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| akan religion: The Quest for Spiritual Transformation Nana Akua Kyerewaa Opokuwaa, 2005 Are you searching for a spiritual path that speaks to your cultural identity? Are you curious about the connection of the African-American experience to ancient African culture and spirituality? The Quest for Spiritual Transformation: An Introduction to Traditional Akan Religion, Rituals, and Practices is an important contribution to the exploration of cultural approaches to healing the mind, body, and spirit. Author Nana Opokuwaa clearly illustrates the connection between the traditions and beliefs of Africans born in the Diaspora to the ancient customs of the Akans. Her writing style exhibits a special sensitivity and compassion that shows appreciation for the reader's need for guidance. Opokuwaa's approach to explaining the Akan Akom Tradition brings clarity to the complicated practices associated with African religion in the Diaspora. In addition to seven study guides meant to serve as discussion points within your organization, group of friends, or for yourself, this book includes a list of references to enlighten you about Akan culture, customs, and traditions. There is a glossary of Twi words, with which readers may not be familiar, utilized in the book and an index for readily available reference. In the follow-up to Akan Protocol: Remembering the Traditions of Our Ancestors, Opokuwaa continues her effort to share information about the ancient traditions and customs of the Akans of Ghana, West Africa. |
| akan religion: Akan Traditional Religion Kofi Bempah, 2010-02-15 Among most products of alien education, there is total lack of moral virtues, honesty, integrity, eagerness to serve and readiness to sacrifice. Rather, he is enslaved by the glittering fancies and fascinations of other cultures. He has embraced, and is enthused by, a religion which compels him to acknowledge that he is a sinner who has to work hard to attain purity which he already is. If the new religions made him more caring, honest, sincere, God-fearing and less sin-loving' there would be no need for this work. He has assumed political and judicial roles and is ruling a society, the majority of whose members live with, and cherishes, the traditional knowledge he holds in contempt and disdain. His rule can be successful, fruitful and beneficial to himself and others if he re-educates and equips himself with the philosophy underpinning his religious/spiritual heritage, instead of using political power to impose his new-found religion and its values on his people. In Akan Traditional Religion, the author has revisited the native religion of the sophisticated Akans who built the vast Asante Empire even before the British dreamt of an empire. He has re-examined, analysed and reinterpreted this heritage from the Akan point of view rather than as part of the colonial legacy in Africa. He concludes that the Akan traditional religion is no less holy than, or the ethical values it espouses inferior to, any other religion. Akan traditional religion proclaims that the one God is, and in, everything, that is to say, a living universe based on Universal Consciousness. (This is why Akans readily accept any name, such as Allah, Jesus, Krishna, the Father, etc. used by other communities to denote the One God). In other words, it espouses the doctrine of unity in diversity. The individual forms (bodies) are activated and operated by the same one God. The differences between individuals only reflect the diversity. The self-aware individual shares in divine power and majesty; the totally ignorant person thinks he is the body and caters only to the needs and comforts of the body. Identification with the body makes him prone to suffering from excessive desires which expose him to fear, anxiety, lust, anger, pride, etc. as a consequence. The heaven/hell dichotomy is absent in Akan doctrine. All will become divine, eventually. This principle of unity in diversity, rather than conflict and strife, guides the Akan in his personal life, (wo yonko da ne woda; i.e. the bed you make for your neighbour is the same one you will lie in), as well as the organisation of his society (wo amma wo yonko antwa nkron a, wonso wonya du ntwa; i.e. your right to ten can be exercised if, and only if, your neighbour's right to nine is guaranteed). The esoteric significance of the title 'Nana', which every Akan 'Ohene' or 'Ohemaa' bears, has been clarified and the phrase, 'Nananom Nsamanfuo', means 'the Enlightened Ones' rather than 'ancestral spirits'. (Ch. 5) Anatomical analysis of prayer has shown that the Akan congregational prayer, 'Nsa Guo' is as valid a prayer as any offered to the Supreme Deity and has no resemblance to the Judaic tradition of libation pouring. Therefore, 'Nsa Guo' cannot be described as 'Pouring Libation'. (Ch. 9) The concluding chapter will make interesting reading for those toying with the idea of Africanising the Christian religion or Christianising Africa.(Ch.14) |
| akan religion: African Traditional Religion in Biblical Perspective Richard J. Gehman, 2005 |
| akan religion: Encyclopedia of African Religion Molefi Kete Asante, Ama Mazama, 2009 Collects almost five hundred entries that cover the African response to spirituality, taboos, ethics, sacred space, and objects. |
| akan religion: African Personality and Spirituality Anthony Ephirim-Donkor, 2015-12-17 This book is a revealing and insightful study about Gods and Goddesses (Abosom) as key to unlocking the mystery of the human being. Thus, this book will be of interest to Africanists, African Americanists, those interested in black spirituality and hermeneutics, cultural anthropologists, and scholars of religion and theology. |
