opoku west african traditional religion

8/3/2019 Opoku West African Traditional Religion

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AF ICANITIONALRELIGIONKOFI ASARE OPOKUSenior Research Fellow in Religion and EthicsInstitute of African Studies.University of Ghana.Legon.

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A General Introductionbasic nature and function and argues that theory is the most aign ifica n (factor in religion. To this and other ways of looking at African traditional religion from the view of Christianity, Mbonu Ojike had dfitting answer. tIe wrote: "If religion consists in deifying onecharacter and crusading around the world to make him acceptable to~nkmd, then the Atncan has no rell ion. But If reI! ion meansomg, rat er than talking, then the African has a religion.t'"The early studIes have bequeathed us WIth termll1ologies wnich CH 1\be described as fundamentally inadequate and often prejudicial in thelight of the facts available to us today. It is thus necessary to examinecritically some of the terms used in order to rid ourselves of the rnis-conceptions which have hindered a proper understanding of Africantraditional religion.Such misconceptions are not a thing of the past; neither are they

confined to books written by non-Africans. There are many Africans- scholars, students, Muslims, and Christians - who continue to U"ethe terms without realizing their questionable implications andthereby help to perpetuate the misconceptions.Tradi . onal African religion has often been describe a.nimi~.m, a~t used by the BritIs anthrgpologist E. B. Tylor in an ru:!icle

. in..l8fi6. This word is derived from the Latin word anima which rnea ns'breath', and it has come to be associated with the idea of soul or spiritAccording to Tylor, the people he described as primitive believed th:the soul of a human being could leave his body and enter other men,animals or things and continue to exist after death. Primitive men,Tyler went on to say, considered every object to have its own soul andhence, there were innumerable souls and spirits in the universe.Tylor's use of the term 'animism' for traditional African religion

was widely accepted, but a close study of the Africans' own ideas aboutthe soul and their attitude to nature will show that it is a rnisnorm-rAfricans do not believe that every object, without exception, has dsoul. _fulther, they believe that spiri ts can ha'y~__er.! :_~inobjects as t hc irhabitat or abode, and that they can be embodied in or attached tomat~riHL()-tject,,! -and--ih;:-o-ugh' these objects exert their influence.Animism, to those who believe in the evolution of religion, repr e-

sents religion in its lowest form. From it religion is supposed to haveevolved through polytheism to monotheism, the most advanced form

2 WEST AFRICAN TRADITIONAL RELIGIONIt was also not uncommon to deny that there was anything like

religion in Africa. Robert Moffatt, a nineteenth-century missionarywho worked among the Bechuanas, Hottentots and Bushmen inSouth Africa, wrote that Satan had erased every vestige of religiousimpression from their minds. Another writer, the German explorerLeo Frobsnius, stated in his book, The Voice of Africa, 2 that beforehe set foot in Africa, he had read the following words in a Germanmagazine: .. Before the introduction of a genuine faith and higherstandard of culture by the Arabs, the natives had no political organiza-tion, nor strictly speaking, any religion (Italics mine). Therefore,in examining the pre-Muhammedan condition of the Negro races[we must J confine ourselves to the description of their crude fetishism,their brutal, and often cannibalistic customs, their vulgar repulsiveidols. .. None but the most primitive instincts determine the livesand conduct of Negroes who lacked every kind of ethical inspiration."Other writers set out to justify the European presence and "civil-

izing" mission in Africa. They meticulously documented whatappeared to them to be crude and barbarous practices and ritualswhich confirmed the supposed disjuncture between the European andAfrican mind. In doing so, they portrayed Africa as, in the words ofStanley, a "place governed by insensible fetish".Still other writers could not accept that familiar religious ideasfound here in Africa were native in origin. They often attributed them

to influences from abroad, either from the Middle East or Europe.A. B . Ellis, the author of The Twi-speaking Peoples of the Gold Coast, 3for example, was convinced that the idea of the Supreme Being amongthe Akan was a recent European importation. He postulated that theAkan Supreme Being, Onyame, was a "loan-god" introduced bythe missionaries.There was also a tendency among some writers, especially those who

were Christian theologians, to approach traditional African religionfrom the side of doctrine rather than from the side of practice, and toconclude that African t raditional religion offered no systematicallyexpounded theology. 4 Such an approach is basically fallacious. Itconfuses the intellectual formulation of religion, theology, with its

