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| african cosmology: 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. |
| african cosmology: African Religions: A Very Short Introduction Jacob K. Olupona, 2014-02-14 What are African religions? African Religions: A Very Short Introduction answers this question by examining primarily indigenous religious traditions on the African continent, as well as exploring Christianity and Islam. It focuses on the diversity of ethnic groups, languages, cultures, and worldviews, emphasizing the continent's regional diversity. Olupona examines a wide range of African religious traditions on their own terms and in their social, cultural, and political contexts. For example, the book moves beyond ethnographic descriptions and interpretations of core beliefs and practices to look at how African religion has engaged issues of socioeconomic development and power relations. Olupona examines the myths and sacred stories about the origins of the universe that define ethnic groups and national identities throughout Africa. He also discusses spiritual agents in the African cosmos such as God, spirits, and ancestors. In addition to myths and deities, Olupona focuses on the people central to African religions, including medicine men and women, rainmakers, witches, magicians, and divine kings, and how they serve as authority figures and intermediaries between the social world and the cosmic realm. African Religions: A Very Short Introduction discusses a wide variety of religious practices, including music and dance, calendrical rituals and festivals, celebrations for the gods' birthdays, and rituals accompanying stages of life such as birth, puberty, marriage, elderhood, and death. In addition to exploring indigenous religions, Olupona examines the ways Islam and Christianity as outside traditions encountered indigenous African religion. He shows how these incoming faith traditions altered the face and the future of indigenous African religions as well as how indigenous religions shaped two world religions in Africa and the diaspora. Olupona draws on archaeological and historical sources, as well as ethnographic materials based on fieldwork. He shows that African religions are not static traditions, but have responded to changes within their local communities and to fluxes caused by outside influences, and spread with diaspora and migration. |
| african cosmology: The Oxford Encyclopedia of African Thought Abiola Irele, 2010 From St. Augustine and early Ethiopian philosophers to the anti-colonialist movements of Pan-Africanism and Negritude, this encyclopedia offers a comprehensive view of African thought, covering the intellectual tradition both on the continent in its entirety and throughout the African Diaspora in the Americas and in Europe. The term African thought has been interpreted in the broadest sense to embrace all those forms of discourse - philosophy, political thought, religion, literature, important social movements - that contribute to the formulation of a distinctive vision of the world determined by or derived from the African experience. The Encyclopedia is a large-scale work of 350 entries covering major topics involved in the development of African Thought including historical figures and important social movements, producing a collection that is an essential resource for teaching, an invaluable companion to independent research, and a solid guide for further study. |
| african cosmology: African Cosmology of the Bântu-Kôngo Kimbwandènde Kia Bunseki Fu-Kiau, 2001 Life is fundamentally a process of perpetual and mutual communication; and to communicate is to emit and to receive waves and radiations (minika ye minienie). This process of, receiving and releasing or passing them on (tambula ye tambikisa) is the key to human beings game of survival. A person is perpetually bathed by radiations' weight, (zitu kia minienie). The weight (zitu/demo) of radiations may have a negative as well as positive impact on any tiny being, for example a person who represents the most vibrating: kolo (knot) of relationships. The following expressions are very common among the Bantu, in general, and among the Kongo in particular, which prove to us the antiquity of these concepts in the African continent; Our businesses are waved/shaken; our health is waved/shaken; what we possess is waved/shaken; the communities are waved/shaken: Where are these (negative) waves coming from (Salu bieto bieti nikunwa; mavimpi nikunwa; biltuvwidi nikunwa; makanda nikunwa: Kwe kutukanga minika miami)? For the Bantu, a person lives and moves within an ocean of waves/radiations. One is sensitive or immune to them. To be sensitive to waves is to be able to react negatively or positively to those waves/forces. But to be immune to surrounding waves/forces, is to be less reactive to them or not at all. These differences account for varying degrees in the process of knowing/learning among individuals --BOOK Cover. |
| african cosmology: African Spirituality: Cosmological and Theological Values Udobata R. Onunwa, Udok Mbosowo Bassey, 2018-07-27 To penetrate into the world of another people is simply a task that demands patience, skill, and humility. It is easy to write off people on the basis of racial or ethnic pride, ignorance, and hasty judgment. Until one carefully studies a peoples way of thought, reasoning, and logic, it is not easy to understand and interact with them. Once peoples cosmological views are properly understood, it would be easy to relate, associate, interact with them, and even criticize them from within and not from outside their scheme or realm of thought and action. This work has tried to peer into the world of Akwa Ibom and Cross River states of Nigeria, people with immense, rich culture and tradition and, in contemporary times, enormous oil wealth and attractive tourist attractions. The author has argued that the best in any people can be caught only when one understands and works with them from within. The myths of the people can help explain their lifestyle and actions. |
| african cosmology: African Cultural Astronomy Jarita Holbrook, R. Thebe Medupe, Johnson O. Urama, 2010-11-25 This is the first scholarly collection of articles focused on the cultural astronomy of the African continent. It weaves together astronomy, anthropology, and Africa and it includes African myths and legends about the sky, alignments to celestial bodies found at archaeological sites and at places of worship, rock art with celestial imagery, and scientific thinking revealed in local astronomy traditions including ethnomathematics and the creation of calendars. |
| african cosmology: Disciplines of African Philosophy Ikechukwu Anthony Kanu, 2018-08-31 For several decades, African philosophers have debated on the history, nature, and methodology of African philosophy, among others; however, this piece takes a different turn. It reflects on the disciplines of African philosophy. It is a work of twelve chapters and focuses on the major disciplines of African philosophy. This piece is a response to the recurrent question in the class of African philosophy: What are the disciplines of African Philosophy? |
