African Religion Defined

African Religion Defined PDF Author: Anthony Ephirim-Donkor
Publisher: University Press of America
ISBN: 0761860584
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 226

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Book Description
African religion is ancestor worship; it revolves around the dead, now thought to be alive and well in heaven (the Samanadzie) and propitiated by the living on earth. For the Akan, the ancestors’ stool is the emblem of the ancestors (Nananom Nsamanfo). Led by their kings and queen mothers as living ancestors, the Akan periodically propitiate the ancestors’ stools housing their ancestors. In return, the ancestors and deities influence the affairs of living descendants, making ancestor worship as tenably viable as any other religion. This second edition updates the scholarship on ancestor worship by demonstrating the centrality of the ancestors’ stool as the ultimate religious symbol. In addition, all chapters have been expanded. A new chapter has been added to show how ancestor worship is pragmatically integrative, theologically sound, teleological as well as soteriological, with a highly trained clerical body and elders as mediators.

African Religion Defined

African Religion Defined PDF Author: Anthony Ephirim-Donkor
Publisher: University Press of America
ISBN: 0761860584
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 226

Get Book Here

Book Description
African religion is ancestor worship; it revolves around the dead, now thought to be alive and well in heaven (the Samanadzie) and propitiated by the living on earth. For the Akan, the ancestors’ stool is the emblem of the ancestors (Nananom Nsamanfo). Led by their kings and queen mothers as living ancestors, the Akan periodically propitiate the ancestors’ stools housing their ancestors. In return, the ancestors and deities influence the affairs of living descendants, making ancestor worship as tenably viable as any other religion. This second edition updates the scholarship on ancestor worship by demonstrating the centrality of the ancestors’ stool as the ultimate religious symbol. In addition, all chapters have been expanded. A new chapter has been added to show how ancestor worship is pragmatically integrative, theologically sound, teleological as well as soteriological, with a highly trained clerical body and elders as mediators.

African Spirituality

African Spirituality PDF Author: Anthony Ephirim-Donkor
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 0761872612
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 319

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Book Description
Using the Akan in Ghana as a paradigmatic African representative group, African Spirituality: On Becoming Ancestors, Third Edition offers a unique African developmental praxis to eternal life immortality. Indeed, this way of life is predicated on the awareness and application of certain intrinsic values, which, if followed, lead to eternal life. As a way of living, African spirituality begins when an individual becomes morally and ethically responsible for one’s own actions while engaged on an ethical path (Ɔbra Bↄ) in pursuance of one’s unique career endeavor (Nkrabea). Though an individual quest, society is, however, the arbiter of one’s ethical and moral life, when society confers on the person adjudged a success the stage title of Nana. At old age, Ɔbra Bↄ ends as an active endeavor. However, as repositories of wisdom, senior elders continue to inculcate in succeeding generations the principles, art, and mastery of ideal life (Ɔbra pa). Then upon death, senior elders are transformed into deities, bequeathing to living descendants names worthy of evocation and worship. Indeed, this book is the first study of its kind to draw on the experiences of an entire people, their psychological dispositions and effects on the Akan during adulthood. Thus, this book brings a unique perspective to the study of spirituality, religion, developmental psychological theory, what it means to achieve perfection as an elder on earth, and upon death join the esteemed company of the Nananom Nsamanfo (Ancestors).

Africa's Urban Past

Africa's Urban Past PDF Author: David Anderson
Publisher: James Currey Publishers
ISBN: 0852557612
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 321

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Book Description
A selection of papers first delivered at the conference on Africa's Urban Past, held at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 1996.

The Fante and the Transatlantic Slave Trade

The Fante and the Transatlantic Slave Trade PDF Author: Rebecca Shumway
Publisher: University Rochester Press
ISBN: 1580463916
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 250

