Uyi Iredia: They are. Hence similarities between them. Even monotheist religions are syncretic as we see in the history of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

We certainly don't see that in their history. All the contrary.

For one, I don't refer to Abrahamic religion as monotheistic because most religions in the world are monotheistic, religions which existed much before Christianity or Islam were created for that matter. Abrahamic religions are far from being syncretic. If you don't practice their religion (from the right denomination) they consider you pagans, heretic or infidels. Far from being syncretic they often started wars between one another or even between themselves (catholic vs protestant, sunni vs shia, etc). Nowadays, Christianity is less forceful and intolerant, but its just because the christian church lost a lot of power and political pull in the world (Europe, USA), see the middle ages.

While abrahamic religions have taken a lot of space. ATRs are far from being static. Our ancestors and deities are still being honored and celebrated (sometimes even by people who also practice abrahamic religions). They are still watching over us. When foreign gods fail them (illness, etc), many Africans always come back to their own spiritial traditions. The real foundation of our spiritial belief.

Anybody got any ideas or opinion on this?

I'm just throwing the question out there hoping a few people may have an opinion on it.

We know that ATR are not imperialist or proselytizing religions and spiritual traditions. They are more initiatic. Passed down from parents to children, from the community to its new members. For ATR practitioners, it's normal for every people, every tribes, to have their own name for God and deities they communicate with. Their own culture and traditions. They often see parallel between their own deities. For example, Ancient Greeks could have considered Olodumare as being similar to their Zeus and Amun-Ra.

I think we can also recognize that syncretism only works when the two spiritual traditions are syncretic themselves. So it is not about becoming some kind of stepping stones to toward conversion.

Said that, do you consider ATR religions, between one another, syncretic in nature? For example, people pray, communicate, honor both family ancestors, important village and community/nature deities and at the same time more national deities. For example, people conquered by a neighboring tribes could continue to honor their own deities and ancestors while incorporating "empire" deities into their spiritual realm. Honoring them too and offering libation to them too.

Have I got it right? What is your opinion on it.

Thanks to everyone who participated in this thread. It was very interesting thus far.

Rgp92:

HA! Do you belive nigeria or any africa country have archeology or history department?

There's nothing funny in this. There's obviously many archeology departments as well as medicine, engineering and whatnot in Nigeria as well as the rest Africa. You only make yourself look ridiculous.

Here's a good article about some update about the Nok sites archaeology:

http://archive.archaeology.org/1107/features/nok_nigeria_africa_terracotta.html

The Nok civilization is fundamental in the history of Nigeria and Africa. I hope much effort and supervision are done by Nigerian universities (archeology department) and the government in general.

Would be curious about any archaeological work done at those pyramid sites (if they can be found).

[img]http://i1079.photobucket.com/albums/w513/Amunratheultimate/African%20Architecture/LacustrineHabitationinLakeMohryaCentralAfricaM804438.jpg:original[/img]
Lake Mohrya, Central Africa

[img]http://i1079.photobucket.com/albums/w513/Amunratheultimate/African%20Architecture/Kumasi.png:original[/img]
Ghana

[img]http://i1079.photobucket.com/albums/w513/Amunratheultimate/African%20Architecture/Mbarishrinehouseigbonigeria1493.jpg:original[/img]
Nigeria


[img]http://i1079.photobucket.com/albums/w513/Amunratheultimate/African%20Architecture/MaleSoldiersDahomey1890s.jpg:original[/img]
Dahomey

[img]http://i1079.photobucket.com/albums/w513/Amunratheultimate/African%20Architecture/NankaniResidentialCompoundoftheAtoyuurefamilycompoundwhichisdividedbylowwallsintoseparatehutsforeachofthechiefswivesThethatchedconicalbu.jpg:original[/img]
Sirigu, Ghana


[img]http://i1079.photobucket.com/albums/w513/Amunratheultimate/African%20Architecture/MousgoumhousesCameroon.jpg:original[/img]
Cameroon

[img]http://i1079.photobucket.com/albums/w513/Amunratheultimate/African%20Architecture/NyangweMarketCongostanleyboyd.jpg:original[/img]
Congo


[img]http://i1079.photobucket.com/albums/w513/Amunratheultimate/African%20Architecture/NankaniWomanPaintingaHutBiloaWennapaintsachickenmotifasymbolofpaganidolatryonthewallofacompoundhutinZeccoBurkinaFaso.jpg:original[/img]
Burkina Faso

