scholarly journals THE REPRESENTATION OF AFRICAN TRADITIONAL RELIGION AND CULTURE IN NIGERIA POPULAR FILMS

2011 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-102
Author(s):  
Innocent Ebere Uwah
Keyword(s):  
Traditional Religion ◽  
African Society ◽  
Subjective Experiences ◽  
African Identity ◽  
Religious Rituals ◽  
Popular Films ◽  
Home Based ◽  
Living Dead ◽  
Spirit World ◽  
Representational Models

One of the ways by which religious rituals communicate in African society is by maintaining cohesion in the culture. They connect participants to richer meanings and larger forces of their community. Even in representational models, rituals create solidarity in the form of subjective experiences of sharing the same meaningful world which is attained by participants through the condensed nature of symbols used therein. Traditional religion is one ritual that despite the influence of westernization and scientific developments in Africa, still holds meaningful implications in people’s everyday life. Thus, from day break to evening, people have religious rituals with which they communicate with their God or gods, deities and ancestors. Also from weeks to seasons, months to years, there are festivals and rituals both in private and in public situations which the African still celebrate in connection with the ‘living dead’ or those in the ‘spirit world’. This paper by means of nuanced textual analysis of some Nigerian home based films: Things Fall Apart (1986), Igodo: The Land of the Living Dead (1999), Sango, (1998), Festival of Fire, (1999), Bless Me, (2005) traces religion to the root paradigm of African cultures as a channel to the construction of African identity

scholarly journals Empirical Identity as Dimension of Development in Africa: With Special Reference to the Igbo Society of South-east of Nigeria

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-204
Author(s):  
Chigozie Nnebedum
Keyword(s):  
Point Of View ◽  
African Continent ◽  
African Society ◽  
Subjective Experiences ◽  
Work Identity ◽  
African Identity ◽  
Igbo People ◽  
The World ◽  
Empirical Point ◽  
Ways Of Life

Abstract Identity, as discussed in this paper, is seen as a phenomenon which is constantly changing under certain circumstances. From empirical point of view, the identity of man is influenced by the environment through experience and unconscious socialization; it is continually modified by the individual’s encounter with the world. The aim of this work is to analyse the intricacies involved in understanding the situation and mentality of the Igbos as far as identity is concerned and to determine how this hampers or helps in the development of the Igbo/African society. In this work ‘identity’ as a means of development with regard to the Igbo people of South-East Nigeria is treated. The work is methodically qualitative. It analyses literatures and different views on identity and tailors the discussion of development along the lines of hermeneutical approach to subjective experiences. The Igbos and Africans find themselves sometimes in the danger of a mixture of identity. This is the case with most of the Igbo people who are scattered all over the world and who are becoming more foreign in their trends and ways of life. Being unable to maintain a definite identity, one is lost in the politics of development. Those who still hang on to pure imitation of the western life are jeopardizing their autonomy and by extension, frustrating development of the African society. Rediscovering the Igbo/African Identity and putting it to the service of development in the African continent is the task of the Africans themselves.

Land Crisis in Zimbabwe

2005 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-48
Author(s):  
James Cox
Keyword(s):  
Traditional Religion ◽  
University Development ◽  
Land Redistribution ◽  
Small Grant ◽  
Religious Dimensions ◽  
Spirit World ◽  
Commercial Farms ◽  
The University ◽  
University Of Zimbabwe

