BY DR TONY MONDA
While African traditional culture seemingly has an unlimited capacity for the quest of consensus and reconciliation, the introduction of Western institutions by some colonial agencies undermined many aspects of African social structures and paved the way for their replacement.
For example, indigenous knowledge had a philosophical bearing which included communalism or group cohesion.
Indigenous teaching inculcated a religious attitude to life. Religion, which was concerned with morality, gave support to the laws and customs of the community and to its accepted rules of conduct which included courtesy, generosity and honesty. Religion had to do with moral and ethical principles, such as individual conduct towards another and the relations of the individual to the community – i.e.: Hunu/Ubantu.
Christian missionaries were the first and earliest representatives of the imperial world that eventually violently conquered Africa, including the Shona and Ndebele people of Zimbabwe. Missionaries believed that African degeneracy was rooted in their culture and traditional belief systems that had to be destroyed. Only then could the process of ‘civilization’ commence.
Their intent was to reconstruct the African world in name of their God, Europe and the Empire; in the process facilitating the colonisation of Africa, including Zimbabwe which took place from 1890 to 1980.
As a result, African cultural systems and religions were greatly affected by dominant West European cultures that came to Africa through the process of acculturation.
Christian teaching stressed individual accountability to God; undermining African spiritual ideologies that guided African political, judicial and religions powers. In Africa, children were brought up within the community for their own welfare and that of the wider community.
They were brought up by socialization as opposed to individualization to strengthen the unity of the clan. Freedom of the individual was completely subordinated to the interests of the community and cooperation was preferred to competition.
Thus, the missionaries were consistent and persistent in denigrating and castigating African cultural and religious beliefs and practices as ‘pagan, demonic and evil’.
African traditional religion is not a remnant (thing of the past). It is a system of beliefs and practices that are integrated into daily lives, culture and traditional beliefs of the indigenous peoples; handed down from generation to generation by our forbears, by living it and practicing it. African traditional religion is in fact, a futuristic religious system.
Traditional African religions are not universal: they are tribal or national. Each religion is bound and limited to the people among whom it has evolved. Traditional religions have no missionaries to propagate them, and one individual does not preach his or her religion to another.
As in other primal religions, one is born into it as a way of life with its cultural manifestations and religious implications. African religion is one; while it is acknowledged that there are differences in some of the customs and objects used to perform rituals, the underlying principle remains the same.
It is a unique geo-physical religion whose sources include: sacred places such as rocks, hills, mountains, trees, caves and other holy spaces; religious objects and rituals, ceremonies and festivals of the people; symbols, art, music and dance; proverbs, riddles, wise aphorisms and the names of people and places.
The cohesive factor in all African religions is the acknowledgement of the living God. Central to the Zimbabwean philosophy, beliefs and practices is the conviction that the Supreme Being – Mwari, is an integral part of life. The Shona believe that Mwari (God) is approached through the ancestral spirits who act as mediators between human beings and Mwari. These rituals have been carried out at sacred Zimbabwean sites such as Njelele, Zhamé and Matonjeni, for millennia.
The African aphorism of ‘Ubuntu’ articulates a basic respect and compassion for others as its sine qua non.
The Hunu/Ubantu notion is found in many African societies although terminologies and phrases
used to describe it differ and may vary. Most Africans think of themselves in the context of this
extended relationship. It is a communally, cohesive religious philosophy which builds on the strength of the African cultural idea of an holistic all-embracing community. This acknowledgement helps to produce a socio-religious synthesis and social harmony, which is true to the African tradition.
Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, saw Africa as one family and the whole world as the extended family. He thus coined the ‘Ujamaa’ concept from ‘Jamii’ (meaning family). He was talking from an Ubuntu background and perspective. It is in this same spirit that the whole indigenous clan is seen as a family.
As an African philosophy, the concept of Ubuntu was originally expressed in songs and stories, and the customs and institutions of the people. True Ubuntu however requires an authentic respect for individual rights and values and an honest appreciation of diversities amongst the people of Africa.
Politics, economics, ethics, aesthetics, kinship and religion are six bastions of indigenous culture.
As such religion becomes the richest part of the African heritage. It shapes our culture, social life, politics, and economics and is at the same time wrought by this same way of life.
One traditional religion cannot be propagated in another tribal group. But this does not rule out the fact that religious ideas may spread from one people to another. Such ideas spread spontaneously,
especially through migrations, inter-marriage, conquest or expert knowledge being sought and
exchanged by individuals of one tribal group from another.
African spirituality is too often, wrongly described in terms of Catholicism, Protestantism and African Instituted churches. In view of this diversity in Africa, some African theologians have expressed the view that the terms “Africa” and “African” should be interpreted ideologically rather than racially and ethnically.
Most of the time, Zimbabweans seek conciliation in their own religious belief systems, even though these may not correspond to those inculcated and expected by their Christian dogma. Consequently, many Zimbabweans operate on the basis of “two thought-systems at once; each are only superficially modified by the other”. These are often symbols and rituals that church leaders have explicitly condemned.
This influence among the people was evident when members of the Liberation Struggle and clergy turned to traditionalism during the Civil War in the country. They believed that their ancestral spirits had a major part to play in the experience. Today, with the culmination of our Independence in 1980, we all know that it was so.
Dr. Tony Monda holds a PhD. in Art Theory and Philosophy and a DBA in Post-Colonial Heritage Studies E-mail: tonym.MONDA@gmail.com
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