AFRICAN TRADITIONAL RELIGION

INTRODUCTION

From the cradle of its existence and development, Africa has built a very rich foundation of heritage of what past generations of African peoples thought, did, experienced, and passed on from one family lineage to the next. This heritage forms a long line of tradition which links African forefathers and mothers with their descendants who now feel proud of what has been left behind for them to hold as a model and guide for future usages and purposes.[1] Certainly this has given Africans a pattern of world-views to help shape the enormous size of their ignorance that which is concerned with the concept of their beliefs, custom, and culture, which yields to the acquiring of knowledge which helps the people in the understanding of their social, political and even psychological problems.[2]

Based on empirical facts, the African traditional world-views in the past and even in recent times, have been faced with subjective judgement and opposed by “reactionary criticism” from so many individuals that rather seems very unpleasant, pertaining to the beliefs and attitude the African race live by.As the need to attend to thepressing issues that is related to the African traditional world-view is ever on rising scale of redress, it will be necessary to underscore the degree of criticism that has surrounded the walls of the African traditional world-views, which has projected a wrong notion of the African religion to the world.

In this piece of writing, there would be a cross examination on the concept of African religion, the various kinds of world-views held by different tribes and clans in Africa, ranging from the West African world-views;Nilotic world-views,world-views of Bantu areas, the interaction of beings within the African world-views,including one of the major global problems (its disparaging criticism) it has struggled to deal with, in strive for its place of identity among host of other continents. It is with this sole objective that I venture into the subject matter of this discourse: “The criticism against the African traditional world-views.”

THE CONCEPT OF AFRICAN TRADITIONAL RELIGION

The African way of life has always reflected some elements of religion, that which has been the very fabric of their life itself. As Bolaji Idowu rightly submitted to the fact that: “Religion is very much and always with us. It is with us at every moment of life, in our innner most beings and with regard to the great or minor events of life; it is discussed daily in the newspapers, through the radio and television, and inour conversations. It is with all of us inevitably, whatever may be our individual, avowed attitudes to it.”[3]

This position gives us a clear sense of idea that Africans regardless of the various religious beliefs and system they hold, either separately as individuals or collectively as a tribal group of people, religion will continue to be part of what truly gives them a definitive character of who they truly are as Africans among other continents of the universe.

Pertainning to the concept of African traditional religion, itseen as the belief system of the African people. Religion is that strongest element in the traditional background of people, either through their traditional beliefs, norms, customs, ceremonies, rituals, attitudes, and practices, which have a great mark of influence upon the thinking and living of the people concerned. This gives an explanation why religion especially among the African people, permeates into all dpartments of their life. So fully that it becomes somewhat impossible to isolate it from their everyday lives.[4]

THE AFRICAN WORLD-VIEWS

Definitively, the world-views of people (particularly among Africans) can be described as the complex nature of their beliefs and attitudes concerning the origin, the nature, structures, organisation, and interaction of beings in the universe which portrays exceptional testimonies pertaining to man’s relationship with the universe.[5]

The diverse nature of African world-views makes it necessary for man to come to an understanding of his world-views, because when such knowledgeable understanding has been inquired and acquired, then there are guarantees that man can be able to provide answers and possible solutions to the fundamental problems enclosing him, which is concerned with the social, political, and psychological deficiencies in his life.

STRUCTURE OF AFRICAN WORLD-VIEWS

It has been long observed that the world-views of some African peoples clearly indicate that their organisation and structure are shaped on the patterns derived from the observation and cultural experiences of the world around them.[6] It is of most common occurrence that some societies make applicable use of patterns drawn from different sources. It could either be structures drawn from the visible world; like the order of planetary bodies, or the sky or earth dichotomy. Some obtain their structures from the ecology like the sea, desert, mountain valleys, and many other aspects of their environment.

WEST AFRICAN WORLD-VIEWS

Among the West Africans there various structures of world-views in which each of them exhibit different models. A given example is the Ashanti people of Ghana who make use of rivers, lakes, and the sea, which water parts of the Ashanti geographical region, and another is the Kalabari tribe of Nigeria who are located the in the swampy areas of the Niger delta, who make use of the creeks and the sea. It is observed that both the Ashanti tribe of Ghana and the Kalabari tribe of Nigeria both make use of the elements of their ecosystem to give a categorical description of their spiritual beings. It is important to note that it is not only the physical and spiritual world that are used as models for the structure of world-views in West Africa, as we have other models that some other tribes in perceive to be preferably suitable like the Igbo tribal group make use of the cosmic order, while the Yoruba who lived in the small urban settlements with centralised chiefly administration, make use of models drawn gotten from their socio-political organisation.

