CHALLENGES OF AFRICAN TRADITIONAL RELIGION TO THE CHRISTIAN FAITH IN NIGERIA
1.0. INTRODUCTION
It behoves me to start this write-up with the Igbo adage which states that “oburu na-agwochaa onye ara, adighi agwota ya ntamu.” This entails that even when a mad man must have been healed, he is not devoid of inclination toward murmuring. This boils down to Ortega’s perspectivism whereby “I am myself and my circumstances.” Succinctly put, my past must necessarily influence my present unfolding into my future. This past-present-future relationship can be either positive or negative. Positively, the relationship is healthy building up the individual or the system. Negatively, the effect of the contact creates a lingering dwarfing atmosphere. The above illustration is apt to the understanding of ATR vis-à-vis Christianity. Prior to the advent of Christianity, Nigerians have been practicing their religion. Unfortunately, as Metuh highlights, the missionaries saw African Traditional Religion (ATR) as “primitive, savage, native, paganism, heathenism, idolatry, animism, superstitious, fetishism and an ancestral worship.” Thus, they set out to heal us by making us Christians. Today, the missionary activities have so much flowered that many Nigerians are Christians, nay, Catholics. The question is, to what extent are we Christians and how have ATR influenced our Christianity? In a bid to adduce answer to this question I will briefly dig out the dictates of the Christian faith. Before that, let us have a sketchy reference to the meaning and import of ATR.
2.0. A SKETCHY INSIGHT INTO ATR
It is by means of isolated definition that one would arrive at perfect understanding of what ATR is. This entails a piecemeal definition of the component parts. Thus, what does it mean to be an African? What is traditional and what is religion?
Many views have been outlined in the process of ascribing existence to the African. In doing this, many have introduced half baked ideas, biased discretion and unbalanced description. In its right conception, 'The people of Africa is more than a name, it is linked to indigenous rights and issues of sovereignty. Africaness and skin color are not verifications of each other. 'Blackness' fails at every level in both the historical and political context. Africans are the natural people of Africa: The hairs, the diverse skin, are all specific adaptations to living in the African landscape. The Motherland of these adaptations and the cultures are primarily Africa; hence the relevance of the name. 'African' refers exclusively to the historical people of Africa and their descendants in diaspora. Tradition entails a long established action or a pattern of behavior in a community or group of people, often handed down from generation to generation. Religion is an institutionalized system of beliefs and practices relating to the divine. Deductively, African Traditional Religion is a catch-all term for the ethnic and folk religious traditions of the peoples of Africa often involving syncretism with other traditions, especially Christianity and Islam. Metuh contends that African Traditional Religion is part of the rich heritage of an African man. Indeed, he submits that ATR belongs to the people of Africa whether in diaspora or in Africa.
Polytheistic religious practices are as alarming in the lives of the Africans as each man tend toward having his personal chi (god). Every reality in Africa has a deity; thus, god of harvest, fruit of the womb, god of success in life etc. Religion permeates the inner most being of the Africans. African pantheon is the totality of all gods and deities of ATR. Given the immanence of religion in the life of an African man one cannot but affiliate with Metuh that an African man is notoriously religious. Having briefly seen ATR let us grasp the dictates of Christian faith.
3.0. THE DICTATES OF CHRISTIAN FAITH
The Council Fathers of Vatican II exhort in the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation that “the will of God was that men should have access to the Father, through Christ the Word made flesh, in the Holy Spirit and thus become sharers in the divine nature.” God manifested Himself to our first parents from the very beginning. Even when man disappointed God, he accommodated him “for He wishes to give eternal life to all those who seek salvation by patience in well-doing.” He further revealed Himself to Abraham and made him into a great nation (cf. Gen 12:2). God would in time teach and reveal Himself to this great nation he made from Abraham through the instrumentality of Moses and the prophets.
To celebrate His heightened desire to reveal Himself to man, after the patriarchs, God “in our days has spoken to us by His Son [Jesus Christ].” For man “to see Jesus is to see the Father” who sent Him. Jesus came to fulfill the law and to perfect this divine revelation. He realized this by “words and works, signs and miracles, but above all by His death and glorious resurrection and finally by sending the Spirit of truth.” No other revelation should be given which will be greater than Jesus (cf. 1 Tim 6:14; Tit 2:13). Therefore, obedience to faith is demanded. It is necessary to note that this God is a jealous God who demands total submission and worship to Him alone (cf. Deut 5:9; 6:15; 32:16; Josh 24:19).
Having seen ATR and Christian faith, it is necessary to consider the relationship existing between them. To some extent ATR is incompatible with Christianity. While the former deals with many the later deals with one; the former is polytheistic the later is monotheistic.
4.0. AFRICAN CHRISTIAN PROBLEM: CHALLENGES OF ATR TO THE CHRISTIAN FAITH IN NIGERIA
The tension between African Traditional Religion (ATR) and Christianity has been described as the "African-Christian problem." The missionaries and the colonial masters could not see anything religious in our system. They could not reconcile the above dictates of Christian faith with that of ATR. The former is monotheistic while the later is polytheistic. Christianity advocates love of God and man having the eternal and natural law as her modus vivendi while ATR suggests killing of twins, subjugation of woman folk, etc., not out of bad will but rather due to groping existence in the Plato’s cave and false knowledge. Thus, both have different ways of interpreting the norms of morality.
