Religion is a European Invention
Introduction
Traditional beliefs and religion form an integral aspect of human life. From an early age, a child is born into a specific culture that has a unique way of looking at life, communicating with one another and adhering to specific value systems. The culture that a person is born in is thus the very first setting that begins to define and shape an individual. Culture influences the way a person relates to his environment - socially and physically.
Every culture around the world reveres a specific supreme being that is associated with the gift of life. The belief in a supernatural being is often reinforced in a person right from the period of birth. The belief in a given supreme being that is more powerful than man brings about the concept of religion.
Religion, in a nutshell, can be defined as a concept that tries to help individuals define their supreme being and account for various occurrences in life such as birth, growth, and death. Religion is a fundamental institution in society as it provides various principles that instill values in people (Awolalu, 1976: 2). The focus of this paper is the concept of religion being a European invention.
For further insight, the analysis will evaluate the topic based on the African, traditional religion perspective. In effort to understand the African traditional religion, one must first analyze its origins and some of its major beliefs and core values. The paper will further analyze the impact that European exploration brought about in the African traditional religion.
African Indigenous Religion
The term African Indigenous Religion encapsulates the indigenous religious beliefs that are practiced on the African continent. The African ancestors are the shapers of this religion. The religion was passed from one generation to another through oral tradition (Awolalu, 1976: 6). It was practiced with varying degrees of intensity depending on the culture of a given people. The Christian and Islam religious practices in Africa were an unheard of.
The current religious paradigm is based on the conversion from the African traditional religion through colonialism in the 19th and 20th centuries. In the contemporary society, the African traditional religion is still practiced, though contaminated by modernity. Conservatism is one of the characters that the contemporary adherents of the religion can be identified with. The onset of the scramble for Africa marked the beginning of the reduced practice of the African traditional religion. That is the period when Christianity was introduced to Africa and a slow transition began to take shape since that time.
Nevertheless, African traditional religion depicts the complexity and diversity of cultures that are found in Africa. The innumerable languages and dialects play a critical role that results in the uniqueness of the African traditional religion. The differences in culture, behavior, and values, however, do not create major rift in regards to the core values of their respective beliefs. For instance, the concept of God is inherent in all the cultures with the difference being the names given to God. Another major similarity lies in the concept of divinities or spirits, which were often offered sacrifices (Awolalu, 1976: 5).
The African religion is considered the oldest religion in the world. The African religion was at the very core of African civilization until the entry of European colonialists and their distorted view of the authentic humankind history. The peculiarity of the African religion is that it has no written text since its transmission from generation to another was done orally.
The rituals, oral history, and religious functions were the conduits through which the religion was preserved. The religion is not characterized by individuals or heroes rather it depicts a communal perspective. The religion also depicts the absence of missionaries or propagators. As a matter of fact, the African traditional religion does not indicate any form of its propagation since its adherents are loyal worshippers.
The depiction of the African continent as being inherently religious can be traced to the difficulties that individuals go through to severe connections to their indigenous religions. In Naiwu Osahon’s work on the Africa religion, he explores the origin of the religious beliefs held by African and thus shed more light on what the African traditional religion entails.
He asserts that the history of man is often traced to Africa, and that makes it the very first clue of how old the African traditional religion could be. Osahon argues that Egypt is the cradle of the various African religions, cultural civilization and heritages. He also argues that Africa managed to dominate the world from an intellectual, economic, political, religious and cultural perspective for fifteen thousand years since the era of Thoth (Hermes) up to 600 BC.
During the Osirian reign in 4100 BC, the domination of the world by Africa reached its greatest height; this saw agriculture, industrialization and religion being spread to other parts of the world by Africans. Mesopotamia was the first to benefit from the civilization process by Africa. Hinduism was also founded by the Dravidians who were an Ethiopian population that invaded India and established a civilization in the Indus valley.
As a matter of fact, the Indian sacred river Ganges was named after an Ethiopian king by the name Emperor Ganges, who had by then conquered Asia. A great deal of the Islamic and Christian religious beliefs and practices were borrowed from the doctrines of ancient Egypt. This, according to Osahon, is an indication that the African religion is the oldest and most continually observed religion in the world (Osahon, n.d).
Despite the years, not much has changed in the context of the African religion since it is still in practice even in the modern times. The earliest studies of indigenous African religion can be traced to the records made by the European explorers and missionaries who met the Africans in the 18th and 19th centuries. Their casual accounts and observations provided insights into what these religions entailed.
In as much as the accounts were culturally biased and designed to appeal to the western audience, they did capture a myriad of practices within the African religions. For most of the travelers and explorers, the short periods of time that were spent with the local communities did not allow for an in-depth understanding of the religious beliefs and practices. The accounts of the Europeans held the premise of the mental inferiority of African.