| african cosmology: Themes, Issues and Problems in African Philosophy Isaac E. Ukpokolo, 2017-01-31 This volume provides the key to a deepened discourse on philosophy in Africa. Available literature and academic practice in African philosophy since the 1960s have largely featured discourses in the areas of origin, general meaning and nature of the discipline, with little attention given to specialized areas. By contrast, this book examines a noticeable shifting focus from such general concerns to more specific subject-matter, in such areas as epistemology, moral philosophy, metaphysics, aesthetics, and social and political philosophy in the light of the African experience. The volume includes specific discourses from expert contributors on the nature, history and scope of African ethics and metaphysics, while also discussing particular themes in African epistemology, philosophy of education, existentialism and political philosophy. Researchers seeking for new perspective on African philosophy will find this work thought-provoking, instructive and informative. |
| african cosmology: Religiosity, Cosmology and Folklore Therese E. Higgins, 2014-05-22 This book presents background information on the beliefs, customs, traditions and cosmologies of several of Africa's foremost peoples, relates these findings to each of Morrison's seven novels by highlighting the connections between the African root and the African-American product, and elucidates how this connection helps to understand and to clarify many of Morrison's allusions to the culture out of which she writes. It presents a new way of reading Morrison's work that has been previously overlooked, and moves beyond just African-American culture, delving into Africa and its people. |
| african cosmology: The African Philosophy Reader P.H. Coetzee, A.P.J. Roux, 2004-03 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. |
| african cosmology: Mapping Systematic Theology in Africa Ernst M Conradie, Charl E Fredericks, 2004-08-01 The emergence of an indigenous African theology, especially since the 1960s is well-documented. A wealth of literature has been published in the context of African theology, especially over the last two or three decades. This indexed bibliography contains a number of publications in and for the African context specifically relevant to the fields of systematic theology and ethics. |
| african cosmology: In Search of Foundations for African Catholicism Mika Vähäkangas, 1999 This study deals with the interaction between neo-Thomism and African traditional thinking in Charles Nyamiti's theological methodology. It is the first monograph published on the theological method of any African theologian. Nyamiti's theology is a germane and a fruitful choice for the study of this issue because of his programmatic attempt to build a coherent African Roman Catholic theological system. His theology is also well-known for its strong African flavor in elaborating theological questions within the framework of orthodox Roman Catholic doctrine. |
| african cosmology: Masonic Light from Ancient Africa Keith Moore 32¡, 2018-01-30 This book explores the critical thinking that Freemasons of African descent have towards the understanding of the Bible as well as the impact of Christianity in African American culture. To the Mason, the Bible is the guide of faith for it gives us God's holy instructions. It also has within it a secret knowledge that many of our traditional churches refused to tap into. Therefore this knowledge is esoteric in nature and this is what masonry thrives on. This book will examine not only the contributions by ancient Kemet (Egypt) To religion but the entire content of Africa which has a conglomerate of religions all are pointing to one divine creator. |
| african cosmology: Agents of Social Change Sung H. Bauta, 2022-07-15 This book goes where no other work has gone. It refuses to conform to the conventional descriptions of the realities of widows in Africa. Thus, rather than approach the issue of widowhood from the vantage point of what society can do for widows, the book considers what widows can do for society. Christian widows in northern Nigeria are defying the restrictions assigned to their widowhood. Remarriage and property inheritance, for instance, are not central to widows’ ambitions. Widows believe that they are not passive observers within society, rather, they are agents of social change. Therefore, they are drawing from their faith in religious, social, and economic engagements towards societal transformation. Of the institutions that influence their lives, Christian institutions provide the best guide for the embodied agency of Christian widows in northern Nigeria. The theory of embodiment considers the ways Christian widows emulate the life of Jesus towards remaking society. |
| african cosmology: Values and Development in Southern Africa Hans Muller, Pinkie Mekgwe, 2013-03-28 Development has been on Africas agenda for a long time but progress has been both varied and limited, partly due to the diverse levelsof the discussions ont he challenges and the interventions for tackling them. Africas greatest challenge is the uneven development within and between its countries, and the pressing issues of extreme poverty in southern Africa, and the continent as a whole. Poverty causes its victims to suffer social exclusion and political repression. In addition, societies that experience poverty are also mostly under continuous threat of ecological disasters and diseases. All poor people are therefore plagued by loss of freedom and dignity, and are often unable to participate effectively in the political, economic, legal and social processes of their countries. This book focuses on the social and cultural dimensions of development dynamics and, in particular, the role of values in shaping development. Values are at the core of the hopes and aspirations of individuals, communities and societies. The book therefore explains the values that motivate and inform African communities and societies, with a view to facilitating a dialogue about sustainable development in Africa among academics, intellectuals, policy and decisionmakers, and the communities. It also investigates the social and cultural dynamics of development in Africa, as a better alternative to earlier studies that blame African culture for poverty and exclude the people of Africa in their definition of developments in the continent. The significance of this book lies in its provision of a theoretical argument, from empirical perspective, on the role of values in the development of Africa; an argument that is capable of facilitating a dialogue about African development, which obviously proves more useful than either the imposition of a technical process or the announcement of a normative framework. |
| african cosmology: Readings in Gender in Africa Andrea Cornwall, 2005 This is a comprehensive overview on the existing literature on gender in Africa. It covers areas such as Western perceptions, colonial morality, religion and politics. |