The continuing revival of traditional African Religion presents unavoidable challenges to Christianity in Nigeria and Africa at large. This is not because ATR is essentially bad but because the system does not support it. Our religious worship, educational system, political arena and so on, have almost nothing African in them. Ezeani (2013) articulates this estimating that there is no symbiotic relationship between education of Nigerians and their natural heritages under which religion inheres.The identity of an African man is African with Western mentality. Both personalities of the African man must at one time be enthroned at the expense of the other. No wonder Nigerians are today being exposed to modern education and belief in the supreme God as preached by the missionaries, while traditional thought is still the source of the basic worldview of most of the populace. The growing Christian population is not exempted from this influence. In many parts of Nigeria, Christians cling tenaciously to their traditional religious beliefs and customs and are reluctant to give them up in favour of Christianity. Yet, they are not ready to give off Christianity. This results in conflicts between ATR and Christianity because the Church dismisses traditional practices as heathenism, and often has refused to encourage any form of dialogue with African traditionalists. So alarming is the existence of this problem that Bishop Hilary Okeke of the Catholic Diocese of Nnewi in his 2011 lenten pastoral located and treated this problem within the framework of “Faith Rooted and Built up in Christ” and not in tradition.
The chief challenge facing the Christian faith in Nigeria is syncretism. This is the act of combining two beliefs. The above paragraph gives the foundation for this. Though our people have left ATR for Christianity, they have not fully done this. Placid Tempels rightly points out that Africans never play with their vital forces. Thus, at the trial of death, they would go to diviners, soothsayers, deity, etc., instead of trusting the God they have accepted. Nigerians are not left out of this. This equally gives explanation to so many ‘religious harlotry’ practiced by Nigerians. This has developed the idea of religious pragmatism in Nigeria; “open your hand and receive your wealth and prosperity in Jesus name...Amen oo.” Is this not Charles Sanders Peirce influencing our religion whereby pragmatically “the proposition (religion) that works (gives humanistic response to problems) become the true one.”
Anchoring my point on syncretism we talk about polytheism and idolatry. This is the situation whereby one chooses the one objective God and at the same time runs over the shadows embedded on the created subjective gods. In our vicinity many people have had problems with their parish priests because of this. The loss of faith in God has led some to Ogwugwu shrine, etc. In response to this, Bishop H. Okeke moved with unrelenting spirit taught that “idols are impotent and as such foolish to be worshiped. He maintained that only God can be worshipped.” For the Prelate, mmonwu ozoebune, iro mmuo, imekpu mmuo, ibu arusi, etc., are means whereby a Christian demonstrates his faith rooted and built upon the unknown god.
Since our people have not shelved off ATR entirely, its worldview is now affecting Christianity in Nigeria. For instance, the understanding of suffering in both religions is different. For ATR, one suffers because of what he/she or his lineage has done in the past. Nay, suffering is seen as a curse because it is evil. This idea is not same in Catholicism whereby our Master “suffered for us leaving an example.” (cf. 1 Pt 2:21) The founder of Christianity taught that his followers must carry their cross and follow Him. However, because Nigerians are not integrated, we have not imbibed the way of the cross (cf. Mt. 10:38). But the Christians are troubled at slightest unrest. Instead of flying to divine intervention, they will opt for the traditional men for their incantations and ‘glorified deceit’. Those who have sense of sanity will be running from one prayer house to another in search of solution. Unfortunately, our ‘men of God’ who should catechize the faithful rather play on their gullibility in quest for money.
Another issue is the ‘incongruence’ of ethics. ATR advocates for a sacrifice for the burial of a hero, subjugation of women, killing of twins, slave trade etc. Though these have been outwitted by Christianity, the derogatory ethics hammers its effect on the present day religion. Existent in our locality is the subjugation of women as the property of the men. An example is the incident in one of our parishes. The Catholic Women Organisation raised money and wished to build a hall for the parish. Surprisingly and foolishly, the men refused on the ground that their wives are growing wings of embarking on a Church project which they (the men) have not even conceived and without their approval. Another example is the faulty logic of widowhood in Nigeria.
5.0. SOLUTIONS IN BRIEF
The above is just an attempt to show how Christians are still being challenged by their indigenous religion. Nigerian Church is akin to Athenians; “men of Athens…I noticed among other things an altar inscribed, to an unknown God.” (Acts 17:22-23). While the Western church battles with atheism, Nigerian Church is militated by superstitious beliefs and syncretism. To curb-off this malaise, serious pastoral attention should be given to ATR Christians.
Since many Christians are either converts from ATR or are living in the societal atmosphere contemporaneous with ATR, dialogue is to be understood in the wider sense of a pastoral approach to ATR with a view to a more adequate presentation of the Gospel of our Lord so that the Church will have deeper roots in the soil.
Serious catechesis should be introduced not only in the Church but in the formal education sectors starting from secondary school. This view suggests the inclusion of ATR within the scope of studies for secondary school students. This will enable the young students to retrospect the past and isolate the values inherent in ATR and eschew all negativities.
6.0. CONCLUSION
The Post-Synodal Exhortation of Benedict XVI, Africae Munus estimates that “to deprive the African(Nigeria) continent God would be to make it die a slow death since the soul of an African is rooted in religion.” B. Lonergan rightly affirms that “within each man lies the region and shrine for God.” It follows logically that the initial attempt by the missionaries to deny capax dei (capacity for God) from an African was based on false certainty. It is necessary to note that the missionaries who introduced the gospel to Nigeria did not bring God to us, instead God brought them to enlighten us bringing our religion to fulfillment. Now that we have received Christ away with every attempt geared toward practicing a mottled Christianity. Therefore, since ATR permeates our being, dropping every worldview about ATR is a mirage. It suffices to elect the positive aspects of ATR which is not in contrast with the dictates of Christianity. Unless this is done, we remain alienated Christians who have been healed from madness without uprooting inclinations of murmuring (ntamu) as articulated in the introductory part of this work.