This was used as a justification for the enslavement of the African, which was supposedly aimed at his improvement (Ray 1975: 4). It was believed that the African traditional religions of that time tolerated some “backward” practices that were not in tandem with modernity. Therefore, an alternative was offered to them in the form of Christianity. However, the real motive behind the introduction of Christianity to Africa was not because the religious practices of that time were bad but because it was in line with the European agenda of controlling the cultural, political, economic and social aspects of Africans. A number of religious theorists and enthusiasts have developed an analytical and more unbiased analysis of the African religious paradigm. Among them has been father Schmidt of Vienna, who argues that:
“the belief in, and worship of, one supreme deity is universal among all really primitive peoples—the high God is found among them all, not indeed everywhere in the same form or with the same vigor, but still everywhere prominently enough to make his dominant position indubitable. He is by no means a late development or traceable to Christian missionary influences” (Idowu, 1973: 32).
His exposition is based on his experiences while working with pygmies of the Congo. His argument goes a long way in changing the perspectives of the African traditional religion. He does raise a number of doubts in relation to the religious beliefs held by the supposed illiterate people of the world. The major concern for religious scholars was based on whether the God that was being worshiped in the African context was the “real God’ or “their own God”.
Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution created the motivation for the proper study of religion. In his paper, he argued that evolution depicted a relation of individuals to their descendants and not their relation to different living things. He argued that this lineage of descendants could be traced back to the simplest and primitive forms of life.
In as much as the study brought about a perspective that was directly contradictory to the supremacy of the religion and God, it did create the impetus for studying religious beliefs from cultures around the world. For a part of history, the African traditional religion was believed to be in its infant stages of development and was thus highly underdeveloped. At that point, it did not hold any value whatsoever.
The evolutionist scholars developed various derogatory ideologies that were aimed at designating the primitive forms of religion. Concepts such as polytheism, fetishism, and animism, idolatry, juju, and ancestor worship became synonymous with African religious beliefs (Awolalu and Dopamu, 1979: 23). These efforts were deliberate actions aimed at further tarnishing the African cultural beliefs and religious systems. Having successfully managed to create the ideology of the backwardness of the African religion, the missionaries and travelers found the impetus to establish the Christian religion among the “uncivilized” Africans.
European Exploration and Colonialism
Colonialism is an experience that continents such as Africa got from the European imperial powers. It is the exploitation of a weaker country by a stronger one, and its purpose is usually the exploitation of the resources of the weaker country. The end of slave trade in the 18th century created the need for legitimate trade opportunities, which resulted in the opening of new exploits to the stronger countries that wanted to control the trade.
The industrial revolution also increased the demand for raw materials and thus resulted in the colonialism. The story of the African continent can be traced back to the Berlin conference of 1884 that saw the European powers determine the fate of Africa. Africa was later divided into artificial boundaries that were shared among the various colonial masters.
The incursion of the Europeans into the African continent bore a myriad of impacts on the local populations. The culture, traditions, resources, social structures and political systems of the local people were all impacted and disrupted by the arrival of the colonial overlords. Upon settling into the various colonial territories, the colonial masters who were initially concerned with conducting trade soon conceived the idea that the Africans had to be civilized if they were to become good customers.
The idea of civilization to the European overloads involved the introduction of rudimentary Western education and Christian values. This would mark the onset of the missionary activities by the European colonialists. An important aspect that has to be noted is that the business of education of the African people was not conducted because education was regarded as an important tool but rather because the new religion could only be understood by individuals with a formal learning experience.
Impact of Colonial Legacies
The establishment of colonial territories in Africa was later followed by the onset of schools and missionary work aimed at bringing civilization to the native Africans. The establishment of Christian values and beliefs was a direct threat to the African culture and its religious beliefs. For centuries, African had believed in their deities and practices.
A spontaneous change in their special system was not going to be readily accepted. The brutal force of the European overload would, however, ensure that the locals began to adopt the newfound religion. Colonialists used education as a mode of civilizing the locals but also as a means that would allow them to understand the newly imposed religion and its texts.
The early Christian missionaries studied and wrote about the traditional religion with the aim of destroying it. They depicted it as the number one enemy that the African continent faced in its path to civilization and development. Having failed in their efforts to evangelize Africans, missionaries took to a new strategy, which included the baptism of some of the salient features of the African religious traditions as forms of evangelization of pagans (Mbiti, 1990: 46).
The native Africans did not, however, fold their arms and watch as their religion was dismantled and the culture disarrayed. Reports of clashes and armed conflicts against the missionaries and their establishments were common. Revolts were used by the natives to fight against the imposing of a foreign religions and destruction of their social institutions. A number of Africans revolted against the imposition of foreign religions.
