Pub Date : 2022-09-07DOI: 10.1163/15700666-12340230
J. Beloff
Religious studies of Rwanda typically focus on Christianity’s involvement before, during, and after the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, also referred to as the Rwandan Genocide. Rwanda’s postgenocide reconstruction has witnessed new and changing political and social commitments by previously established religious organisations such as the Roman Catholic, Protestant, and Adventist Churches. The Rwandan government has taken a more progressive stance on divisions of power and religious institutions, and the promotion of religious freedoms that has benefitted the domestic Muslim population. This essay examines how Judaism, a previously unknown religion in the region, is impacting Rwandan identity formation. Jewish identity is increasingly being tied to the nation’s own reconstructed identity, with a strong focus on historical persecution, rebuilding after genocide, and development. This essay suggests that Rwandan identity and religious studies should include the ever-growing ties with Jews and Israel to better understand its political and social reconstruction since 1994.
{"title":"Rwandan Perceptions of Jews, Judaism, and Israel","authors":"J. Beloff","doi":"10.1163/15700666-12340230","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15700666-12340230","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Religious studies of Rwanda typically focus on Christianity’s involvement before, during, and after the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, also referred to as the Rwandan Genocide. Rwanda’s postgenocide reconstruction has witnessed new and changing political and social commitments by previously established religious organisations such as the Roman Catholic, Protestant, and Adventist Churches. The Rwandan government has taken a more progressive stance on divisions of power and religious institutions, and the promotion of religious freedoms that has benefitted the domestic Muslim population. This essay examines how Judaism, a previously unknown religion in the region, is impacting Rwandan identity formation. Jewish identity is increasingly being tied to the nation’s own reconstructed identity, with a strong focus on historical persecution, rebuilding after genocide, and development. This essay suggests that Rwandan identity and religious studies should include the ever-growing ties with Jews and Israel to better understand its political and social reconstruction since 1994.","PeriodicalId":45604,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF RELIGION IN AFRICA","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-09-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44387849","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-07DOI: 10.1163/15700666-12340231
C. Prempeh
The goal of this paper is to decolonise Akan divine episteme from undue Euro-Christian influence. Since the 1920s, cultural anthropologists have argued that the Akan concept of Twereduampon Kwame is because God either revealed himself to the Akan on a Saturday or the Akan worshipped God on that day. Employing in-depth interviews and a secondary data research approach that incorporates analysis of extant literature, I challenge this assumption by arguing that the name of God as Twereduampon Kwame is based on the significance of day names. This is because the name intermeshes with the enigma of death and God’s positionality as the source of the answer to the disruption caused by death. Contrary to the assumption of revelation or Sabbath observance in the Akan religion, the name Twereduampon Kwame points to God’s appellation as the greatest herbalist.
{"title":"Decolonising African Divine Episteme","authors":"C. Prempeh","doi":"10.1163/15700666-12340231","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15700666-12340231","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The goal of this paper is to decolonise Akan divine episteme from undue Euro-Christian influence. Since the 1920s, cultural anthropologists have argued that the Akan concept of Twereduampon Kwame is because God either revealed himself to the Akan on a Saturday or the Akan worshipped God on that day. Employing in-depth interviews and a secondary data research approach that incorporates analysis of extant literature, I challenge this assumption by arguing that the name of God as Twereduampon Kwame is based on the significance of day names. This is because the name intermeshes with the enigma of death and God’s positionality as the source of the answer to the disruption caused by death. Contrary to the assumption of revelation or Sabbath observance in the Akan religion, the name Twereduampon Kwame points to God’s appellation as the greatest herbalist.","PeriodicalId":45604,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF RELIGION IN AFRICA","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-09-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46950304","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-07DOI: 10.1163/15700666-12340235
João Ferreira Dias
This essay aims to focus on the concept of religion and its conceptual implications in the observation of African religions, taking the Yorùbá and Candomblé religious attitudes and beliefs as case studies. I intend to trace a new itinerary in the conceptualization of African religious experiences, using native structures as the setting for theory. I point out that African-Yorùbá religious experience is deeply merged with ritual practice – religion is made – and tied to a sense of origins and duties that must be fulfilled. In that vein, I present alternative categories to the classic ones of monotheism, polytheism, and pantheon.