| akan religion: Official and Popular Religion Pieter Hendrik Vrijhof, Jacques Waardenburg, 2019-10-08 The series Religion and Society (RS) contributes to the exploration of religions as social systems - both in Western and non-Western societies; in particular, it examines religions in their differentiation from, and intersection with, other cultural systems, such as art, economy, law and politics. Due attention is given to paradigmatic case or comparative studies that exhibit a clear theoretical orientation with the empirical and historical data of religion and such aspects of religion as ritual, the religious imagination, constructions of tradition, iconography, or media. In addition, the formation of religious communities, their construction of identity, and their relation to society and the wider public are key issues of this series. |
| akan religion: African Religions Douglas Thomas, Temilola Alanamu, 2018-12-01 This book supplies fundamental information about the diverse religious beliefs of Africa, explains central tenets of the African worldview, and overviews various forms of African spiritual practices and experiences. Africa is an ancient land with a significant presence in world history—especially regarding the history of the United States, given the ethnic origins of a substantial proportion of the nation's population. This book presents a broad range of information about the diverse religious beliefs of Africa that serves to describe the beliefs, practices, deities, sacred places, and creation stories of African religions. Readers will learn about key forms of spiritual practices and experiences, such as incantations and prayer, dance as worship, and spirit possession, all of which pepper African American religious experiences today. The entries also discuss central tenets of the African worldview—for example, the belief that humankind is not to fight nature, but to integrate into the natural environment. This volume is specifically written to be highly accessible to students. It provides a much-needed source of connections between the religious traditions and practices of African Americans and those of the people of the continent of Africa. Through these connections, this work will inspire tolerance of other religions, traditions, and backgrounds. The included selection of primary documents provides users first-hand accounts of African religious beliefs and practices, serving to promote critical thinking skills and support Common Core State Standards. |
| akan religion: Decolonizing African Religions Okot p'Bitek, 2011 Introduction: decolonizing African philosophy and religion / Kwasi Wiredu -- 1. Social anthropology and colonialism -- 2. What is tribe? -- 3. The classical European world and Africa -- 4. Superstitions of western man -- 5. Studies in African religions, ca. 1970 -- 6. Dialogue with animism -- 7. Max Muller, the missionaries and African deities -- 8. What then is Jok? -- 9. Hellenization of African deities -- 1. De-Hellenizing the Christian God -- 11. Some conclusions. |
| akan religion: African Religion Defined Anthony Ephirim-Donkor, 2012-07-10 African religion is ancestor worship; that is, funeral preparations, burial of the dead with ceremony and pomp, belief in eternal existence of souls of the dead as ancestors, periodic remembrance of ancestors, and belief that they influence the affairs of their living descendants. Whether called Akw?sidai, Homowo, Voodoo, Nyant?r (Aboakyir), CandomblZ, or Santeria in Africa or the African Diaspora, ancestor worship centers on the ancestors and deities. This makes it a tenably viable religion, because living descendants are genetically linked to their ancestors. The author, a traditional king and professor, studies the Akan in Ghana to demonstrate that ancestor worship is as pragmatic, systematic, theological, teleological, soteriological — with a highly trained clerical body and elders as mediators — and symbolic as any other religion in the world. Ancestor worship follows prescribed rites and rituals, formulas, precepts for ritual efficacy, and festivities of honor with music and dances to provoke ancestors and deities into joining in the celebration. |
| akan religion: African Traditions in the Study of Religion in Africa Ezra Chitando, 2016-04-01 The historiography of African religions and religions in Africa presents a remarkable shift from the study of 'Africa as Object' to 'Africa as Subject', thus translating the subject from obscurity into the global community of the academic study of religion. This book presents a unique multidisciplinary exploration of African traditions in the study of religion in Africa and the new African diaspora. The book is structured under three main sections - Emerging trends in the teaching of African Religions; Indigenous Thought and Spirituality; and Christianity, Hinduism and Islam. Contributors drawn from diverse African and global contexts situate current scholarly traditions of the study of African religions within the purview of academic encounter and exchanges with non-African scholars and non-African contexts. African scholars enrich the study of religions from their respective academic and methodological orientations. Jacob Kehinde Olupona stands out as a pioneer in the socio-scientific interpretation of African indigenous religion and religions in Africa. This book is to his honour and marks his immense contribution to an emerging field of study and research. |
| akan religion: West African Religious Traditions Robert B. Fisher, 1998 West African Religious Traditions provides a unique and accessible way for readers to understand the dynamics and structures of traditional African religion, and to see its resonances in African-American religious life today. Focusing on the Akan of Ghana, this book is the result of the author's lifetime of close collaboration with Ghanaians at all levels of that West African nation. West African Religious Traditions is a remarkable entree into a fascinating world of African religion and culture. Fisher has lived and taught in Ghana and brings to his writing both love for Africa and the keen eye of a trained liturgist who knows the importance of grounding his statement of principles in concrete observations of song, dance, ceremonies, and recitations of mythic narratives. Ghanaians have been involved at every stage of the writing and re-writing of this book, helping to clarify the material. The result is an up-to-date, well researched, and student-ready volume, whose study questions and bibliography make it ideal for classroom use. |
