Last time, we talked about how most African religions acknowledge the existence of a Supreme Being, a God who created the universe and everything in it.
Obviously, most religions believe that God created the universe. But most also believe that God continues to play at least some role in the world that he (or she) created, doing things like listening to prayers and answering them for faithful followers. Most African religions disagree.
As the Exploring Africa Website explains, “In most African religious systems, God (or the Gods) after creation was not directly involved in the human society or the individual lives of people. . . . The idea of an isolated God does not make the supernatural unimportant in African religions. . . . Between an all-powerful God and humans is a pantheon of spirits. These spirits are directly engaged in the lives of human beings, and can act as intermediaries between God and humans.”
Basically, African religions believe that God doesn’t want to listen to all the petty griping that we humans tend to do, so he lets other spirits—including the spirits of our dead ancestors—do the real work of dealing with us and all the other living things that God himself created.
That makes perfect sense to me. I mean, if you were God, wouldn’t you feel like you had better things to do than pay attention to humans as they whine about their jobs or their pathetic love lives? I’d sure as hell make sure my spirit employees could take care of all that crap for me.
But why is God so detached from what he created? Does he just not care?
According to many African accounts, humans were actually the ones who drove God away. An East African myth goes like this:
Before there were any people, God (who’s called Mulungu in this particular story) was sitting around enjoying the company of all the nice, peaceful creatures he had made.
One of these creatures—Chameleon—was fishing one morning when he caught a tiny man and woman in his trap. He brought them to Mulungu, who suggested freeing them from the trap and putting them down on Earth to give them room to grow.
So the humans grew and expanded in number. Eventually, they figured out how to make fire by rubbing two sticks together.
Unfortunately, they weren’t very responsible (surprise, surprise) and they let the flames burn out of control. The fire spread through the forest and forced all the animals that lived there to flee.
Then the humans started killing all the animals and roasting them over the fire and eating them.
Mulungu wasn’t happy with this turn of events. He said, “They’re burning up everything! They’re killing my creatures!”
Fed up, Mulungu asked Spider to spin a rope, and he climbed up it and went to live in the sky, far away from the obnoxious and unruly humans.
And that’s just one story. The Ngombu myth from Central Africa tells a similar tale.
As author Philip Novak explains, “Akongo [God] was not always as he is now. In the beginning the creator lived among men; but men were quarrelsome. One day they had a big quarrel and Akombo left them to themselves. He went and hid in the forest and nobody has seen him since. People today can’t tell what he is like.”
So I guess the moral of the story is that, like most of the other bad stuff in our world, we humans have brought the absence of God upon ourselves. Way to go, guys!
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