{"title":"The Making of Religion","authors":"João Ferreira Dias","doi":"10.1163/15700666-12340235","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15700666-12340235","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This essay aims to focus on the concept of religion and its conceptual implications in the observation of African religions, taking the Yorùbá and Candomblé religious attitudes and beliefs as case studies. I intend to trace a new itinerary in the conceptualization of African religious experiences, using native structures as the setting for theory. I point out that African-Yorùbá religious experience is deeply merged with ritual practice – religion is made – and tied to a sense of origins and duties that must be fulfilled. In that vein, I present alternative categories to the classic ones of monotheism, polytheism, and pantheon.","PeriodicalId":45604,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF RELIGION IN AFRICA","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-09-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46560493","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-07DOI: 10.1163/15700666-12340234
T. Muyambo, N. Sande, Jane Tendere
‘Continue to wash your hands, continue to wear your mask, continue to sanitize, continue to maintain social distance, and lastly continue to pray’. These were the closing remarks of a pastor who was preaching online to his congregants in the context of the second and third waves of COVID-19 variants. This article focuses on the church’s utilisation (or lack) of both religion and science under the ‘wash’ and ‘pray’ theology. The article raises this fundamental question: to what extent is the church embracing scientific knowledge in its efforts to deal with COVID-19? Data was collected through an online questionnaire survey, review of available literature, listening to clerics on YouTube, follow-up WhatsApp interviews, as well as overt and covert observations. The article argues that religion and science differ on a number of issues but in the context of COVID-19 and as indicated by this study, they must learn from each other and pool resources to combat COVID-19. COVID-19 calls for undivided attention, and when religion and science unify humanity vastly benefit. The article adds to the continuous debate on the relationship between science (wash) and religion (pray), arguing for the significance of religious ideas that make science effective in addressing the pandemic and vice versa.
{"title":"‘Wash and Pray’","authors":"T. Muyambo, N. Sande, Jane Tendere","doi":"10.1163/15700666-12340234","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15700666-12340234","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 ‘Continue to wash your hands, continue to wear your mask, continue to sanitize, continue to maintain social distance, and lastly continue to pray’. These were the closing remarks of a pastor who was preaching online to his congregants in the context of the second and third waves of COVID-19 variants. This article focuses on the church’s utilisation (or lack) of both religion and science under the ‘wash’ and ‘pray’ theology. The article raises this fundamental question: to what extent is the church embracing scientific knowledge in its efforts to deal with COVID-19? Data was collected through an online questionnaire survey, review of available literature, listening to clerics on YouTube, follow-up WhatsApp interviews, as well as overt and covert observations. The article argues that religion and science differ on a number of issues but in the context of COVID-19 and as indicated by this study, they must learn from each other and pool resources to combat COVID-19. COVID-19 calls for undivided attention, and when religion and science unify humanity vastly benefit. The article adds to the continuous debate on the relationship between science (wash) and religion (pray), arguing for the significance of religious ideas that make science effective in addressing the pandemic and vice versa.","PeriodicalId":45604,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF RELIGION IN AFRICA","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-09-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47735075","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-07DOI: 10.1163/15700666-12340233
B. Golo, E. Novieto
The relationship between religion and subjective well-being has received research attention in recent decades with mixed results, particularly related to life satisfaction, fewer traumatic outcomes, and happiness. With the assumption that the connection between religion and subjective well-being depends on the context and the religious certainty of participants and considering that majority of religion-well-being research were carried out predominantly in contexts of diminishing centrality of institutional religion and religious fervor, this paper specifically researches early career professionals with claims to religiousness and religious certainties in three of Ghana’s public universities. Using the mixed-method of research with two-hundred and thirty-six surveys and twenty-five in-depth interviews we found that our participants understanding of subjective well-being reflects the complexity of the subject. We also found that while their claims indicate a strong relationship between their religiosities and their well-being, particularly through religious meaning-making, these are not without elements of negative relationships. We conclude that, while the data offers some unique insights, it further supports the view of the complexities in the conclusions on religiosity and well-being.
