I think this is the most controversial religious topic. Yet it being paid lip service. No one lays focus on the truth value of their religion and superiority over others.

What should be the qualities of a true religion?

Must it claim the existence of the supernatural, or focus on human needs both physical and mental.

Is it found by faith or reason?

Does everyone have access to it, despite their geographical location and culture?

A true religion should be based both on faith, reason and purpose. A true religion must come from the people and their devotion to their beliefs, It upholds and strengthen the community, that relies on the history, culture and values of the people.

The religion must be a way to maintain the continuance of the people and their heritage. It is an institutional system with people of different roles and positions who fill their specific function and use their skills to govern the health and well being of their community. And who keep a sense of order and coordinates rituals for events like births, marriages, deaths, worship and such. While the regular person govern their personal spirituality and tries to live up to the morals and standards of the community and one self.

A true religion comes from within not from outside! Within Africa, within ones culture and heritage

Ase!

@ Kay 17

Prostrate

The only true religion is to accept yourself as slave of Real Witch, and become stool of Heavy Witch, how sacred it is as Witch sit on your soul, and drain your life and eat your children, using hot snake whip on your blood

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.- James 1:27

^ No, you lack understanding. Only way is to submit soul for consumption by Real Witch slavery

The sort of Christianity the colonizers and missionaries brought with them to Africa is poison. There is no reason for West- Africans to practice this Alien religion. If you want to be a true Christian, look to Ethiopia and the orthodox church, or read original scriptures that did not undergo the Roman censorship and alteration.

The only true religion for Africans is their traditional religions and beliefs, without that we will never free ourselves!

Malstrom:

A true religion should be based both on faith, reason and purpose. A true religion must come from the people and their devotion to their beliefs, It upholds and strengthen the community, that relies on the history, culture and values of the people.

The religion must be a way to maintain the continuance of the people and their heritage. It is an institutional system with people of different roles and positions who fill their specific function and use their skills to govern the health and well being of their community. And who keep a sense of order and coordinates rituals for events like births, marriages, deaths, worship and such. While the regular person govern their personal spirituality and tries to live up to the morals and standards of the community and one self.

A true religion comes from within not from outside! Within Africa, within ones culture and heritage

Ase!

[size=16pt]ASE! ASE! ASE![/size]


well said my Yoruba brother.

TRUE RELIGION RESPECTS PEOPLES BELIEFS, SENTIMENTS AND CULTURE.

TRUE RELIGION COME FROM WITHIN OURSELVES.

LET US ALL, HAUSSA, IGBO, YOURBA , FULANI, IJAW, EFIK, etc UNITE AND LEAVE OUR SLAVE MASTER RELIGION LIKE ISLAM AND CCHRISTIANITY.

LET US ALL UNITE IN DIVERSITY, BY RETURNING TO OUR TRUE RELIGIONS AND GODS.


LET US THROW THE DIRTY BIBLE AND QURAAN IN THE DIRTY BIN WHERE IT BELONG.


CHRISTIANITY AND ISLAM =[size=32pt] CULTURAL GENOCIDE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!![/size]



why dont you understand my brothers and sisters   i am not doing this for fun nor am i doing this for money. why are we leaving our old ways and licking west a$$ why ? WHY??


i plead with you my people, it is now or never. we still have remnants of our tribes and cultures. we MUST protect it now and nurture it and DEVELOP it for the future of our generations.

OUR BELOVED NIGERIA IS FALLING INTO WRONG HANDS. SINCE FOREIGN PEOPLES AND THEIR RELIGIONS CAME, OUR LAND IS FALLING INTO MISERY, POVERTY, HUNGER, DESTITUTION.

go visit the villages. THEY DONT EVEN HAVE WATER TO DRINK!!!!!!!!!  please people, only when we develop our moral views, will we be able to bring in REAL DEVELOPMENT.



MY PEOPLE, DONT BE FOOLED BY THEM PASTOR AND IMAM. THEY ARE MISGUIDING YOU BECAUSE THE ARE MISGUIDED THEMSELVES. LOOK INTO YOUR INNER-SELF.


its never too late.