Earlier this year, I received a small grant from the Edinburgh University Development Trust Fund to determine the feasibility of formulating a major research project exploring the religious dimensions within the recent land resettlement programme in Zimbabwe. Since spirit mediums had played such an important role in the first Shona uprising in 1896–97 against colonial occu¬pation (the so-called First Chimurenga) (Parsons, 1985: 50-51) and again in the war of liberation between 1972 and 1979 (the Second Chimurenga) (Lan, 1985), I suspected that these central points of contact between the spirit world and the living communities would be affecting the sometimes militant invasions of white commercial farms that began sporadically in 1998, but became systematic after the constitutional referendum of February 2000. Under the terms of the grant, I went with my colleague, Tabona Shoko of the University of Zimbabwe, in July and August 2004, to two regions of Zimbabwe: Mount Darwin in the northeast, where recent activities by war veterans and spirit mediums had been reported, and to the Mberengwa District, where land resettlement programmes have been widespread. This article reports on my preliminary findings in Mount Darwin, where I sought to determine if evidence could be found to link the role of Traditional Religion, particularly through spirit mediums, to the current land redistribution programme, and, if so, whether increasing levels of political intolerance within Zimbabwean society could be blamed, in part at least, on these customary beliefs and practices

scholarly journals Juxtaposing adherence to COVID-19 regulations and practising proper burial rites: a case study of Zulu Traditional Religion

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evangeline Bonisiwe Zungu
Keyword(s):  
Family Members ◽  
Traditional Religion ◽  
High Likelihood ◽  
The Family ◽  
The World ◽  
Living Dead ◽  
Traditional Societies ◽  
Burial Rites ◽  
Inductive Thematic Analysis

The recent COVID-19 pandemic took the world by storm. The rate of infection and prevalence of death struck fear in the hearts of many across the globe. The high likelihood of infection required continual testing whilst the trauma of bereavement left many distraught. For traditionalists, a principal concern was whether they would be permitted to exhaustively practise their burial rites in the course of mourning their loved ones. The importance of the custom, as it is believed, is to prevent unsettled feelings in family members. This article is aimed at stimulating consideration, reflection and understanding of the concerns experienced by traditional societies surrounding COVID-19 regulations and the non-performance of important burial rites. Surviving family members experience troubled thoughts as a result of the fear of repercussions, which may include the living-dead withholding their protection of the family which consequently will cause ailments and accidents. This article will utilise inductive thematic analysis to interpret the data collected .

African Traditional Religion and Violence

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathalie Wlodarczyk
Keyword(s):  
Traditional Religion ◽  
News Stories ◽  
Lord's Resistance Army ◽  
The People ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Ritual Sacrifice ◽  
Spirit World ◽  
African Traditional Religion ◽  
Role Of Religion

This chapter analyzes a wide range of African customs and legends. It demonstrates that African traditional religion offers notions of a thriving spirit world which provides “sacred warriors” ritualized protections and martial enhancements when defense of community is urgent. African traditional religion remains primarily an African phenomenon and, as a result, is tightly associated with the cultures and realities of the continent. The role of religion in motivating violence and its role in carrying out the violence are addressed. The Lord's Resistance Army has revealed that a spiritual agenda and rhetoric is not enough to win the support of the people. A proliferation of news stories and images from across Africa of persecuted albino communities, victims of ritual sacrifice or magically empowered rebels might give the impression that traditional religion and violence are more intertwined than ever.

The phenomenology of psychedelic therapy

2021 ◽  
pp. 39-61
Author(s):  
Chris Letheby
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Trials ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
Therapeutic Process ◽  
Therapeutic Effects ◽  
Emotional Experiences ◽  
Religious Rituals ◽  
Qualitative Evidence ◽  
Spirit World

‘The phenomenology of psychedelic therapy’ provides a selective overview of experiences commonly reported by those who take psychedelics in controlled and structured settings, such as clinical trials and religious rituals. The first half of this chapter reviews a variety of typical changes to perception and the sense of self. The second half reviews qualitative evidence concerning patients’ impressions of the therapeutic process. Patients who receive psychedelics in clinical trials sometimes, but not always, describe non-naturalistic metaphysical epiphanies concerning the existence of a cosmic consciousness, spirit world, or divine Reality. More commonly emphasised are experiences of psychological insight, beneficial changes to self-representation, intense and cathartic emotional experiences, and feelings of connectedness and acceptance. This evidence provides initial clues that psychedelics’ therapeutic effects may not be due entirely to the induction of non-naturalistic metaphysical ideations.

