Classical African Religions and Spirit Bodies
“Puritanism” refers to a set of theological and moral ideas
in general and a specific Protestant sect in particular. Among the most salient features of the ethos
is the systematic abstention from and denunciation of "worldly"
pleasures. Consequently, the Puritan
attitude, often ascribed to American culture, tends to object to dancing, at
least, to dance as a source of non-Godly pleasure. Dances almost everywhere outside of Western
culture are predominantly sacred, components of ceremonies at least part of
whose meaning has to do with relationships with supernatural forces. Judaism and Christianity, as monotheistic
religions are “jealous” religions, suspicious if not out-right hostile to
religious traditions which purport deities other than their own. There has been a longstanding tendency in
these Western religions to be equally suspicious of all dance as pagan in
association if not intent. Maypole
dances look suspiciously like phallus worship, the Abbots Bromley Horn Dance
is obviously up to no good.
Alfred Sendry in his survey of dance in ancient Israel
notes a suspicious likeness between the dances currently there and the ritual
dances practiced in Egypt when Israelites sojourned there (Sendry 1974
221-244). The spokesmen for the official
religions could either adopt such dance or try to beat it. When people of the later persuasion speak of
"dance," they are usually thinking of a particular set of suspect
dances without considering whether other, unobjectionable dances might exist.
Fashions in attitudes changes in these matters. At some times and places, "[r]espected
rabbis did not consider it beneath their dignity to dance before the bridal
couple, and several were so famous for their artful dancing that the rabbinical
writers gave them special praise," including "the most distinguished
of his times, Rabban Simeon ben Gamaliel," who "performed a torch
dance with either burning torches, throwing them alternately in the air and
catching them, and none of them touch the ground when he prostrated himself ,
touch the floor with his fingers, kissed the ground, and leaped up again"
(Sendrey 1974, 234). Other rabbinical
authorities sat the "the 'arkestes [orchestes, a word for dancer] is the
emptiest of empty," and so forth (Sendrey 1974, 238).
The religious objections to dancing just mentioned are,
of course, to dancing and not to dance theory.
But their effect is both to make dancing taboo and to imply that the
main significance of dance is ritual rather than aesthetic, so that a theory of
fine art would be inappropriate.
African Cosmology
Re Ligare = Re-Link = Religion Western Idea of
restoration after the fall: i.e. Salvation.
But in many African religions there is not the need to
"re-link."
Hierophany- That material thing which is a manifestation
of the Holy.
Hierophant- A person who makes manifest the Holy in our
presence. (Tarot Card - represents a
"link" to the divine.)
According to Mircea Eliade, the sacred is to be sharply delineated
from the profane and for traditional man, myths describe "breakthroughs of
the sacred (or the 'supernatural') into the World" — that is, hierophanies
The Cosmologies of Native African Religions are important because they are distinct from what might be termed Western and Asian Cosmologies (Platonic Dualism/ Christian Teleology and Pantheism). Rather than conceive of Spirit and the spiritual realm as a fixed transcendence, one from which we are "fallen" and to which we must try to return, a cosmology which views death as the release of the spirit to a "better realm,” a means of eventual escape/ salvation, the African worldview sees this realm of the living as our natural and eternal home, one to which we are happy to return indefinitely. The pleasure one takes in food and drink, in music and dance are holy, sacred pleasures, desired by the living and the dead.
Bear in mind, Africa is a continent, not a country, much
less a monolithic culture. But we can
draw a most a rough outline from Yoruba (West Africa) and Congo (Central
Africa) traditions an “African” cosmology which will contrast with a “European”
one. Most classical native African religions
are based on either or both.
Several Related Classical
African Religions Traditions
Yoruba: West Africa (Nigeria, Benin, and Togo).
Founder -Oduduwa
Oris(h)as
Head - Olorun (expresses a sense of ultimate unity)
Ogun (Iron, War, Hunters) Life requires defense and destruction of
others (opponents, food animals).
Nuer Religion (herdsmen of Southern Sudan, who worship a
sky deity. E.E. Even-Pritchard's book
made their religion and African religions in general, more acceptable to the
Western mind by emphasizing the similarities between the Sky-spirit and the God
of Western Theism.)
Mbuti (rain forest of central Zaire). Require the rousing of forest spirits though
music (and dance).
Zulu (Natal, beneath the Drakensberg Mountains). Sees the world as having a large invisible
community stretching far beyond the human.
Recent ancestors -amadlozi- (less than three generation back) need to be
appeased. Women are especially
susceptible to the possession by spirits; when this happens it gives them
shamenistic powers.
It there is now a sense of "African Unity" it
is in response to colonialism.
Commonalities
The divinities are human shaped, and centered on the
concerns of human life and human activities.
There are dynamic, this-worldly models of Divinity. Rituals of sacrifice have the power to bring
spirits into the presence of the worshipper. The conception of the seen and
unseen world is a unified one.
Anthropomorphic
(Human Shaped)
The religious traditions are ones of “Refracted Theism”
- Supreme Being so
remote as to play little role in the daily life of the people.
- More immediate
"gods"
- It may be
inappropriately forced the call them “gods.” They are really intermediate
deities (not unlike the Western notion of Spirits Beings or Angels). They are more proximate to humans and
therefore more concerned with and aware of human affairs. Note the similarities to the Western
notion of “patron saints” or “guardian angels” who have special concerns.
Various Myths which suggest that the Supreme Being God
is remoter from and annoyed with humans.