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Book Description
The history of Ghana attracts popular interest out of proportion to its small size and marginal importance to the global economy. Ghana is the land of Kwame Nkrumah and the Pan-Africanist movement of the 1960s; it has been a temporary home to famous African Americans like W. E. B. DuBois and Maya Angelou; and its Asante Kingdom and signature kente cloth-global symbols of African culture and pride-are well known. Ghana also attracts a continuous flow of international tourists because of two historical sites that are among the most notorious monuments of the transatlantic slave trade: Cape Coast and Elmina Castles. These looming structures are a vivid reminder of the horrific trade that gave birth to the black population of the Americas. The Fante and the Transatlantic Slave Trade explores the fascinating history of the transatlantic slave trade on Ghana's coast between 1700 and 1807. Here author Rebecca Shumway brings to life the survival experiences of southern Ghanaians as they became both victims of continuous violence and successful brokers of enslaved human beings. The era of the slave trade gave birth to a new culture in this part of West Africa, just as it was giving birth to new cultures across the Americas. The Fante and the Transatlantic Slave Trade pushes Asante scholarship to the forefront of African diaspora and Atlantic World studies by showing the integral role of Fante middlemen and transatlantic trade in the development of the Asante economy prior to 1807. Rebecca Shumway is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Pittsburgh.

Daily Graphic

Daily Graphic PDF Author: Elvis Aryeh
Publisher: Graphic Communications Group
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 32

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Book Description


Jesus Christ as Logos Incarnate and Resurrected Nana (Ancestor)

Jesus Christ as Logos Incarnate and Resurrected Nana (Ancestor) PDF Author: Rudolf K. Gaisie
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1725252872
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 230

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Book Description
This book seeks to demonstrate the significance of Ancestor Christology in African Christianity for christological developments in World Christianity. Ancestor Christology has developed in the process of an African conversion story of appropriating the mystery of Christ (Eph 3:4) in the category of ancestors. Logos Christology in early Christian history developed as an intricate byproduct in the conversion process of turning Hellenistic ideas towards the direction of Christ (A. F. Walls). Hellenistic Christian writers and modern African Christian writers thus share some things in common and when their efforts are examined within the conversion process framework there are discernible modes of engagement. The mode of Logos Christology that one finds in Origen, for example, is an innovative application of the understanding of Jesus Christ as Logos (incarnate); a new key but not discontinuous with the Johannine suggestive mode or the clarificatory mode of Justin Martyr. African Ancestor Christology is at the threshold of an innovative mode and the argument this book makes is that this strand of African Christology should be pursued in the indigenous languages aided by respective translated Bibles; a suggested way is a Logos-Ancestor (Nanasɛm) discourse in Akan Christianity.

UBEN-HYENG The Ancestral Summons

UBEN-HYENG The Ancestral Summons PDF Author: Odwirafo Kwesi Ra Nehem Ptah Akhan
Publisher: Odwirafo Kwesi Ra Nehem Ptah Akhan
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 31

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Book Description
UBEN-HYENG The Ancestral Summons UBEN-HYENG (u· ben' - shehng') is the combination of the Kenesu/Khanitu-Kamau (Nubian-Egyptian) term, Uben and the Twi-Akan term, Hyeng. The terms are defined in their respective languages as descriptive of drawing forth by illumination, to shine; bright, brilliant. As a name, they are representative of the revivifying energy of Creative Power. Just as the morning Sun calls for the rejuvenation of Earth, UBEN-HYENG is a summons for the rejuvenation of the culture. Contents: Origin and function of Our Spiritual Inheritance · Origin and purpose of: Libation · Ancestral and Deity worship · Ancestral and Deity possession · Ritual prayer · Ritual meditation · Ritual song and dance · Nature worship · Talismans and amulets · Ritual procreative activity · Oracular divination Nature and function of Idols · Necessity of making offerings · Origin and purpose of shrines · Necessity for Ancestral communication · Nature and function of the Goddesses and Gods · Nature and function of Ancestral names and Ancestral languages · Origin and purpose of immortality · Nature and function of cycles · Nature and function of Self-defense · Origin and purpose for sacrifice · Liberation and Ancestral religion · Law

