MS01.01.03 - Box 01 - Folder 06 - African and Black American Religions, [undated], Part 1

No page 7

[HANDWRITTEN ON YELLOW LINED & NUMBERED PAPER]

[crossed out: Fisk Unit] [crossed out: Prof. Opoku.] [crossed out: 4/1/76]

I [arrow] "Traditional West African Religions"

The analogy [crossed out: of] In order to know where to go, one must know where he came from. Affirming one's ancestry: The analogy of the symbol of the hand holding the egg as a symbol of Power; if the egg is held too tightly it will break. If held too loosely, it will fall.

Myth, Poetry, song, Proper names, music and art are important elements in African Religion: Early European Observers insisted on looking at Africa through their own eyes. Stanley thought Africa to be governed by people tied up with the worship of insensitive fetishes

[underlined] Paganism [/underlined] was used as a degrading term of note - Christian, Jewish or Muslim Promotion of ideas: [underlined] Anamism[/underlined] was also used. = Outsiders said that the African considered everything to have its own soul and there were countless souls wandering around - (untrue)

[underlined] Ancestral worship[/underlined] = So called worship of African ancestors only. It indeed was not true that worship centered on the dead.

[underlined] Fetishism[/underlined] = used to describe man-made religious objects -- Synonym for traditional African (man made religious objects)

2. Polytheism=Our God was elevated but never considered to be the creator of the Gods of the Pantheon. He was the Eternal creator of both God and man-God's Eternity was stressed- He was placed outside the pantheon-Orishi-(yoruba) (Religion) The apprehension of a truth which was an extention of the mind. Man, nature and of the cosmos combined. The hierachy 1 God=The supreme maker 2 The ancestral spirit 3 The divinities or non-human spirit "Who carries and Sustains the world" EkoiThe Plantain leaf is large enough to share the worldThe one who hears the world (Cameroons) Names= 1.God loves mankind 2. The One you Meet everywhere 3. God is good to me 4. God never sleeps 5. God alone knows (God knows everything) The one who was present then and now. God is in charge of Power, Justice and the ommissions of Eternity, final authority in life and death He was conceived as a spirit (That spirit of (?) was beyond the expressions of human speech If you want to speak to God, speak to the winds-(The Akan)

He was a creator = an artist who meant he was the maker of the universe. A builder who builds things. The myths of creation found in West Africa show a certain order Earth, rivers, waters, plants and animals - man last. ( ?) The spirits of water were created to protect man. I am man ( 4 day more) 2

Recieved Technical SKill with the order of creation. How did God seperate himself from human beings - Mother and - God moved furthur and furthur away - Pile my mother - stay on it and bring God Bread - (Pile my - mothers - Mothers face down and killed man. God was related to man and reffered to as the firt Grandfather on ancestor of man - Related to man by the relation of the breath of man. Yoruba _ May the day requires - Breathing this breath with the Departure of man from God which signifies death. The transfer of edem from social organization - The gradnfather arbitrator

Attributes given to God were many. 1. God was the ultimate recipient. 2. Ancestral spirit was next - people who had lived in this world but passed on to the land of the spirits - had fulfilled certain requirements. They lived close to God. They had a good death - and an influential life. & in Jaicho's bosom - In God's house. The dead had a role to play in the upkeep of the community. Strong belief in the continuation of life after death. Death could not break human relations. Obligation was the basis of traditional African Society - The Dead were expected to protect and guard the living - These beliefs give expression to the concept of African community. The Dead have their own community but it is the supernatural aspect of the community. [Acted ?] (beliefs) as a form of social control - The dead ancestors punished or rewarded the living. Every person was linked with a long chain of humanity before and after him - The [masked men underlined] served as instruments through which ancestors may return. Divinities = spirits = created and had limitations