Èṣù

Èṣù PDF Author: Toyin Falola
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781611632224
Category : Esu (Afro-Caribbean deity)
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This is the most extensive book on Esu, also known in different locations as Eleda, Exu, Cxu Eleggua, Cxu Elegbara, Legba, Elegba, Elegbera, or Odara. He is the "divine messenger," central to the understanding of Yoruba religion and worldview, as well as their various manifestations and related orisa traditions in the African diaspora--such as Candomblé, Vodou, and Santería/Lukumi. Esu and Ifa (divination with all its sacred texts) or Orunmila (the god of divination) rank as the most widespread and the most worshipped of all the deities. Both Esu and Ifa/Orunmila hold the Yoruba cosmic system together. Esu is now part of what some may label as the Black Atlantic religion; part of the attempt to recover African religions in other lands; as well as part of the use of religion for survival. As the book points out, in Esu's ability to migrate to other lands, he becomes part of transatlantic history, but more so of the tension between relocation and history, between the violence that led to the forced migrations of people and the long healing process of reconciliation with living in strange lands that later became new homelands. This book is part of the African World Series, edited by Toyin Falola, Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities, University of Texas at Austin.

Èṣù

Èṣù PDF Author: Toyin Falola
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781611632224
Category : Esu (Afro-Caribbean deity)
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
This is the most extensive book on Esu, also known in different locations as Eleda, Exu, Cxu Eleggua, Cxu Elegbara, Legba, Elegba, Elegbera, or Odara. He is the "divine messenger," central to the understanding of Yoruba religion and worldview, as well as their various manifestations and related orisa traditions in the African diaspora--such as Candomblé, Vodou, and Santería/Lukumi. Esu and Ifa (divination with all its sacred texts) or Orunmila (the god of divination) rank as the most widespread and the most worshipped of all the deities. Both Esu and Ifa/Orunmila hold the Yoruba cosmic system together. Esu is now part of what some may label as the Black Atlantic religion; part of the attempt to recover African religions in other lands; as well as part of the use of religion for survival. As the book points out, in Esu's ability to migrate to other lands, he becomes part of transatlantic history, but more so of the tension between relocation and history, between the violence that led to the forced migrations of people and the long healing process of reconciliation with living in strange lands that later became new homelands. This book is part of the African World Series, edited by Toyin Falola, Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities, University of Texas at Austin.

Ès̲ù, the Invisible Foe of Man

Ès̲ù, the Invisible Foe of Man PDF Author: P. Adelumo Dopamu
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Devil
Languages : en
Pages : 106

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Book Description


Ka Osi Sọ Onye: African Philosophy in the Postmodern Era

Ka Osi Sọ Onye: African Philosophy in the Postmodern Era PDF Author: Jonathan O. Chimakonam
Publisher: Vernon Press
ISBN: 162273422X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 395

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Book Description
This collection is about composing thought at the level of modernism and decomposing it at the postmodern level where many cocks might crow with African philosophy as a focal point. It has two parts: part one is titled ‘The Journey of Reason in African Philosophy’, and part two is titled ‘African Philosophy and Postmodern Thinking’. There are seven chapters in both parts. Five of the essays are reprinted here as important selections while nine are completely new essays commissioned for this book. As their titles suggest, in part one, African philosophy is unfolded in the manifestation of reason as embedded in modern thought while in part two, it draws the effect of reason as implicated in the postmodern orientation. While part one strikes at what V. Y. Mudimbe calls the “colonising structure” or the Greco-European logo-phallo-euro-centricism in thought, part two bashes the excesses of modernism and partly valorises postmodernism. In some chapters, modernism is presented as an intellectual version of communalism characterised by the cliché: ‘our people say’. Our thinking is that the voice of reason is not the voice of the people but the voice of an individual. The idea of this book is to open new vistas for the discipline of African philosophy. African philosophy is thus presented as a disagreement discourse. Without rivalry of thoughts, Africa will settle for far less. This gives postmodernism an important place, perhaps deservedly more important than history of philosophy allocates to it. It is that philosophical moment that says ‘philosophers must cease speaking like gods in their hegemonic cultural shrines and begin to converse across borders with one another’. In this conversation, the goal for African philosophers must not be to find final answers but to sustain the conversation which alone can extend human reason to its furthermost reaches.

African Traditional Religion in the Modern World, 2d ed.

African Traditional Religion in the Modern World, 2d ed. PDF Author: Douglas E. Thomas
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476620199
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 291

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Book Description
African traditional religion encompasses a variety of non-dogmatic, spiritual practices followed by millions around the world. Some scholars argue it is related to the Nubian religion of Egypt's Dynastic Period. In an expanded second edition, this book examines the nature of African traditional religion and describes common attributes of various cultural belief systems, with an emphasis on West Africa. Principal elements studied include sacrifice, salvation and culture, modes of revelation, divination, and African resilience in the face of invasion and colonization. The religious experiences of black people throughout the Americas are also covered. The author finds the cosmology, symbolism and rituals of the Yoruba culture to be the fundamental bases of African traditional religion, and draws similarities between the oral and written literature of West Africans and that of New World practitioners. The influence of Islam and Christianity is also discussed. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.

Magic at the Crossroads

Magic at the Crossroads PDF Author: Kate Freuler
Publisher: Llewellyn Worldwide
ISBN: 0738776386
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 291

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Book Description
Explore the Forbidden Path of the Ultimate Rebel When you separate the religious dogma from the symbolic nature of the devil, who really is he? Kate Freuler presents the infamous figure as a symbol, not a deity, and reveals how to use this radical philosophy to strengthen yourself and your witchcraft. The devil represents rebelling against all-powerful, oppressive systems of any kind. Through historical references, religious writings, and pop culture, this book explores the intersection between witchcraft and the rebel archetype. Freuler dispels common myths, providing examples from a variety of texts and personal stories about her own connection to this misunderstood symbol. She also shares a variety of hands-on rituals you can use for self-empowerment. From the devil's relationship with the old gods to the shadow work associated with him, Magic at the Crossroads invites you to see this controversial symbol with new eyes.

