INFECTIOUS DISEASES - Blackherbals.com

Continued from page 3–The Meaning of Peace in ATRgood and just. As God’s messengers and intermediariesbetween God and humans, they are the targets ofnumerous cults and prayers.There is yet another class of spiritual beings who arenot always good. Some of them are good, some are, tosay the least, mischievous, while others are outrightevil. And they are innumerable! Some of these arehuman, like the wandering spirits of some dead personswho due to some lack did not make it to the home ofthe ancestors and also the spirits of witches and wizardswho, though still alive, are believed to be able to leavetheir bodies and inhabit lower animals in order to harmother persons.Perhaps the most dearly loved spiritual beings in ATRare the ancestors, those “living-dead” (to borrow theexpression of John Mbiti), who are effectivelymembers of the family and clan, now living in a statethat permits them to enjoy some special relationshipwith God, the divinities and the good spirits. They arealso believed to have some power over the evil spiritsand are therefore able to protect the living members oftheir respective families from harm. To qualify to be anancestor, it is not enough just to be dead. An ancestor isone who died after having lived a life judged to be fullyrealized and morally upright, an integral life. Theancestors are so dear to the heart of Africans and socentral in their traditional religious practices that someoutsiders have mistakenly described ATR simply as“ancestor-worship.”b) WorshipReligion for the Africans embraces life as a whole andworship touches every aspect of their lives. Strictlyspeaking, only God and the divinities are worshippedand this is done through sacrifices, offerings, prayers,invocation, praises, music and dance. In many localitiesin Africa there is no direct cult of the Supreme Being,yet God is the ultimate object of worship whom thepeople approach through intermediaries: religiousfunctionaries, the ancestors and the divinities. There isno clear separation between the spiritual and thematerial, the sacred and the profane. Nevertheless,there is an abundance of temples, shrines, groves andaltars used for public and private worship in most partsof Africa. Some special trees, some rivers, forests,mountains, considered manifestations of the sacred,often serve as places of worship. This has led somescholars to imagine that it is these natural objects thatare being worshipped – to the amusement of thetraditional religionists.Some of the good spirits and all the ancestors arevenerated and constantly implored to intervene onbehalf of humans. The evil spirits are neverworshipped, even though some evil persons arebelieved to align themselves with the evil spirits inorder to tap their evil powers and use them to harmothers. The veneration of the ancestors, which usuallytakes the form of libations, offerings and prayers,sometimes also becomes more elaborate and intenseleading to the blurring of the line which usuallyseparates worship and veneration. But this is notpeculiar to ATR, as Christians who also have the cult ofthe saints can testify to.(The story is told of a lady who went everyday to herparish church to pray. Each time she entered the churchshe would go straight to where there was the statue ofthe Our Lady, light a candle, kneel in prayer for a verylong time and at the end would leave, without even asmuch as a bow in the direction of the BlessedSacrament. The sacristan, who had watched this go onfor several months and felt irritated by thismisplacement of emphasis, one day decided to play atrick on the lady. He hid behind the altar and just as shebegan her usual prayers he started saying in a voicemeant to rouse awe: “I am Jesus! I am Jesus! I amJesus!” The lady, unable to bear this any longer burstout: “Shut up! I am talking to your Mum!”)c) MoralityThe practical aspect of belief in ATR is not onlyworship but also human conduct. Belief in God and inthe other spiritual beings implies a certain type ofconduct, conduct that respects the order established byGod and watched over by the divinities and theancestors. At the centre of traditional African moralityis human life. Africans have a sacred reverence for life,for it is believed to be the greatest of God’s gifts tohumans. To protect and nurture their lives, all humanbeings are inserted within a given community and it iswithin this community that one works out one’s destinyand every aspect of individual life. The promotion oflife is therefore the determinant principle of Africantraditional morality and this promotion is guaranteedonly in the community. Living harmoniously within acommunity is therefore a moral obligation ordained byGod for the promotion of life. Religion provides thebasic infrastructure on which this life-centred,community-oriented morality is based. John Mbiti’sfamous phrase “I am because we are; and since we are,therefore I am,” captures this ethical principle well. Theimplication is that one has an obligation to maintainharmonious relationships with all the members of thecommunity and to do what is necessary to repair everybreach of harmony and to strengthen the communityContinued on page 21-20- Traditional African Clinic December 2006