Search Results (40)

This study analyses the Reformed liturgy as a site of ritual contestation that both shapes and facilitates the reconstruction and transformation of gender roles and identities in African contexts. Rooted in genealogical and decolonial scholarship, it examines how a ministry, long-reformed yet fundamentally integral to African-congregational communities, continues to express masculine forms of agency already present in reformed worship that influence perceptions of power, belonging, and identity. The emphasis is on Reformed communities in Southern Africa, where the arrangements of liturgical practices, preaching, eldership, sacramental administration, and life-cycle rites persist in grappling with a colonial past from an African epistemological perspective. This study examines the intersections of baptism, marriage, funerals, and ordination with customary rites such as lobola (bridewealth), initiation, and ancestor veneration, drawing on liturgical theology, ritual studies, and African gender scholarship to reveal both reproductive and resistant dynamics while simultaneously reshaping a new order within these practices. This article examines the ways in which worship facilitates continuity, rupture, and transformation within African gender identities, while seeking to situate Reformed liturgy within an African context of ritual ecologies rather than to contrast them. This approach may enhance decolonial discourse by illuminating contemporary discussions on liturgical studies and gender. Full article

This article examines how women’s ritual authority and identity are negotiated in contemporary mourning practices among the Tsonga. Although African scholarship has increasingly addressed gender, widowhood, and ritual life, limited attention has been paid to mourning as a gendered space in which women’s authority is simultaneously exercised, regulated, and contested. The article addresses this gap by analysing mourning not as a static cultural residue, but as a dynamic ritual field shaped by kinship, seniority, obligation, memory, and social change. Methodologically, the study adopts a qualitative document analysis of recent scholarly literature, ethnographic studies, and theoretically relevant texts on Tsonga mourning, African ritual practice, kinship, and gender. The analysis is guided by a decolonial perspective, which recentres African epistemologies and lived ritual meanings, and a genealogical perspective, which traces how authority, identity, and obligation are transmitted and reworked across generations. The article argues that Tsonga mourning practices position women as custodians of ritual continuity while also subjecting them to moral discipline and social regulation. Its contribution lies in bringing together African gender studies, ritual studies, genealogy, and decolonial scholarship to show how mourning remains a vital site for the ongoing negotiation of gender, belonging, and cultural authority. Full article

Africans are widely recognised for their deeply rooted communal orientation. This ethos is intricately embedded in cultural practices such as burial rites, matrimonial customs, ritual observances, and broader conceptions of kinship. Within many African societies, the notion of family transcends the boundaries of the living, encompassing ancestors often conceptualised as the “living-dead” as well as extended familial networks. Despite the historical introduction and sustained influence of missionary and colonial religions, particularly Christianity, African Traditional Religion (ATR) continues to shape the beliefs and practices of many South Africans. Although Christianity remains a dominant religious tradition in South Africa, the persistence of ATR generates both points of convergence and sites of tension within the lived religious experiences of adherents. Against this backdrop, the present study critically examines the intersections and complexities between ATR and Christianity in South Africa, with particular emphasis on the African philosophy of community. Employing a qualitative research design informed by social cognitive theory and utilising a self-selection sampling strategy, data were collected through interviews with young adults (aged 25–40) affiliated with three mainline churches in Mamelodi, Pretoria, South Africa. The findings indicate that, while notable convergences exist between ATR and Christianity, significant complexities persist, particularly when interpreted through the lens of African communal philosophy. Full article

This paper argues that the colonial introduction of Christianity in Africa must be understood as a reordering of personhood, moral feeling, and the conditions under which lived experience becomes intelligible, rather than as a change in formal religious affiliation alone. Drawing on scholarship in African philosophy, religious history, European intellectual history, and African psychology, the paper traces how missionary Christianity reclassified African spiritual worlds, recoded suffering and misfortune, and disrupted the transmission of spiritual knowledge across generations. Crucially, it situates this encounter within the longer history of Christianity’s own disenchantment: the suppression, within dominant Protestant and Enlightenment traditions, of enchanted practices that had characterised European Christianity for over a millennium. The missionary traditions that condemned African spirit mediation, ancestral veneration, and ritual healing were carriers of a tradition that had practised structurally analogous things before disciplining them out of its own self-understanding. The paper shows that colonial religion produced layered forms of subjectivity in which ancestral obligation, Christian doctrine, communal personhood, moral anxiety, and therapeutic pluralism coexist in tension. The concept of ontological compression is proposed to name the condition under which parts of the self become unsayable within authorised vocabularies, a condition rendered doubly intense by the fact that the compressing tradition had already performed this narrowing upon itself. Rather than treating African spirituality as residue, superstition, or cultural background, the paper proposes that it should be approached as a living philosophical and psychological archive through which many people continue to interpret suffering, relation, responsibility, and reality itself. Full article