scholarly journals „Nie myślę, lecz jestem”: mózg, umysł i serce filmowej postaci zombie w kontekście paradygmatu posthumanistycznego

2019 ◽  
pp. 145-161
Author(s):  
Jacek Nowakowski
Keyword(s):  
Visual Culture ◽  
New Materialism ◽  
Popular Films ◽  
The World ◽  
Living Dead ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Brain

The article presents the character of the zombie popular in the contemporary audio-visual culture by placing it in the context of post humanist paradigm. He concentrates on the brain symbolism representative for the character, which, in the classical understanding of the living dead, due to dissimilar functioning, makes it different from humans and their brain-like traits: the mind and heart. Analysing the recent films such as Warm Bodies and The Girl with All the Gifts, he demonstrates the present inadequacy of such a division. Unlike the classical Night of the Living Dead, they are in line with post anthropocentric and new materialism philosophy, by differently symbolically depicting the role and place of the human in the world. It is presently tantamount to the place of non-humans: animals, objects, artefacts and monsters including the living dead. The change of the cultural and film paradigm observed in zombie horrors indicates a deeper strategy of authors of those popular films.

scholarly journals Igba-Ada Festival: Commemorating the Ohafia Invaders as a Kind of Traditional Carnival through Ovala Festival in Aguleri Cosmology

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 213-226
Author(s):  
Madukasi Francis Chuks
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Research Work ◽  
Symbolic Representation ◽  
Political Authority ◽  
Local Government Area ◽  
Secondary Source ◽  
Traditional Religion ◽  
Religious Rituals ◽  
Cultural Approach

The ritual festival of Igba-Ada is a traditional carnival which symbolizes commemoration of the synergy between the living and dead and it acts as a spiritual conduit that binds or compensates the entire villages that constitutes Aguleri as a kingdom of one people with one destiny through the mediation of their contact with their ancestral home and with the built/support in religious rituals and cultural security of their extended brotherhood. This research work discusses Mmanwu Festivals and their symbolic representation in an Igbo community focusing on Igba-Ada carnival in Aguleri, Anambra East local government area. Secondary source as a kind method were reviewed and analyzed using the area cultural approach. This festival is a commemoration of how the Ohafia invaders were chased out and conquered by the egalitarian youths of Aguleri by reinenforcing themselves in other to wage war against their enemies. Basically, it usually an occasion for jocundity and thanksgiving; people appear in their best through mimic forms and give of their best. The carnival reunites their intimate brotherhood and shows how the Aguleri community uses this through the mediation of its rituals to reassert or validate the continuity and existence of Aguleri [Igbo] Traditional Religion. It is very significant in the sense that at the conclusion of the Igba-Ada carnival, the King acquires the symbolic and political authority to rule and the power to face his enemies and symbolically preserve his realm.

scholarly journals Pragmatic Sedăqâ in Nehemiah: Reconciling African Perspectives of Justice and Morality

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Emmanuel Nwachukwu Uzuegbunam
Keyword(s):  
Fear Of Crime ◽  
Judicial System ◽  
African Society ◽  
Religious Rituals ◽  
Phenomenological Perspective

It has variously been acknowledged that immigrant religions (Christianity and Islam) in Africa, rather than enhancing conscience and  morality, have tended to merely exacerbate religious rituals and drive conscience and morality far away from the African society (Knitter & Muzaffar, 2002). The indigenous African society had been administered by instant justice, supervised by the potent and inherently  ubiquitous, inescapable deities in the African milieu. This situation formed an incorruptible judicial system which planted a living, conscious fear of crime in the African and formed the basis for a deeply rooted morality. The immigrant religions present the idea of deferred punishment and reward (eschatology) which is completely alien to Africa, and which, in any case, dislodged the African notion of instant justice, until morality finally faded away from the African conscience and consciousness. The Book of Nehemiah presents a perspective of justice ( צ (ְד קָ הָ as response to the criminal obstruction of societal aspirations, which is in line with the African indigenous pragmatic orientation that yielded instant result and enabled the project of post-exilic reconstruction of the walls of Jerusalem to be accomplished. This paper employs a phenomenological perspective in examining justice and morality in Africa in the pre- and  postimmigrant religions dispensations, and attempts a reconstruction of the failing conscience and morality in the contemporary African society, using Nigeria in particular as the domain of the study.