{"title":"Religion and Subjective Well-being","authors":"B. Golo, E. Novieto","doi":"10.1163/15700666-12340233","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15700666-12340233","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The relationship between religion and subjective well-being has received research attention in recent decades with mixed results, particularly related to life satisfaction, fewer traumatic outcomes, and happiness. With the assumption that the connection between religion and subjective well-being depends on the context and the religious certainty of participants and considering that majority of religion-well-being research were carried out predominantly in contexts of diminishing centrality of institutional religion and religious fervor, this paper specifically researches early career professionals with claims to religiousness and religious certainties in three of Ghana’s public universities. Using the mixed-method of research with two-hundred and thirty-six surveys and twenty-five in-depth interviews we found that our participants understanding of subjective well-being reflects the complexity of the subject. We also found that while their claims indicate a strong relationship between their religiosities and their well-being, particularly through religious meaning-making, these are not without elements of negative relationships. We conclude that, while the data offers some unique insights, it further supports the view of the complexities in the conclusions on religiosity and well-being.","PeriodicalId":45604,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF RELIGION IN AFRICA","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-09-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45939460","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-07DOI: 10.1163/15700666-12340239
Karani Shiyuka
Historical studies have indicated that African religions, in the pre-colonial period, were dynamic and multilayered with long histories of contradictions, contestations, and synthesis. Using the Pokot of north-western Kenya as a case in point, this contribution attempts to demonstrate the fluidity that was inherent in African religions. The Pokot originally were an agro-pastoral group inhabiting the Cherang’any and the Sekerr ranges. During the first half of the nineteenth century, a section of them descended the hills to pursue pastoralism. In their pastoral excursions, they came into contact with Plain Nilotes, especially the Karimojong. What followed was cross-cultural bartering of religious artefacts, both ideological and material, in which process the Pokot adopted selected religious aspects from the Karimojong and fused them with their previous beliefs to formulate syncretism. This contribution not only highlights the religious concepts that were fused but, also, attempts to explain the process of fusion itself.
{"title":"The Transformation of the Religious thought of the Pokot of Northwestern Kenya, c.1800–1900","authors":"Karani Shiyuka","doi":"10.1163/15700666-12340239","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15700666-12340239","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Historical studies have indicated that African religions, in the pre-colonial period, were dynamic and multilayered with long histories of contradictions, contestations, and synthesis. Using the Pokot of north-western Kenya as a case in point, this contribution attempts to demonstrate the fluidity that was inherent in African religions. The Pokot originally were an agro-pastoral group inhabiting the Cherang’any and the Sekerr ranges. During the first half of the nineteenth century, a section of them descended the hills to pursue pastoralism. In their pastoral excursions, they came into contact with Plain Nilotes, especially the Karimojong. What followed was cross-cultural bartering of religious artefacts, both ideological and material, in which process the Pokot adopted selected religious aspects from the Karimojong and fused them with their previous beliefs to formulate syncretism. This contribution not only highlights the religious concepts that were fused but, also, attempts to explain the process of fusion itself.","PeriodicalId":45604,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF RELIGION IN AFRICA","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-09-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43263099","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-07DOI: 10.1163/15700666-12340232
Gabriel Masfa
The early growth prospects of the American-Based Seventh-day Adventist Church in Africa were blurry because of challenges that early missionaries encountered. However, against all odds, the denomination on this continent shook off setbacks related to its difficult beginnings in the 1900s. Through the investigation of familiar and unfamiliar themes, this article seeks to raise awareness about new dynamics in the context of global Seventh-day Adventism. Adventism would not cease to be a thing of Western origin, but its future can be decisively determined by the hands of its non-Western adherents, who naturally share little of Western culture. The change in the Adventist landscape is not simply a matter of new names of Black origin being added to the church records, but of imposing new realities that necessitate a new way of life, a new vision of leadership, new strategies for mission, and new thinking accommodative of cultural shifts.