| african cosmology: Creating Africa in America Jacqueline Copeland-Carson, 2012-03-13 With a booming economy that afforded numerous opportunities for immigrants throughout the 1990s, the Twin Cities area has attracted people of African descent from throughout the United States and the world and is fast becoming a transnational metropolis. Minnesota's largest urban area, the region now also has the country's most diverse black population. A closely drawn ethnography, Creating Africa in America: Translocal Identity in an Emerging World City seeks to understand and evaluate the process of identity formation in the context of globalization in a way that is also site specific. Bringing to this study a rich and interesting professional history and expertise, Jacqueline Copeland-Carson focuses on a Minneapolis-based nonprofit, the Cultural Wellness Center, which combines different ethnic approaches to bodily health and community well-being as the basis for a shared, translocal African culture. The book explores how the body can become a surrogate locus for identity, thus displacing territory as the key referent for organizing and experiencing African diasporan diversity. Showing how alternatives are created to mainstream majority and Afrocentric approaches to identity, she addresses the way that bridges can be built in the African diaspora among different African immigrant, African American, and other groups. As this thoughtful and compassionate ethnographic study shows, the fact that there is no simple and concrete way to define how one can be African in contemporary America reflects the tangled nature of cultural processes and social relations at large. Copeland-Carson demonstrates the cultural creativity and social dexterity of people living in an urban setting, and suggests that anthropologists give more attention to the role of the nonprofit sector as a forum for creating community and identity throughout African diasporan history in the United States. |
| african cosmology: Manhood Development in Urban African-American Communities Robert J Jagers, Roderick J Watts, 2018-10-24 One of the first books to unite practice, research, and theory in addressing manhood development, Manhood Development in Urban African-American Communities aids in the construction of more holistic and progressive notions of African-American manhood. Proceeding from a psychological perspective, this text explores issues of culture and race as they impact on the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral characteristics of African-American boys and men. You will see how the development of self-esteem and self-image in African-American men are specifically affected by issues of gender, race, culture, religion, and oppression. You will see how the development of self-esteem and self-image in African-American men are specifically affected by issues of gender, race, culture, religion. The understanding of culture, oppression, and gender you’ll gain from this book will enable you to promote the positive development of young men.Manhood Development in Urban African-American Communities covers theories, research, and intervention programs aimed at better understanding and addressing the challenges young African-American men face in urban areas. Psychologists, sociologists, social workers, and all others interested in research on youth development will be captivated by the books explorations of: the role of culture in the social development of African-American youth cluster profiles of racial socialization beliefs, giving special consideration to factors of spiritual/religious coping, extended family care, cultural pride reinforcement, and racial awareness oppression and sociopolitical development as a basis for interventions aimed at sociopolitical awareness and action findings from SQAKs (Student Questionnaire on Academic Performance, Cognitive Development, and Social Knowledge) completed by 100 participants of the RAAMUS (Responsible African-American Men United in Spirit) Academy and their implications for future youth interventions a multi-method study that explores the relationship between gender, spirituality, and spiritual well-being and several indices of religiosity, including religious participation and religious motivation a review of manhood and womanhood development in traditional African societies and the connection with contemporary developmentThe themes of gender, oppression-liberation, and culture found throughout Manhood Development in Urban African-American Communities provide a broad scope for the inclusion of a wide range of perspectives and disciplines, ranging from the psychological to the political. This broad perspective will bring to light the specific ways in which we need to change things to allow our young African-American men living in urban areas to form healthy, positive images of themselves as individuals and as part of a greater society in which they often face grave challenges. |
| african cosmology: Religious Conversion: An African Perspective Carmody, Brendan, 2018-09-17 Religious Conversion: An African Perspective includes a selection of key texts which are not easily accessible elsewhere. Most of the chapters discuss the long-standing thesis of Robin Horton who argues that religious change results from social transformation. The contributors provide different perspectives on what remains an ongoing provocative, though inconclusive debate. The book has chapters on conversion in Africa from such authorities as Robin Horton, Humphrey Fisher, and Richard Gray. It also contains chapters on Zambia by Elizaebeth Colson, Brendan Carmody, Austin Cheyeka, Felix Phiri and W Van Binsbergen. This collection of chapters provides an introduction to the discussion surrounding the query: Did the Christian and Muslim messages bring something fundamentally new to the African religious horizon? What has indigenisation meant? What is the role of traditional religion? |
| african cosmology: Futurism and the African Imagination Dike Okoro, 2021-12-30 This book investigates how African authors and artists have explored themes of the future and technology within their works. Afrofuturism was coined in the 1990s as a means of exploring the intersection of African diaspora culture with technology, science and science fiction. However, this book argues that literature and other arts within Africa have always reflected on themes of futurism, across diverse forms of speculative writing (including science fiction), images, spirituality, myth, magical realism, the supernatural, performance and other forms of oral resources. This book reflects on themes of African futurism across a range of literary and artistic works, also investigating how problems such as racism, sexism, social injustice and postcolonialism are reflected in these narratives. Chapters cover authors, artists, movements and performers such Wole Soyinka, Ben Okri, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Elechi Amadi, Mazisi Kunene, Nnedi Okorafor, Lauren Beukes, Leslie Nneka Arimah and the New African Movement. The book also includes a range of original interviews with prominent authors and artists, including Tanure Ojaide, Lauren Beukes, Patricia Jabbeh Wesley, Benjamin Kwakye, Ntongela Masilela and Bruce Onobrakpeya. Interdisciplinary in its approach, this book will be an important resource for researchers across the fields of African literature, philosophy, culture and politics. |