With a focus on how both traditions influence identity, memory, and lived spirituality in African contexts, this article examines the theological and cultural interactions between Christianity and African Traditional Religion (ATR). This study highlights the ongoing interaction between ATR and Christianity as two significant systems ingrained in African life, notwithstanding the continent’s religious diversity. In Africa, religion and culture are inextricably linked, influencing social customs, moral standards, and a sense of community but also constantly changing due to personal experience. African spiritual systems were frequently disregarded by missionary Christianity in the past, which led to conflicts that still exist in modern African Christianity. The importance of ancestors, rituals, and supernatural beliefs all of which are still fundamental to the worldviews of many African Christians are areas where these conflicts are especially noticeable. This article makes the case for a positive theological approach that acknowledges ATR as an essential tool for African Christian identity rather than as a rival or subpar system, drawing on the idea of inculturation. The article illustrates how African spirituality serves as a storehouse of collective memory and identity over generations by delving into issues of ancestry, ritual, and spiritual mediation. Additionally, it offers a liberative and dialogical theological concept that promotes understanding between Christianity and ATR. Such an approach not only bridges spiritual divides but also contributes to the development of a contextually grounded liberation theology that affirms indigenous knowledge systems while remaining open to global theological discourse. Full article

Globally, the effects of widowhood on the welfare, health, financial security and education of the widow’s children in many contexts have been the subject of much research. This paper aims to uncover the nexus among culture, gender and language on widowhood dignity and welfare among four chosen African ethnic groups in South Africa and Zimbabwe. The widowhood phenomenon is culture-bound and value-laden as it signposts the reality of existence in the linguistic and cultural contexts in which it is created and operationalised. Through Kimberlé Crenshaw’s 1989 intersectional theory, this paper provides an in-depth, inductive qualitative investigation of the implications of culture, gender, language, and especially the nomenclature that African communities ascribe to the widowed, which in turn stigmatises widowhood. Two (2) South African and two (2) Zimbabwean ethnic groups were purposefully chosen for the multiple case study approach. Grounded theory is the coding framework and analysis technique. The coding starts off with picking key words, phrases and sentences and axial coding which is a higher level in which related data are grouped into sub-themes, themes and global themes. The search revealed that widowhood language, culture and nomenclature denote gendered, culturally contested spaces in which the widowed women especially face dehumanising and dewomanising rituals. The results gathered fall into five broad categories, namely, sexualised widowhood mourning rituals, psychological and emotional widowhood torture rituals, ritualised widowhood dispossession, swearing, movement and space restriction widowhood rituals. The rituals affirm the ascribed socially depressed widowed status implied in the stigmatising nomenclature. The paper recommends redefining widowhood in terms of humanising and womanising language, cultural rituals and nomenclature in the context of equality before the law. Such a move prevents discrimination against the widowed that unintentionally violates their constitutionally espoused right to equality. Full article

This study investigates the role of naming practices as cultural repositories that preserve family, lineage, and community identity. It explores how anthroponymy encodes histories of ancestry, migration, settlement, and sociopolitical organisation in two West African societies, Dàgáárè-speaking communities and Yorùbá communities. Adopting a comparative onomastic ethnographic approach, this research analyses names among the two selected cultures. Data is drawn from interviews, school registers, attendance sheets, and cultural practices, with emphasis on how names record genealogical descent, settlement histories, occupational roles, spiritual affiliations, and ethical expectations. In Dàgáárè and Yorùbá culture, bal/baloo yoe (clan names) and lineage names identify descent from founding ancestors, document migration and settlement, mark ritual responsibilities, memorialise historical events, and regulate kinship and marriage through totemic and spiritual identities. This study argues that names in Dàgáárè- and Yorùbá-speaking societies operate as cultural texts that preserve and transmit heritage across generations. The significant implications extend to linguistics, anthropology, and heritage studies, where names can be leveraged as tools for cultural preservation and historical analysis. Full article

