Not my video, but my same question.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuJ1WfbQi0c&hl=en&fs=1">[/flash]

Great Video and Great Question.

Good Question! Yeah, most Africa cultures that I'm aware of have always been monotheistic.

Without doubt christianity has been used as a tool for imperialism.

Last sunday Chinua Achebe talked on tele about how it was done and how in the mission schools they were made to feel that their parents were inferior and igbo culture was wrong.
http://www.itv.com/PressCentre/TheSouthBankShow/Ep6AchebeandAdichieWk20/default.html

However another very important question is whether religion is just merely a CULTURAL ARTIFACT or whether it is based on a more universal reality beyond culture.
If it is just cultural then you should practice your religion as an affirmation of your culture.
If it is more than cultural then it is important to explore what it is that gave rise to religion and why.

Pastor AIO:

Good Question! Yeah, most Africa cultures that I'm aware of have always been monotheistic.

Without doubt christianity has been used as a tool for imperialism.

Last sunday Chinua Achebe talked on tele about how it was done and how in the mission schools they were made to feel that their parents were inferior and igbo culture was wrong.
http://www.itv.com/PressCentre/TheSouthBankShow/Ep6AchebeandAdichieWk20/default.html

However another very important question is whether religion is just merely a CULTURAL ARTIFACT or whether it is based on a more universal reality beyond culture.
If it is just cultural then you should practice your religion as an affirmation of your culture.
If it is more than cultural then it is important to explore what it is that gave rise to religion and why.

Really, I was not aware of that. I thought that most African religions were polytheistic in nature. At least from my culture, our traditional supernatural beliefs were founded on ancestral and animistic "god" or dieties. And having read Achebe extensively as a teenager, this appears to be true of the Igbos as well. But then again, societies evolve and adopt and discards gods as they see fit.

I get a feeling that underlying this post is the idea the monotheism is "superior" to polytheism. Do you agree with that?

tpaine:

Really, I was not aware of that. I thought that most African religions were polytheistic in nature. At least from my culture, our traditional supernatural beliefs were founded on ancestral and animistic "god" or dieties. And having read Achebe extensively as a teenager, this appears to be true of the Igbos as well. But then again, societies evolve and adopt and discards gods as they see fit.

I get a feeling that underlying this post is the idea the monotheism is "superior" to polytheism. Do you agree with that?

No, I don't think monotheism is superior to polytheism or the issue of superiority comes into it at all. Something is either true or it isn't.

Most african societies believe that the world is populated by many spirits. Yet a distinction is made between the various spirits. What do you define as God. If as God you mean a primal cause, creator of all that exists, material and spiritual then Africans believe in one God. That is not to say they do not believe in the existence of other spirits. That is not to say they have not devised ways to engage and propitiate these other spirits. But is it the act of propitiation that makes them gods? If that is the definition of a diety, a being that is propitiated, then your Boss at work is also a god.

If however a god is to be defined simply as a spiritual being then christianity too is polytheistic because it too is full of spiritual beings.
In african societies the worship of a High God is not cultic. Rather cults are devised to engage with other spiritual forces, whether ancestral or otherwise.

To get the hos of course

Thanks all for replying.

Santa Claus bring me lots of good gifts and i get to hav reason 4 not goin 2 work bsides not hav job

Nignog:

Santa Claus bring me lots of good gifts and i get to hav reason 4 not goin 2 work bsides not hav job

Exactly my point, thats not Christianity. . . . . . . . .

Nignog:

Santa Claus bring me lots of good gifts and i get to hav reason 4 not goin 2 work bsides not hav job

BTW why is your name NigNog?

ezeagu:

BTW why is your name NigNog?

Cause dats what me mamma put on my certifcate of birth.
i like de santa claus an de easter rabbit 4 de good candy

We Africans should be the greatest of all christians. Looks like The first has become the last because African church is the oldest.

WHO PREACHED TO THE COPTIC CHRISTIANS OF EGYPT?
OR WHAT OF THE CHURCHES OF ETHIOPIA?
HOW OLD IS THE CHURCH OF ETHIOPIA

THE ACCOUNT OF PHILIP PREACHING TO THE ETHIOPIAN EUNUCH GIVES GRACE TO THE FACT THAT THE ETHIOPIAN FOUND CHRIST AND WENT BACK TO HIS PEOPLE AND HAD EFFECT ON ETHIOPIA.

OR IF ANYONE CAN SCHOOL ME ON WETHER ETHIOPIA WAS EVER COLONIZED BY ANY ONE OR WHO BROUGHT CHRISTIANITY TO THEM I AM READY TO LEARN.