| akan religion: The African Philosophy Reader Pieter Hendrik Coetzee, A. P. J. Roux, 1998 This collection provides a thorough introduction to African philosophy, literature, religion and anthropology through twenty-five readings from key thinkers. They discuss topics such as African culture, epistemology, metaphysics and religion, political philosophy, aesthetics, and explore rationality and explanation in an African context. |
| akan religion: Jamaican Folk Medicine Arvilla Payne-Jackson, Mervyn C. Alleyne, 2004 This pioneering work is multi-disciplinary in approach as it examines the rich folk medicine of Jamaica. Payne-Jackson and Alleyne analyse the historical and linguistic aspects of folk medicine, based on their research, which included extensive fieldwork and interviews. They explore the sociological and ethnological dimensions of common healing and health-preserving practices which rely on Jamaica's rich biodiversity in medicinal and nutritional flora. As is the case with other aspects of Jamaican traditional culture, Jamaican folk medicine is largely misunderstood and subject to negative pejorative attitudes. This comprehensively study challenges some of the myths and misinformation. Particular attention is paid to cultural transference from Africa and the use of herbs in African-Jamaican religions. The work has an appendix and a glossary as well as a detailed bibliography. |
| akan religion: The Political Economy of Heaven and Earth in Ghana Charles Prempeh, 2023-09-30 In March 2017, the president of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa-Akufu announced his intention to build a national cathedral to the people of Ghana. The announcement elicited watertight counter arguments that morphed into two a priori re-litigated assumptions: First, Ghana is a secular country and second, religion and state formation are incompatible. Informed by a frustrating paradox of an overwhelming religious presence and concurrent pervasive corruption in the country, public conversation reached a cul-de-sac of “conviction without compromising.” In The Political Economy of Heaven and Earth in Ghana, Charles Prempeh deploys the national cathedral as an entry point to provide both interdisciplinary and autoethnographic understanding of religion and politics. The book shows the capacity of religion, when properly cultivated and curated as a worldview to answer the why questions of life, will foster personal, moral, collective and ontological responsibility. All this is needed to stem the tide against corruption, commodity fetishism, environmental degradation (illegal mining—galamsey), heritage destruction and religious exploitation. Prempeh recuperates a historical fact about the mutual inclusivity between religion and politics—politics helping to manage differences, while religion provides a transcendental reason for unity to be forged for human flourishing. Separating the two is, therefore, ahistorical and an obvious threat to the intangible virtues that answers, “why and how” questions for public governance. |
| akan religion: African Religions Clara Robinson, As the title implies, the topic of this book is the different religious practices originating from Africa. Some African religions show similarities in beliefs and practices. However, as you’ll soon learn, different African territories and their cultures have been home to many different religious beliefs. Each historical African territory has its own tale to tell and traditions that accompany it. While some are unchanged, others have adapted to the changing times. These belief systems play a crucial role in the spirituality of African nations throughout their history. They allowed them to express and maintain their spiritual heritage in good times, even the most trying ones. You’ll also learn that besides the differences stemming from cultural backgrounds, African religions were also influenced by Christianity, Islam, and other belief systems introduced to African people from other parts of the world. However, the colorful African beliefs have also left their mark on other religions. |
| akan religion: African Theology as Liberating Wisdom Mari-Anna Pöntinen, 2013-03-27 In African Theology as Liberating Wisdom; Celebrating Life and Harmony in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Botswana, Mari-Anna Pöntinen analyses contextual interpretations of the Christian faith in this particular church. These interpretations are based on the special wisdom tradition which embraces monistic ontology, communal ethics in botho, and the indigenous belief in God as the Source of Life, and the Root of everything that exists. The constructing theological principle in the ELCB is the downward-orientated and descending God in Christ which interprets the ‘Lutheran spirit’ in a liberating and empowering sense. It deals with the cultural mythos which brings Christ down into people’s existence, unlike Western connotations which are considered to hinder seeing Christ and to prevent existential self-awareness. |
