In Africana: The Encyclopedia of African and African American Experience, Robert Baum writes, “Africans do not have a word equivalent to the term “religion”.
That may sound odd, but in African traditions, religion isn’t some outside belief system—like an obligation to go to church on Sunday or a vague notion that you should behave properly or you’ll burn in hell. To most Africans, religious belief is so much a part of daily life that it doesn’t require a word to describe it. Simply put, religion is life.
As the Exploring Africa Website explains, “religious beliefs impact the way people live their everyday lives, from what they eat (or cannot eat), the way they farm, do everyday chores, hunt, make tools and clothes, arrange themselves in families, marry, divide work among family members, educate their children, treat illness and bury the dead. Among indigenous African religions, religious belief and practice are not restricted to one holy day each week . . . but are present in the most common daily activities as well as in special ritual ceremonies.”
It’s kind of a nice idea, isn’t it? Maybe religion would seem like less of a burden and more of a blessing if it were integrated into everything we do. Or maybe life would be even more oppressive. I don’t know. I think I’m getting a cold and I’m starting to ramble, so let me think about this some more and get back to you. I think I should go back to bed.
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