| african cosmology: Contemporary Development Ethics from an African Perspective Beatrice Okyere-Manu, Stephen Nkansah Morgan, Ovett Nwosimiri, 2023-07-29 This book offers fresh academic insights, reflections, questions, issues, and approaches to development ethics, taking into account, African values and ethics. Development ethics is an area of applied ethics that examines the moral issues involved in global, social, and economic transformation. While it is a relatively new discipline, there have been numerous scholarly publications on it from Western perspectives. However, only a few studies that focused on development ethics from the African perspective. To address this gap, the book seeks to answer critical questions such as What does development mean to Africans?, How can we measure development?, Who gets to decide?, and What constitutes just development in Africa? With contributions from African scholars from diverse backgrounds, the book covers various development themes such as Theories and approaches to development ethics in Africa, Environmental Ethics and African Development, Ethics, Politics and African Development, Migration and African development, Gender, Ethics and Socio-economic Development in Africa, Education, Ethics and African development. It is an essential resource for researchers, lecturers, and students interested in political philosophy and African culture studies. |
| african cosmology: The Holy Spirit and Salvation in African Christian Theology David Tonghou Ngong, 2010 Revision of author's thesis (Ph. D.)--Baylor University, 2007 under title: The material in salvific discourse: a study of two Christian perspectives. |
| african cosmology: Routledge Handbook of Religion and Ecology Willis J. Jenkins, Mary Evelyn Tucker, John Grim, 2016-07-22 The moral values and interpretive systems of religions are crucially involved in how people imagine the challenges of sustainability and how societies mobilize to enhance ecosystem resilience and human well-being. The Routledge Handbook of Religion and Ecology provides the most comprehensive and authoritative overview of the field. It encourages both appreciative and critical angles regarding religious traditions, communities, attitude, and practices. It presents contrasting ways of thinking about religion and about ecology and about ways of connecting the two terms. Written by a team of leading international experts, the Handbook discusses dynamics of change within religious traditions as well as their roles in responding to global challenges such as climate change, water, conservation, food and population. It explores the interpretations of indigenous traditions regarding modern environmental problems drawing on such concepts as lifeway and indigenous knowledge. This volume uniquely intersects the field of religion and ecology with new directions within the humanities and the sciences. This interdisciplinary volume is an essential reference for scholars and students across the social sciences and humanities and for all those looking to understand the significance of religion in environmental studies and policy. |
| african cosmology: How to Unlock Your Genius Using Black History David Simon, 2018-11-24 This unique book uses fiction and non-fiction to tell the story of 150,000 years of Black history. It is about a disgraced Black politician named Percy who runs to a Nigerian therapist to help him save his marriage. The therapist, Dr. Eze gets hold of Black history notes from a local teacher and uses these notes to show Percy how to explore his mind and his people's history in order to find solutions to his problems. |
| african cosmology: Astrology and Cosmology in the World’s Religions Nicholas Campion, 2012-06-11 “An ambitious examination of cosmologies and astrologies from around the world. The diversity of cultures Campion includes is impressive.” —Jacqueline Feke, History of Astronomy When you think of astrology, you may think of the horoscope section in your local paper, or of Nancy Reagan’s consultations with an astrologer in the White House in the 1980s. Yet almost every religion uses some form of astrology: some way of thinking about the sun, moon, stars, and planets and how they hold significance for human lives on earth. Astrology and Cosmology in the World’s Religions offers an accessible overview of the astrologies of the world’s religions, placing them into context within theories of how the wider universe came into being and operates. Campion traces beliefs about the heavens among peoples ranging from ancient Egypt and China, to Australia and Polynesia, and India and the Islamic world. Addressing each religion in a separate chapter, Campion outlines how, by observing the celestial bodies, people have engaged with the divine, managed the future, and attempted to understand events here on earth. This fascinating text offers a unique way to delve into comparative religions and will also appeal to those intrigued by New Age topics. “Unlike most students of astrology, Campion transcends the limitations of Western tradition to examine the nature and roles of astrological and cosmological concepts in cultures from all continents. His examples provide original insights into how cosmologies shape these cultures’ artistic, intellectual, and religious activities.” —Stephen McCluskey, West Virginia University |
| african cosmology: Ecofeminist Perspectives from African Women Creative Writers Enna Sukutai Gudhlanga, Musa Wenkosi Dube, Limakatso E. Pepenene, 2024-02-23 This volume explores contemporary African women’s creative writing, highlighting their contributions to ecofeminist theology. Contributors address the following questions: How do contemporary African women writers depict the Earth/land/environment and its relationship to women in various contexts? How is religion featured in African women’s writing? How does religious literature (scriptures) form an intertextual layer in African women’s writing? The contributors proceed by analyzing the intersection of religion, gender, class, sexuality, colonialism, and ecology in selected texts written by African women. They bring these texts into conversation with broader eco-feminist theological scholarship, exploring the potential of literary writing to contribute to theological discourse of liberation and social justice in the African and global arena. |
| african cosmology: African Spirituality, Politics, and Knowledge Systems Toyin Falola, 2022-03-10 Focusing on the three leading religious traditions in Africa (African Traditional Religion, Islam, and Christianity), this book shows how belief in the supremacy of sacred words compels actions and influences practices in contemporary Africa. Sacred words” are taken to mean holy texts as in divination, the Quran and the Bible. Toyin Falola evaluates how religious leaders engage with sacred words, both orals and texts, engendering practices that reveal the expression of religious beliefs, the impact of those beliefs, and the knowledge contained in them. Attention is given to the key ideas in the words chosen by religious leaders, and how they form a continuous knowledge system, impacting the politics of managing society and people. |