| akan religion: Cultural Universals and Particulars Kwasi Wiredu, 1996 Wiredu's discussion of culturally defined values and concepts, as well as his attention to such timely issues as human rights, makes this book invaluable interdisciplinary reading. —D. A. Masolo Ghanaian philosopher Kwasi Wiredu confronts the paradox that while Western cultures recoil from claims of universality, previously colonized peoples, seeking to redefine their identities, insist on cultural particularities. Wiredu asserts that universals, rightly conceived on the basis of our common biological identity, are not incompatible with cultural particularities and, in fact, are what make intercultural communication possible. Drawing on aspects of Akan thought that appear to diverge from Western conceptions in the areas of ethics and metaphysics, Wiredu calls for a just reappraisal of these disparities, free of thought patterns corrupted by a colonial mentality. Wiredu's exposition of the principles of African traditional philosophy is not purely theoretical; he shows how certain aspects of African political thought may be applied to the practical resolution of some of Africa's most pressing problems. |
| akan religion: Teaching All Nations Mitzi Jane Smith, Jayachitra Lalitha, 2014 That Christian missionary efforts have long gone hand-in-hand with European colonization and American imperialist expansion. The role played in those efforts by the Great Commission the risen Christs command to teach all nations has more often been observed than analyzed. With the rise of European colonialism, the Great Commission was suddenly taken up with an eschatological urgency, often explicit in the founding statements of missionary societies; the differentiation of teachers and nations waiting to be taught proved a ready-made sacred sanction for the racialized and androcentric logics of conquest and civilization. |
| akan religion: Afro-Caribbean Religions Nathaniel Samuel Murrell, 2010-01-25 Religion is one of the most important elements of Afro-Caribbean culture linking its people to their African past, from Haitian Vodou and Cuban Santeria—popular religions that have often been demonized in popular culture—to Rastafari in Jamaica and Orisha-Shango of Trinidad and Tobago. In Afro-Caribbean Religions, Nathaniel Samuel Murrell provides a comprehensive study that respectfully traces the social, historical, and political contexts of these religions. And, because Brazil has the largest African population in the world outside of Africa, and has historic ties to the Caribbean, Murrell includes a section on Candomble, Umbanda, Xango, and Batique. This accessibly written introduction to Afro-Caribbean religions examines the cultural traditions and transformations of all of the African-derived religions of the Caribbean along with their cosmology, beliefs, cultic structures, and ritual practices. Ideal for classroom use, Afro-Caribbean Religions also includes a glossary defining unfamiliar terms and identifying key figures. |
| akan religion: Akan Protocol Nana Akua Kyerewaa Opokuwaa, 2005 This book begins your exploration of the culture and traditions of the Akans of Ghana, West Africa. It introduces the reader to the lifestyle of the traditional Akans living in Ghana, Ivory Coast, Togo, and other West African Countries. Little has been written on the Akan culture and spirituality especially in the style and with the sensitivity of this author. The reader gets a glimpse of the traditional life of the Akan with its protocols, hospitality, and embedded cultural spirituality. This is a user friendly guide to anyone seeking knowledge on the culture and/or spirituality of the Akans. The author has spent more than 15 years traveling throughout Ghana, observing and participating in cultural activities as well as studying day-to-day life. Additionally, the Author has spent many years interviewing practitioners of traditional Akan customs and rituals in Ghana. This book is a must read for social workers, psychologists, professors, teachers, and students. It is a great reference guide for those who plan to travel to Ghana and other parts of West Africa. Akan Protocol is infused with stories of interest and humor that will place you in the heart of Ghana, West Africa with Nana Kyerewaa. |
| akan religion: African American Religions, 1500–2000 Sylvester A. Johnson, 2015-08-06 A rich account of the long history of Black religion from the dawn of Western colonialism to the rise of the national security paradigm. |
| akan religion: African Intellectual Heritage Abu Shardow Abarry, 1996 Organized by major themes—such as creation stories, and resistance to oppression—this collection gather works of imagination, politics and history, religion, and culture from many societies and across recorded time. Asante and Abarry marshal together ancient, anonymous writers whose texts were originally written on stone and papyri and the well-known public figures of more recent times whose spoken and written words have shaped the intellectual history of the diaspora. Within this remarkably wide-ranging volume are such sources as prayers and praise songs from ancient Kemet and Ethiopia along with African American spirituals; political commentary from C.L.R. James, Malcolm X, Mary McLeod Bethune, and Joseph Nyerere; stirring calls for social justice from David Walker, Abdias Nacimento, Franzo Fanon, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Featuring newly translated texts and ocuments published for the first time, the volume also includes an African chronology, a glossary, and an extensive bibliography. With this landmark book, Asante and Abarry offer a major contribution to the ongoing debates on defining the African canon. Author note:Molefi Kete Asanteis Professor and Chair of African American Studies at Temple University and author of several books, includingThe Afrocentric Idea(Temple) andThe Historical and Cultural Atlas of African Americans.Abu S. Abarryis Assistant Chair of African American Studies at Temple University. |