Global biodiversity is declining at an alarming rate; however, evidence suggests that this decline occurs far more slowly on Indigenous-owned land. This can be attributed to cultural worldviews in which protecting nature and living in harmony with the environment are fundamental principles, an ethos central to African societies and many other Indigenous communities worldwide. This study examines the role of Vhavenda traditional belief systems, Indigenous knowledge, and cultural practices in the management and conservation of natural resources and the environment. In contemporary Limpopo Province, the Vhavenda clans of northern South Africa remain among the country’s most traditional communities, continuing rituals and practices that have been transmitted across generations. According to the 2022 national census, the area inhabited by the Vhavenda tribe, records the country’s highest concentration of centenarians, a demographic pattern which they attribute to the region’s cultural continuity and relative geographical isolation, which have enabled the preservation of its spiritual and ecological heritage. The research employed an insider ethnographic methodology, collecting data through personal interviews and a focus group discussion. Findings reveal that Indigenous beliefs, knowledge systems, and taboos play a substantial role in promoting sustainable land use. They restrict development on ecologically sensitive landscapes and discourage harmful practices, such as deforestation and cultivation along water bodies. These practices are enforced through complex customary laws, often articulated through prohibitive norms (“thou shalt not”), that safeguard plants, animals, water sources, and other natural resources. The study further illustrates that these prohibitions reflect a nuanced understanding of the biophysical environment, with the most sensitive and vulnerable ecosystems and ecologically important species, including keystone, foundation, and indicator species, receiving protection. Overall, the research shows the importance of recognising, protecting, and integrating Indigenous cultural systems as a critical component of effective biodiversity conservation. Full article

Death is a universal phenomenon, defined by the rituals associated with it and conducted within the confines of the culture to which the deceased belonged; thus, it is nearly impossible to universalise a particular mourning pattern, as African people display considerable diversity. The complexities introduced into African mourning by colonialism and other developmental changes, such as urbanisation and the recent COVID-19 pandemic, have relegated many African traditions in relation to bereavement to the periphery. A newer and controversial practice associated with funerals conducted among black communities in South Africa is that of the “after tears” party. Although this practice has not yet infiltrated the rural areas, it is nevertheless a phenomenon that is worth investigating, seeing that those who participate in this practice are predominantly from townships in Gauteng, and such events are gradually occurring in the rural villages as well. Full article

The George Washington University holds a collection of African objects donated by a private collector in the 1970s, many of which are culturally misattributed. Among the objects are two large wooden posts cataloged as “house posts” from Côte d’Ivoire. These posts exhibit two distinct sections, each resembling material culture used in ceremonial traditions, but together have not been identified in existing museum collections or scholarly sources. This paper documents the findings of an investigation into the provenance and the cultural context of these posts through the analysis of the objects’ materiality, stylistic characteristics, and possible market production to determine a framework for their ethical handling and restitution. What do the combined objects reveal about the interconnectedness of Western market demands and the creation of African tourist art from the 1970s? And what are the implications of these unique forms of African material culture in the conversation on museum reforms and ethical display? The research points to the blurred boundaries between authentic ritual objects and the fabrication of “authenticity” for Western consumption. The goal of this paper is to reveal the possible connections between carvers producing objects for the tourist market within the social and cultural environment of the Senufo workshop system. The paper argues that the objects in the George Washington University collection were adapted for a Western market and audience. Through a comparative analysis of cultural ideographs from surrounding cultures in the area, records of workshops and economic production, the paper concludes that the objects were not produced for sacred use but more likely for commercial purposes, and that their cultural value is not diminished. Instead, they represent another form of expression developed by carvers who adapted Indigenous forms to satisfy Western market demands. Full article

This study explores water as memory and as method in African thought. It shows how rivers, rain, and oceans act not only as sources of life but also as teachers who carry a story, restore balance, and reveal moral truth. Drawing from Yoruba, Akan, Igbo, southern African, Kenyan and Afro-Atlantic traditions, this paper presents water as archive and as oracle, holding the past while speaking to the present. This article develops the idea of hydro epistemology, understood here as a way of knowing through flow, renewal, and relationship. In this framework, knowledge is created through ritual engagement with water, transmitted through oral memory and ecological observation, tested against environmental response and revised when conditions change. Water is treated as a witness, mediator and guide, rather than a passive resource. By setting these traditions alongside global discussions on water governance, nature-based ecological care and decolonial environmental ethics, this paper argues that African water imagination offers more than symbolism. It proposes a practical philosophy in which caring for water and caring for life are the same act. To listen to water is to remember, to restore and to recover a way of living that renews both people and land. Full article