OUR TRIBE. OUR CULTURE. OUR RELIGION. OUR IDENTITY.


[img]http://2.bp..com/_IoKyba98jXs/TKau-YeEmnI/AAAAAAAAFBw/beJRdgguCRs/s1600/al-maasai-warrior1.jpg[/img]

The Sun, the Moon and the Earth. These are the most visible proxies of a perhaps invisible and unknowingable creator.
Our ancestors understood the beauty,power ,and interconnectedness of three bodies to their lives, and accorded them, by whorship and sacrifice, their due respect. Though they did not fully understand the workings of these bodies, they understood the harmony that flowed between them.
Today, we understand nothing, we value nothing and our minds are fragmented into many pieces. As our minds are fragmented, so are our realities fragmented.

Well said my brother!

First came the slave ships, then the the [b]missionaries[/b], then the colonizers, and then the big Companies. Result of this mass genocide, mass rape, mass poverty, slavery and underdevelopment. We have ancestors scattered all over the Atlantic ocean floor, they fought to keep their faith, language and pride. Without that we are SLAVES, and that's what we will always bee if we allow the total elimination of our culture and beliefs.

Yap.
Until we retrace our way back home, we'll continue walking aimlessly to nowhere.

[Quote]« on: Today at 04:13:05 PM »

I think this is the most controversial religious topic. Yet it being paid lip service. No one lays focus on the truth value of their religion and superiority over others.

What should be the qualities of a true religion?

Must it claim the existence of the supernatural, or focus on human needs both physical and mental.

Is it found by faith or reason?

Does everyone have access to it, despite their geographical location and culture?[/Quote]But Islam is all of these and more. God declares in many places in the Quran that the only religion that is from Him is Islam. And whosoever choose another will find it rejected by God from him and such a person will be among the ultimate losers.

Islam is a 24/7, from cradle to grave, all the while allowing you to have a full life; acquire knowledge an wealth. Asceticism is frowned upon and punishing yourself or imposing hardship and denying yourself of all the wholesome goods that man can get are things not acceptable in Islam.

Islam is so specific that God reveals His Proper Personal Name, unlike just saying I Am Who I Am, or something people think they are inferior to pronounce or write down.

DON'T FORGET AFRICAN RELIGION AND BELIEF ARE NOT DEAD!!!

EVERYBODY SHOULD AT LEAST GO OUT AND GRAB SOME KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THEIR HERITAGE! there is information if you just search!

Ask your family about your family history!

And if you are interested about it, people still practice their original faiths: (Dagara, Vodun, Lebu religion among others)

Yoruba religion for example is so rich in culture and is still alive! Yoruba slaves even managed to keep their faith alive in America, (Lucumí, Umbanda and Candomblé) are all based on Yoruba religion.

About foreign religions:

"I believe that evangelism is not a good thing. It is most appalling to see that in the modern world there are still people going all over Africa, Latin America and other Third World countries trying to teach people that they should forget the faith of their ancestors." - Wande Abimbola, Ifa Will Mend This Broken World

Islam is the best and true religion.It provide you all things within the limits.Islam also give you lots of freedom and other things as well.So I suggest Islam is the best and true religion.

"Even though African countries have achieved "independence," their own spirituality is still very much imprisoned by the cultures that colonized them. Outside influences have made people ashamed of their own traditions. They consider their own beliefs to be superstition." - Sobonfu Some, Falling Out of Grace.

ahmed7861:

Islam is the best and true religion.It provide you all things within the limits.Islam also give you lots of freedom and other things as well.So I suggest Islam is the best and true religion.

Sure we know, ISLAM also gives mankind a stack of dead bodies !

^^^^^^ Frosbel; how you dey? Its frost time, very soon. Wear those thermals, ol boy.

Oh, the stack of dead bodies is always less than what christianity or judaism will produce under the same circumstances.

Look around ol boy. When the christians kill, they over do it. Its always crusade, a never ending effort to overcome. And you guys are the lambs. Are you familiar with the knight templar, mehn?