| akan religion: Between Rhetoric and Reality Mawere, Munyaradzi, Awuah-Nyamekye, Samuel, 2015-04-02 Since time immemorial, indigenous peoples around the world have developed knowledge systems to ensure their continued survival in their respective territories. These knowledge systems have always been dynamic such that they could meet new challenges. Yet, since the so-called enlightenment period, these knowledges have been supplanted by the Western enlightenment science or colonial science hegemony and arrogance such that in many cases they were relegated to the periphery. Some Euro-centric scholars even viewed indigenous knowledge as superstitious, irrational and anti-development. This erroneous view has, since the colonial period, spread like veld fire to the extent of being internalised by some political elites and Euro-centric academics of Africa and elsewhere. However, for some time now, the potential role that indigenous peoples and their knowledge can play in addressing some of the global problems haunting humanity across the world is increasingly emerging as part of international discourse. This book presents an interesting and insightful discourse on the state and role that indigenous knowledge can play in addressing a tapestry of problems of the world and the challenges connected with the application of indigenous knowledge in enlightenment science-dominated contexts. The book is not only useful to academics and students in the fields of indigenous studies and anthropology, but also those in other fields such as environmental science, social and political ecology, development studies, policy studies, economic history, and African studies. |
| akan religion: African Americans and the Bible Vincent L. Wimbush, 2001-01-01 A unique study of how the Bible constructs African Americans and how African Americans construct the bibleFrom literature and the arts to popular culture and everyday life, the Bible courses through black society and culture. Despite the enormous recent surge of interest in African American religion, scant attention has been paid to the diversity of ways in which African Americans have utilized the Bible. African Americans and the Bible is the fruit of a four-year collaborative research project directed by Vincent L. Wimbush and funded by the Lilly Endowment. It brings together scholars and experts (sixty-eight in all) from a wide range of academic and artistic fields and disciplines-including ethnography, cultural history, and biblical studies and also music, film, dance, drama, and literature. The book is less about the meaning(s) of the Bible than about the Bible and meaning(s), less about the world(s) of the Bible than about how worlds and the Bible interact-in short, about how a text constructs a people and a people construct a text. It is about a particular socio-cultural formation but also about the dynamics that occur in the interrelation between any group of people and sacred texts in general. African Americans and the Bible offers a critical lens through which the process of socio-cultural formation can be viewed. |
| akan religion: Gertrude Stein and Richard Wright M Lynn Weiss, M. Lynn Weiss, 2008-08-18 After the Second World War Gertrude Stein asked a friend's support in securing a visa for Richard Wright to visit Paris. I've got to help him, she said. You see, we are both members of a minority group. The brief, little-noted friendship of Stein and Wright began in 1945 with a letter. Over the next fifteen months, the two kept up a lively correspondence which culminated in Wright's visit to Paris in May 1946 and ended with Stein's death a few months later. Gertrude Stein and Richard Wright began their careers as marginals within marginalized groups, and their desire to live peacefully in unorthodox marriages led them away from America and into permanent exile in France. Still the obvious differences between them-in class, ethnic and racial origins, and in artistic expression-beg the question: What was there to talk about? This question opens a window onto each writer's meditations on the influence of racial, ethnic, national origins on the formation of identity in a modern and post-modern world. The intuitive and intellectual affinities between Stein and Wright are illuminated in several works of non-fiction. Stein's Paris France and Wright's Pagan Spain are meditations on expatriation and creativity. Their so-called homecoming narratives-Stein's Everybody's Autobiography and Wright's Black Power --examine concepts of racial and national identity in a post-modernist world. Respectively in Lectures in America and White Man, Listen! Stein and Wright outline the ways in which the poetics and politics of modernism are inextricably bound. At the close of the twentieth century the meditations of Stein and Wright on the protean quality of individual identity and its artistic, social, and political expression explore the most prescient and pressing issues of our time and beyond. M. Lynn Weiss is an assistant professor of English and African-American literature at Washington University. |
| akan religion: A History of West Africa Toyin Falola, 2023-12-29 This book introduces readers to the rich and fascinating history of West Africa, stretching all the way back to the stone age, and right up to the modern day. Over the course of twenty seven short and engaging chapters, the book delves into the social, cultural, economic and political history of West Africa, through prehistory, revolutions, ancient empires, thriving trade networks, religious traditions, and then the devastating impact of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade and subsequent colonial rule. The book reflects on the struggle for independence and investigates how politics and economics developed in the post-colonial period. By the end of the book, readers will have a detailed understanding of the fascinating and diverse range of cultures to be found in West Africa, and of how the region relates to the rest of the world. Drawing on decades of teaching and research experience, this book will serve as an excellent textbook for entry-level History and African Studies courses, as well as providing a perfect general introduction to anyone interested in finding out about West Africa. |