scholarly journals COVID-19 burial guidelines in Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bulelwa Maphela
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous Knowledge ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Knowledge Systems ◽  
Growing Up ◽  
Indigenous Knowledge Systems ◽  
Living Dead ◽  
Spirit World ◽  
Considerable Impact ◽  
Traditional Sense ◽  
Bereaved Family

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a considerable impact on mundane daily tasks and significant cultural practices, including funerals and burials. Growing up, I observed that death in my family is a well-respected cultural process. It is believed that those who departed into the spirit world will be joining the living dead in the afterlife. For the deceased to be welcomed into the spirit world in the traditional sense, families perform specific rites of passage rituals during the burial. This is an important exercise to avert the wrath of the spirit world on the bereaved family. Attention to detail during these rituals is vital to assist the bereaved family in expressing their grief while simultaneously showing respect to the spirit world. As a nonpractising sangoma, I had observed traditional funeral and burial processes long before the outbreak of the pandemic and understood their importance. While the pandemic shook traditional burial processes and made some rituals impossible, I found comfort in the knowledge that indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) could be used to appease the spirit world. In this article, I explain how IKS can assist bereaved families during funerals and burials to avert the wrath of the spirit world and find closure.

Ethnographic Research of the use of Music in Healing as a Cultural Phenomenon in Greater Sekhukhune District Municipality, Limpopo Province in South Africa

DIALOGO ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 60-66
Author(s):  
Morakeng Edward Kenneth Lebaka
Keyword(s):  
Data Collection ◽  
Traditional Approach ◽  
Healing Process ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
Traditional Healers ◽  
Limpopo Province ◽  
Music Culture ◽  
Religious Rituals ◽  
Living Dead ◽  
The Relationship

This study investigates the relationship between music and healing in the African context, as well as the relationship between music, culture, and identity. Since the traditional approach to music-making makes it a part of the institutional life of the Bapedi community, among the Bapedi people, the music itself was and is thought to enable communication with the living-dead, often inducing ancestral spirit possession, ‘causing the spirits to descend’. We observe in this study how traditional healers in the Greater Sekhukhune District Municipality express their emotions through music, and how they use music for regulating their emotions during malopo religious rituals. The main goal of the study was to examine how these emotions relate to traditional healers’ mental health and wellbeing. A range of data collection and analysis were employed in this study. The research employed a naturalistic approach and the primary source for data collection was oral interviews. The data was collected through video recordings of malopo religious rituals, interviews, and observations. Relationships between music, expression, and movement, as well as music, culture, and identity were elucidated. The results have demonstrated that during the dance itself, the healing power of the dance, is shown by both the trainees and their traditional healers, for example, during malopo ritual, after reaching a state of trance, they become spiritually healed. Villagers who witnessed the dance and participated only as an audience, also indicated a feeling of wellbeing after participating in the malopo ritual. The study has revealed that music is an integral part of the Bapedi culture and heritage. Furthermore, it was found that malopo ritual is a performance for appeasing possessing ancestral spirits such as those of the traditional healers and their trainees, which may cause illness if displeased, but on the other hand, may empower the traditional healers to execute the healing process. The research suggests that malopo ritual binds the people to their ancestors (the ancestral realm) and also provides healing therapy. Songs are sung and recited in order to create harmony between the living and the living-dead.

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