The African continent is vast. It is the mother and the land of number of traditional religions. As many as the customs and cultures of the people, the practices of traditional religions are various even within the same country. Moreover, in the African traditional religions, it is really difficult to determine the subtle boundaries between the daily life and the religious life.
The belief in the existence of the visible and invisible world is one of the common conceptions in all the African traditional religions. The inmost quest for a person in African continent is to live in peace on earth; with cosmos and with everyone. When we analyze the importance of greetings and faithful observation of duties towards the family or society or any cultic practices are solely intended to maintain a cordial and peaceful relationship with all including the ancestors, I repeat the same point to underline two important details. They are as follows:
The first is the indivisibility of the religious practices from the daily life comprising of the social, cultural, economical and other aspects. In other words, god is in everything and everything is in god. Anything that exists cannot be without god or independently outside of God. This hypothesis imposes the fundamental search for peace in everything that one does. To give birth or to bury? To sow or to reap? To plant or to cut down? To rear or to slaughter? In everything, god is the prime cause.
The second aspect is the dynamic and irreplaceable relation between the living on earth and the living above, i mean, the ancestors. Everything passes through them. Among the Baatombu in Bénin, whether it is a traditional naming ceremony or any other, the ancestors are invoked. At the traditional Baatonu burial ceremony, i was deeply moved when the Baatombu sang something similar to the catholic saints’ litany to communicate to their ancestors the demise news asking them to receive the deceased at the threshold of their abode. Thus, the relation with the ancestors is very filial and unsubstituted. Although they are invisible, there are actively present in the daily life of the living. That is why everyone strives to maintain a good relation with them. Many simple gestures in the daily routine highlight the prominent place and the veneration given to the ancestors such as sprinkling some water on the tomb or on the ground before drinking it.
The main purpose of this article is not to describe what the African traditional religion is all about. It is rather to initiate some reflection on current ideologies and trends with regard to the religious practices of these religions today.
In the beginning of the month of January 2018, the young SMA priests, OLA sisters and Sisters of Missionaries of Sacred Heart working in different regions of France, came together for a formation program at Chaponost. During one of the sessions, Fr. Paul QUILLET initiated a reflection on the pastoral ministry among the African communities. This theme helped us to understand and to analyze certain challenges that are frequently present among the African Christian communities such as multiculturality and identity. The forum opened up a space for sincere exchange of personal experiences and knowledge in the field of belief system in different traditional religions, cultural practices today.
In the north of Bénin, when i asked of the percentage of people of different religions, someone gave a strange response saying, “Here in our village”, he said, ” we are 25% Christians, 55% muslims and 100% worshippers of tradition religions. It is strange but true. During our sharing at Chaponost, a religious sister said the following herself out of her own experience. Due to her integration into a catholic christian community, she had not fulfilled the rite of initiation according to the tradition. Because of that, she was not considered as member of her clan, still worse not even as a wholesome woman. Such traditional and cultural outlook might have strong impact in all dimensions of life. At the juncture of other religions, the religious rites of initiation outside the traditional religions are not recognized. In that case, the uninitiated person is regarded as an incomplete person in the eyes of the tradition. So, everyone must without exception, be initiated and incorporated into the tradition and by the tradition. It is this integration into the tradition which leads the initiated into the belief system of the tradition religion. In view of explaining this phenomena, let us look at the ceremonies that celebrate the passage from childhood to adulthood. In fact, it is not a simple rite as one could imagine. In the preparation for celebrating the rite, the tradition transmits carefully certain spiritual and supernatural elements as belief content for example the do’s and don’ts. This is the reason the traditional religion identifies itself with the personal identity. As a consequence, a catholic christian or a fervent muslim returns unceasingly to his original source. I quote, here Benjamin AKOTIA who explains the dual or duplication of faith saying, [1]“The complex relation of African christians with ancestral religions, is becoming common with other christian churches. They go back to the ancestral religions because they find it hard to abandon it”.1.But this raises a serious question of faithfulness in the religious practice.