The jews will do the same.


Ridiculous. I think its hunger that gets you towards the end of work hours daily to write with so much poison in your piece.

@Malstorm

Good point, a religion must be compatible and form part and parcel of the culture, BUT the african indigenous religions are only available and appeal-able to Africans, not to the whole world. Are they to be denied the true religion?

@sweetnecta & @frosbel
can anyone at the other end of the globe, discover via reason the religions of Islam and Christianity? And with the destructive presence Christianity has had on our culture and people (slavery & racism), should the true religion be at peace with us and our history?

^^Many discovered Islam on their own; as young people, as young adults, as truly matured persons and people very old almost at the door of death.

i have listened to many stories, varied stories of converts, in the west.

even as the libyans were busy killing one another, a mother of a convert who origin is benin city by way of port harcourt remarked from toronto to her son in atlanta, with all these, it makes one resisting conversion.

the son was shocked because he is not pushing her to it. but she knows his acquired good qualities different from when they were christian. May Allah make gene's mother become muslim. Amin.

if a person wants a sure process to truly be connect to God 24/7, without becoming a liar, it is Islam. it allows you to live your life as best as you can with clearly defined rules that not overwhelming and not truly restrictive because in every ruling there is always an exception.

A person who is a muslim in Makka will have a different set of more pronounced rules that a muslim living in amazon jungle. the one i n amazon jungle may not know what is salah because he has never made any declaration, but the nature of birth of every man, indeed everything is to obey the law in nature. so a person who is pondering about how things came about so much so that he realized that there is a Creator Who is not what his community made with their hands or other limited in power objects, is a muslim, in as long as he does not cooperate me with others in their evil deeds of worship and actions.

if he encourages people to not do this things, he is a muslim preacher, spreading islam to the people. such people, if they arrive in big city rio, if they are told what christianity stands for, what judaism stands for and what islam stands for without lying to them, they will say that they belong to the islamic group and easily be able to accept daily prayers, charity given, fasting, pilgrimage, and of course, to me there is no need to now give them declaration of faith before they entered, because they never have left Islam.

Kay 17, when I was talking about true religion I meant a true religion first and for all for black Africans. A true religion might not be true for everybody. But a true religion for anyone should fill those criteria I mentioned earlier.

But also I think you are wrong, actually African indigenous religions are truly available and appeal to different people of vastly different races. In fact people already come from all aver the world to Nigeria to practice this faith. This is the case at least with Yoruba religion. Also slaves managed to hold on to their religion in Latin America so we have at least three prominent religions there that comes out of Yoruba religion. No one is stopping anyone from practising African religion. It might even become a world religion.

To say it only appeals to Africans is to say that Islam only appeals to Arabs, yet its a growing religion in all parts of the world.

documentary on African religion http://acrossthekingsriver.com/

Info on Yoruba culture and religion: http://www.tamarindyears.com/tribute_afolabi_epega.htm

We have many believers on nairaland.

Witches,Pagans,Atheists,Shrine worshipers,Satanists, and some arrogant Muslims who always brag about Islam yet has nothing meaninful to show.

Jesus,i dey for your hand o ,
**Reading my Bible**

@Sweetnecta

Good effort, but the particulars of Islam is to limited to the revelation of Prophet Muhammed. Islam seems to spread only by propagation. Is possible for a person isolated in a remote location in another part of the world to GAIN the ideals of Islam without being told or preached to?

Propagation is limited to the extent of human technology in transportation and communication. Could any of our pagan ancestors have by reason, discovered Islam at about the time Muhammed got his revelation?

@Malstorm

You truth values are subjective?

I think my truth-values are not subjective, but there might be a difference if we talk about a true religion for all humans (if there is any such religion), and if we talk about a true religion for People of African heritage and culture.

Malstrom:

DON'T FORGET AFRICAN RELIGION AND BELIEF ARE NOT DEAD!!!

EVERYBODY SHOULD AT LEAST GO OUT AND GRAB SOME KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THEIR HERITAGE! there is information if you just search!

