IN GOD’S IMAGE: RELIGION IN AFRICA

One of the most significant contributions that Africa has made to world civilizations is the development and understanding of spirituality.  In fact, it is nearly impossible to study Africa, historically and contemporarily, without studying the varying concepts of spirituality or religion.  When one looks at the role that spirituality and religion have played in Africa, it is immediately evident that they are the foundational components of living no matter where in Africa you are discussing.  It is important here to distinguish between what is the difference between spirituality and religion.  Spirituality is an attitude of mind and heart, a state of spirit.  Spirituality is defined by your relationship to the Creator and is a personal interaction with the Creator, which can be seen through one’s interactions with him/herself, others, and all that is in creation.  Religion is the organized and overt quest to achieving a spiritual life.   The peoples of Africa have always strived to achieve the life of the Creator through many different means spanning every time period.  Therefore, the focus of this paper will be to look at how the Creator, spirituality, and religion have been conceptualized and how it has been transmitted to the world.

WHO IS THE CREATOR?

Jimmy Kirby Jr. shows that there is no mistaking that all African peoples accept as true the existence of a Supreme Being, the creator of all things.  Belief in a Supreme Being is a thoroughly African conception, current long before there were any established Christian or Muslim missions in the interior regions of tropical or southern Africa.  Although the names of the Creator are as varied as the languages in Africa are, they all are equivalent in the conception of the Supreme Being.

The people of Kemet (Egypt) called the Creator Khepri for the morning AM, Ra for Noon, and Atum for the evening (the Sun God).  The Ocol or Shilluk people of Sudan referred to the creator as Juok or the Original God.  The Zulu people of South Africa called the Creator the Unkulunkulu or the Ancient One.  The Shona of Zimbabwe saw the creator as Mwari which is Father, Mother, and Son; the Wahungwe also of Zimbabwe called the Creator Maori meaning the same thing.  The Yoruba people of Nigeria called the Creator Olorun or Olodumare.  The Mande people of Mali referred to the creator as Mangala.  The Fon people of Dahomey or Benin saw the Creator as Mawu-Lisa; Mawu representing mal and Lisa representing female.  The Dogon people of Mali and Burkina Faso called the Creator Amma or Supreme God.  The Akan or Ashanti people of Ghana referred to the creator as Nana, Nyame (the fathomless spirit), or Abrewa (the old women).  The Ijo people of Nigeria saw the Creator as Woyengi or The Mother.  The Oromo people called the creator Waqa or Creator God.  The Wapangwa of Tanzania referred to the Creator as Mulungu.  The Bushoong people of the Congo called the Creator as Bumba or the The First Ancestor and the Bulu people of Cameroon called the Creator Mebee.

The existence of what is seemingly multiple Gods or Creators must also be understood properly.  Chancellor Williams illustrates this by arguing that there were numerous ways of expressing the concept of a Supreme Being.  The Creator might be identified with the sun and called the Sun God or Sky God.  The numerous other gods, far from being in conflict with the Great God, were a necessary part of the divine plan.  They could be thought of as deputies and emissaries who had direct charge of the various departments of life that concerned human needs (i.e. the earth or soil, water, illness, health, fertility, planting, harvest, the forests, war, hunting, fishing, rain).  The rank or importance was determined by their role and the extent of their role.  Different tribes might have different tribal gods or a group of kindred tribes might have the same sub-gods.  Each family or clan might or might not have its own clan god, and each of member of the family might or might not have its own personal god.  However, this tradition of respecting an Almighty Supreme Being and a hierarchy of lesser deities has been distorted by outsiders who have ranked lesser deities next to the Supreme Being (i.e. European Christianity).   Furthermore, since the notion of the Divine, the Supreme Being is that of spirit and is limitless, then God is also beyond the human form; neither male nor female.  So to merely attach the female gender to the concept of God and then use the term Goddess, will not somehow simply complete the definition or balance the history of the male God.  It is important to note that the Goddess is not simply the feminine face of God.   Both male and female must be understood as reflections of God; servants of the Supreme Being.

WHAT DOES SPIRITUALITY LOOK LIKE?

If spirituality is a way of life then it is something that can be seen and touched and this is definitely the case in Africa.  If we are to look to Egypt, for example, then we can see how this way of life was manifested.  George James argues that the people of Ancient Egypt believed that the body was a trap for the soul and the ultimate goal in life was to liberate that soul from the physical realm.   Thebes, the “Mother of Cities”, was one of the chief centres of religion in Africa.  In fact there were a number of religious cities, each one under the special patronage of a god, goddess or any number of deities.  The belief in immortality was a simple matter of course, and beyond the realm of debate.  This belief in life after death was the great inspiration for building on so grand a scale, attempting to erect structures that would stand forever.  Necessity, therefore, gave birth to the mathematical sciences required for building the amazing pyramids and the architectural designs for the most elaborate system of temple-building the world has ever known.

The hierarchy of deities not only included numerous lesser gods and goddesses, but also a long line of venerated former kings, queens and ancestors.  All of this not only inspired endless temple building a Thebes but also a concentration on attaining the higher standards of excellence.  This in turn called for reflective thinking, invention and discovery.  Many of the temples are what we would call colleges, as the different fields of study were temple-centred.  Here scholars from foreign lands came to study, and from here, religious ideas and architectural designs spread abroad.

AFRICAN INFLUENCE ON WORLD RELIGIONS

Many have argued that colonizing of Africa and the enslavement of its people was made successful by the forced imposition of foreign religions.  However, it is important to note that all religions have created and developed by Black people in Africa and were then expanded to the rest of the world.  Therefore, the religions that have been brought to Africa to oppress the people were and are distorted versions of Ancient African religions.  For example, Ahmed Osman argues that the Bible story of the Ten Commandments given by the Lord God of Moses to the Israelites in Sinai are clearly in an Egyptian tradition and would seem to have common roots with the Egyptian Book of the Dead.  Egyptians believed that, after their death, they faced a trial in the underworld before Osiris and his 42 judges in the Hall of Judgement.  Spell 125 of the Book of the Dead contains a Negative Confession that the dead person has to recite on this occasion, containing such assurances as: I have done no falsehood; I have not robbed; I have not stolen; I have not killed men; I have not told lies.  The Ten Commandments are a kind of positive form of this Egyptian Negative Confession: Thou shalt not kill; Thou shalt not steal; Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.

Runoko Rashidi shows that it would seem that the Buddha was an Egyptian priest, chased from Memphis by the persecution of Cambyses.  This tradition would justify the portrayal of Buddha with woolly hair.  Historical documents do not invalidate this tradition.  There is general agreement today on placing in the sixth century not only Buddha but the whole religious and philosophical movement in Asia with Confucius in China, Zoroaster in Iran.  This would confirm the hypothesis of a dispersion of Egyptian priests at that time spreading their doctrine in Asia.  Furthermore, manifestations of the Buddha in Asia are Black with woolly hair.  They all appear to be Egypto-Nubian priests who fled Egypt.  The priests carried their spiritual knowledge but lost much of the scientific knowledge for obvious reasons.  The well-known aspects of Buddhism and its companion, yoga, are all simply Egypto-Nubian priesthood practices, meditation, and the belief that one could attain a god-like state if the soul was liberated from the body through knowledge and denial.