African Indigenous Religion Essay

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There are two schools of thought on the use of the singular and the plural in describing the African indigenous religion(s). The first perception is that the religions have common features, religious philosophy and thought forms. The latter identifies Africa’s numerous cultures, different ethnic nationalities, and varying practices.
The indigenous people (the first inhabitants) of southern Africa can be categorised into two groups, the San hunter-gatherers and the traditional African farmers.

Whereas historians tend to emphasize the changing nature of cultures and religions, the conceptualisation of the term ‘indigenous’ refers to the native people of a given territory, and connotes a set, unchanging people. Historians, however, prefer to …show more content…

Women, too, could fadll into a trance, although it was more often the men. Shamans had a special status but they use their supernatural powers for ‘good’ and weren’t considered grander than others.
The San communicated their indigenous religion by word of mouth, since there were no sacred scriptures, in the form of (the aforementioned) songs, stories, ritual dances and rock paintings.
Over the last 2000 years, the existence of the San was challenged by the Khoikhoi herders who attracted some San to their group (the assimilated group being known as Khoisan), the Bantu-speaking farmers who were more powerful and accordingly, dominant over the San (however, some San shamans became employed by the Bantu as rain-makers) and the European colonists who decimated the San, leaving few behind.
The first African farmers are believed to have arrived in southern Africa in 300 CE whereas the ancestors of most of today’s Bantu speakers in southern Africa are said to have relocated from eastern Africa around the 10th century CE. Being the stronger of the two groups, they incorporated the earlier farmers into their …show more content…

An elderly patriarch was at the head of each homestead. The patriarch would have many wives who would each have her own hut, arranged in order of hierarchy. Large settlements were made up of clans (many homesteads together), which were ruled by a chief. The chief of chiefs, the ‘warrior king’, could and would conquer and unite clans, disrupt and displace other groups and rule dominantly, such as what occurred in the 19th century when a mighty Zulu empire was created under the Shaka.
Sotho-Tswana speakers’ settlements were larger than the Nguni speakers’ and the chief or king had his own homestead away from the homes of the ‘commoners’. The Sotho-Tswana speakers lived in thatched rondavels whereas the Zulu lived in beehive huts. The Sotho-Tswana king owned the cattle and the land.
As mentioned previously however, marriages between different group members, relocations and interaction in and between the different cultures resulted in intercultural exchanges. Cultural and religious identities were profoundly affected by the arrival of the Western colonists and

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