Development in Unity Volume One

Development in Unity Volume One PDF Author: Daasebre Prof. Oti Boateng
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 1493109995
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
Development in Unity: A Compendium of Works of Daasebre Prof. (Emeritus) Oti Boateng, Volume1 is a compilation of research works, published articles, speeches, seminar presentations, addresses, and radio broadcasts written by the author over the past 40 years. In these articles, the author, a distinguished statistician, a university don, a UN commissioner, a Vice-Chancellor of the World Academy of Letters, and a traditional ruler, combines his rich scholarly background and his deep understanding of complex traditional, national and international issues in addressing some challenges that face humankind. The book is divided into nine sub-themes, namely, 1) Education, 2) Governance, 3) Statistics, 4) Population and Health, 5) Natural Disasters, 6) Oil and Gas, 7) Chieftaincy and Culture, 8) Religion, and 9) Economy. The theme of this book, Development in Unity, is derived from the mission of the Akwantukese Festival, which is, Development in Unity for the Welfare of the People. The Akwantukese Festival, was instituted in 1997 by the Omanhene, Chiefs, and People of New Juaben to commemorate the fifth anniversary of Daasebre Professor (Emeritus) Oti Boatengs enstoolment as Omanhene of New Juaben in the Eastern Region of Ghana. The Festival commemorates the migration of the Juabens and their allies from Asante to the Eastern Region of Ghana in the 1870s. The basic goal of Akwantukese is to promote the socio-economic progress of the people through education, traditions, and customs. It further serves as a tourist attraction for people all over the world. Akwantukese also reinforces the ancestral unity between the citizens of Asante and Jew Juaben for peaceful co-existence. The articles in this first volume have been carefully selected to emphasize these ideals thereby creating a gift for posterity. As you enjoy these collections look out for the next volume in the series which is scheduled to come out very soon.

Our Own Way in This Part of the World

Our Own Way in This Part of the World PDF Author: Kwasi Konadu
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 1478005637
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 382

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Book Description
Kofi Dᴐnkᴐ was a blacksmith and farmer, as well as an important healer, intellectual, spiritual leader, settler of disputes, and custodian of shared values for his Ghanaian community. In Our Own Way in This Part of the World Kwasi Konadu centers Dᴐnkᴐ's life story and experiences in a communography of Dᴐnkᴐ's community and nation from the late nineteenth century through the end of the twentieth, which were shaped by historical forces from colonial Ghana's cocoa boom to decolonization and political and religious parochialism. Although Dᴐnkᴐ touched the lives of thousands of citizens and patients, neither he nor they appear in national or international archives covering the region. Yet his memory persists in his intellectual and healing legacy, and the story of his community offers a non-national, decolonized example of social organization structured around spiritual forces that serves as a powerful reminder of the importance for scholars to take their cues from the lived experiences and ideas of the people they study.

MMARA NE KYI - Divine Law/Love and Divine Hate

MMARA NE KYI - Divine Law/Love and Divine Hate PDF Author: Odwirafo Kwesi Ra Nehem Ptah Akhan
Publisher: Odwirafo Kwesi Ra Nehem Ptah Akhan
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 76

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Book Description
MMARA NE KYI - Divine Law/Love and Divine Hate Afurakani/Afuraitkaitnit (African) Ancestral Religion is defined in essence as the ritual incorporation of Divine Law and the ritual restoration of Divine Balance. Through ritual we incorporate those things, objects, deeds and entities we need to harmonize with Divine Order and through ritual we reject those things, objects, deeds and entities we need to in order to restore balance to our lives. Afurakani/Afuraitkaitnit (African) Ancestral Religion animates our culture, our way of life, for Afurakani/Afuraitkaitnit (African) Ancestral Culture is the Divine acceptance (Love/Law) of Order and the Divine rejection (Hate) of disorder. The phrase mmara ne kyi is Akan for law and hate. These terms derive from the same terms in Kamit: maa hna kht. Divine Law and Divine Hate are the Expansive and Contractive Poles of Divine Order. In this work we properly define these concepts inclusive of the fact that there are Deities (Abosom, Orisha, Vodou, Ntorou/Ntorotu [Neteru/Netertu-Ntrw/Ntrwt]) who embody these concepts: Maa and Maat (Law) and Heru Behdety and Sekhmet (Hate). We demonstrate that Law and Love have always been the same concept in Afurakani/Afuraitkaitnit (African) culture and that Hate has been and always will be Divine. Just as there are Deities of Law/Love, there are Deities of Hate. Moreover, and most critically, without an understanding of the Divinity of Hate one has absolutely no understanding of authentic Afurakani/Afuraitkaitnit (African) cosmology, culture, religion, philosophy and its infrastructure: Divine Order.