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African Traditional Religions and the Promotion of the Community Ideal in Africa The Religious Dimension of Community in Traditional and Contemporary Africa

Religion and Theology

By Bernard Kimani, PhD

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  1. Introduction
  2. Conclusion
  3. References

Abstract

The sense of community is among the most cherished values of traditional African life, and for traditional Africans the community is sacred rather than secular. This paper examines the religious dimension of community in the traditional African background. It first sets out the traditional African concept of community as a unity of two worlds — the visible world of the physically living and the invisible world of the ancestors, divinities and the unborn. It then shows how African traditional religions promote the ideal of harmonious community living: through their concept of God and of a delicately balanced universe, through the promotion of harmony as a core value, and through the transmission of key religious beliefs, initiation rituals, dominant ritual symbols and sacred institutions. Further avenues are examined in personal and title names, traditional prayers and the normative standards of behaviour reinforced by supernatural sanction. The paper closes by reflecting on the role of the traditional religions in promoting the community ideal in contemporary Africa, where radical social change has diminished that role even as the ideal itself endures.

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Undergraduate and Postgraduate Researchers

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Understanding of African Community

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Religion and Theology
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Multi-level

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