The Religious Culture

The religious culture embodies the knowledge about divinities, their devotional activities, the nature of the universe or the living environment and more especially, the principles of divine or moral state of living.

Dance-Drumming Is A Form Of Prayer

Religion is the strongest element in traditional African background, and exerts, probably, the greatest influence upon the thinking and living of the African people. Because religion permeates all the departments of life, there is no formal distinction between the sacred and secular, between the religious and non-religious, between the spiritual and the material areas of life. What the people do is motivated by what they believe, and what they believe springs from what they do and experience. Belief and action in African tradition cannot be separated: they belong to a single whole.

In many African languages, there is no word for religion because a person's life is a total embodiment of his religion. Religion accompanies the individual from long before his birth to long after his physical death. In African religion, there are no creeds to be recited; instead, the creeds are written in the heart of the individual, and each one is himself a living creed of his own religion. Wherever the individual is, there is his religion, for he is a religious being. It is this state that makes the Africans so religious: religion is in their whole system of being.

The religious culture embodies the knowledge about divinities, their devotional activities, the nature of the universe or the living environment and more especially, the principles of divine or moral state of living.

The African conceives the universe as consisting of dynamic forces which are constantly influencing each other. Mankind, in both the living (visible) and non-living (invisible) states, animals, vegetables and minerals all possess this vital force in varying amounts. As a result of the constant interaction of these forces, which at times affects human existence in negative ways, it becomes necessary for mankind to gain the knowledge and use of these natural forces in influencing his or her own existence. Hence, instead of events occurring by chance or arising from unknown causes, these events could be controlled to occur at the intention and necessity of mankind.

Everything among the African has a spiritual meaning or is understood in a spiritual sense. For example, the birth of a new life, puberty of the adolescent and the marriage of the young adult are attributed to some divine goodwill. Sickness, death and other misfortunes are ascribed to some divine intervention. Performance of devotional activities to the divinities and the development of some principles of divine or moral state of living rank at the top of African hierarchy of values.

Dance-drumming is a key element of the religious culture and each divinity offers a distinct repertoire for various devotional activities. These devotional activities include: rite of consecration or medium of centering oneself in the divine spirit, rite of invocation or yearning for spiritual communion with the divinity and rite of gratitude, reverence and respect for the divinity. Dance-Drumming in the African tradition is, indeed, a form of a prayer.