Showing papers on "Supreme Being published in 1969"

Chief, Council and Commissioner: Some Problems of Government in Rhodesia

Abstract: The first section, dealing with traditional religions, is organized according to the priorities of European theology: the Supreme Being, the lesser powers of the universe, ancestors, prayer, sacrifice, the life cycle, morality. No doubt Africans all do recognize a supreme God, but the primary focus of their religion is often elsewhere. Parrinder reduces myth and cosmology to so many Just-So stories or so much naive natural history and relegates many of the distinctive emphases of African religions to the margin. Healing, for example, is scarcely mentioned, and beliefs in witchcraft are treated as archaic superstitions which "ought to disappear with the growth of education" (pp. 65-6).

The Idea of a Supreme Being Among the aηo pEople of Ghana

Abstract: Mawu is the ABlb name for the Supreme Being. This same word is used by other Eue neighbours to designate their Supreme Beings. In a wider sense Mawu is generic symbol for deity and is freely applied to the lesser gods which the AilJ1 people particularly refer to as Tr3. Whether Mawu originated from its use for the Supreme Being or from its generic usage for deity in general is not easy to say. However the A1l1 people believe that the lesser gods have taken on some divine attributes because the Supreme Being created them and delegated divine authority to them to represent him in the world of men. This belief and A1J31 attempts at etymological solution seem to support the view that Mawu originated with the Supreme Being and was later adopted as generic symbol for deity. Many attempts have been made to solve the etymological riddle of Mawu. The commonest among the AIl3 people themselves is Ema ye wu, "this is the One who surpasses all." Others think Mawu is rather a combination of two particles: a negative ma and a superlative wu. Wu for others is the Eve for the verb "kill." Thus Mawu in AI319 thought is, on the one hand, "the One who surpasses all," "the Omnipotent" and, on the other, "the One who does not kill," the bountiful, the merciful. Some other researches into the etymology of Mawu appear rather wild guesses which may safely be ignored here. 1) But one fact which emerges from all these attempts is that Mawu is a proper name and like some other proper names, its real etymology is long lost in the mists of time. Perhaps this is the outcome of the same unqualified reverence for the divine name that still makes a riddle of the Tetragrammaton of Judaism. However, all these suggested etymological solutions

A Tentative Philological Typology of Some African High Deities

Abstract: A definition of the terms High Deity and High God must first be given. They stand for a phenomenon which is widely met in many parts of Africa: besides the spirits and deities there is an isolated deity, quite independent from and not related to other deities, solitary and of unknown origin, without dependents, neither wife nor family. Certain general characteristics always recur. This High God is usually known as creator, but not necessarily in the sense of a creatio ex nihilo. He has set certain rules of human conduct. The phenomenon of death is often traced back to him, and it is he who calls away those whose time on earth is over. In the beginning he used to live near the places of men, but later-sometimes in consequence of some human awkwardness-he has withdrawn. He is very rarely the object of regular cult. At the most a brief ritual prayer is addressed to him at a fixed time of the day. His remoteness can be so great that he exists quite passively, having retired into himself. In this case we speak of a Deus otiosus, a God who exists in complete idleness. His ethical qualities vary. One cannot say that the High God is always malevolent; it would be more to the point to state that he has positive characteristics as well as negative ones. There are also thoroughly benevolent High Gods. When looking for a parallel in the history of religions, one might think of the deistic conception of God, a conception which-in the form of an undercurrent in official Christianity-is still widely spread in Europe. A High God of this kind is called 'Supreme Being' by some students of Comparative Religion. I for one do not use this term, as it is also used to define the highest deity of a Pantheon. 1) Nevertheless, occasional overlappings do occur: at times the High God is integrated into a Pantheon. In such a case, the High God apparently is only one member of the family of Gods.

Africa’s Service to the World

Abstract: … There is not a tribe on the continent of Africa, in spite of the almost universal opinion to the contrary, in spite of the fetishes and greegrees which many of them are supposed to worship — there is not, I say, a single tribe which does not stretch out its hands to the Great Creator. There is not one who does not recognize the Supreme Being, though imperfectly understanding His character — and who does perfectly understand His character? They believe that the heaven and the earth, the sun, moon, and stars, which they behold, were created by an Almighty personal Agent, who is also their own Maker and Sovereign, and they render to Him such worship as their untutored intellects can conceive. The work of the Christian missionary is to declare to them that Being whom they ignorantly worship. There are no atheists or agnostics among them. They have not yet attained, and I am sure they never will attain, to that eminence of progress or that perfection of development; so that it is true, in a certain sense, that Ethiopia now stretches out her hands unto God.