Promoting Ancestry as Ecodomy in Indigenous African Religions

24 Pages·2016·3.97 MB·English

by  Corneliu C. Simuţ

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CULTURA
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL
OF PHILOSOPHY OF CULTURE
CULTURA AND AXIOLOGY
Founded in 2004, Cultura. International Journal of Philosophy of
2015
2015 Vol XII No 2
Culture and Axiology is a semiannual peer-reviewed journal devo- 2
ted to philosophy of culture and the study of value. It aims to pro-
mote the exploration of different values and cultural phenomena in
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regional and international contexts. The editorial board encourages Y O
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the submission of manuscripts based on original research that are PO
OXI
judged to make a novel and important contribution to understan- LOSD A
ding the values and cultural phenomena in the contempo rary world. HIN
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ISBN 978-3-631-66790-3
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CULTURA 2015_266790_VOL_12_No2_GR_A5Br.indd 1 27.10.15 KW 44 19:44
A
R
U
T
L
U
C
CULTURA
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL
OF PHILOSOPHY OF CULTURE
CULTURA AND AXIOLOGY
Founded in 2004, Cultura. International Journal of Philosophy of
2015
2015 Vol XII No 2
Culture and Axiology is a semiannual peer-reviewed journal devo- 2
ted to philosophy of culture and the study of value. It aims to pro-
mote the exploration of different values and cultural phenomena in
FY
OG
regional and international contexts. The editorial board encourages Y O
HL
the submission of manuscripts based on original research that are PO
OXI
judged to make a novel and important contribution to understan- LOSD A
ding the values and cultural phenomena in the contempo rary world. HIN
A
OF PRE
U
L T
AL
NU
RC
U
O
J
L
A
N
O
TI
A
N
R
E
T
N
I
www.peterlang.com
CULTURA 2015_266790_VOL_12_No2_GR_A5Br.indd 1 27.10.15 KW 44 19:44
CULTURA
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF
PHILOSOPHY OF CULTURE AND AXIOLOGY
Cultura. International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology
E-ISSN (Online): 2065-5002
ISSN (Print): 1584-1057
Advisory Board
Prof. Dr. David Altman, Instituto de Ciencia Política, Universidad Catolica de Chile, Chile
Prof. Emeritus Dr. Horst Baier, University of Konstanz, Germany
Prof. Dr. David Cornberg, University Ming Chuan, Taiwan
Prof. Dr. Paul Cruysberghs, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium
Prof. Dr. Nic Gianan, University of the Philippines Los Baños, Philippines
Prof. Dr. Marco Ivaldo, Department of Philosophy “A. Aliotta”, University of Naples “Federico II”, Italy
Prof. Dr. Michael Jennings, Princeton University, USA
Prof. Dr. Maximiliano E. Korstanje, University of Palermo, Argentina
Prof. Dr. Richard L. Lanigan, Southern Illinois University, USA
Prof. Dr. Christian Lazzeri, Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense, France
Prof. Dr. Massimo Leone, University of Torino, Italy
Prof. Dr. Asunción López-Varela Azcárate, Complutense University, Madrid, Spain
Prof. Dr. Christian Möckel, Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany
Prof. Dr. Devendra Nath Tiwari, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India
Prof. Dr. José María Paz Gago, University of Coruña, Spain
Prof. Dr. Mario Perniola, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Italy
Prof. Dr. Traian D. Stănciulescu, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University Iassy, Romania
Prof. Dr. Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek, Purdue University & Ghent University
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Cultura
International Journal of Philosophy
of Culture and Axiology
Vol. 12, No. 2 (2015)
Editor-in-Chief
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CONTENTS

Polycarp Ikuenobe 7
Cultural Dynamics, Moral Ignorance, and a Plausible Response
to Immoral Acts

Tomas Kačerauskas 27
Creative Society: Concepts and Problems

Rubén Herce 45
Christopher Dawson on Spengler, Toynbee, Eliot and the notion of Culture

Mahdi Dahmardeh 61
Language and Culture: Can we shape what the future holds?