BELIEVE IN THE SUPREME BEING

According to African peoples, man lives in a religious universe, so that natural phenomena and objects are intimately associated with God.[7] This implies that man originate from God and are assigned with a special responsibility to bear witness to Him. In the African traditional setting that which is related to the concept of God, man’s notion of understanding about the Supreme Being(God) is greatly influenced by the world in which he himself shares active participation in.

In time past, it has been believed that African religion was crudely fetishistic, but owing to the idea they possessed about the concept of the belief in Supreme Being produced an expression of conviction that a large number of African peoples belief in the Supreme Being.[8]

The nature of God in African belief can be gathered from the qualities attributed to him. These correspond generally to many of the divine attributes put forward in other religions. They have several distinctive qualities and assertions they attribute to God such as referring to Him as the “almighty” for His supremacy (over all things that exist) clearly indicate that. Also is the name “all-powerful” that which synonymous with other titles like: creator, allotter, giver of rain and sunshine, the one who began the forest, the one “who gives and rots,” maker of souls, father of the placenta, the one who exists by himself. The omnipresence God, less commonly expressed, is found in sayings such as “the one who is met everywhere,” and “the great ocean whose head-dress is the horizon.” More clearly God is omniscient: the wise one, all-seeing, the “one who brings round the seasons.”[9] All these attributes shows the transcendent nature of God, and His dominance over all. This of course is what the African believe about God.

NILOTIC WORLD-VIEWS

The Nilotic peoples have their own patterns for the organisation of the spiritual world which show close resemblance with the usual West African models. The Nuer of Sudan, for example, derive the models for structuring their world-view from both the cosmic order and social relationships. According to Evan Pritchard, “In imagery taken from the physical universe, God is symbolized by the sky, and the spirits of the air, by the air or breezes which are between heaven and earth, and they are also associated with the clouds which are nearest the sky. In a metaphor taken from the social order, God is the father of the spirits of the air and they are his children.”[10]

The Nuer world-view recognizes two broad categories of non-human spirits immediately below the Supreme Being- the Spirits Above (KuthNhial) and the Spirit Below (Kuth piny). The Spirits above are called “Sons of God” and are thought to be more powerful because they are spatially nearer to God. Prominent among them “Deng” associated with sickness, “Teny,” who fashions human bodies, “Col” is associated with lightening and rain, while “Wiu” is deity of war and thunder.

In contrast to the spirits above, there are the spirits below, regarded as the lesser spirits. These could be broadly classified into the totemic spirits, nature sprites, and fetishes. The totemic spirits are spirits who inhabit animal species which are regarded as totems of social groups. Sprites are spirit-forces which manifest themselves through certain material objects which may be purchased by anybody, who upon the performance of the ritual may obtain blessings and other benefits conferred by the rites. Fetishes are ordinary charms which can be manipulated for good or evil.

The Dinka, neighbours of the Nuer also recognise a Supreme Being and two categories of subordinates “divinities.” The Supreme Being which is known by the Dinka as “Nhialic” is thought to be universal and known by various names to various peoples. Below Nhialic are the “Free-divinities,” who can manifest themselves by possessing individuals who then become prophets or diviners and the “Clan-divinities” which are the titular spirit protectors of different clans and lineages. Lowest in the hierarchy of spiritual beings are the magic bundles or charms.[11]

The Nilotic world-views therefore show a striking similarity to its West African counterpart. Both world-views show that broadly speaking, there are five categories of spiritual beings- the Supreme Being, the Deities or Free Divinities, the Spirit-forces of Clan divinities, the Ancestors and magical powers. However, some differences can be noted. The most remarkable is that the Nilotic Supreme Being, unlike their West African counterparts have prophets. Correspondingly, the cult of the divinities are less developed among the Nilotics than in West Africa. Strikingly absent among the Nuer and Dinka is the characteristic West African highly institutionalized cult of the Deities with large cult organisations which wield far reaching social, political, economic as well as religious influences. Also absent is the strong ancestral cult found in West Africa. This apparently is replaced by the cult of totemic spirits which is strong among Nilotics. Though Clan or Titulary divinities are common to both traditions, yet the strong totemistic features of the Nuer clan divinities are not common in West Africa. Where totems are found in West Africa, they do not have the cultic emphasis given to the Nuer of Dinka totemic spirits.