| african cosmology: The Doctrine of God in African Christian Thought James Henry Owino Kombo, 2007-05-30 The Christian faith knows and worships one God, who is revealed in the Son and in the Holy Spirit. This is the meaning of the doctrine of the Trinity in Christian thought. Although Christian orthodoxy defines the doctrine of the Trinity, the intellectual tools used to capture it significantly vary. At different times and in different places, Western Christianity has, for instance, used neo-Platonism, German Idealism, and the conceptual tools of the second-century Greeks. Taking elements from the known African intellectual framework, this book argues that for African Christians, the respective pre-Christian African understanding of God and the Ntu-metaphysics, in particular, function as conceptual gates for an attempt towards articulating the Trinity for African Christian audiences. |
| african cosmology: Eroticism, Spirituality, and Resistance in Black Women's Writings Donna Aza Weir-Soley, 2017-06-13 Provocative . . . articulates the importance of embodied, erotic spirituality to black female subjectivity and empowerment.--Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature Sets out to reclaim the right of black women to their sexual and erotic expression untainted by the stereotypes and disparagements that have historically confined them.--African American Review Captures one of the most challenging concerns of scholars who engage black women's literature, culture, and theory: the ongoing quest to locate a form of black female sexual agency that neither withers in the chilly lake of sexual repression nor explodes in the heat of hypersexual stereotypes.--MELUS: Journal of the Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States Successfully undertakes an analysis of how black women writers have used overlapping narrative depictions of sexuality and spirituality to recast the denigrated black female body and rewrite an empowered and fully actualized black female subject.--Candice M. Jenkins, author of Private Lives, Proper Relations: Regulating Black Intimacy Weir-Soley speaks with an authority that comes from real knowledge of, investment in, and attention to the details of the African cosmologies and textual complexities she unearths.--Carine Mardorossian, SUNY-Buffalo The most original and significant contributions are the often brilliant readings of Morrison, Adisa, and Danticat. The work is riveting, both methodologically and critically.--Leslie Sanders, York University Western European mythology and history tend to view spirituality and sexuality as opposite extremes. But sex can be more than a function of the body and religion more than a function of the mind, as exemplified in the works and characters of such writers as Zora Neale Hurston, Toni Morrison, Opal Palmer Adisa, and Edwidge Danticat. Donna Weir-Soley builds on the work of previous scholars who have identified the ways that black women's narratives often contain a form of spirituality rooted in African cosmology, which consistently grounds their characters' self-empowerment and quest for autonomy. What she adds to the discussion is an emphasis on the importance of sexuality in the development of black female subjectivity, beginning with Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God and continuing into contemporary black women's writings. Writing in a clear, lucid, and straightforward style, Weir-Soley supports her thesis with close readings of various texts, including Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God and Morrison's Beloved. She reveals how these writers highlight the interplay between the spiritual and the sexual through religious symbols found in Voudoun, Santeria, Condomble, Kumina, and Hoodoo. Her arguments are particularly persuasive in proposing an alternative model for black female subjectivity. |
| african cosmology: We're Not Going to Take it Anymore Gerald G. Jackson, 2005 Professor Gerald G. Jackson incorporates the perceptions, ideals, hesitancies and proclamations of hte Hip-Hop and post Hip-Hop generations into the Africana Studies field. He pulls evidence from a rich tapestry of history, classroom learning exercises, student reports, scholar and professional led lectures, discussions and educational tours to create a groundbreaking multicultural and pluralistic model for the application of Africentric helping to the educational sphere. While the mode varies, the greater number of compositions compiled here are biographies of ordinary and extraordinary African Americans. Culturally affriming, introspective and expansive, We're Not Going to Take it Anymore is a rarely seen educational innovation. |
| african cosmology: Igwebuike Ontology: an African Philosophy of Humanity Towards the Other Ejikemeuwa J. O. Ndubisi Ph.D, Jude I. Onebunne Ph.D, Paul T. Haaga Ph.D, 2019-10-21 This book of readings is designed to accomplish two tasks: to philosophize on Igwebuike and to honour Professor KANU, Ikechukwu Anthony, O.S.A. These two tasks or goals go hand in hand because Igwebuike is Professor Kanu’s philosophy. The book clearly demonstrates why Kanu deserves honour as an African philosopher who has introduced a way of doing African philosophy. It is an approach of doing philosophy that takes into account African ontology and cosmology. Igwebuike as a systematic African thought is exploratory in nature. It investigates issues with a view of seeing how they are related. Doing philosophy in this way takes into account not only the African context but the world as a complex entity with myriads of challenges. The myriads of challenges facing humanity have a representation in this book. For this reason the book is bound to have a global impact. In terms of philosophizing, this book demonstrates that Africa is confronted with many discourses. Discourses that are already going on but need a more systematic African philosophical approach. Some of the discourses are on the environment, governance, infrastructure, human and material resource among others. — Denis Odinga Okiya Maryknoll Insitute of African Studies, Nairobi, Kenya |
| african cosmology: Religion and Social Reconstruction in Africa Elias Kifon Bongmba, 2018-06-13 Religion has played a major role in both the division and unification of peoples and countries within Africa. Its capacity to cause, and to heal, societal rifts has been well documented. This book addresses this powerful societal force, and explores the implications of a theology of reconstruction, most notably articulated by Jesse Mugambi. This way of thinking seeks to build on liberation theology, aiming to encourage the rebuilding of African society on its own terms. An international panel of contributors bring an interdisciplinary perspective to the issues around reconstructing the religious elements of African society. Looking at issues of reconciliation, postcolonialism and indigenous spirituality, among others, they show that Mugambi’s cultural and theological insight has the potential to revolutionise the way people in Africa address this issue. This is a fascinating exploration of the religious facets of African life. As such, it will be of great interest to scholars of religious studies, theology and African studies. |