2 Vol. I, Oxford University Press, London, 19:1I, pp. xiiif.3 Chapman and Hull, London, 1887. See S. G. Williumson, Ahan Religion and the Christian Faith, ChllllllUnivl 'rHit il 'H Pre"", 1%:). p. HI; "u; ,1/,-,,'/1 .I"h" J)lIV N..w Y",k 1


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WEST AFRICAN TRADITIONAL RELIGION A General Introduction 5of religion. However, there is little evidence to support this evolu-t ion ary theory and in the light of what we know of traditional Africanreligion. the theory can be entirely dismissed.Pagsuusm is one of the commonest words used todescribe traditional

religion in Africa. Originally, a pagan was a person who was not a.Iew, Christian or Muslim, but in the course of time, the word acquireda derogatory connotation, especially in its application to Africa, andwas used to refer to people who had no religion as well. Africa ofcourse, h~s a religion. Thus, to continue to describe the religion aspHgHf1l~~S todo.wngrade the African religious experience and to denythe relIgIOUSheritage any abiding values.

rF. . .et isbjsrn. is derived from the Portu uese word [etico, which origi-nalJy!efer~ed tDsny work of_art or such man-ma __e'rellgJou-s-ObJects-as _ti l l!~~ans, amulets and mascots which Africans encountered byt h~ Portllg~ese On-'thelr voyages, m;-d-e-use of. La;er, howeve0eword came to be used as a synonym for religion in Africa, with theimplication that such religion amounted to nothing more than the useor worship. of charms. This is clearly expressed in the following wordsof Mary Kingalsy: "When I say juju or fetish, I mean the religion ofthe natives of West Africa."

There are several objections to this use of 'fetish' in the Africancontext. One is that the religion of Africa, as the subsequent pageswill show, means more than what the word 'fetish' implies. AnotherIS that .there IS a distinct bias against Africans in the exclusiveapplication of the term to their man-made religious objects. The wordcould also be used for similar objects of other peoples outside Africahut Il1those non-African instances, the objects in question were neve;rr-fer rud to as fetish, but by their actual names-talismans, amuletsand mascots. Moreover, the clear distinction made in the Africanlangu~ges between man-made religious objects and spiri tual beingso.rdeities has not been considered. In the Akan language, for example,Snrnun (mll~nl!~dereligious object or charm) is not the same thing asJOosom, which ISmore appropriately translated as 'deity'.

Yet. another ~enn that has come to be accepted as a synonym fortraditional ~ncan relig~a.~ce~~or w~rship..!.._irs~__~!l~~__y theall thr~~~t ..R~_r_5.ert.pen~~~ l_n_!il~book Principles of Sociology,published Il11885.S~


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6 WEST AFRICAN TRADITIONAL RELIGION A General IntroductionFrom the above discussion on terms used in reference to religion in

Africa, it is clear that those who used or coined them understood littleof African traditional religion. Their misconceptions were all basedon the assumption that the mind of the African was so different fromthat of the European that special words were needed to describe hisreligious ideas. It needs to be emphasized, however, that religion inAfrica is part of the religious heritage of mankind, and HS such, itneeds to be looked at from the same perspective as other religions.Huston Smith wrote: ..Every religion is a blend of universal principlesand local setting. The former, when lifted out and made clear, speaktoman as man, whatever his time or place. The latter, a rich compoundof myth and rite, can never make its way into the emotional life ofan outsider .... " 7 The early writers reflected the difficulty Smithmentions in their writings. Moreover, coming from a different cultureand, especially at a time when it was an article of faith among thepropagators of Western culture that there was a permanent disjuncturebetween the European and the non-European mind, they held thatthere could be no similarity between the religion of Europe and thatof Africa; there had to be, of necessity, a difference. Hence arosethe multifarious terms which were meant to emphasize thedissimilarity.

