorcery,” is thoroughly anthropomorphic in nature and hence deeply rooted in the organization and operation of the social system, especially in times of crisis and calamity. The two principal pernicious roles associated under the generic concept of ufiti (i.e., “witch” and “sorcerer”) overlap in practice and must also be related to other human as well as supernatural agents and agencies that are prominent in the daily drama of life and death. It is inevitable, therefore, that the specific “diagnosis” of any case of misfortune will be greatly influenced by the prevailing local situational context and interpersonal setting. The tenets of this important ufiti complex naturally form a major component of the central belief system, or world-view, of a given ethnic group. To further explicate their pervading practical relevance, these popular convictions about good and evil are integrated within a wider framework of seven primary sociological dysfunctions as they are manifested in everyday life and with special reference to their underlying socio-religious significance. This study, which builds on the pioneering work done by Evans-Pritchard among the Azande, illustrates a functional outsider-insider approach for investigating the folk ideology of iniquity in a traditional African society. (Chapter 4 in Galu Wamkota, Zomba, Malawi: Kachere Press, 2007)