| african cosmology: Igwebuike Philosophy: an African Philosophy of Integrative Humanism Ejikemeuwa J. O. Ndubisi Ph.D, Amos Ameh Ichaba Ph.D, James Nnoruga Ph.D, 2019-10-18 There is no available information at this time. Author will provide once available. |
| african cosmology: African Traditional Religion in the Modern World Douglas E. Thomas, 2005-02-24 African traditional religion is a spiritual lifestyle followed by millions of people around the world. Some scholars argue it is related to the religion practiced by the African Egyptians during the Dynastic period. The Yoruba, Dagara, and Ibo cultures, particularly as they relate to cosmology, symbolism, and ritual, are fundamental to the traditional religious system. This study examines the nature of African traditional religion in an effort to determine the common attributes of the religion of the continent, focusing on the West African experience. This study analyzes concepts in African traditional religion by isolating key elements in the Yoruba, Dagara, and Ibo cultures. Principal elements isolated include sacrifice, salvation, revelation and divination, as well as African resilience in the face of invasions, colonization and various outside religious assaults. The study also considers the influence of Christianity and Islam. |
| african cosmology: Mutale: Religiosity in African Christian Churche , 2023-06-27 In this book Tresphor Mutale critically examines contemporary African Christianity through the leadership from prophets, men of God, pastors, seers and more. The book looks at the rationality of apparently irrational religious expressions and experiences in the name of religion. It analyses the irrationalities using the spectacles of African Traditional Religions (ATR), especially with respect to the importance of rituals. From the vantage point of rituals, there is sense in nonsense, and some of the irrational religious expressions being experienced today become rational. The book raises the aspect of authority of ritual leadership in ATR and how this symbol holds authority in Christianity today and how it has power to influence believers. Mutale argues that African Christianity and how it is experienced today point to the deeper influence of African Traditional Religions. The book provokes many questions about the power of African symbolisms, their application in Christianity and how Christianity through the lenses of African Traditional Religions is able to relate and influence other areas of society like, economics, politics and sociality. The book draws on and enriches perspectives on religion and religiosity with the depth of Mutale's ability to bring into conversation anthropological, philosophical, sociological and theological approaches. |
| african cosmology: African Perspectives on Culture and World Christianity Joseph Ogbonnaya, 2017-05-11 Unlike the global North, “the ferment of Christianity” in the global South, among the majority of world people, has been astronomical. Despite the shift in the center of gravity of Christianity to the global South, intra-ecclesial tensions globally remain those of the relationship of culture to religion. The questions posed revolve around to what extent Western Christianity should be adapted to local cultures. Should we talk of Christianity in non-Western contexts or of majority world Christianity? Is it appropriate to describe the shift as the emergence of global Christianity or world Christianity? Should Christianity in the global South mimic Christianity in the global North, or can it be different in the light of the diversity of these cultures? Can Africans, Asians, Latin Americans, Europeans and North Americans – the entire global community – speak of God in the same way? This book is devoted to examining varieties of the intercultural process in world Christianity. It understands culture broadly as a common meaning upon which communities’ social order is organized. Culture in this sense is the whole life of people. It is the integrator of the filial bond holding people together and the various institutional structures – economic, technological, political and legal – that guarantee peace and survival in societies, states, and nations, both locally and internationally. As this book shows, the centrality of culture for world Christianity equally showcases the important position the scale of values occupies in world Christianity. |
| african cosmology: A Master Class on Being Human Anthony Pinn, Brad Braxton, 2023-07-25 A conversation between 2 eminent Black thinkers on how to work together to make the world a better place despite deep religious differences Brad Braxton and Anthony Pinn represent two traditions—Christianity and Secular Humanism respectively—that have for centuries existed in bitter opposition. For too long, people with different worldviews have disparaged and harmed one another. Instead of fighting each other, Braxton and Pinn talk with, listen to, and learn from one another. Their wide-ranging conversation demonstrates the possibility of fruitful exchange that accounts for—rather than masks—their differences. Written amid the Covid-19 pandemic, threats to our democracy, and national protests for racial justice, A Master Class on Being Human shows us that constructive dialogue can help us pursue the common good without sacrificing our distinctive identities. In conversations that are frank, personal, and deeply informed by scholarship, Braxton and Pinn discuss topics that are urgent and immediate, such as the ongoing violence against Black communities, the rise of religiously unaffiliated communities, the Black Lives Matter movement. They also ponder those broader philosophical and theological questions that inform our politics and sense of what it means to be human: the meaning of religion, the stubborn dilemma of moral evil, the power and problems of hope. Braxton and Pinn invite us to join them in a master class as they strive to create a world where differences are not tolerated but instead celebrated. In that kind of courageous classroom, all can learn how to be better people who in turn transform the world into a better place. |
| african cosmology: The Transformation of African Christianity Sunday Jide Komolafe, 2013-02-14 The explosion of the church in Nigeria is phenomenal, with a forward momentum that is as remarkable as the missionary optimism of the first century Church. The history reveals a tightly woven narrative of the process of beginnings, growth, and change. |