Weilin Fang 73
Anoixism and Its Idealistic Pursuit

Georg W. Oesterdiekhoff 81
Evolution of Democracy. Psychological Stages and Political Developments
in World History

Alexandru Petrescu 103
Cultural – Philosophical Debate concerning the german Origin, the Specificity
and the Evolution of the analytical Philosophy

Mariana Momanu & Nicoleta Laura Popa 115
Nationalism and Europeanism in Education: A Critical Analysis of Alternatives

Corneliu C. Simuţ 129
Promoting Ancestry as Ecodomy in Indigenous African Religions
Cristian Iftode 145
The Ethical Meaning of Foucault’s Aesthetics of Existence

Gulbakyt Shashayeva & Zhakhan Z. Moldabekov 163
Hospitality in Kazakhstan: The Empire Sings Back
10.3726/266790_129
Cultura. International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology 12(2)/2015: 129–144

Promoting Ancestry as Ecodomy
in Indigenous African Religions

Corneliu C. Simuţ
PhD Aberdeen
University of Pretoria
Hatfield | Lynwood | South Africa
[email protected]

Abstract. This paper is an attempt to offer a concrete contribution to the study of
indigenous African religions and in particular to the support of creating a set of tra-
ditions from whose perspective one could engage in the study of indigenous African
religions as well as of African spirituality in general through the unifying theme of
ecodomy. Defined in terms of a constructive process, ecodomy seeks to provide
families and communities with a common element, that of ancestors, which is not
only specific to African spirituality but also potentially capable of strengthening and
improving the life of African people. Thus, this methodology based on working
with ancestry as economy is applied to four distinct scholars and their specific ap-
proaches to indigenous African religions: John S. Mbiti, who believes that ancestors
have mainly social, not religious roles; Issiaka P. Lalèyê, for whom ancestors make a
connection between the social and religious aspects of life; Jacob K. Olupona, who
restricts ancestors to religion, and Israel Kamudzandu, in whose philosophy ances-
tors can provide African societies with the possibility of moving beyond their
indigenous religions into accepting other religious beliefs, such as those provided by
Christianity.
Keywords: ancestors, ecodomy, religion, African, family

INTRODUCTION

A very hot potato in the academic study of indigenous African religions
these days appears to be the issue of methodology. While the heat of the
said potato disseminates over culture, philosophy, and society, the
interest of this paper remains circumscribed to the problematic of
religion. Thus, in recent years, questions about the validity of studying
indigenous African religions as a field on its own right began to surface
especially with regard to the actual way in which these studies should be
carried out. While it goes almost without question that indigenous
African religions must move beyond the Colonial era, the issue of how
to walk in that direction has not yet found a very firm response
regardless of whether one has only African religions in mind or one, as
129
Corneliu C. Simuţ / Promoting Ancestry as Ecodomy

Edward P. Antonio points out, also includes Christianity in the discus-
sion (Antonio, 2006: 38-39).

THE NEED FOR DECOLONIZATION

Since colonial perspectives on indigenous African religions are presently
seen by a significant number of African philosophers and religious
scholars as imperialistic or, in the words of Kwasi Wiredu (2006: 291), as
“an imposition,” and thus, quite rightly, faulty in their methodologies,
moving beyond a colonial understanding of indigenous African religions
seems to be bit more complex a process than it appears at first glance.
Colonization imposed not only political but also cultural norms; this is
why, Wiredu contends (2006: 291), the process of decolonization must
attempt to create a way of thinking, a concrete philosophy which
attempts to establish “definite modes of conceptualization” in full
accordance with indigenous African ways of thinking devoid of Western
concepts, patterns, and even languages (2006: 294). To take just one
example: indigenous African spiritualities must find a way to renounce
traditional Western dichotomies such as “the spiritual versus the
physical, the supernatural versus the natural, the mystical versus the non-
mystical, the religious versus the secular, being versus nothingness”
(Wiredu, 2006: 294). In other words, Wiredu proposes that indigenous
African thought must “go to the roots” in order to identify the
compatibilies and incompatibilites between Western philosophy and
African spirituality or, in religious terms, between Christianity as a
religion and indigenous African religions (Wiredu, 2006: 296).
At the same time, the decolonization of African spirituality presup-
poses leaving behind Western philosophical ways of thinking or, in the
words of Messay Kebede (2004: XII), “the emancipation of the African
mind from the debilitating ascendancy of Western episteme”. It is within
the same lines that Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni (2013: 52) explains the
need for decolonization which is seen as an attempt to obtain “episte-
mological freedom” from European and American philosophies. This
effort to decolonize African spirituality should focus not only on “secu-
lar philosophy” but also on the “geo-political location of theology ... and
scientific reason”. All aspects of the mind should be subject to decoloni-
zation to the point that the African spirit finds a way to return to itself,
130