[img]http://i1079.photobucket.com/albums/w513/Amunratheultimate/African%20Architecture/PalaceguardsatDinner-Uganda1864.jpg:original[/img]
Uganda


[img]http://i1079.photobucket.com/albums/w513/Amunratheultimate/African%20Architecture/PaintedNdebelehouseSouthAfrica416646.jpg:original[/img]
South Africa

[img]http://i1079.photobucket.com/albums/w513/Amunratheultimate/African%20Architecture/PassagewayinKhamizimbabwe.jpg:original[/img]
Khami, Zimbabwe

[img]http://i1079.photobucket.com/albums/w513/Amunratheultimate/African%20Architecture/PalaisdulamidodeReyBouba3784891262_cd3b08c5ea.jpg:original[/img]
Cameroon

[img]http://i1079.photobucket.com/albums/w513/Amunratheultimate/African%20Architecture/sean-caffrey-jos-traditional-architecture-museum-83028.jpg:original[/img]
Nigeria

[img]http://i1079.photobucket.com/albums/w513/Amunratheultimate/African%20Architecture/SceneatLakeTanganyika.jpg:original[/img]
Tanzania

[img]http://i1079.photobucket.com/albums/w513/Amunratheultimate/African%20Architecture/SpekeintroducesGranttothequeen-dowagerofUganda1864.jpg:original[/img]
Uganda


[img]http://i1079.photobucket.com/albums/w513/Amunratheultimate/African%20Architecture/SoninkeHomeAmotherandchildstandinthedoorwayofatraditionalflat-roofedmudhousewithperforatedwallsonabankoftheSenegalRiverinOuaoundeSenegal.jpg:original[/img]
Senegal

[img]http://i1079.photobucket.com/albums/w513/Amunratheultimate/African%20Architecture/SwaziHutsbarberton4-3.jpg:original[/img]
Swaziland


[img]http://i1079.photobucket.com/albums/w513/Amunratheultimate/African%20Architecture/StreetSceneWhydahOuidahDahomey1890sfromHenriMorienval1898.jpg:original[/img]
Dahomey (Benin Country)

[img]http://i1079.photobucket.com/albums/w513/Amunratheultimate/African%20Architecture/TambermaTogotogo_photo_trip_01.jpg:original[/img]
Togo

[img]http://i1079.photobucket.com/albums/w513/Amunratheultimate/African%20Architecture/SwaziHutsswaziland_photo_trip_11.jpg:original[/img]
Swaziland

[img]http://i1079.photobucket.com/albums/w513/Amunratheultimate/African%20Architecture/TheKingofDahomysLeveacutee1793.jpg:original[/img]
Dahomey (1793)


[img]http://i1079.photobucket.com/albums/w513/Amunratheultimate/African%20Architecture/TataTimbofromdogon383928386_c2a236b0e4.jpg:original[/img]
Dogon

[img]http://i1079.photobucket.com/albums/w513/Amunratheultimate/African%20Architecture/TheKingofUgandareviewingTroops1864.jpg:original[/img]
Uganda

[img]http://i1079.photobucket.com/albums/w513/Amunratheultimate/African%20Architecture/ViewofUtirivillageTanzaniaAfricabig.jpg:original[/img]
Utiri Tanzania


[img]http://i1079.photobucket.com/albums/w513/Amunratheultimate/African%20Architecture/TraditionalObusShapedHousesInNorthernCameroonInTheVillageOfPoussc.jpg:original[/img]
Cameroon

[img]http://i1079.photobucket.com/albums/w513/Amunratheultimate/African%20Architecture/yoruba.jpg:original[/img]
Yoruba

[img]http://i1079.photobucket.com/albums/w513/Amunratheultimate/African%20Architecture/VillageandKingsHouseBightofBiafraCameroonsKingBellshouse1841Allen1841.jpg:original[/img]
Cameroon

Nice thread PhysicsQED. Here's a few more (there may be some duplicates). For description you will have to use file names:

[img]http://i1079.photobucket.com/albums/w513/Amunratheultimate/African%20Architecture/AnNgumbahouseatBolobobelongingtoChiefIbakashowingenemiesskullonroof1908.jpg:original[/img]


[img]http://i1079.photobucket.com/albums/w513/Amunratheultimate/African%20Architecture/ArrivalatMoraTheCapitalofMandaraCameroondenham6.jpg:original[/img]

youngies: The Osun State Government has announced a comprehensive plan for the state’s secondary school students to study Ifa as one of their subjects.

http://sunnewsonline.com/new/cover/osun-students-to-study-ifa-aregbesola/

Very good news. Ancestral Religions is something that unite all Nigerian and African people as well as great civilizations such as Ancient Rome, Ancient Greece, Maya, Kemet and Shinto.