| akan religion: Normative Justification of a Global Ethic Uchenna B. Okeja, 2012-12-07 This book focuses on the normative questions raised by the postulation and declaration of a global ethic. Its scope covers the questions “why do we need a global ethic?”, “what kind of global ethic do we need and what sort of normative justification does it imply?” The book considers the imperative of global ethic to be plausible because it demands consistency in the application of the rule or standard of moral behavior. |
| akan religion: Capital Dilemma Derek Hyra, Sabiyha Prince, 2015-11-19 Capital Dilemma: Growth and Inequality in Washington, DC uncovers and explains the dynamics that have influenced the contemporary economic advancement of Washington, DC. This volume’s unique interdisciplinary approach using historical, sociological, anthropological, economic, geographic, political, and linguistic theories and approaches, captures the comprehensive factors related to changes taking place in one of the world’s most important cities. Capital Dilemma clarifies how preexisting urban social hierarchies, established mainly along race and class lines but also along national and local interests, are linked with the city’s contemporary inequitable growth. While accounting for historic disparities, this book reveals how more recent federal and city political decisions and circumstances shape contemporary neighborhood gentrification patterns, highlighting the layered complexities of the modern national capital and connecting these considerations to Washington, DC’s past as well as to more recent policy choices. As we enter a period where advanced service sector cities prosper, Washington, DC’s changing landscape illustrates important processes and outcomes critical to other US cities and national capitals throughout the world. The Capital Dilemma for DC, and other major cities, is how to produce sustainable equitable economic growth. This volume expands our understanding of the contradictions, challenges and opportunities associated with contemporary urban development. |
| akan religion: Religions in Movement Robert Hefner, John Hutchinson, Sara Mels, Christiane Timmerman, 2013-10-23 There has long been a debate about implications of globalization for the survival of the world of sovereign nation-states, and the role of nationalism as both an agent of and a response to globalization. In contrast, until recently there has been much less debate about the fate of religion. ‘Globalization’ has been viewed as part of the rationalization process, which has already relegated religion to the dustbin of history, just as it threatens the nation, as the world moves toward a cosmopolitan ethics and politics. The chapters in this book, however, make the case for the salience and resilience of religion, often in conjunction with nationalism, in the contemporary world in several ways. This book highlights the diverse ways in which religions first and foremost make use of the traditional power and communication channels available to them, like strategies of conversion, the preservation of traditional value systems, and the intertwining of religious and political power. Nevertheless, challenged by a more culturally and religiously diversified societies and by the growth of new religious sects, contemporary religions are also forced to let go of these well known strategies of preservation and formulate new ways of establishing their position in local contexts. This collection of essays by established and emerging scholars brings together theory-driven and empirically-based research and case-studies about the global and bottom-up strategies of religions and religious traditions in Europe and beyond to rethink their positions in their local communities and in the world. |
| akan religion: Indigenous Religions Graham Harvey, 2000-11-01 Indigenous religions are the majority of the world's religions. This Companion shows how much they can contribute to a richer understanding of human identity, action, and relationships.An international team of contributors discuss representative indigenous religions from all continents. The book is in three parts--Persons, Powers, and Gifts.Relevant to everyone interested in human religiosity today. |
| akan religion: Philosophical Foundations of the African Humanities through Postcolonial Perspectives , 2019-03-19 Philosophical Foundations of the African Humanities through Postcolonial Perspectives critiques recent claims that the humanities, especially in public universities in poor countries, have lost their significance, defining missions, methods and standards due to the pressure to justify their existence. The predominant responses to these claims have been that the humanities are relevant for creating a “world culture” to address the world’s problems. This book argues that behind such arguments lies a false neutrality constructed to deny the values intrinsic to marginalized cultures and peoples and to justify their perceived inferiority. These essays by scholars in postcolonial studies critique these false claims about the humanities through critical analyses of alterity, difference, and how the Other is perceived, defined and subdued. Contributors: Gordon S.K. Adika, Kofi N. Awoonor, E. John Collins, Kari Dako, Mary Esther Kropp Dakubu, James Gibbs, Helen Lauer, Bernth Lindfors, J.H. Kwabena Nketia, Abena Oduro, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Olúfémi Táíwò, Alexis B. Tengan, Kwasi Wiredu, Francis Nii-Yartey |
