Encyclopedia of African Religion

Abstract

As the first comprehensive work to assemble ideas, concepts, discourses, and extensive essays in this vital area, the Encyclopedia of African Religion explores such topics as deities and divinities, the nature of humanity, the end of life, the conquest of fear, and the quest for attainment of harmony with nature and other humans. Editors Molefi Kete Asante and Ama Mazama include nearly 500 entries that seek to rediscover the original beauty and majesty of African religion. Features: Offers the best representation to date of the African response to the sacred; Helps readers grasp the enormity of Africa's contribution to religious ideas by presenting richly textured concepts of spirituality, ritual, and initiation while simultaneously advancing new theological categories, cosmological narratives, and ways to conceptualize ethical behavior; Provides readers with new metaphors, figures of speech, modes of reasoning, etymologies, analogies, and cosmogonies; Reveals the complexity, texture, and rhythms of the African religious tradition to provide scholars with a baseline for future works; The Encyclopedia of African Religion is intended for undergraduate and graduate students in fields such as Religion, Africana Studies, Sociology, and Philosophy.

Breaking Bad News to Togolese Patients

“…Physicians are advised to understand that, in these cases, it is the role of the family-in particular, the elders-to break the news to the patient. In the African cultural context, it is their task, not the physician's, to decide on the appropriate time, place, and manner to deliver the bad news to their sick kinsman (Asante & Mazama, 2008).…”

“…Most African cultures do not promote individual autonomy, but instead consider the community--collective relatedness, interdependence, and communality-to be the essential source of meaning and the main frame of action for an individual (Brown, 2004;Asante & Mazama, 2008;Hallen, 2009). For health communication, the family group, in particular, is primary (Beyene, 1992;Harris, Shao, & Sugarman, 2003).…”

The Role of Taboos in African Governance Systems

“…But taboos in Africa are truth forms that are independent of the confines of time. A taboo is sacred; the fact of its potency can be found only in the depth of the mind, where merely rational thought cannot penetrate so as to discover its reality (Ayegboyin-Jegede, 2009).…”

“…Although taboos, especially in the context of African societies, are associated with the supernatural and religion and infringement results in an automatic penalty without human or divine mediation taboos are "overridable" (Ayegboyin-Jegede, 2009). This means they are not construed as absolute or eternal, and therefore unchanging, rules.…”

Ulwaluko: ‘Rights’ of Passage of Gay Men in South Africa

“…In most cultures in South Africa, the rite of passage from childhood to adulthood is marked by rituals of initiation symbolizing the death of childhood and the rebirth into adulthood (Chidester, 2014). According to Asante and Mazama (2008), at the age of 15 Xhosa-men, similar to Ndebeles and Sotho men, are meant to undergo Ulwaluko to recognize the transition from boyhood to manhood. Ulwaluko is regarded to be one of the most ancient cultural practices in South Africa traditionally practiced by heterosexual men and is still performed today (Ntozini & Ngqangweni, 2016).…”