Nevertheless, long cultural contact, in degrees ranging from trade to conquest, has forged some fundamental commonalities among religions within subregions, allowing for some generalizations to be made about the distinguishing features of religions indigenous to Africa. The scholarly study of African religion began nearly a century ago with the first extensive accounts by anthropologists and missionaries. And so there’s a little more flexibility regarding the role of beliefs and how that … Emeka C. Ekeke University of Calabar Nigeria revekekemekus@yahoo.com Abstract There has been a divergent view regarding the concept and philosophy of African Traditional Religion. AFRICAN TRADITIONAL RELIGION: A CONCEPTUAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL ANALYSIS Rev. Traditional African Religion What is traditional African religion? study of African Traditional Religion.5 But, as a contrast to these theorists, we have genuine seekers after truth who showed their doubts as to whether there could be any people anywhere in the world who were totally devoid of culture and religion, especially with … General Overviews. Most of the "traditional" groups of people living in South Africa arrived here from West and Central Africa about 1 500 years ago. I would like to group the essential features of ATR under three headings, which may be regarded as the three principal dimensions of religion: belief, worship and morality. Elements of African Traditional Religion [Elia Mligo] is 20% off every day at WipfandStock.com. These oldest religions of the world,have had their history and traditions handed down orally and preserved in the culture and religious artifacts of the African people. African traditional religions are difficult to research, as there is an absence of scriptures or the written word. African Traditional Religion is a thriving scholarly business, but a serious disconnect exists between contributions that celebrate a generalized African Traditional Religion and those that describe particular religions and aspects of religion on the basis of ethnographic and archival research. . African Traditional Religion is referred to the diverse beliefs that are included in various ethnic regions in Africa.The religion is characterized mainly by: 1.Supreme Being The African societies and ethnic communities believed in a supreme being who had different names for different communities.The people worshiped this God through singing,offering sacrifices,dancing,dedications … It is embraced by Africans within and . This is because the word “traditional” helps us distinguish the religion from other religions that has existed in Africa for centuries, i.e. For the purpose of this paper, “African traditional religion” would be used instead of African religion. The continued influence of traditional African religion is also evident in some aspects of daily life. . African religions are as diverse as the continent is varied. Islam and Christianity. Characteristics of African religion A Supreme being: Throughout most of Africa there is belief of a supreme being, described by one or more names, either in terms of activities or place of abode. For example, in 14 of the 19 countries surveyed, more than three-in-ten people say they sometimes consult traditional healers when someone in their household is sick. Some have seen Africans as not having the capacity to reason on the Illness and death result from some outside agent, a person, thing, or circumstance that weakens people because the agent contains a greater life force. From Christianity to Buddhism, to indigenous religions such as the Native Americans, or Igbo tribes of Africa, while studying religion what components will be deemed critical to the composition of a religion, and what issues will be faced while studying what a religion does, and how. Most of them were Bantu -speaking people and were the ancestors of many South Africans, especially the Nguni groups like the Zulu and Xhosa. Kofi Johnson Fayetteville State University kjohnson@uncfsu.edu. Understanding African Traditional Religion. Typically, such religions are found in Africa, and many Africans can safely profess any other faith, secretly worshiping long-standing traditions. Introduction. With African Traditional Religions you must be much more careful about speaking about belief systems in the same way, because Africans will actually tolerate quite a wide variety of beliefs as long as it supports the same rituals or certain rituals or ritualistic explanations of why this is being done or why this is being believed. African Traditional Religion is referred to the diverse beliefs that are included in various ethnic regions in Africa.The religion is characterized mainly by: 1.Supreme Being The African societies and ethnic communities believed in a supreme being who had different names for different communities.The people worshiped this God through singing,offering sacrifices,dancing,dedications as well as invoking blessings.