attacks on african traditional religion

According to mbiti, religion is with us and will always be with us. Michael Bradshaw et al (2004), briefly defined Religion as an “organized system of values and practices, including faith in and worship of a divine being or beings”. In Religion in African Social Heritage, Akoi (1970) further complements this definition by arguing from the point of view that Religion is a social fact and that it fosters solidarity, continuity and the enforcement of moral laws. African traditional religions, also referred to as African indigenous religions or African ethnic religions, is a term referring to a variety of religions indigenous to the continent According to Parrinder (1962), religion lies at the root of African culture and it is essential to African life. The reason for this lies in the fact that religion is so all-pervading and soul-absorbing in Africa that there is scarcely a sphere of life activity which is not influenced by it. It gives inspiration to artists and craftsmen, to farmers and hunters, to rulers and subject, to historians and drummers. It motivates politics and legislation, upholds authority and comradeship, and ensures social stability in times of war and peace. Mbiti (1975) buttresses this position that religion is formal in all areas of human life. It has dominated the thinking of many people of different origins, particularly Africans, to such an extent that it has shaped their cultures, their social lives, their political organization and economic activities. To the African religion is culture
Even though African Traditional Religion plays a significant role in the lives of Africans, Many Westerners and other religions do not recognize this fact. In this era of religious pluralism, many Christians continue to look down upon African Traditional Religion by given derogatory and erroneous descriptions such as ancestral worship which was used by Herbert Spencer in his book principles of sociology published in 1885. Spencer’s use of the term arose from his speculation that in what he called “savage” societies, the people associated certain objects with the spirit of the dead. Mary Kinsley also referred to the African traditional religion as juju or fetish when she said, “When I say juju or fetish, I mean the religion of the natives of west Africa. These conceptions are totally wrong when the religion is fairly analyzed. Other terms like deception, paganism are also given to the religion. Since the inception of Christianity and other religions in Africa, these religions has affected the culture of African in so many ways. The adherents of African Traditional Religion themselves have inculcated into their religion many Christian values into the religion. Mbiti describes the African as motoriously religious. This implies the African cherished their on religion before the advent of Christianity. Encyclopedia (David Barrett) illustrates the emerging trend of dramatic Christian growth on the continent and supposes that in 2025 there will be 633 million Christians in Africa. Bediako underlines the importance of the identity question for the African church. While he focuses on the comparison between African theology and that of the early church, it is clear that he argues that, slave brought about negative European attitude and stereotypes in
Through colonization the African is stripped of their cherished culture. In Africa the culture of the people is found in their religion. Through education, this cultures were thought to be irrelevant and primitive. Walter Rodney (2011) cited in IPOAA magazine
Observes that:
“The educated Africans were the most alienated Africans of the continent. At each further stage of education, they were battered and succumbed to the white capitalist system, and after being given salaries, they could then afford to sustain a style of life imported from outside... that further transformed their mentality.(275)12”
The most crucial aspect of pre-colonial African education was its relevance to Africans in sharp contrast which was introduced (i.e. under colonialism). The main purpose of colonial school system was to train Africans to participate in the domination and exploitation of the continent as a whole.
Jomo Kenyatta (1938) opines to the effect of cultural contact between the western and traditional culture of the blacks that:

The African continent has been beset with conflicting systems of philosophies and religions from the East and West, with each of these systems trying to out-maneuver the others in order to gain a firmer foothold in Africa. The desecration of Africa in the past by the Western European powers seriously and adversely affected the traditional cultures of the indigenous African people to the extent that many traditional beliefs, social values, customs, and rituals were either totally destroyed or ignored. In most cases they were considered to be nothing more than “pagan” values and superstitions that played no part in traditional African culture. A.B. Ellis, the author of The Twi-Speaking Peoples of Gold Coast for instance, was convinced that the idea of the Supreme Being among the Akans was a recent European importation. Christian scholars has tried in many ways to make African Traditional Religion to look like a bad cult. On this Mbonu Ojike wrote: “if religions consists in deifying one character and crusading around the world to make him acceptable to mankind, then the African has no religion. But if religion means doing, rather than talking, then the African has a religion.” He made this comment in respond of to the view of Christian scholars that the African has no religion. Again Christianity is seen many scholars as superior to the African Traditional Religion. Hiebert (1978) classify Christianity as a high religion and traditional religions as a low religion. According to him, a high religion is systematized and well-organized. “High” religion places emphasis on the high God and cosmic ideologies and Low religions place emphasis on how to control spiritual power. Robert Moffat, a nineteenth-century missionary who worked among the bechuanas, Hottentots and Bushmen in South Africa, wrote that Satan has erased every vestige of religious impression from their minds. Another writer, the German explorer Leo Frobenius, stated in his book, The Voice of Africa, that before he set foot in Africa, he had read the following words in a German magazine: “Before the introduction of genuine faith and higher standard of culture by the Arabs, the natives had no political organization, nor strictly speaking, any religion. Therefore, in examining the pre-muhammedan condition of Negro races, we must confine ourselves to the description of their crude fetishism, their brutal, and often cannibalistic customs, their vulgar repulsive idols....None but most primitive instincts determine the lives and conduct of Negros who lacked every kind of ethical inspiration.” Other writers set out to justify the European presence and “civilization” mission in Africa. They meticulously documented what appeared to them to be crude and barbarous practices and rituals which confirm the supposed disjuncture between the European and African mind. In doing so they portray Africa as, in the words of Stanley a “place governed by insensible fetish”.

In conclusion, although there are many attacks on the African traditional religion it continue to somehow strive as time goes. Even though many foreign cultures has been inculcated in African traditional religion it still holds it stand in the society. The culture of the society itself is in the religion of the African therefore it is almost impossible to do away with African traditional religion. As keith ferdinando noted that with all these western influence the African is totally in line with unadulterated tradition, which can no longer be maintained, he further noted that all that can be done is to blend both western and the African religion in the continent.

Opoku kofi asare. West African traditional religion. (1977) International Private Limited. Accra
Elias, A.B.: The Twi Speaking People Of Gold Coast, Chapman and hall. London. 1887
Taylor, J.V.: The Primal Vision, SCM, 1970
Ebenezer Boafo, Communicating The Message About Jesus To African Traditional Religionists, pg1, 1908.

GHANA-International Religious Freedom Report 2006, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, USA., 2007

E.Ikenga-Metuh, God And Man In African Religion (London; Geoffrey Chapman, 1981

Ebenezer Boafo, Communicating The Message About Jesus To African Traditional Religionists, pg1, 1908.

John Mbiti S. African Religions and Philosophy, 1969, pg1, Heinermann Kenya Ltd.