A Religion is a Traditional Belief with an Army | Clementine BurnleyThe difference between a re
A Religion is a Traditional Belief with an Army | Clementine BurnleyThe difference between a religion and a traditional belief may be an army. The Sawa are a group of coastal peoples in Cameroon. Across the border in Nigeria there are forty million Yoruba, many of who practice the Ifa religion. Ifa is definitely a big, ancient and well studied religion, that has spread across the world. It is almost unknown. Unlike the Yoruba Kingdoms, the Sawa are small groups organised into networks of clans and associations. Cameroon has no large or militarised pre-colonial religions. There are no large empires comparable to the ancient Yoruba in the area the Sawa occupy. Religions with armies have greatly altered the relationship of Sawa to indigenous divinity. First the Islamic, and then the European colonial projects violently removed Sawa religions from their central organizing position in society. The attitude of religious colonists was that natives could not conceive of religion, a spiritual god, or moral laws. This belief by colonists and the colonised created a break in African cultural confidence and knowledge which has yet to be repaired. Everything related to the non-material world of Africans was destroyed or identified with evil. Sawa people are still trying to bring together their religious past and their current identity. While religion is one of the first narratives that cultures create, this article is hard to write because so little is known about pre-colonial Sawa religions. It’s not so clear that the Sawa would call their beliefs, religions.Read more on Ezibota.comConnect with us: Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Google + | Youtube -- source link
#africa#african diaspora#ezibota#african community#online community