It is crucial to be aware that the texts used to teach traditional and African churches were mainly centered on certain African regions, like the religions of the Egyptians and Yoruba, and that they do not contain the views of each African system of belief. Unfortunately, once Europeans conquered Africa, they educated us to believe that indigenous people worshipped fictitious deities (Fleming, 2022). Most African myths subsequently circulated among Jewish and Christian followers. Results showed that the participants in this study valued religious practices that promoted communal and personal growth (Nkulu-N’Sengha). The Jewish and Christians frequently employed offerings to convey their gratitude to the gods of their faith, whether it was polytheism or monotheism. Individuals who have thoroughly investigated African cultures or practiced them have disproven the myths. Writing publications to describe an African lifestyle demonstrates a way of looking at the world distinct from the worldviews of the world’s two largest monotheistic religions (Christianity and Judaism).
While followers of every major world religion agree that God knows everything and can do anything, they have difficulty understanding Him beyond those two attributes. Like many other peoples, Africans supposedly found it easier to believe and understand their own beliefs when they were passed down orally rather than in books (Tonkin, 2021). According to Nkulu-N’Sengha (109), God is “a greater entity of life who understands all and never misses things, and lacks sexual identity.” God’s superiority over humanity rests in his superior memory capacity. As Africans saw it, God’s omniscience and power stemmed partly from the fact that he remembers everything that has ever happened (Nkulu-N’Sengha). That God is both close to believers’ hearts and unapproachable at the same time is the meaning of the proverb “He is near and far away.”
The ancient African faiths held that finding a balance between individualism and community was essential to a person’s growth. As a result, the continent was viewed as one large family (Bandia, 2019). Since we are all part of the same family, it was stressed that individuals should place a high value on their connections to their neighbors and blood ties while prioritizing their health and personal development. To put it another way, “good character, good existence, is the adornment of a human being” (Nkulu-N’Sengha 138) expresses the importance of developing one’s moral character. Those individuals who have been disoriented are referred to as “Kintu,” which is synonymous with a person who has forgotten their integrity (Nkulu-N’Sengha 152). A person is deemed to be a charming fellow if they do not value the members of their society or other living creatures. A “Bumuntu,” on the other hand, is a committed adherent of the Holy Scripture. Those who exhibit a sound mind and good heart, good words, good acts, and a decent way of looking at others and the world are held in high esteem by society.
Although other ancient people had expanded into Asia and Europe, the replacement theory states that only African individuals completed the developmental jump to Homo sapiens. Later, these early humans spread to new areas, where they lived alongside their earliest ancestors before finally overcoming them. A founding father of monotheism, Moses had his roots in the African country of Egypt (Nkulu-N’Sengha 155). Although polytheism was the norm in Egypt then, the pharaoh Akhenaten established the first monotheistic religion and was once condemned as heretical (Nkulu-N’Sengha 155). Mark Weber called the religion the king formed a disenchantment because it rejected magical activities, sacramental symbolism, and legendary imagery. By contrasting itself with established faiths, this new sect earned the moniker “secondary religion.” King Solomon also used music to preach his view of God as the ultimate creator and sustainer of all things. It was considered accurate by the king and his subjects that this particular brand of monotheism was much more logical and explained the origins of the world better.
When it comes to the Bible, Western people believe that the Ten Commandments originate from the Hammurabi Code. According to scholars who have discovered a connection between the mosaic procedures and the Book of the Dead, the beliefs of several Jews and Christians can, on the other hand, be traced back to an ancient Egyptian text known as the Book of the Dead (Nkulu-N’Sengha). Aspects of African religion became a part of Judaism and Egyptian ceremonies, with the European Greeks falling in line. On the other hand, the research has led to significant modifications to or even dramatic departures from the historically utilized approaches by African and European branches of Judaism (Nkulu-N’Sengha). At the same time, Africans were coerced into submission by new Christians who had come from the West. The churches the missionaries established effectively marginalized African religious practice by teaching Christians that their God was the sole one worthy of worship.
Work Cited
Nkulu-N’Sengha, M. Tempels and the “Bumuntu Paradigm”: Prolegomenon to an African Philosophy of Dialogue Among Civilizations in the Twenty-first Century. In Beyond Bantu Philosophy (pp. 105–130). Routledge.
Fleming, Joshua. “Christianity and the African American cultural awakening.” (2022).
Tonkin, E. History and the Myth of Realism. In The myths we live by Routledge (2021):25–35)
Banda, Collium. “Ubuntu as human flourishing? An African traditional religious analysis of ubuntu and its challenge to Christian anthropology.” Stellenbosch Theological Journal 5.3 (2019): 203-228.