| african cosmology: Rethinking the African Philosophy of Education Kijika M Billa, 2024-04-08 The African Union (AU) declared 2024 the year of Education, with the motto: “Educate an African fit for the 21 st Century: Building resilient education systems for increased access to inclusive, lifelong, quality, and relevant learning in Africa.” In response, this book delves into issues plaguing African education, and proposes some solutions. The book attempts to attune African education towards the integration of African cultural values with contemporary societal demands. It draws inspiration from the writings and teachings of the late Professor Bernard Nsokika Fonlon, a foremost Cameroonian philosopher, literary luminary and public intellectual to explore the foundational features of African philosophy of education, outlining the four-fold dimensions of education from a Fonlonian perspective. Topics covered include the physical, aesthetic, intellectual and moral dimensions, as well as judicious conservative-progressivism in African education. Through an eclectic approach, the book constructively brings into conversation African conceptions of education with other philosophical foundations of education to make a case for genuine education as a revolutionary tool for a better and dynamic African community. “In this book Kijika Billa argues that Afropessimism can be defeated. It takes courage, first expressed by Fonlon in what I have learned from reading this book to be his visionary works, and now laid out by Billa himself herein, that there is only one way any society lifts itself up from grim levels of societal decay, and that is through carefully defined educational system with clear goals which become the goals of the overall national aspiration and objective around which everything else coalesces.” D. A. Masolo (PhD), Professor of Philosophy, distinguished University Scholar at the University of Louisville “This book accentuates significant themes of integrating philosophy of education with African education systems from a Fonlonian perspective. Bernard Nsokika Fonlon’s advocacy for a holistic, morally integrous, and culturally rich education is presented as a visionary framework for transcending current educational limitations, aiming to cultivate wise, ethical, and engaged citizens. Kijika Billa offers a brilliant integrated approach which calls for a reimagined, resilient education system that deeply reflects African values and aspirations, preparing individuals for meaningful contributions to the continent’s development.” Yusef Waghid (DEd, PhD, DPhil), Emeritus Professor of Philosophy of Education, Stellenbosch University “This book constitutes a springboard in the direction of proper African cultural context of education or Africanization of educational values.” Remi Prospero Fonka (PhD), Senior Lecturer, Catholic University of Cameroon, Bamenda “It is gratifying to see Kijika Billa, a young and emerging scholar, take up Fonlon’s challenge on the need for genuine intellectuals steeped in African cultural philosophies of education as dynamic products of a world in perpetual motion. Fonlon could have wished for no better in intergenerational intellectual conversations.” Francis B. Nyamnjoh, Professor of Social Anthropology, University of Cape Town |
| african cosmology: Routledge Handbook of African Media and Communication Studies Winston Mano, Viola Milton, 2021-02-11 This handbook comprises fresh and incisive research focusing on African media, culture and communication. The chapters from a cross-section of scholars dissect the forces shaping the field within a changing African context. It adds critical corpora of African scholarship and theory that places the everyday worlds, needs and uses of Africans first. The book goes beyond critiques of the marginality of African approaches in media and communication studies to offer scholars the theoretical and empirical toolkit needed to start building critical corpora of African scholarship and theory that places the everyday worlds, needs and uses of Africans first. Decoloniality demands new epistemological interventions in African media, culture and communication, and this book is an important interlocutor in this space. In a globally interconnected world, changing patterns of authority and power pose new challenges to the ways in which media institutions are constituted and managed, as well as how communication and media policy is negotiated and the manner in which citizens engage with increasing media opportunities. The handbook focuses on the interrelationships of the local and the global and the concomitant consequences for media practice, education and citizen engagement in today’s Africa. Altogether, the book foregrounds convivial epistemologies relevant for locating African media and communication in the pluriverse. This handbook is an essential read for critical media, communications, cultural studies and journalism scholars. |
THE DIMENSIONS OF AFRICAN COSMOLOGY - Ikechukwu …
This cosmology is the underlining thought link that holds together the African value system, philosophy of life, social conduct, morality, folklores, myths, rites, rituals, norms, rules, ideas, …
Microsoft Word - 3.5AfricanCosmo
Abstract This paper attempts to deconstruct a myriad of negative images that denigrate the African continent as dark and seeks to place into proper context distortions of the original …
SOI - Book Collection I - Archive.org
Fi- nally, I decided to review the materials of the study for a second edition, which we are happy to present to you now under a new title African Cosmology of the Bantu-Kongo: Principles of Life …
African Cosmology - Harvard University
Focusing on the African continent, this presentation selects origin stories in cosmologies scattered throughout Africa. This research diverges from my work on applied astronomy knowledge in …
Maat and Order in African Cosmology: A Conceptual Tool for ...
understanding of African cosmology, nor does it have to address solely African phenomenon. What maat does is provide a theoretical framework for which encounters between the …
Suzanne Preston Blier - Scholars at Harvard
Suzanne Preston Blier THIS ESSAY CONSIDERS one of the most important Yoruba cosmological referents, the plan of the capital Ile- Ife and its palace (fig 11.1), and examines a …
AFRICAN COSMOLOGY AND THE PARANORMAL (AYISI, …
From my researches, I have found that there is a close link between the paranormal and cosmdlogy, as conceived by the raditional African. Cosmology explains the flow and balance of …
AFRICAN COSMOLOGY
cosmology can be explored and used as a relevant tool to build genuine communities of life-force among the Africans and Afro-Caribbean in the UK and other parts of the world. It will explore …
African cosmology of the Bântu-Kôngo : tying the spiritual …
The study is not itself a comparative study of western and African concepts of law and crime, but a description of traditional African legal concepts among the Kongo, one of the most important …
Initiation Rites and Rituals in African Cosmology
African communities developed rituals aimed at helping individuals and communities deal with human and natural calamities, such as an accident, a sudden illness, a drought, a death or …
About the West African cosmology of the five elements in the …
sellor, ritual facilitator and practitioner of West African cowrie shell divination. In Malidoma Somé's book "The Wisdom of Africa" there is a detailed description of this cosmolo
The Cosmology of Witchcraft in the African Context: …
Witchcraft beliefs are grounded in the concept of causation, which remains a guiding principle among Africans in explaining why misfor-tunes happen. This principle suggests that all …
African Cosmology and the Pattern of Pentecostal Prayers By
African philosophy is enshrined in her cosmology which is a body of the thoughts arising out of the people’s history, experience and culture that addresses issues of reality and value (Sage, 2019).