There have been, however, some works which have shown anappreciative understanding and sympathetic attitude to traditionalAfrican religion and reference will be made to them in the course ofthis study. We will, however, briefly mention some of them here andalso note a salutary development, namely, the increasing number ofAfrican scholars who have begun to write about their own traditionalreligious heritage..AIll(~n~the writings which have been said to show a sympathetic

(llSposltlOn towards African religion is R.S. Rattray's work on theAsante of Ghana. Rattray described his approach to the study ofthe Asanto with these words: "I made it clear to them that I askedaccess to their religious rites ... for this reason. Iattended theircere!llolliel! with all the reverence and respect I could well accord toI!omething which I felt to have been already very old, before there l igion of my country had yet been born as a new thought, yet not so

entirely new, but that even its roots stretched back and were fed fromthe same stream which still flows from Ashanti today."8

Another study which shows a very sympathetic attitude is thework of Placide Ternpels, a Belgian Catholic father, who wrote on th-religion and philosophy of the Baluba people of the Republic of ZaireThe hook, entitled Bantu Philosophy, was first published in Frenchin 1945, but it was not until 1959 that the English edition appearvdTempels studied Baluba religion and philosophy and carne to the C(JII-elusion that what he called "vital force" was the key to an understand-ing of Baluba thought. This theory of "vital force" may be applicableto the Baluba, but its application to other African peoples is bound tube erroneous. Moreover, notwithstanding the sympat het ic nature "fthe book and the light it sheds on Baluba culture, one must say that Itrepresents the author's understanding of what Baluba religion andphilosophy are."Other books which share this sympathetic attitude are E.(;.Parrinder's African Traditional Religion, a methodical and informati \ebook; Evans-Pritchard's Nuer Religion, written with a deep insight 111-to the religion of the Nuer of Sudan; and Geoffrey Lienhard's Dioinitvand Experience, a book which delves into the religious beliefs of t!,eDinka of Sudan and their conception of every aspect of their life as anencounter between man and God.

Among the books written by Africans are .Iorno Kenyatta's FacingMount Kenya (19:38); J. B. Danquah's Akan Doctrine ol God (1944) andAkan Law~ and Customs (l9~8); Mbonu Oj i k e's My Africa (l94fi);Archdeacon J. Olumide Lucas' The Religion or the Yorubas (1948), andReligions in West Africa and Ancient Egypt (1970); E. Bolaji IdowusOlodumare: God in Yoruba Belief (1962) and African Tradition,ilReligion: A Definition (197:); Kofi Antubam's Ghana's Heritage /J[Culture (l9Ii:I); W.T. Harris' and H. Sawyerrs The Springs of Me u.IBelief and Conduct (19Ii8); .Iohn Mbiti's African Religions lindPhilosophy (1969), Concepts of God in Africa (J 970), New TestamentEschatology and African Bel ief (1971), and An Introduction to Afric.inReligion (1975); F. A. Arinze's Sacrifice if! 1/;0 Religion (1970); Patr rkAkoi's Religion in African Social Heritage (1970); and Bishop Sarponu'sThe Sacred Stools of the Akan (1971) and Ghana in Retrospect (197-1)

I T h O ! U l'it} /W IlS I'f M all, Perennial Library Harper and Row New York,I~)(;f), p .. , "H Ashlwti, Oxford Univeraity Press, 19~:I,p. II.U For more comment, see John Mbiti, African Religions and l 'hi/osol '/ 'v.

Heinemann, 1969, p. 10.


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-8 WEST AFRICAN TRADITIONAL RELIGIONThese and many more articles have helped to throw new light andunderstanding on African traditional religion.

In order to be faithful to the nature of religion in Africa, I suggestthat we call it by its name, African Traditional Religion, and if we wantto he more specific: simply qualify it with the name of the particularsociet v in question, such as Yoruba religion, Mende religion, Acholireligion. Kpelle religion or Galla religion, etc., instead of using theterms 'animism', 'paganism', 'fetishism', 'ancestor worship', or'polvt hr-isrn' -- which confuse rather than clarify the picture. For, ashas be en stated above, African Traditional Religion is part of thereligious heritage of mankind. There are elements in it that areuniversal. but there are also some distinctive features of local originwhich give it its discernible characteristics as African. Nevertheless,like all religions, traditional African religion deals with the holy andsprings from man's eternal quest to comprehend the universe and tocorne to terms with the forces that control his inner being. Religion inAfrica. like all religions, is a profound expression of the apprehensionof


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10 WEST AFRICAN TRADITIONAL RELIGIONwidely believed that these gods reflect certain aspects of the powerof the Creator who made them for specific purposes. They have,therefore, their specialities or areas of competence and may becalled upon or consulted in time of need.