{"title":"The Paradox of the Margins","authors":"Gabriel Masfa","doi":"10.1163/15700666-12340232","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15700666-12340232","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The early growth prospects of the American-Based Seventh-day Adventist Church in Africa were blurry because of challenges that early missionaries encountered. However, against all odds, the denomination on this continent shook off setbacks related to its difficult beginnings in the 1900s. Through the investigation of familiar and unfamiliar themes, this article seeks to raise awareness about new dynamics in the context of global Seventh-day Adventism. Adventism would not cease to be a thing of Western origin, but its future can be decisively determined by the hands of its non-Western adherents, who naturally share little of Western culture. The change in the Adventist landscape is not simply a matter of new names of Black origin being added to the church records, but of imposing new realities that necessitate a new way of life, a new vision of leadership, new strategies for mission, and new thinking accommodative of cultural shifts.","PeriodicalId":45604,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF RELIGION IN AFRICA","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-09-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47560231","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-07DOI: 10.1163/15700666-12340236
Silas Fiorotti
This paper emphasizes the trajectory of Jaime Pedro Gonçalves (1936–2016) and especially the perspectives of this Mozambican bishop on some facts regarding the recent history of Mozambique. The hypothesis defended is that the trajectory approach is very important for understanding several aspects of Mozambique’s recent history, and that the bishop’s perspectives challenge and point to the limits of the ideas and explanations in the official narratives of the Frelimo governments.
本文强调了Jaime Pedro Gonçalves（1936–2016）的发展轨迹，特别是这位莫桑比克主教对莫桑比克近代历史的一些事实的看法。辩护的假设是，轨迹法对于理解莫桑比克近代史的几个方面非常重要，主教的观点挑战并指出了弗雷利莫政府官方叙事中的思想和解释的局限性。
{"title":"Jaime Gonçalves","authors":"Silas Fiorotti","doi":"10.1163/15700666-12340236","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15700666-12340236","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This paper emphasizes the trajectory of Jaime Pedro Gonçalves (1936–2016) and especially the perspectives of this Mozambican bishop on some facts regarding the recent history of Mozambique. The hypothesis defended is that the trajectory approach is very important for understanding several aspects of Mozambique’s recent history, and that the bishop’s perspectives challenge and point to the limits of the ideas and explanations in the official narratives of the Frelimo governments.","PeriodicalId":45604,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF RELIGION IN AFRICA","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-09-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41425275","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-07DOI: 10.1163/15700666-12340240
E. Athanasopoulou
{"title":"The Use and Abuse of the Spirit in Pentecostalism: A South African Perspective, edited by Kgatle, Mookgo S., and Allan H. Anderson","authors":"E. Athanasopoulou","doi":"10.1163/15700666-12340240","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15700666-12340240","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45604,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF RELIGION IN AFRICA","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-09-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49177001","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-07-05DOI: 10.1163/15700666-12340218
Ibrahim B. Anoba
Some Ifá priests and scholars have argued that noninitiates should not engage the Odù Ifá corpus. They suggest that such an undertaking could be spiritually dangerous and lead to the corruption of Ifá’s messages that its practitioners have established. This article demonstrates why the Odù Ifá corpus should be open to engagement by noninitiates who are familiar with Òrìṣà logics and the intricacies of the Yorùbá language in purely academic and nonspiritual spaces. Its method is premised on reviewing a particular category of literature on Yorùbá religion, and examining the corpus as an intellectual tradition within the web of cultural globalization.
一些if牧师和学者认为非信徒不应该参与Odù if 语料库。他们认为，这样的事业可能是精神上的危险，并导致其从业者所建立的信息的腐败。这篇文章演示了为什么Odù if语料库应该开放给那些熟悉Òrìṣà逻辑和Yorùbá语言的复杂性的非专业人士，让他们在纯粹的学术和非精神空间中参与。其方法的前提是审查关于Yorùbá宗教的特定文学类别，并将语料库作为文化全球化网络中的知识传统进行检查。
{"title":"Odù Ifá in Transition: Contemplating Boundary Mechanisms in Discursive and Critical Appreciation of the Ifá Corpus","authors":"Ibrahim B. Anoba","doi":"10.1163/15700666-12340218","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15700666-12340218","url":null,"abstract":"Some Ifá priests and scholars have argued that noninitiates should not engage the Odù Ifá corpus. They suggest that such an undertaking could be spiritually dangerous and lead to the corruption of Ifá’s messages that its practitioners have established. This article demonstrates why the Odù Ifá corpus should be open to engagement by noninitiates who are familiar with Òrìṣà logics and the intricacies of the Yorùbá language in purely academic and nonspiritual spaces. Its method is premised on reviewing a particular category of literature on Yorùbá religion, and examining the corpus as an intellectual tradition within the web of cultural globalization.","PeriodicalId":45604,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF RELIGION IN AFRICA","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-07-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138531696","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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