You're Not a Country, Africa

You're Not a Country, Africa PDF Author: Pius Adesanmi
Publisher: Penguin Random House South Africa
ISBN: 0143528653
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 239

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Book Description
In this wide-ranging collection of essays, Pius Adesanmi explores what Africa means to him as an African and as a citizen of the world. Examining the personal and the political, tradition and modernity, custom and culture, Adesanmi grapples with the complexity and contradictions of this vast continent, zooming in most closely on Nigeria, the country of his birth. The inspiration for the title of the collection, You're Not a Country, Africa, comes from a line of poetry: 'You are not a country Africa, you are a concept, fashioned in our minds, each to each'. The Africa fashioned in our minds - with our fears and our dreams - is the Africa that the reader will encounter in these essays. Through narratives and political and cultural reflections, Pius Adesanmi approaches the meaning of Africa from the perspective that you never actually define Africa: rather, it defines you in various contexts and for various people.

RELIGIOUS SYNCRETISM IN AFRICAN CHRISTIANITY

RELIGIOUS SYNCRETISM IN AFRICAN CHRISTIANITY PDF Author: ISAIAH OLUWAJEMIRIYE OLATOYAN
Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 160

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Book Description
Christianity among the African people, whether on the soil of Africa or in diaspora, is perceived and defined differently by different people. For instance, among African traditional religious people and Muslims, Christianity is a foreign religion that must not be allowed to thrive in Africa. To several Africans who profess Jesus, Christianity is good, but it is not adequate and effective enough to handle all human needs. Still, among some Western Christians and missionaries, African Christianity is superficial and lacks total commitment to Christ. Of course, the Africans are a cultural people with profound religious inclinations. Their traditional religion (ATR) has tremendously shaped their worldviews and socioeconomic and political activities. Consequently, when traditional Africans are converted to Christianity, they do not break ties with their traditional religions completely. The examination of relevant biblical texts on syncretism, however, reveals that God condemns the worship of many gods and places a curse on anyone who offers sacrifices to carved images and bows to them in worship. Therefore, this work investigates the root cause of religious syncretism among African people. In the attempt to find answers to why the average African Christian finds it difficult, if not impossible, to abandon his/her traditional religious belief systems completely to embrace Christianity, the author concludes that unless the issues surrounding the African forgotten and secret covenants are exposed and decisively addressed in the light of biblical teaching, syncretism will continue to be a stigma on the fabric of African Christianity. Therefore, to overcome the threats of syncretism in African Christianity, there is a need to establish a sound theological and missiological framework that can address the problems associated with the African worldviews and belief systems. This task must be carried out under the searchlight of Scriptures.

African Modernity and the Philosophy of Culture in the Works of Femi Euba

African Modernity and the Philosophy of Culture in the Works of Femi Euba PDF Author: Iyunolu Osagie
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 149854567X
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 189

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Book Description
This book is a significant and original contribution to the ongoing conversation on modernity. It uses the creative and critical works of Nigerian playwright and novelist Femi Euba to demonstrate the place and function of African cultures in modernity and makes the case for the vibrancy of such cultures in the shaping and constitution of the modern world. In addition to a critique of Euba’s fifty-year artistic career, this book offers an account of Euba’s formative relationship with the 1986 Nobel Prize for Literature winner Wole Soyinka, during the promising days of the Nigerian theatre in the immediate post-independence period, and the effect of this relationship on Euba’s artistic choices and reflections. Euba contributes to our understanding of Africa’s negotiation of modernity in significant ways, especially in his sensitive reading of Esu, the Yoruba god of fate and chance, as an artistic consciousness whose historical and ideological mobility during New World slavery, during Africa’s colonial period, and in the manifestations in the black diaspora today emblematizes the process we call modernity. By using ritual, myth, and satire as avenues to the debate on modernity, Euba lays emphasis on the transformative possibilities at the crossroads of history. His works engage the psychological interconnections between old gods and new worlds and the dialogic relationship between tradition and modernity. Delineating the philosophical and literary debates that reject an easy division between a stereotypically traditional Africa and a modern West, the author shows how Euba’s plays and novel engage the entwined and intimate relationships between the modern and the traditional in contemporary Africa, and thereby she asserts the global resonance of Euba’s African, and specifically Yoruba, conception of the world. By meticulously collecting, cataloguing, and critiquing Euba’s works, Osagie models a new way of practicing African literary studies and invites us to glimpse narrative genius on the continent that she firmly believes African scholars should both promote and celebrate.

Re-imagining African Christologies

Re-imagining African Christologies PDF Author: Victor I. Ezigbo
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 160608822X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 357

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Book Description
"Who do you say that I am" (Mark 8:29) is the question of Christology. By asking this question, Jesus invites his followers to interpret him from within their own contexts-history, experience, and social location. Therefore, all responses to Jesus's invitation are contextual. But for too long, many theologians particularly in the West have continued to see Christology as a universal endeavor that is devoid of any contextual influences. This understanding of Christology undermines Jesus's expectations from us to imagine and appropriate him from within our own contexts. In Re-imagining African Christologies, Victor I. Ezigbo presents a constructive exposition of the unique ways that many African theologians and lay Christians from various church denominations have interpreted and appropriated Jesus Christ in their own contexts. He also articulates the constructive contributions that these African Christologies can make to the development of Christological discourse in non-African Christian communities.

Orisa

Orisa PDF Author: Toyin Falola
Publisher: Africa Research and Publications
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 472

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Book Description