WORLD-VIEWS OF BANTU AREAS

The world-views of the Bantu speaking areas of Eastern, Central and Southern parts of Africa differ in many respects from West African and Nilotic models. Generally speaking, there are three categories of spiritual beings instead of five. One simply finds a belief in the Supreme Being and the cult of ancestors, along with beliefs in magical powers. There is a marked absence of the belief and cult of nature divinities and Clan divinities. However, in some places associated with the ancestral cult, is belief in sprites, who are for the most part anonymous spirits of the dead and mythic figures who are generally believed to bring misfortunes to the living. “Nature-worship,” writes E.W. Smith, “is not characteristics of the Bantu in the sense that they people natural objects with non-human spirits. If they regard certain trees, woods, mountains, rivers with reverence, it is because these are the abode of spirits that were human.”[12]

The Bantu of Southern Africa whom E.W. Smith studied including the Xhosa, the Zulu, the Swazi, the Thonga, Tswana, the Shona, Lovedu, Venda, along with the Bushmen and Hottentots who have absorbed much of the culture of their Bantu neighbours, have only beliefs in a Supreme Being, and ancestral cults besides magic. Besides, it has been noted too that the concept of the Supreme Being is vaguer among the Bantu than among either the West Africans or Nilotics. Thus with the absence of cult of nature divinities and the titular divinities, ancestral cult remains the main feature of Bantu religion.

The Lovedu for example believe in a creator God, Khuzwane, who is believed to be identical with Modimo the Supreme Being of the neighbouring tribes. He is therefore creator and Lord of the entire universe who as far as the Loveduare concerned is equivalent to the Christian God and Muslim “Allah.” However, Khuzwane is considered too remote to be of any concern to man. Instead, it is the ancestors who are believed to influence the course of nature which affects the day to day life of the Lovedu. Besides, the Lovedu have complicated notions about magic and mystical powers, especially the rain making power credited to their queen.[13]

Similarly, the Pare, a Bantu-speaking people living in north-eastern Tanzania have two central religious concepts, namely, the idea of a creator (Kuimbi) who created the ancestors and all the things man needs, and the position of these ancestors as mediators between God and the living members of the society. Occasionally, they do address direct prayers to God, but the more regularly they would offer beer at the central pole of the house, while addressing prayers to “Kuimbi” through the ancestors.

Variations of course occur within the typical models of Bantu world-view. The Abaluyia, a Bantu-speaking people, living in the Nyanza Province of Kenya, believe that along with the creator God, called Wele, there is a principle of evil. The creator is the author of all that is good in the universe, and principle of order. While all evil and disorder are said to emanate from the principle of evil. The Vugusu go as far as describing the principle of evil as “the Black god” in contrast to Wele “the White God,” though other Abaluyia tribes would not credit the principle of evil with a distinct personality. Beside this peculiarity the Abaluyia, like other Bantu, would believe that the affairs of the universe are controlled by the Supreme Being and ancestral spirits. But God is thought to be more involved in human affairs than other Bantu Supreme Beings. God is thought to be the author of certain moral norms, and would punish those who transgress these norms. While clan and tribal ancestors are thought to be guardians of only tribal laws and customs.[14]

The Lele of Kasai of Zaire, believe that along with God, Njambi, and the ancestors, the spiritual world is also populated by host of non-human spirits called “mingehe.” These are of the nature of spirits and goblins who haunt deep forests, and streams. They can be sources of misfortune or fortunes depending on how they are controlled. Secrets of their powers are the preserves of diviners and their devotees.

ASPECTS OF AFRICAN TRADITIONAL RELIGION

Charms and amulet

Belief in the potency and force of charms and amulets is one of the practical aspects of African traditional religion. Their effects are believed to be of daily occurrence in the African community life. European education and the Christian religion have not effectively eliminated trust in the potency of charms among the things many African elites believe in, even in the universities, and in the very departments of science and technology, among doctors (both medical and academic), among students and professors, the belief in the use of and efficacy of charms often are noticed. A good account of this situation has been given by Chukwuemeka Ike in the “Naked gods.” In Africa charms are believed to bring realization, the power of the spirits and ancestors. Yet it is believed that through the use of charms, obnoxious and implacable spirits and ancestors are controlled, driven away, or blindfolded, such that their evil machinations and punishments of the living are minimized or averted.[15]

Sacrifices

Sacrifices are important element in African religion. Three kinds of sacrifices are prominent in most African communities and these are:

i. Expiatory sacrifice

ii. Petitive sacrifice

iii. Thanksgiving sacrifice

i. Expiatory sacrifices are offered to ward off evil spirits and to placate an enraged deity or an ancestor.

ii. Petitive sacrifices are offered to ask for a favour or a blessing from the ancestors, spirits, or deities.

iii. Thanksgiving sacrifices feature when blessings or favours have been received.