Some of these gods or supernatural entities are associatedwith certain features of the environment, such as trees, rivers,mountains, rocks, etc., but these palpable objects are not, as somewriters thought, the gods themselves; they are only the dwellingplaces of the deities, for the deities are essentially spirits and haveunlimited mobility, able to come and go at will.

(d) Besides the natural objects which are believed to be the habitatsof the lesser deities, some African societies also regard animalsand plants as emblems of hereditary relationship. This is whatis implied by the term totemism. Usually the animals and plantsare said to have played a crucial role in the survival of the forbearsof a particular society. Thus, a sacred relationship is formedbetween the objects and the descendants of these people. Henceit can be seen that the general attitude of these African societiesto nature ascribes a certain power to objects in nature which callsfor periodic acts of propitiation.

(e ) In addition to the divinities or supernatural entities, there areother spirits or mystical powers which are recognized andreckoned with for their ability to aid or harm man. Among themare agents of witchcraft, magic and sorcery.

(f) Finally, there are the charms, amulets, and talismans which theAkan of Ghana call Suman. These are used for protective as wellas for offensive purposes.

Man and SocietyThe general African belief concerning man is that he is made up ofmaterial and immaterial substances, and although there may bevariations of this idea from one African society to another, thefundamental assumption among them is the unity of the personalityof man. Man is a biological (material) being as well as a spiritual(immaterial) being. It is the material part of man that dies while thespiritual (the soul) continues to live. Death, therefore, does nut endlife; it isan extension of life. There iHthe firm belief that IIcornmu nit.yof the dead exists alongside the community of the living and that thereis a mutually beneficial partnership between them. Human society,therefore, has an extra human or supernatural dimension to it because

A General Introduction 11the dead remain part of it. The dead, the living and the yet unhurnform an unbroken family.

With regard to man's relation to society, we not ice that m.uismembership of a community isemphasized more than his ind i\'.juu l it yThis is reiterated by John Mbiti who pointed out that "to be human ISto belong to the whole community, and to do so involves par t uipat mgin the beliefs, ceremonies, rituals and festivals of that commu n it v". IISociety is based more on obligation than on individual rights. oneassumes his rights in the exercise of his obligations, which makessociety a chain of interrelationships. Furthermore. man's life IS acycle of birth, puberty, marriage and procreation, death and the after-life. He cannot stay in one stage of existence for ever; he must moveon to the next, and in order to make the transition smooth. sp-cia lri tes are performed to ensure that no breaks occur and movement andregeneration continue perpetually.Religion and SocietyOne of the most characteristic features of African traditional religionis its pervasive role or what Archdeacon J. O. Lucas descr ihed a " its"absorbing character",13 where the whole of life is wrappe-d lip inreligion. This pervasiveness alone, however, does not exhaust whatmay be said about religion in African societies. Religion binds manto the unseen powers and helps him form right relations With thesenon-human powers; it also binds him to his fellow human be-ings.Religion acts as a cement holding our societies together, and providesthe necessary support and stability for our societies.

Religion rounds up the totality of African culture. Normally, aperson does not need any special instruction in religion. He picks itup as he grows and begins to participate in the communal rituals andceremonies. Itis only priests, chiefs or leaders of religious associa t ionswho require special instructions. And, although a particular societymay recognize the need for leaders who have either special powers ortraining, or both, to officiate on some important religious occasions,one finds that generally in Africa, rel igious leadership is diffused orwidely spread. The head of H family or lineage often acts as thereligious head of the household. Among other things, th ff'~~lIlllr

12 Op. cit., p. 2.I:I Religions ill West Ajric and Allcient Egypt, N i g ' e r i n N u t in u l I ' r e s s .

Apapa, 1970, p, 40.