During the transatlantic diaspora, enslaved Africans brought cultural and religious elements to Brazil, such as Candomblé, that deeply influenced local society. In Candomblé communities of Bantu origin, the death of an initiate requires specific rites, such as the Azerin. In this ritual practice, sacred plants are selected according to their associations with deities and their capacity to provide spiritual protection. Each plant used holds particular meanings and is deliberately chosen to create an atmosphere of respect and reverence for the deceased. This study analyzes the symbolism and ritual functions of plants in the Azerin funeral rite of Candomblé Nação Angola, with emphasis on their role in spiritual protection. Participant observation and review of specialized literature were employed to describe the rite and its vegetal repertoire. Five sacred plant species were identified (Elaeis guineensis Jacq, Raphia vinifera P.Beauv., Dracaena fragrans (L.) Ker Gawl., Lagenaria siceraria (Molina) Standl. and, Morus nigra L.), whose functions range from protection against Eguns to the material representation of the initiate’s body. The results indicate that, in the Azerin, plants do not merely express protection but operate as mediating elements in communication with ancestors, structuring the greeting and continuity of ancestor worship in Candomblé Nação Angola. The study thus expands the understanding of ritual plants in Afro-Brazilian religiosity and the biocultural heritage of these communities. Full article

This paper explores African spirituality by examining its core values, traditions, and healing methodologies. Employing a qualitative research design and ethnographic method, data were collected through individual interviews with twelve parents (Sample 1) and a focus group discussion with fifteen community members and traditional leaders (Sample 2) in a deeply rural African community in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Participants were recruited with the assistance of community elders for their in-depth knowledge of this faith tradition. Thematic analysis generated three overarching themes: understanding African spirituality; spiritual beliefs and practices within African spirituality; and healing methodologies. The findings reveal a complex system of interconnected beliefs and practices that shape African communal life, highlighting the role of spiritual rituals in sustaining the well-being of families and communities. Full article

The article is focused on the recent exegetical trend of “contextual” readings of the Bible, or context-sensitive exegesis in global Biblical scholarship. It is written by three authors from different ethnic and cultural contexts (German, Korean, Ethiopian) in order to emphasize the diversity to be considered. In the first part, the aims, history and relevant factors of contextual reading are described. The second part makes clear that also the traditional historical-critical exegesis is strongly contextual, drawing on Enlightenment thought and Western views of life. Therefore, any claims of “objectivity” or universality are problematic. In the third and fourth section of the article, two different contexts from global Christianity or the Majority World are introduced. first the African, especially Ethiopian context under the label of “vulnerability”, and then an Asian, precisely South Korean context with regard to the understanding of spirits and demons. The Ethiopian author describes how vulnerability has generally shaped the African cultural experience and specifically common language in Ethiopia, including religious attitudes which are characterized by a general openness for the divine. She also shows, that in such a culture, with the danger of naivete and acceptance of many problematic interpretations critical discernment is needed, as has already been stated by an Ethiopian philosopher of the 17th century. The part on Korean interpretation discusses the various views on spirits and demons in Korean Bible translations and the influence of Confucian thought and Shamanism on readings of the Bible. Using the example of the Gerasene demoniac, the author shows readers aware of shamanic ritual including pigs and intended to pacify the restless souls can impact the reading of this particular Biblical text even among modern Koreans. A brief concluding section draws some conclusions. Both examples demonstrate the diversity of contexts and their resonances with the Biblical texts when they are read in these different contexts. It is also obvious that there is not a single clear-cut dualism between Western and “postcolonial” readings. Neither the historical readings nor the contextual are “right” as such. Rather, there should be an open dialogue, on equal footing, that considers the context and also allows for critical interaction in order to prevent abuse of biblical texts, not only in colonial relations, but also within a given context by traditionalists, political powers, and spiritual authorities, so that the liberating power of the gospel can come into effect, for the benefit its readers. Full article

In this essay, I utilize Robert Stepto’s “ritual ground” concept and Ray Oldenburg’s “third place” theory to analyze Jacqueline Woodson’s Harbor Me. I posit that Ms. Laverne repurposes an old art classroom as both a “third place” and a “ritual ground” for her students, and as a result, her students are empowered to create community and find their individual and collective voices. Full article