The daily concerns, even death, are left to other powers. Further, death our natural process and not
the result of a moral transgression as it is in the Hebraic religions. The survival of death not a major concern
because while death is a transition, it is neither passing into oblivion nor
the threat of damnation. Dead ancestors
are to be treated with respect.[1]
Ethics then seem to be based on social harmony, as
opposed to "the rights of the individual."
- Consider the
contrast of "individual/ privacy/ secrecy/ personal gain” vs
"community/ openness/ group success."
Uzima
Uzima is a life force which surround and binds us to one
another and all living things.
Manifestations of this Uzima
- Blood
- Milk
- Semen
- Drums Beating
- Bodies Dancing
Chofe' -to heat up, to invigorate (in vigor -put in life
Uzima)
Sacrificial offerings are important:
- Blood possessed of
life force, so it has power.
- Means of communication
with gods.
- Promote the good
things desired.
- Form of expiating
the bad deeds of human beings.
- Mending ruptures
between the seen and unseen world (not clear whether this refers to
morality or impiety.)
The spirit world responsive to music, which is, at the
same time, divine. One gains the sense
of numinous, uncanny powers. During
rituals, participant can be possessed by a spirit.
"In a real way, then, the deities of Africa are
really present in society and are commonly experienced. They are not theoretical entities, but living
presences, as also are the ancestors.
The mountains and the rivers and the prairies and the jungles are laced
with their presences, and they are the scene in which the drama of human
history takes place, and Fate weaves its pattern.”[2]
The idea ion of eminent spiritual being (gods and
ancestors); they share the same space with us the living. Also, their existence is similar to ours (eating,
drinking, etc.) Natural and human-made
shrines are sites of concentrated power (life force). So the actual space/ locations matter. These are sacred to or home to deities.[3]
"the morning mists are referred to as the smoke
from the cook fires of the dead."
Thus drums (fashioned from sacred trees) are themselves sacred
and sacramental. They are manifestations
of uzima and can invigorate us, our ancestors and the deities themselves. Dance too is pulsating life force which
manifests the sacred.
Art symbolic rather than representational (mimetic).
Masks and body painting outward signs of temporary
possession by a deity. Also though a
symbolic dance. The dance being an
outward manifestation of the presence of the deity.
Spiritual Beings in
order of power:
Nzambe'- Creator God (remote)
Orishas- Intermediate Deities (not unlike the Western
notion of Spirits Beings or Angels)
Simbi- Local Spirits attached to regions, places.
Children/ Elders (closer to points of transition)
Other People
Animals
Plants/ Trees
Inanimates
Guine'e -Land of Origin, Eden, Heaven
Traditional belief is that we are all re-born.
Metaphor for Cosmos
Two mountains joined at the base, separated by a river
(Nazadi).
- Land of the living
(upper mountain) and
- Land of the Dead
(lower mountain).
Metaphor for our life cycle is one of The Day
- Born at sunrise
- Traverse the
river from the lower mountain to the upper mountain
- The river is red,
the color of sunrise, of sunset, of blood
- Come to fullness
of age at noon.
- Top of the upper
mountain
- Very productive/
powerful
- But most removed
from the points of transition.
- Death at Sunset.
- Traverse the
river from the upper mountain to the lower mountain
- Midnight is midway
through you time among the dead.
- About takes about
three generations to get there: by the time your own grandchildren would
have died.
- You have passed
out of living memory
- No one now living
can remember you personally.
- Reborn at Sunrise.
- The cycle begins
anew
- One again you cross
the river.
- Must be born
within one own family as a human.
Note there is no notion of "escaping the cycle"
or transitioning to “another transcendent realm.” The upper and lower worlds are inverses of
each other however. "We are born as
black in a world of white, but as ancestors we are born white within a world of
black." The land of the dead is
black, cold, the food is bad. But as a
dead ancestor has a great deal of power to act on behalf of his decedents,
particularly one he reaches “midnight.” The ancestors need to be care for and fed. (They enjoy palm wine and cola nuts.)
Midnight is midpoint in one's life as an ancestor. One of 4 things can happen.
- You are
forgotten. If forgotten by your
family, you may simply cease to exist.
For this reason, an ancestor might wreak havoc on
decedents if they are forgetting him.
Sickness is tied to religion because a disease may be
the way a deity or ancestor is trying to get your attention. Once brought to light (and healed) you are
then closer to the deity or ancestor.
- Become an
Ensorcering Agent
Transmuted into an animal which prowls at night and eats
children.
Sorcerer as anti-social.
Malevolent and dangerous, but not "Satanic."
- May become a
lizard.
- May move towards
rebirth
This is the desired option.
For #4, it is essential that your decedents have many
children who honor your memory. A large
family is a spiritual obligation. (A traditional African Name
"Babatunde" means "Father has returned.")
Master Symbol is the encircled cross
Many religious traditions developed in Central and South
America with elements of these African traditions. They retain this notion of dynamic deity
among us.
Syncretic Religions- Religions and religious practices
that arise from the blending of iconography/ dogma of two or more distinct
pre-existing religious traditions. EX. Haitian Vodou, Santeria )
Mix, Mask, Mosaic.
The native religions of West and Central Africa do not
possess the theology of a jealous God, therefore, not the same
need/justification for authoritarian control of "the official dogma"
against which judgements of "heresy" are made. (Consider the Politics
of consolidated religious power.)
Controversy whether these religions are
"polytheistic." Are the
Orishas "gods." May be misreading the religion by approximating it to
western religious constructs (Ethnocentrism).
May be considered Monotheisms.
Not because monotheism is "better" or more
"advanced," but because it seems accurate.