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12 WEST AFRICAN TRADITIONAL RELIGIONand conscientious performance of ancestral rites and sacrifices isa pr i rne duty of the head of the family, and the respect and reverencepaid him is due, ill no small measure, to his role as priest of thehousehold. He, of course, needs to manifest superior wisdom andstrength in addition, but the fundamental basis of his authoritytakes its source from spiritual considerations. As further evidenceof rr-Iig ion forming the totality of African culture, we find thatthe social bonds which unite African families together are usuallyalso identical with religious ties, and the family becomes not only asoci l unit but also a cultic one.

Chiefs and kings have a dual role to play in African societies. Theyare not only political or administrative officials but also religiouspersonages. K. A. Busia, in his book The Position of the Chief in theModern Polit ical System of Ashanti , 14 points out that the chief deriveshis authority from the fact that he sits on the stool of the ancestors.He I;;also the religious official who represents his people before theirancestors, and in the context of Akan society, the chief is a PontifexMc xirnu s, an "intermediary between the royal ancestors and thetribe". Busia further wrote: "From the moment that the chief isenst ook-d his person becomes sacred. This is emphasized by taboos.He may not strike, or be struck by anyone, lest the ancestors bringrnisfor tuns upon the tribe.!" He may never walk bare-footed, lestwhen the sole of his foot touches the ground some misfortune befallthe community. He should walk with care lest he stumble. If he doesstu rnb le. the expected calamity has to be averted with a sacrifice. Hisbut t ocks may not touch the ground; that again would bring misfortune.All these taboos remind the chief and everybody else that he occupiesa sarrr-d position. He is the occupant of the stool of the ancestorsUte nananom akonnwa so). For this reason he is treated with thegrPHt!'st veneration." 16

The Akan chief has to officiate at the Adae festival, celebratedtwir every 42 days. As servant to the ancestors, he offers them foodand drink. The chief also plays a principal role in the annual Odioirafestival and makes periodic sacrifices to national gods. In times ofemergency or misfortune too, the chief has to perform special sacrifices.--~--------------~----I. New Impression, Frank Cass and Co 196815 Cf. The Oba or King of the Yorub~: His' body is sacrosanct andassault made on him cons ti tutes sacrilege.16 Ibid: pp. 26 27.

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A General Introduction J: lSimilarly, among the Yoruba, the Oni of Ire is more than just a

ruler of his people. He holds a sacred office, which is derived fromthe fact that at the time of his installation he must receive his sceptreof office from the Yoruba divinity, Orisha-nla, who is Olodurna res(God's) deputy on earth. The Oni of Ife is thus a divine ruler and assuccessor to the first king of Yorubaland, he is also the spiritual headof the Yoruba people and, consequently, the head of all the priests InIle-Ife. So sacred is the office of the Oni of Ife that although a humanbeing, he has often in the past been regarded as an orish a (a divinity).Samuel Johnson, in his History of the Yorubas, written in 1921, rankedthe Olli-of lfe as the 401st orisha. Kings and chiefs in other parts of thecontinent similarly playa dual role.

There is thus a continent-wide uniformity of ideas in traditionalreligion in Africa, but this must not be seen in terms of uniformi tyimposed through proselytizing, force or crusades; it must he seen Interms of common ideas and practices pursued by many African peoples.The distinctive feature of traditional African reli ion lies in its beinga . of Ie, an the purpose of reli ion is to order our relationship ~wirh ollr fellow-men an with our environment, oth spiritual andp~At the root of it is a quest for harmony betweelLDl8n thespirit world, nature and society_. In the pages that follow, detailed accounts of particular aspects

of African traditional religion are given. This is only for the purposeof emphasis and is not intended to present a compartmentalizedpicture, for African traditional religion must be seen as a wholesystem with a coherence of its own. It represents our forefathers'effort to explain the universe and the place of man in it in their ownway, and they did this through myths or su per n a t.ura l stories. ~m steries of life and death have been the themes for poetry, songs,proverbs. art and estlvH s. It is I I ( ll lg these llWS - l('ll 111 we IIrcgoing to see an un erstan 109 0 t e African reli ious her ita e Inorcterto relig~

opoku west african traditional religion

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