Igbo Religion Essay

Introduction
Religion: This is defines as strictly the mortal remains of a saint. Human beings' relation to that which they regard as holy, sacred, spiritual, or divine. Religion is commonly regarded as consisting of a person's relation to God or to gods or spirits. Worship is probably the most basic element of religion, but moral conduct, right belief, and participation in religious institutions are generally also constituent elements of the religious life as practiced by believers and worshipers and as commanded by religious sages and scriptures. In accordance to Dr. Arinze religion is defined as the consciousness of one’s dependency on a transcendental begin and tendency to him.
Now the question is do African have religion: Yes the African
society have religion in the sense that there is a proclamation made earlier in the text when discussing the African philosophy, saying “what any other race possess, we as Africans possess otherwise we are less than humans” pg 444. So if other race possesses religion due to philosophy then so as with African. Based on this fact Africans have religion.
Body
It is said by African viewpoint that African religious conviction is been projected as a notorious religion. This subject is being communicated to by numerous present-day African viewpoint writers. This is so because each individuals so to say every ethnic group has their have possession of religious conviction structure of philosophy and tradition. Religion has taken full filter through of the lives of individuals habiting or belonging to any ethnic group. Also it is also revealed that the study of an African man is the study of his life in the same with taking his divinity {gods} is the same as taking his life.
Examining the natural world of African traditional religion. Tradition and religion go hand in hand for the reason that religion is also known as beliefs and it is with these beliefs that determines the custom and tradition of the Africans. African tradition religion has conquered and subjected in all areas and subdivisions of the lives of the African men to the extent that African men look up to their religion has their lives and the lives of their generations yet unborn that is why they can perform human sacrifice but Thank God for civilization and Christianity. The extent importance at which Africans take their religion is very sever in the sense that they that concerns them religiously to the point that one not belonging to their group would hardly differentiate between sacrosanct and the worldly, religion and the non religion and divinely and non dedicated.
Enchanting for illustration: The Igbo customary spiritual methods, the Igbos are religious tremendous to the central part, that is why Major Arthur Leonard, in orientation to one of his writing about the black people of Africa said that the Igbos are beyond doubt religious populace which they act upon their day by day activities including sinning religiously.
Pg 495. In this case religion materialize in the existence and bereavement of the individuals, in which previous to, they execute any activity, their idol must be conferred with which can be done through appeal or if any one is in poor health, invocation would be done to appeal to the spirit of the gods and ask for the person’s therapeutic. Also in one of the ways of showing their regard and appreciations to their gods before they consume any foodstuff they give their gods {idols} some split or fragment {bit} of their food buy calling their names with honour and hurling the food at the position where the idol dwell for they and their families to perform their private worship which they call an alter or a place of pilgrimage {family shrine} paradigm of this food are kola nut, local gin alligator pepper. Also in trying to refrain or unsoiled their selves from sin, the Igbos accept as true that animal forfeit would be made and before it is done those animals to be forfeited would be kept round the individual’s head with the mind set that their sins is begin transported to the animals before they are
slaughtered.
The arrangement of religious conviction is staunch in the lives of African individuals for the reason that they can’t continue living without religion. {Holding a man’s god is like capturing his life}. Generally, the complete cosmos is supposed to be full of occupant having solitary structure of religious conviction excluding in several continent populace have a propensity to accept as true that there is no god. But not in the case of African continent. An African personality would always be dependent relatively on his principle. Acquire for illustration, the Africans believes that any individual who would want to separate himself from the religious conviction of his tribal grouping, he would unfastened the indispensable component that reminiscent him or construct his subsistence. These fundamentals are his communication with the supernatural begins his underpinning, his association and maybe his cultural group and also the individual may be seen as good as dead.
Some challenges of African traditional religion are that there is no outline or profundity of a definite clench on their African traditional religion by good quality of their mode of manoeuvre. So due to these circumstances there is a forceful imposition of Christianity and Islam on the Africans.
Furthermore, its study is very stressful due to the fact that there are no scared scriptures where all their activities which should be instructed by their supernatural god should be documented down; this is very difficult for the Africans because there is no fact documented down to back them up in very scared activities they engage in. Unlike the for the Christian and Islamic religion there is the Bible and the Quran that instruct them on the activity they are supposed to engage in for instance the bible says that “thou shall not fornicate”. But the African religion lacks these. Also he African religion is dynamic in nature because every community has their own religion {belief} which leads to the type of activities they carry on. For instance the rules that is begin carried out in a community is different from the ones begin carried out in another community so with religion, so this is to say African religion is decentralized and flexible {in the sense that religion is different in different communities}.
Conclusion
Proving the point which says that African religion is notorious in nature because despite the fact there is imposition of different religion, African men still believe in their idols {gods} because they don’t fully believe in the word which spells “faith”, they think in minute to minute consultation to their gods . This is to say that they feel going to the church or mosque once a week is not enough in serving God. Also this fact is very demonstrative that despite the fact that we are civilize some Africans don’t have faith in either Christianity and Islamic religion but still believe in the gods that they can see and touch so therefore they still believe in the god that they can tie by their waist or the gods they go anywhere with. | |