Abstract
Describing ATR, in the sense of its/their origins, tends to be difficult in that they cannot be traced to any one particular group of people. Africa is not a continent with people sharing common traditions and so the religions of Africa, although they come under the umbrella of traditional religions, are varied in many respects. However, ATR does have universal points. Hallett suggests, “Yet, every religion, not only the so-called historical religions, has a history behind it insofar as it must have been shaped by the thoughts and actions of individual men and women.”1
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Notes
Robin Hallett, Africa to 1875; a Modern History (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1970), 70.
John S. Mbiti, African Religions and Philosophy (London and Ibadan: Heinemann, 1969), 229.
Ali Al Amin Mazrui, The Africans: A Triple Heritage, 1rst American ed. (Boston: Little, Brown, 1986 ).
Mark Shaw, The Kingdom of God in Africa: A Short History of African Christianity, A BGC Monograph (Grand Rapids, MI and Wheaton, IL: Baker Books and Billy Graham Center, Wheaton College, 1996), 76.
Bruce Britten, We Don’t Want Your White Religion (Manzini, Swaziland: B. Britten, 1984).
Divinities are defined as ministers of God and distinguished from the Supreme Being (God) and lesser spirits. For a fuller discussion on divinities, see Richard J. Gehman, African Traditional Religion in Biblical Perspective, Rev. ed. (Nairobi: East African Educational Publishers, 2005), 124–46.
E. Bolaji Idowu, African Traditional Religion: A Definition (London: S.C.M. Press, 1973), 173.
For further discussions, see Keith Augustus Burton, The Blessing of Africa: The Bible and African Christianity (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2007), Cox and Haar, Uniquely African?: African Christian Identity from Cultural and Historical Perspectives. Peter Falk, The Growth of the Church in Africa (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Pub. House, 1979). Elizabeth Allo Isichei, A History of Christianity in Africa: From Antiquity to the Present (Grand Rapids and London: Eerdmans and SPCK, 1995).
A. F. C. Ryder, Benin and the Europeans 1485–1897, Ibadan History Series (Harlow: Longmans, 1969).
William Henry Temple Gairdner and John R. Mott, Echoes from Edinburgh, 1910 (New York and Chicago: F. H. Revell company, 1910), 137.
Winfried Corduan, Neighboring Faiths: A Christian Introduction to World Religions (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1998), 142.
S. A. Abioye, Basic Text on West African Traditional Religion for Higher Education, 1rst ed. (Akunlemu, Oyo state, Nigeria: Immaculate-City Publishers, 2001), 25.
E. Thomas Lawson, Religions of Africa: Traditions in Transformation, 1st ed., Religious Traditions of the World (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1984).
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© 2013 Annie Tinsley
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Tinsley, A. (2013). African Traditional Religion. In: A Postcolonial African American Re-reading of Colossians. Postcolonialism and Religions. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137326157_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137326157_6
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