The believers of traditional religions, christians and muslims move on from one religion to another. They confess voluntarily two or three faiths at a time. How to explain this phenomena. Moving on from one religion to another, isn’t it an obvious proof of unfaithfulness or failure in witnessing to one’s own faith?
In the mission at Pèrèrè, people used to ask for blessings over water, incense, and rosaries, Often, these persons who were asking blessings on different objects were unknown to me. So, out of curiosity, I asked them whether they were christians and where they were coming from. Their reply shocked me. They said, “We are not christians. In fact, we were told that these objects blessed in the church are very powerful protection against evil forces”. At first, i was happy about the opinion that the people have on the catholic church but i was looking at something beyond reputation. When we face with this kind of situation, what attitude one should have towards it? Should we react like Jesus praising the faith of Centurion saying “Even in Israel, i have not found such faith“[2] Speaking from the point of Jesus’ exclamation, does it encourage the mutual exchange of spiritual heritage from one religion to another? Or one should close the doors to believers of other religions nor do we go to them?
Benjamin AKOTIA, speaking of the christians who partake in many religious confessions, give certain motives behind the liberal two way move among religions. Some major motivating factors are as following : 1. Remedy 2. Hospitality or goodness and 3. Solidarity.
1. Remedy: In times of serious sickness or evil possession, the family members of the suffering, look for well-being at all cost. In search of recovery from illness, the person who treats or the kind of treatment given or methods used has least importance. Unlike Christian tradition, perseverance in suffering and in trails is not seen as an act of faith. So, restoration is sought at any cost. It is not question of being faithful to one’s own religious faith. Consequently, there is a tendency to wavering from one religion to another in quest of solution without any feeling of guilt of bad witness to faith. The excuse of such attitude is the inability of one religion makes people turn towards the others. Once the person is freed from what was troubling him/her, they may return to their main original faith-life. Such tendency may be explained and justified under the principle of hospitality.
2. Hospitality: It is one of the fundamental values in the African ethics. It is not at all surprising that the sense of hospitality comprises even the religious sphere. Benjamin AKOTIA distinguishes this movement in two aspects, “One can be a member there or simply a host”[3]. The capacity for toleration towards others and warm welcome from one another are expected from all in daily events of life.
3. Solidarity: In the context of larger family, the members of the same family may belong to different religious confession. But when it comes to the question of any family gathering, be it a religious or social or eventual one, the presence of all the members of the larger family is obligatory. When failing to partake in such events, the member who absents himself may offend the family bond and may even be excluded from the family consequently. On the other hand, the sense of solidarity with the family may go to the extent of offering some animal sacrifice and partaking in the family bond renewal ceremony by drinking the sacrificial animal blood together as one family.
To conclude, all that is said so far with many words and explained in different angles may be resumed briefly as follows: All this is the invention of man to live in peace.
The African traditional religions catch the attention of everyone today. Often the believers of different religions raise serious questions with regard to the thinking pattern, current trends that are coming to lime light nowadays. At
this juncture, what attitude one should have with regard to wavering and mixed faith, sharing of religious practices, cohabitation of different religious confessions and in the heart of the faithful, there is a reflection that comprehends the exchange as solidarity and hospitality. It is urgent that we reflect together on these questions in order to understand what is lived and practised in religious realm so as to arrive at better response and attitude to adapt and act according to the signs of our time.
Dominic Vincent, SMA
Studies – LYON
[1] Benjamin AKOTIA, l’hospitalité culturelle des chrétiens d’Afrique, Spiritus, Revue d’expériences et de recherches missionnaires, N° 229 Décembre 2017, P .478.
[2] Luc 7,9
[3] Benjamin AKOTIA, l’hospitalité culturelle des chrétiens d’Afrique, Spiritus, Revue d’expériences et de recherches missionnaires, N° 229 Décembre 2017, P .479.
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