In the African setting, for sacrifices to be efficacious and to achieve their purpose, it is believed that it must be offered at particular spots, by particular persons and at a particular time of the day, week, or year, as the case may be.

There are two basic concepts of time in relation to sacrifice in African religion. These are concepts of time which correspond to the moment a particular spirit or deity “eats” or the moment the efficacy of the sacrifice is believed to be realized.

It is believed that only at such moments a spirit or human being is liberated from the adverse influences of more powerful spirits or deities. It is important at this juncture to remark the differences between a deity and a spirit in the context that they have used. First while all deities are spirits, all spirits are not deities. Deities belong to the first group of spirits mentioned above.[16]

Prayer

Prayer is a constant element in African life and religion. It is a means of contact and communion with the Supreme Being, the gods and the ancestors. Prayers are, at times, spontaneous and determined by occasions and circumstances. Libation is often a feature of African prayer. It is the pouring of wine to a deity or to an ancestor, as a sign of goodwill and communion with it.

Sacred objects and places

There are objects and places regarded as sacred in Africa because of their use and importance in African traditional religion and culture. The shrines of deities, some streams and rivers together with the fish in them, religious cultus symbols (as we have seen) are sacred. Some animals and trees are totemic and thus sacred. Some images are sacred because of the things they represent. This is because “Representation in concrete form had always been one of the essential features of our traditional religion. Ancestral spirits were represented. All these representations constitute to us the substances and not the essence of the true things.”[17]

Some persons, too, are sacred. These are the religious personnel in African religion. The degree of sacredness attached to them is relative to the degree of their deities and to their cults. Religions are consulted in matters of worship and, depending on their roles, intermediate between the people and their deities. In most cases the sense of awe surround sacred objects, places and religious personnel in traditional Africa.

Native

Another term in which its usage is being applied in a derogatory sense by some writers to describe African religion is the word: “native.” Thus, there have been several times when one must have came across this word native, that which has acquired a particular connotation in the conversations and exchange of letters among Europeans. An African man was comfortably referred to as the “native.” Even the colonial report has always been occupied with accounts of the “lives of the native,” “customs of the native,” “religion of the natives,” and other several account. Being a native is the right understanding of being aboriginal, the owner of the land, a son of the soil. But like many other words, it acquired a racial and colonial impression, and was thus used to mean; the unfortunate, backward, non-Western European peoples under the colonial rule. Therefore, within the religious context, the native religion meant a non-Christian religion, giving the wrong impression that Christianity is a European religion.[18]

Juju

More often than not, the practice “juju worship” has become part of the essential elements of African traditional religion. The word “juju,” is of French origin and sometimes it is wrongly spelt as “joujou,” which means, “a doll” or a “toy.” It is of susceptible believe that the word “joujou” became widely used in order to devalue the objects of African religion by making reference to them with dolls or toys. Religiously speaking, one begins to ponder about the adequacy of the term in relation to how they are been used as earlier stated.[19]

CRITICISMS HELD AGAINST THE AFRICAN TRADITIONAL WORLDVIEWS

There have been so many criticisms put up against the African Traditional worldview, that which is depicted in their way of life, pattern of thought, and conceptual scheme. Some of these destructive criticisms from the Westerners held against the Africans are nothing other than expressions of defamatory statements and writings, most especially about the African culture and religion and knowledge about God.

Amidst the negative bias and narrow-minded judgement against the African worldview, there are however,various criticisms, but the most commonly known and talked about among other criticisms will be underscored belowsuch as: Heathenism, fetishism, animism, paganism, polytheism, syncretism, idolatry, savages, primitive, and ancestor worship.