| akan religion: The African Philosophy Reader P.H. Coetzee, A.P.J. Roux, 2004-03-01 Divided into eight sections, each with introductory essays, the selections offer rich and detailed insights into a diverse multinational philosophical landscape. Revealed in this pathbreaking work is the way in which traditional philosophical issues related to ethics, metaphysics, and epistemology, for instance, take on specific forms in Africa's postcolonial struggles. Much of its moral, political, and social philosophy is concerned with the turbulent processes of embracing modern identities while protecting ancient cultures. |
| akan religion: Yoruba Traditions and African American Religious Nationalism Tracey E. Hucks, 2012-05-16 Exploring the Yoruba tradition in the United States, Hucks begins with the story of Nana Oseijeman Adefunmi’s personal search for identity and meaning as a young man in Detroit in the 1930s and 1940s. She traces his development as an artist, religious leader, and founder of several African-influenced religio-cultural projects in Harlem and later in the South. Adefunmi was part of a generation of young migrants attracted to the bohemian lifestyle of New York City and the black nationalist fervor of Harlem. Cofounding Shango Temple in 1959, Yoruba Temple in 1960, and Oyotunji African Village in 1970, Adefunmi and other African Americans in that period renamed themselves “Yorubas” and engaged in the task of transforming Cuban Santer'a into a new religious expression that satisfied their racial and nationalist leanings and eventually helped to place African Americans on a global religious schema alongside other Yoruba practitioners in Africa and the diaspora. Alongside the story of Adefunmi, Hucks weaves historical and sociological analyses of the relationship between black cultural nationalism and reinterpretations of the meaning of Africa from within the African American community. |
| akan religion: The Spirit With Us Clifford Owusu-Gyamfi, 2023-11-09 In this volume, the author shows how the Akan concepts of sunsum and honhom offer a degree of Christian pneumatological similarity, providing the avenue for translating and contextualizing the doctrine of the Holy Spirit within the context of the Akan people of West Africa. |
| akan religion: Minding the Gap Between Restorative Justice, Therapeutic Jurisprudence, and Global Indigenous Wisdom Saade, Marta Vides, Halder, Debarati, 2022-10-28 Foundational principles of the contemporary practices of both restorative justice and the concept of therapeutic jurisprudence often import organic and indigenous practices of conflict resolution to resolve insufficiencies and even to explain fundamental ideas. Too often, the indiscriminate use of such practices does not mind the gap between the defining principles, the guiding principles, or the limiting principles that challenge particular features of practical applications. Minding the Gap Between Restorative Justice, Therapeutic Jurisprudence, and Global Indigenous Wisdom gives an authentic voice to practitioners and theorists whose work originates in organic or indigenous conflict resolution. It raises awareness of the diversity of approaches to dispute resolution from the deep perspective of their foundations and understands the challenges that arise in the practical application of restorative justice and therapeutic jurisprudence models when using principles disconnected from their foundation. It further offers ways to bridge the gap so that it is no longer an obstacle but a source of transformation. Covering topics such as justice praxes, indigenous conflict resolution, and global indigenous wisdom, this premier reference source is a dynamic resource for HR managers, lawyers, government officials, mediators, counselors, students and faculty of higher education, librarians, researchers, and academicians. |
| akan religion: Identity Meets Nationality Helen Lauer, Nana Aba Appiah Amfo, Jemima Asabea Anderson, 2011 Questions about how social conditioning and historical circumstances influence assumptions about who we are and how others perceive who we are have attracted wide ranging discussion across the disciplines in the arts, humanities and allied sciences. Simultaneously, since the Independence period, scholars have deliberated over the varied implications of new states emerging throughout Africa. The peer-reviewed selected papers for this anthology represent a cross section of the diverse perspectives reflecting research and cross-disciplinary collaborations undertaken by members of the University of Ghana faculty and graduate students working in archaeology, literary criticism of African as well as English and Russian literatures, economics, history, cognitive psychology, linguistics, dance, music, philosophy, sociology, and the study of religions. |
| akan religion: Haiku and Modernist Poetics Y. Hakutani, 2009-08-31 This book examines the genesis and development of haiku in Japan and traces its impact on modernist poetics. This study shows that the most pervasive East-West artistic, cultural, and literary exchange that has taken place in modern and postmodern times was in the reading and writing of haiku in the West. Hakutani roots Y.B Yeats symbolism in cross cultural visions; reveals Ezra Pound s imagism to have originated in haiku; and discusses some of the finest haiku written by Jack Kerouac, Richard Wright, Sonia Sanchez, and James Emanuel. |
| akan religion: Cross-Cultural Visions in African American Literature Y. Hakutani, 2011-05-23 The most influential East-West artistic, cultural, and literary exchange that has taken place in modern and postmodern times was the reading and writing of haiku. Here, esteemed contributors investigate the impact of Eastern philosophy and religion on African American writers such as Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, and Toni Morrison, offering a fresh field of literary inquiry. |
