The Supernatural in African Epic Traditions as a Reflection of the Religious Beliefs of African Societies (original) (raw)
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University of Kansas. He is the author of The Quest for Therapy in Lower Zaire (1978) and Lemba (1650-1930): A Drum of Affliction in Africa and the New World (in press); he has co-edited An Anthology of Kongo Religion (with W. MacGaffey, 1974). Wauthier de Mahieu (b. 1933) is Senior lecturer in Anthropology at the Catholic University of Louvain. He is the author of Structures et symboles (1980), and Qui a obstrué la cascade? Analyse sémantique du rituel de la circoncision chez les Komo (in press), and co-author of Mort, deuil et compensation mortuaires chez les Komo et les Yaka du Nord au Zaire (with R. Devisch, 1979). Terence Osborn Ranger (b. 1929) is Professor of Modem History at the University of Manchester. His books include Revolt in Southern Rhodesia 1896-1897 (1967), The African Voice in Southern Rhodesia (1970), Dance and Society in Eastern Africa (1975); he has co-edited The Historical Study of African Religion (with I. Kimambo, 1972). Jan Mathys (Matthew) Schoffeleers (b....
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The extent to which the African world is spiritual is evident in African Metaphysics, Epistemology and Religion. In this paper I shall examine these three areas and the extent to which they portray the African world as spiritual. I shall also argue that the spiritual world of the African does not extend to notions of African Ethics and the Normative Conception of a person.
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The concept of God, divinities and spirits in African traditional religious ontology has been so misunderstood by many scholars to the point of seeing Africans as people who did not know the Supreme Being nor worship Him. This paper seeks to examine how Africans conceive of the Supreme Being, divinities and spirits. The paper shows that the concept of God is not strange to Africans but in traditional Africa there is no atheist. It sees the divinities as beings who receive authority from the Supreme Being to serve in the unitary theocratic system of government. The paper sees the spirits as strangers, foreigners and outsiders in the category of things that should be defeated using spiritual powers.