While I'm at it, I may as well add the following paragraph (skipping the one about the Kwararafa kingdom):

The common material basis of the rise of these several large kingdoms surely rested on their involvement in increasingly important and complex commercial relations. Products such as cotton cloth, camwood for dye, and iron goods crisscrossed the region, coming from a variety of producing areas, while kola and food products from the rainforest were exchanged for crops, animals, and manufactures of the savanna. The importance of trade from as far as north as the southern Sahara and as far west as the Bend of the Niger was already great in the ninth and tenth centuries, as we can see from the abundance of copper at the Nri capital, Igbo-Ukwu, as well as the presence there of carnelian beads, imported from Gao, more than 1,000 kilometers away. The rise of the Igala kingdom around the confluence of the Niger and Benue reflects the continuing importance in the thirteenth century of the two rivers as key routes of transport. Kwararafa's position along the middle Benue probably similarly took advantage of the movement of goods east and west along that river and between the rainforest to the south and the Chad Basin to the north. By the fiftheeth century the commodities of commerce in these regions included large numbers of horses, brought overland from the drier savanna and steppe to the north. The possession of horses allowed the kings of both Nupe and Igala to use cavalry forces to exert their power over long distances.

Tony Spike: Interesting maps...How was the extent of Nri Kingdom determined ? I would like to know about this...

I don't know the answer to your question. I presume a mix of archeological and linguistic analysis (not sure of they used oral history or other historical accounts).

Here's what the book says about the Nri Kingdom:


[...]These factors include growing population densities and the establishment of regular markets for local products, such as cotton textiles.

The early era of scattered towns gave way around about 800-1000 to a major burst of urban development in what is today southern and central Nigeria and to the emergence of the first large states. The focal region of state development lay around the confluence of the Niger and Benue Rivers and the stretch of the Niger River immediately south of the confluence. The rise of urban life encompassed a wider set of areas all around that region, notably to the west of the lower Niger River among the Yoruba peoples.

The earliest large kingdom we know of was the Nri state. In existence by the eighth and ninth centuries it was located to the immediate east of the middle parts of the lower Niger River, in and along the northern fringe of the rainforest belt. Its core population was apparently Igbo, a people whose deeper historical roots lay in the Benue-Kwa branch of Niger-Congo civilization. We believe that the capital of the Nri state was located at the archeological site of Igho- Ukwu. Igho-Ukwu and its rulers liad abundant wealth, as revealed by the rich goods and fine brass sculptures found in the site. But the legitimacy of the Nri state rested very much on the ruler's ritual functions as the intermediarY between the society and the territorial and ancestral spirits and not on secular power and military force. The Nri was a king, in other words, whose legitimacy was rooted in the kind of authority exerted by the old ritual clan chiefs of Niger- Congo civilization and in a mastery of the realm of the territorial spirits as well.

In about the thirteenth century, a maior shift in the architecture of political authority began to take place across the region. The institution of the Nri lost its political dimension, although maintaining its ritual importance and a new form of kingly rule appeared, in which the ability to bring large armed forces into the field mattered as much as claims to ritual authority. A powerful new kingdom, that of the lgala, arose in the woodland savannas around the confluence itself of the Niger and Benue Rivers, with its capital city at Idah located just south of the confluence. The continuing power of history is never the less evident in the legitimization of the Igala Kinship: the kings of the Igala claimed descent from the Nri of Igbo-Ukwu, and they continued to be enthroned by Nri ritual experts right down to the early twentieth century.

To the northeast of the Igala kingdom, a second powerful savanna state, Nupe, came into being by the fourteenth century. The extent to which its origins were connected to those of the Igala remain unclear, but its institutions and ideas of kinship appear to have drawn both on the kinds of ideas associated with the Nri state and on ideas that may have come from the Sudanic sacral kinship.

A third major kingdom, Benin, emerged also in about the fourteenth century, in the rainforest region between the Igala kingdom and Niger Delta. Benin traditions of the past few centuries claim Yoruba origins for their ruling family, but it appears from archeological evidence and sixteenth-century written documentation that the actual impetus for the establishment of the kingdom came from the north, most probably from Igala.

West of the Igala, still another strong kingdom, Kwararafa, dominated the middle stretches of the Benue River in the thirteenth to eighteenth centuries.
[...]