| akan religion: Cultural Sociology of the Middle East, Asia, and Africa Andrea L. Stanton, Edward Ramsamy, Peter J. Seybolt, Carolyn M. Elliott, 2012-01-05 In our age of globalization and multiculturalism, it has never been more important for Americans to understand and appreciate foreign cultures and how people live, love, and learn in areas of the world unfamiliar to most U.S. students and the general public. The four volumes in our cultural sociology reference encyclopedia take a step forward in this endeavor by presenting concise information on those regions likely to be most foreign to U.S. students: the Middle East, Asia, and Africa. The intent is to convey what daily life is like for people in these selected regions. It is hoped entries within these volumes will aid readers in efforts to understand the importance of cultural sociology, to appreciate the effects of cultural forces around the world, and to learn the history of countries and cultures within these important regions. |
| akan religion: The Politics of Secularism Murat Akan, 2017-09-05 Discussions of modernity—or alternative and multiple modernities—often hinge on the question of secularism, especially how it travels outside its original European context. Too often, attempts to answer this question either imagine a universal model derived from the history of Western Europe, which neglects the experience of much of the world, or emphasize a local, non-European context that limits the potential for comparison. In The Politics of Secularism, Murat Akan reframes the question of secularism, exploring its presence both outside and inside Europe and offering a rich empirical account of how it moves across borders and through time. Akan uses France and Turkey to analyze political actors' comparative discussions of secularism, struggles for power, and historical contextual constraints at potential moments of institutional change. France and Turkey are critical sites of secularism: France exemplifies European political modernity, and Turkey has long been the model of secularism in a Muslim-majority country. Akan analyzes prominent debates in both countries on topics such as the visibility of the headscarf and other religious symbols, religion courses in the public school curriculum, and state salaries for clerics and imams. Akan lays out the institutional struggles between three distinct political currents—anti-clericalism, liberalism, and what he terms state-civil religionism—detailing the nuances of how political movements articulate the boundary between the secular and the religious. Disputing the prevalent idea that diversity is a new challenge to secularism and focusing on comparison itself as part of the politics of secularism, this book makes a major contribution to understanding secular politics and its limits. |
Akan people - Wikipedia
The Akan (/ ˈ æ k æ n /) people are a Kwa group living primarily in present-day Ghana and in parts of Ivory Coast and Togo in West Africa. The Akan speak languages within the Central …
Akan | West African, Ghana, Ivory Coast | Britannica
Jun 7, 2025 · Akan, ethnolinguistic grouping of peoples of the Guinea Coast who speak Akan languages (of the Kwa branch of the Niger-Congo family). They include the speakers of the …
Who Are The Akan People? - WorldAtlas
May 15, 2019 · The Ancient Akan people worshipped Onyame (Supreme God), Asase Yaa (the goddess of the earth), and to their ancestors by offering sacrifices including slaves. The Akan …
Akan Heritage - The Akan are a diverse ethnic group of West …
Explore Akan Heritage, Akan Culture, and Akan History, including Bono Manso, Bono Region, Bono People, Bono Twi, Bono King, and Brong History. Discover traditional Akan customs, art, …
Akan People, Language and Culture - BuzzGhana
Akan is the largest ethnic group in Ghana. They predominantly inhabit the Ashanti, Eastern, Central, and a portion of the Western regions. The Akan people have an interesting and rich …
Traditional African Religions: Akan - Robert W. Woodruff Library ...
Sep 9, 2024 · Like other traditional West African religions, the Akan religion is polytheistic. While Onyame is considered supreme, there are many minor deities, the abosom, who exercise …
Akan - Encyclopedia.com
May 21, 2018 · The Akan comprise a cluster of peoples living in southern and central Ghana and in southeastern Ivory Coast. They form a series of distinct kingdoms and share a common …
Akan ethnic group - Forum Africa
Oct 19, 2023 · The Akan ethnic group is a prominent ethnic group in West Africa. They are primarily found in Ghana and Ivory Coast. The Akan people have a rich oral tradition that is …
Akan language - Wikipedia
Akan (/ ə ˈ k æ n / [2]), or Twi-Fante, [3] is the most populous language of Ghana, and the principal native language of the Akan people, spoken over much of the southern half of Ghana. …
The Akan Language - Ohio University
OHIO Akan language courses focus on the language's structure and how to communicate effectively while also exploring customs, beliefs, values, arts, literature, cuisine, social norms, …
Akan people - Wikipedia
The Akan (/ ˈ æ k æ n /) people are a Kwa group living primarily in present-day Ghana and in parts of Ivory Coast and Togo in West Africa. The Akan speak languages within …
Akan | West African, Ghana, Ivory Coast | Britannica
Jun 7, 2025 · Akan, ethnolinguistic grouping of peoples of the Guinea Coast who speak Akan languages (of the Kwa branch of the Niger-Congo family). They include the speakers …
Who Are The Akan People? - WorldAtlas
May 15, 2019 · The Ancient Akan people worshipped Onyame (Supreme God), Asase Yaa (the goddess of the earth), and to their ancestors by offering sacrifices including …
Akan Heritage - The Akan are a diverse ethnic group of West Afric…
Explore Akan Heritage, Akan Culture, and Akan History, including Bono Manso, Bono Region, Bono People, Bono Twi, Bono King, and Brong History. Discover traditional …
Akan People, Language and Culture - BuzzGhana
Akan is the largest ethnic group in Ghana. They predominantly inhabit the Ashanti, Eastern, Central, and a portion of the Western regions. The Akan people have an …
