CONCLUSIONES Y RECOMENDACIONES FINALES

The study of African Traditional Religion is bedevilled with many problems, which makes its studies very difficult and complex. Initially, the problem was that of the name, whether it was to be called African Traditional Religion in the singular, or African Traditional Religions in the plural. The contention hinged on the fact that there were various religious traditions of the various tribes of the African people. There are those who think that African Religion without “s”, is a better description of African Traditional Religion, while other think that African Traditional Religions with “s” is a better description of African Traditional Religion. Others think that African religion should be called “Tribal Religions,”

“Indigenous Religions”, “Ethnic Religions” or “Preliterate Religions. The reason behind this

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is to capture the tribal nature of African Traditional Religions and to show that each is bound and limited to the people among whom it evolved and to show that one indigenous religion cannot be propagated in another tribal group.

In addition, there is no conversion from one indigenous religion to another. However, we argue in favour of rendering African Traditional Religion in the singular. The argument being that the existence of a common world-view as well as similarities in belief-systems, ritual forms, values and institutions across the various regions of the continent, provide a sufficient basis for keeping the singular form of the name. Again, there is no reason, whatsoever, to single out African religion for pluralization, while accepting as normal a multiplicity of denominations, even rival sects in other religions of humankind, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Thus, the tribal variants of African religion should rather be seen as denominations of the religion.

In addition, there is the question of whether to render the religion as African Traditional Religion or just as African Religion. Initially, the practice was to refer to it as African Traditional Religion but years of studies by such scholars like Tempels, Mbiti, Idowu and others, questioned the use of the word “Traditional” in qualifying African Traditional Religion. For these scholars the term, traditional, was considered derogatory. The major demerit of calling the religion African Traditional Religion stems from the evolutionist over-tones involved in the usage. However, proponents of African Traditional Religion did not give up without a serious fight. For instance, Erivwo contends that throwing away

“traditional” in the rendition entails a great loss as traditional, along with African, are the two major components of African Traditional Religion.

According to Erivwo, a thing becomes traditional once it has been handed down from one generation to another. Thus, a custom or usage is traditional if it has been transmitted from one generation to another, “from time immemorial,” so that in this sense, Islam and Christianity known historically to have been imported into Africa from Europe and Arabia cannot be traditional to Africa. However, by far, the more important word in the term is

“African” which presents an assumed unitary portrait of the religions of the African. In addition, proponents argue that though it is true that many features of religions and its practice are similar across Africa, it would be erroneous to assume that all African Traditional religion(s) is the same.

Hence, it has been suggested that the right label for the religions of Africa is African Traditional Religion or African Indigenous Religion to reflect the plurality with the continent’s religious landscape as opposed to other religions, which due to the process of

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contextualization are now construed as African religions too. An example is the reality of African Christianity and African Islam cannot be called “African Religions” because both claim to be universal religions, but they originated outside Africa. One can talk of Christianity in Africa or African Christianity or African Islam but to refer to Islam or Christianity as African Traditional Religion would be to contradict the basic claims of both religions to transcend all geographical cultural and racial boundaries. In fact, the term

“African Religion” is an apt term to identify and distinguish traditional religion from other religions, now practiced in Africa. From the foregoing, African Traditional Religion can therefore, be defined as:

Institutionalized patterns of beliefs and worship practiced by African Societies from time immemorial in response to the Supernatural Being as manifested in their environment and experience.

Mbiti noted that African beliefs are not formulated into sets of dogmas. Every member simply assimilates whatever religious ideas and practices are held in his family and community. They have no founders, no reformers, and no sacred scriptures, so that the beliefs among the different communities differ greatly, especially as each group sprang from different historic and environmental experiences. Agriculturalists, for example, emphasises fertility cults like the worship of the Earth-Deities, while nomadic groups cherish the worship of sky-Deities. This evidence clearly indicates that one cannot talk of African Traditional Religion as one organization or movement, which has one historical origin, and a codified system of beliefs and practices. There are philosophical principles, which underline and unify the various African beliefs, myths, symbols, and rituals. These have been subsumed under four concepts, namely:

1) Dynamism (being is active not static). It is a life force, which tends towards self-increment.

2) Harmony (beings are interlinked and constantly interact with one another).

3) Continuity (life and time is cyclic, no demarcation between the spiritual and material) and

4) Humanism (African Religion is anthropocentric and this worldly).

Booth has pointed out that the similarities in African beliefs do not always follow geo-cultural lines. Smith noted that there are major difference in the beliefs of West African

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“Negroes” and the “Bantus” of East Central and South Africa because the former pays more attention to the “Deities” than the latter.