Journal ArticleDOI
The Supreme Being, divinities and ancestors in Igbo traditional religion: evidence from Otanchara and Otanzu
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TLDR
In this article, the three major pillars of Igbo traditional religion, namely the Supreme Being, divinities and ancestors, have been studied in the context of Igboland.Abstract:
The subject of Igbo traditional religion has aroused a considerable amount of interest among scholars in the past few decades. The works of early ethnographers like Talbot (1926), Meek (1937) and Basden (1938) eloquently spelt out some of its principal themes. Among these are what we may refer to as the three major pillars of Igbo traditional religion, namely the Supreme Being, divinities and ancestors.One of the problems with most of the existing studies is the tendency to generalize for the whole of Igboland on the basis of evidence which is valid for some Igbo areas only. Given the Igbo type of political system which is characterized by the existence of a very large number of autonomous communities, it is not surprising that there is a greater amount of heterogeneity in the religious system than is the case in the centralized kingdoms of pre-colonial Africa. To understand the diversity of Igbo religious beliefs and practices there is an imperative need for the study of the religious systems of specific Igbo communities.read more
Citations
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The invention of ‘African Traditional Religion’
TL;DR: In this paper, the invention of traditional African traditional religion is discussed and discussed in detail, and the authors propose a new traditional religion for the African people, called African Traditional Religion (ATR).
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Disguising Chiefs and God as History: Questions on the Acephalousness of LoDagaa Politics and Religion
TL;DR: The authors examine deux periodes dans l'historiographie et l'ethnograhie des LoDagaa du nord du Ghana and analyse les similarites entre ces deux periodses.
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Law and Authority in a Nigerian Tribe
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Keeping the Devil at Bay: The Shoe on the Coffin Lid and Other Grave Charms in Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-century America
TL;DR: The single shoe phenomenon within a mortuary context is argued to be a creolized practice, combining an African cosmology and belief in the liminal state of the soul after death with a European and especially British Isles tradition of shoes as magical objects and potential traps for evil.
Replanting the seeds of home: Slavery, King Jaja, and Igbo connections in the Niger Delta, 1821-1891
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that past examinations of West African slave systems have overemphasized the importance of social, linguistic and cultural marginalization, highlighted by a lack of access to the enslaving society's kinship networks, as the defining factors of slavery in West Africa.
References
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What is African Traditional Religion
TL;DR: In this article, the authors define the meaning of the word "traditional" as "a heritage from the past, but treated not as a thing of the past but as that which connects the past with the present and the present with eternity".
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Ancestors as Elders in Africa
TL;DR: In this article, the authors describe some activities and relationships among the Suku of south-western Congo (Kinshasa) and show that the description conforms to the generalized pattern of African ancestor cults and is congruent with Fortes's analysis.