HEATHENISM

The word heathen cane into being as an analogy of the word pagan. It comes from the German root. The suffix “en” has the meaning of “belonging to”. Heath on the other hand means the wasteland removed from the outskirts of the town, where outlaws and vagabonds and brigands live. Heathen then means a dweller on the heath. Heathenism as an adjective; means the habit or the characteristics, or the disposition of heathen-dwellers. As it is with its twinword paganus, heathen which was originally a sociologicalterm became an adjective used to describe religion. The Microsoft Encarta Premium defines heathen as “an offensive term that deliberately insults somebody who does not acknowledge the God, the Bible, Torah, or Koran” or “an offensive term that deliberately insults somebody's way of life, degree of knowledge, or non-belief in religion.”

Heathen is a word coined by races that look down from an Olympian height of superiority upon other races. As it is with paganus, the name heathenism is a most unsuitable and obnoxious misnomer as far as the African Traditional religion is concerned.[20]

POLYTHEISM

This refers to the worship of many gods. Africans have diverse cultures which engineered different names but this never contravenes the belief in a Supreme Being. The principles are the same but the practise of African traditional religion may differ from place to place.

The Europeans held a belief that the multiplicity of religious practices in Africa connoted polytheistic religious background by all Africans which was not the case.

PRIMITIVE

The African traditional religion has always been attributed to a kind of religion that is of primitive origin, background, and practices, which always denotes an expression of disparaging views against the African religion. Taking a close look at the word, the term Primus is gotten from the Latin word “primus,” which means “first in relation to second.” Contextually, it is that “from which other things are derived.” The opinion of those who use to give a description of what African tradition religion is all about, as by claiming that nothing good can come out of the world of the “black nation” which marks them as a group of tribal people possessing  a crude and perverse religious practices and belief.[21]

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PAGANISM

Paganism seems to be the oldest and most common name used to describe the religion of the so-called “Primitive People.” This word, too, is of Latin origin, “Paganus.” It originally means a village dweller or a country man, a person who lives away from the city or urbanised community. The fact that evangelization first took off in most places in the cities made in domestic Christian terminology to describe the non-Christian villager as a pagan. This was applied in a religious sense, and his non-Christian religion was called Paganism. It must be observed that paganism has a specific Christian connotation, because the Christian does not always call a Moslem a pagan to mean a non-Christian. Therefore, paganism is often used to imply that an African traditional religionist had no religion is a missioner, just as it is to describe his religion.[22]

SYNCRETISM

This has to do with the combination of several religions which to some extent is true of Christians. But with regards to Christianity, Africans were never syncretic. Syncretism could also be seen as an attempt to reconcile disparate, even opposing beliefs and to meld practices of various schools of thought. It is also associated with the attempt to emerge and analogize several originally discreet traditions, especially in the theology and mythology of religion, and thus assert an underlying unity.

IDOLATRY

The word idol has its root in the Greek word eidolon. In the Greek, the word means 'form, copy, figure"; hence an object resembling a person or animal and worshiped as a god idol, image".

The main problem with this word is if it is appropriate to use this word to describe the whole of African Traditional Religion? With the descriptions above, it is clear that the word idol never at the beginning carry the undertone of falsehood although it has acquired this meaning over time. Therefore in the light of the current derogatory and contemptuous nuance of the word, it should not be used to describe any religion whatsoever.

Apart from this, the word idol does not technically accurately describe African Traditional Religion. This is because the so called images and idols that are seen in the religion are mere symbols that are representative of the deity and absolutely meaningless apart from the spiritual connotations. Thus, it is grossly unfair todescribe the religion as idolatry. For example, the images of Mary and Jesus in the Catholic Church have not turned Christianity to an idolatrous religion.[23]

FETISHISM

This is another word that has been used to describe African Traditional Religion having made it depart from its original meaning. According to E. B. Taylor who traced the history of the word from the time it was first used by the Portuguese the word was adopted by the Portuguese who likened the African veneration of religious symbolic objects to the amulets and the talisman they themselves were wearing. These amulets were called “leitico” a word which means charms and is in turn derived from Latin factitius.

Since fetishes are things that are made with hands it does not apply to African Traditional Religion because to them deity is not something made with hands.

ANIMISM

This word is popularised by E. B. Taylor who defines it as the doctrine of souls and other spiritual beings. In his use of animism however Taylor posits that animism is an attendant factor in any religion, in every culture at any level of development. This is to say that as there are traces of animism in African religion so are they in all other religions. He also maintains that anthropomorphism is predominant in animism. In regard with this, animism cannot be said to be a monopoly of African Traditional Religion and so, it would be unfair to describe the African Religion as animism.

SAVAGES

This is another word that has racial and ethnic discrimination at its root.