The status of animals in African cosmology: A non-legal …
an cosmology: A non-legal perspective Freddy Mnyongani Introduction relevant question here is whether there is a difference in the symbolisation of animals between cultures, for example, …
Philosophy, Mythology and an African Cosmological System
Philosophy, Mythology and an African Cosmological System Dr. Amaechi UDEFI Abstract - There is a tendency by some scholars, especially those professional African philosophers who belong …
COSMOLOGY IN SOUTH AFRICA: PAST AND PRESENT
Cosmology has changed over the past 50 years from a mainly theoretical subject based in general relativity studies, to a data-rich subject due to many new kinds of telescopes and …
Essay Reflections On Traditional African Cosmology
All these mythological ideas, from which we deduct the African conception of God and his relations to mankind, do help us in understanding the traditional African's definition of self vis-a …
An investigation of sin and evil in African cosmology
In probably all African societies, sacrifices and offerings are made as an essential part of African Religion. What-ever theories of interpreting them may be put forward, the basic need and idea …
COURSE GUIDE - nou.edu.ng
You will learn the concepts of African cosmology and mythology in relation to scientific practices in general, African science and integrated science in particular.
The lion, the witch and the cosmic drama : an African socio …
This paper, however, offers something quite different, the possibility that witchcraft might have an important part to play in African cosmology, in the African cosmic drama.
THE DIMENSIONS OF AFRICAN COSMOLOGY - Ikechukwu …
This cosmology is the underlining thought link that holds together the African value system, philosophy of life, social conduct, morality, folklores, myths, rites, rituals, norms, rules, ideas, …
Microsoft Word - 3.5AfricanCosmo
Abstract This paper attempts to deconstruct a myriad of negative images that denigrate the African continent as dark and seeks to place into proper context distortions of the original …
SOI - Book Collection I - Archive.org
Fi- nally, I decided to review the materials of the study for a second edition, which we are happy to present to you now under a new title African Cosmology of the Bantu-Kongo: Principles of Life …
African Cosmology - Harvard University
Focusing on the African continent, this presentation selects origin stories in cosmologies scattered throughout Africa. This research diverges from my work on applied astronomy knowledge in …
Maat and Order in African Cosmology: A Conceptual Tool for ...
understanding of African cosmology, nor does it have to address solely African phenomenon. What maat does is provide a theoretical framework for which encounters between the …
Suzanne Preston Blier - Scholars at Harvard
Suzanne Preston Blier THIS ESSAY CONSIDERS one of the most important Yoruba cosmological referents, the plan of the capital Ile- Ife and its palace (fig 11.1), and examines a …
AFRICAN COSMOLOGY AND THE PARANORMAL (AYISI, …
From my researches, I have found that there is a close link between the paranormal and cosmdlogy, as conceived by the raditional African. Cosmology explains the flow and balance …
AFRICAN COSMOLOGY
cosmology can be explored and used as a relevant tool to build genuine communities of life-force among the Africans and Afro-Caribbean in the UK and other parts of the world. It will explore …
African cosmology of the Bântu-Kôngo : tying the spiritual …
The study is not itself a comparative study of western and African concepts of law and crime, but a description of traditional African legal concepts among the Kongo, one of the most important …
Initiation Rites and Rituals in African Cosmology
African communities developed rituals aimed at helping individuals and communities deal with human and natural calamities, such as an accident, a sudden illness, a drought, a death or …
About the West African cosmology of the five elements in …
sellor, ritual facilitator and practitioner of West African cowrie shell divination. In Malidoma Somé's book "The Wisdom of Africa" there is a detailed description of this cosmolo
The Cosmology of Witchcraft in the African Context: …
Witchcraft beliefs are grounded in the concept of causation, which remains a guiding principle among Africans in explaining why misfor-tunes happen. This principle suggests that all …
African Cosmology and the Pattern of Pentecostal Prayers By
African philosophy is enshrined in her cosmology which is a body of the thoughts arising out of the people’s history, experience and culture that addresses issues of reality and value (Sage, 2019).
The status of animals in African cosmology: A non-legal …
an cosmology: A non-legal perspective Freddy Mnyongani Introduction relevant question here is whether there is a difference in the symbolisation of animals between cultures, for example, …
Philosophy, Mythology and an African Cosmological System
Philosophy, Mythology and an African Cosmological System Dr. Amaechi UDEFI Abstract - There is a tendency by some scholars, especially those professional African philosophers who …
COSMOLOGY IN SOUTH AFRICA: PAST AND PRESENT
Cosmology has changed over the past 50 years from a mainly theoretical subject based in general relativity studies, to a data-rich subject due to many new kinds of telescopes and …
Essay Reflections On Traditional African Cosmology
All these mythological ideas, from which we deduct the African conception of God and his relations to mankind, do help us in understanding the traditional African's definition of self vis-a …
An investigation of sin and evil in African cosmology
In probably all African societies, sacrifices and offerings are made as an essential part of African Religion. What-ever theories of interpreting them may be put forward, the basic need and idea …
COURSE GUIDE - nou.edu.ng
You will learn the concepts of African cosmology and mythology in relation to scientific practices in general, African science and integrated science in particular.
The lion, the witch and the cosmic drama : an African socio …
This paper, however, offers something quite different, the possibility that witchcraft might have an important part to play in African cosmology, in the African cosmic drama.