Ask your family about your family history!

And if you are interested about it, people still practice their original faiths: (Dagara, Vodun, Lebu religion among others)

Yoruba religion for example is so rich in culture and is still alive! Yoruba slaves even managed to keep their faith alive in America, (Lucumí, Umbanda and Candomblé) are all based on Yoruba religion.

EVERY TRIBE IN AFRICA INCLUDING THE OVERLY MUSLIM FULANI HAVE TRADITIONAL RELIGIONS OF THEIRS WHICH ARE STILL PRACTICED. ALL YOU LAZY PEOPLES NEED TO DO IS TO TRAVEL THE VILLAGES. YOU WILL FIND ALL YOU NEED.

I was Afraid many religions had died out. But I am saying the exact the same thing GO OUT AND EDUCATE YOURSELF! RECLAIM YOUR CULTURE!

Im not lucky enough to be in Africa to get the knowledge first-hand, but I use what I can find,

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^


what is your tribe my friend

My heritage is a big confusing mix!! I got white mother and black father, My African heritage is Krio and Yoruba. Krio in itself is result of a big mix of tribes. Most my family on my fathers side identify as Krio are spread out in several countries, however my Great grandfather was a Yoruba man born in Abeokuta who found work and settled in the Gambia. I have is name Odumosu just like dad, and granddad. Its my straight paternal line so to say. Odumosu means "Ifa is abow all" and I am very proud of this part of my heritage.

As I carry many white genes I do not look Yoruba and Im used to be called tubaab lol. Tho Im more accepted among black people compared to white people. I belong to my African heritage and that is where my heart lies. I might be looked upon as white by some Africans but I do not look white enough to fool white people lol and what I got in common with white people is not that much more than looks. As a person with mixed heritage living in a predominately white country I have come to dislike the ways of white people and much of their culture. Against all odds I truly see myself as Black and African and I am proud to pass on this legacy to my children in the future.

My family on both sides are Christians, so Im Christian by birth, the thing is I do not agree to many key things in Christianity and the lifestyle of most Christians does not suit me, I have also problem with the ties between this religion and most of the other misfortune that has been brought to Africa by those same people. Islam is a tiny bit more similar to my way of living but again I do not fully agree to the teachings and I have a problem by it being so dominated by Arab culture, I feel like they claim the whole damn thing. I begin to open my eyes to African religion. I have honoured my ancestors for a long time and I have always been going in this direction but I had a hard time finding a prominent tradition that belonged to my heritage except Christianity until I found out my great granddad was Yoruba.
So now Im exited to know more and do more family research and see if I can trace it back even further than my great granddad.

Sorry about really long answer on a simple question lol.

Malstrom:

My heritage is a big confusing mix!! I got white mother and black father, My African heritage is Krio and Yoruba. Krio in itself is result of a big mix of tribes. Most my family on my fathers side identify as Krio are spread out in several countries, however my Great grandfather was a Yoruba man born in Abeokuta who found work and settled in the Gambia. I have is name Odumosu just like dad, and granddad. Its my straight paternal line so to say. Odumosu means "Ifa is abow all" and I am very proud of this part of my heritage.

As I carry many white genes I do not look Yoruba and Im used to be called tubaab lol. Tho Im more accepted among black people compared to white people. I belong to my African heritage and that is where my heart lies. I might be looked upon as white by some Africans but I do not look white enough to fool white people lol and what I got in common with white people is not that much more than looks. As a person with mixed heritage living in a predominately white country I have come to dislike the ways of white people and much of their culture. Against all odds I truly see myself as Black and African and I am proud to pass on this legacy to my children in the future.

My family on both sides are Christians, so Im Christian by birth, the thing is I do not agree to many key things in Christianity and the lifestyle of most Christians does not suit me, I have also problem with the ties between this religion and most of the other misfortune that has been brought to Africa by those same people. Islam is a tiny bit more similar to my way of living but again I do not fully agree to the teachings and I have a problem by it being so dominated by Arab culture, I feel like they claim the whole damn thing. I begin to open my eyes to African religion. I have honoured my ancestors for a long time and I have always been going in this direction but I had a hard time finding a prominent tradition that belonged to my heritage except Christianity until I found out my great granddad was Yoruba.
So now Im exited to know more and do more family research and see if I can trace it back even further than my great granddad.