The resultant impact was that a number of them broke from the conventional Christian values and practices and instead fused their traditional cultural and religious beliefs. In fighting for independence against the colonialists, the indigenous religions played a significant role in unifying the African in their struggle for independence. The famous Maji Maji Rebellion in Tanzania against the Germans is an example of the role indigenous religious ideas, through the spiritual leader Kinjekitile utilized in revolting against the Europeans.
The contemporary African context depicts a heavy influence of western ideologies. Art, technology, and social contact all express a degree of westernization. The westernization aspect began to take root after Christianity was introduced into Africa. Christianity formed the most integral aspect of the European civilization mission in Africa. In an effort to free themselves from the colonial mentality, numerous African churches began to arise (Lugira, 2009: 79).
This was further fueled by the rediscovery of the value of the African culture resulting in the appreciation of the uniqueness and complexity of the African indigenous religion. The newly formed churches by Africans did embrace a great deal of the African spirituality and culture. Appiah-Kubi even argues that the independent churches founded by Africans depict a much closer relation to the African culture that they do to the European beliefs (Appiah-Kubi, 1997:65).
However, the mainstream churches started in African threaten the existence of the indigenous religion in the sense that they have replaced the functions that were previously played by the African traditional religion. The reason for this disposition is the fact the African instituted churches are a reflection of the traditional customs and practices. Some of them have incorporated some African values and practices into their modern religions.
For instance, the functions that were previously played by medicine men and diviners such as protecting against witchcraft and sorcery are now performed by churches. African theologians have created a mutual relation between the Christian and traditional African values and practices. In that regard, some of the old values and practices are still upheld by modern religious that have infiltrated Africa. As Njamiti would assert:
“It goes without saying that the African has much to learn from the Christian Faith about how to purify and complete his beliefs about God. But it is also true that the Christian has something to learn from the traditional African, not in the sense of new doctrines, but in the sense of new insights and new ways of understanding God” (Njamiti, 1997:57).
The studies in African culture continue to give considerable attention to the understanding of traditional religion. Global interest in understanding the African culture and its beliefs have helped in the establishment of institutions that seek to study it (Lugira, 2009: 57). The connection of the African people to their culture has made it rather difficult for the African traditional religion to be completely eliminated. Most of the African traditional beliefs and practices have acquired some new things but still maintained their relevance.
Educated and westernized Africans argue that the African traditional religion is outdates and overtaken by events. This may be the case to an extent but most individuals resort to its use and in times of crises. When Christian and scientific approaches fail in solving various challenges that defy western knowledge and understanding most Africans are quick to retort to the African traditional religious practices.
Conclusion
Religion remains an important institution within the structure of the society. It forms the unit and tool that the society uses to develop its value system. A great deal of the societal moral code is derived from the religious paradigm. Religion has endeared itself into the very fabric of society, failing to be faced out even in the age of technological advancement. The story of the African continent was entirely rewritten by the arrival of the European colonialists.
The contemporary African setting is largely attributed to the decades of colonialism that the continent underwent. The social, political and economic sectors of Africa have a strong relation to the colonial masters that ruled it during the 20th century. The beginning of missionary work and education became the means that colonialist used to impose the Christian religion among the African communities.
The current Christian belief among most of the African nations was established by the European colonialists. To this extent, one can then assert the fact that the entire religious belief of the African continent was established by the Europeans. However, having discussed the origins of the African traditional religious beliefs, religion can then be seen as an invention of the Africans. The contemporary dominant religions of Christianity and Islam depict a significant relation of doctrines and practices to African indigenous religion.
European travelers, missionaries, and scholars have struggled for years to relegate the African culture and belief system as primitive. In its place, they have imposed their beliefs and culture. In succeeding to make Christianity the leading religion of the world, they have invented the contemporary religious paradigm. However, this had not eliminated the African Traditional Religion, which is still practiced in various societies across Africa, through with elements of modernity.
References
Appiah-Kubi, K., 1997. “Christology” in John Parratt (ed) A Reader in African Christian Theology. Britain: SPCK,.
Awolalu, J.O., 1976. What is African traditional religion. Studies in Comparative Religion, 10(2), pp.1-10.
Awolalu, P. A. and Dopamu P., 1979. West African Traditional Religion. Ibadan: Onibonoje Press.
Idowu, E.B., 1973. African traditional religion: A definition. Orbis books.
Lugira, A. M. 2009. African traditional religion. New York, Chelsea House Publishers. http://site.ebrary.com/id/10315424.
Mbiti, J. S. 1990. African religions & philosophy. Oxford, Heinemann.
Njamiti, C., 1997. “The Doctrine of God” in John Parratt (ed) A Reader in African Christian Theology. Britain: SPCK,
Osahon Naiwu., n.d. “African Origins of World Religions” Retrieved from: www.zulunation.com/RELIGIONS.html.