The word 'savage' stands at the opposite end of the pole from “civilized.” Savage can be defined as “violent, brutal, and undomesticated, as is used for wild animals that cannot be controlled by human beings.”

Finally, Microsoft Encarta Premium Dictionary agrees that it is an “offensive term meaning relating to a culture that is unfamiliar and perceived as inferior, especially one not using complex modern technologies.” Though the developed countries usually are quick in applying this word to the whole of Africa, the truth is that savagery ispresent in the whole world and has nothing to do with development or underdevelopment. For example, if a fight ensues and an African man brings out his cutlass and strikes his opponent to death, is he any different from an American who brought out his pistol and shot his opponent to death? It is on this ground that one would reject the use of the term savage to describe African Traditional Religion.

ANCESTOR WORSHIP

There are still other investigators who have defined African Traditional Religion as ancestor worship. According to them, all that the African people regarded as spiritual beings were no more than deified ancestors. Like other terminologies, this term is not true of the African Traditional Religion. Though one cannot deny that the belief in ancestors is a strong element in African Traditional Religion, it has to be stated that the ancestors are not worshipped but venerated; and veneration of ancestors is also not the monopoly of African Traditional Religion.

CONCLUSION

The entire work of this paper have taken the human mind through the historical age of African heritage to the practices, beliefs, culture, norms, customs, traditional exhibitions and religious behavioural attitudes, that focuses on the African traditional worldviews which covers the religious and traditional characters of West African worldviews, Nilotic worldviews, the worldviews of the Bantu areas, the crucial aspects of African tradition religion, and the criticisms popularly held against the African traditional worldviews.

Detailed accounts of explanations have been provisionally given to underscore the basic areas of discussion concerning the African traditional worldviews of the past and present African society in struggle for its place of identity among host of other continents.

The piece of African traditional literature provided in this paper is only a suggestive attempt to input meaningful contributions to the demanded issue at hand, as it is not a zenith point to further research in this discourse on: “The criticisms against the African traditional worldviews.”

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[1]Cf. John S.Mbiti, Introduction to African Traditional Religion, Second Edition (England: Heinemann Educational Publishers, 1991), p. 2.

[2] Cf. EmefieIkengaMetuh, Comparative Studies of African Traditional Religions, (Onitsha: Imico Publishers, 1987), p. 50.

[3]Bolaji Idowu, African Traditional Religion “A Definition” (Ibadan: Fountain Publications, 1991), p. 1.

[4]Cf.John S. Mbiti, African Religions and Philosophies (New York: Anchor Books, 1970), p. 1.

[5]Cf. Emefie Ikenga Metuh, Comparative Studies of African Traditional Religions (Onitsha: Imico Publishers, 1992), p. 50.

[6] Cf. ibid, p. 56.

[7]John S. Mbiti, African Religions and Philosophies (New York: Anchor Books, 1970), p. 62.

[8]Cf. Geoffrey Parrinder, Religion in Africa (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1969), p. 39.

[9]Cf. ibid, p. 39-40.

[10]Godfery Lienhard, Divinity and Experience: The Religion of the Dinka (London: Oxford University Press, 1961), p. 30-31.

[11]E.W. Smith, African Ideas of God, 1950, p. 84.

[12] J.O. Kirge and E.J., Article in African Worlds, ed. By Daryll Forde, 1969, p. 62.

[13] I.N. Kimambo and C.K. Omari, “The Development of Religions Thought and Centres Among the Pare,” The Historical Study of African Religion, ed. By T. Ranger, and I.N. Kimambo, p. 11.

[14] Mary Douglas, Article in African Worlds, p. 9.

[15]E. Amadi, The Concubine (London: Heinemann, 1977), p. 6.

[16]Oliver Onwubiko, African Thought, Religion and Culture (Enugu: Snapp Press, 1991), p. 63.

[17]O. Nzekwu, Wand of Noble Wood (London: Heinemann, 1971), p. 197-198.

[18] Cf. Ibid, p. 64-65.

[19] Ibid, p. 65.

[20] Fola Lateju, “Introduction to African Traditional Religion,” Errors in Terminology, Module 1 (2008): 30-32, http://www.nou.edu.ng/NOUN_OCL/pdf/SASS/CTH192%20Introduction%20to%20African%20Traditional%20Religion.pdf

[21]Cf. Oliver Onwubiko, African Thought, Religion and Culture (Enugu: Snapp Press, 1991), p. 64

[22] Ibid, p. 64.

[23] Ibid, 30-32.