Sorry about really long answer on a simple question lol.

i see. but then are you aware that you cannot lay claim to any tribe due to a mixed heritage (especially with your great-grandddad being Yoruba) this is one of the sad truths of this world. However it seems you have a correct insight into the problems of this world, and so, you can always help us in our struggle.

the ways of thinking of the hybridized west are slowly creeping into the othe so-called 3rd world nations and are corrupting them. The tribes are dying out due to conversion, intermarriage, etc and culture is being lost. The old religions are dying out, be it in Africa, asia, or among the natives of Australia and South America.


thereefore i work to restore a positive feeling amongst fellow tribesmen.

I am personally a Maguzawa belonging to the larger Haussa ethnic group.

I understand that I can't claim any ONE tribe. Of course I cannot say I'm 100% Yoruba or anything but its still a part of me and the culture that comes with it. I belong to more than one tribe partly Yoruba partly Krio. Those are my cultures through my heritage and that makes me a part of it.

Its not all or nothing, If someone is of more than one single heritage it does not mean he is neither of them rather that he is both. And genetic make-up does not always match cultural affiliation. For example sometimes a couple of two different tribes lets say Mandinka and Wolof marry and get children the children might grow up almost completely in the culture of one of the parents and be Mandinka in every sense of way except a part of his genetics. Genes aren't everything, Tribes have always been mixing and still been able too maintain culture. Culture is more than that and does change over time even without outside influence.

My point is a Ganda/Ashanti man could even be more Ashanti than a plain Ashanti man lol. Exact Gene-makeup is not that important blood it thicker than water tho and one or another of those genes could be dominating physically or mentally. I also believe in the power of a name.

I also see very seriously on the fact that mainly Christianity and Islam are suffocating African religion in their aggressive expansion and intolerance towards African traditions and beliefs. Those religions are founded with a lot of money to run around the world and make people forget their own culture. Its easy for them to get new converts.

I think African religion must expand and also get proper recognition by the state! The only country in whole of africa with a public holiday for African religion is Benin.

Malstrom:

I understand that I can't claim any ONE tribe. Of course I cannot say I'm 100% Yoruba or anything but its still a part of me and the culture that comes with it. I belong to more than one tribe partly Yoruba partly Krio. Those are my cultures through my heritage and that makes me a part of it.

Its not all or nothing, If someone is of more than one single heritage it does not mean he is neither of them rather that he is both. And genetic make-up does not always match cultural affiliation. For example sometimes a couple of two different tribes lets say Mandinka and Wolof marry and get children the children might grow up almost completely in the culture of one of the parents and be Mandinka in every sense of way except a part of his genetics. Genes aren't everything, Tribes have always been mixing and still been able too maintain culture. Culture is more than that and does change over time even without outside influence.

My point is a Ganda/Ashanti man could even be more Ashanti than a plain Ashanti man lol. Exact Gene-makeup is not that important blood it thicker than water tho and one or another of those genes could be dominating physically or mentally. I also believe in the power of a name.

I also see very seriously on the fact that mainly Christianity and Islam are suffocating African religion in their aggressive expansion and intolerance towards African traditions and beliefs. Those religions are founded with a lot of money to run around the world and make people forget their own culture. Its easy for them to get new converts.

i was expecting this reply my friend. blood is not as thick as it seems. blood purity is essential to be triba. now look at the natives of america, for example. the look almost european these days. the true natives have almost been wiped out by the mixed white tribeles s settlers.

or else tomorrow you will find people claiming descent from long extinct tribes such as the Phonecians, etc what then

No. blood purity is essential for the survival of a people. this is one of the bitter truths of life. i dont want my people to become extinct like all the other unfortunate peoples in the past who were wiped out by them mixed colonizers.