African Traditional Religion In South Africa

In a changing South Africa, recovering the meaning and power of African tradition is a matter of crucial importance. This work participates in that recovery by providing a comprehensive guide to research on the indigenous religious heritage of this dynamic country. Detailed reviews of over 600 books, articles, and theses are offered along with introductory essays and detailed annotations that define the field of study. This work plus two forthcoming volumes, Christianity in South Africa: An Annotated Bibliography and Islam, Hinduism, and Judaism in South Africa: An Annotated Bibliography will become the standard reference work on South African religions. Scholars and students in Religious Studies, Social Anthropology, History, and African Studies will find this set particularly useful. This work organizes and annotates all the relevant literature on Khoisan, Xhosa, Zulu, Sotho-Tswana, Swazi, Tsonga, and Venda traditions. The annotations are concise yet detailed essays written in an engaging and accessible style and supported by an exhaustive index, which comprise a full and complex profile of African traditional religion in South Africa.

In an introduction to the variety of African traditional religions, rather than exploring each and every one, this book offers five examples which are believed to be broadly representative. Zulu and Shona systems are chosen to introduce the southern Bantu religions. Ancient hunting and gathering religious approches from the San of equatorial southern Africa and the Mbuti pygmies of the equatorial rain forest are included - they may have influenced the more structured Bantu systems. And, the complex, well-developed religious systems of West Africa are represented by inclusion of the Yoruba.

In his widely acclaimed survey, John Mbiti sheds light on the survival and prosperity of African Religion in different historical, geographical, sociological, cultural, and physical environments. He presents a constellation of African worldviews, beliefs in God, use of symbols, valued traditions, and practices that have taken root with African peoples throughout the vast continent. Mbiti’s accessible writing style sympathetically portrays how African Religion manifests itself in ritual, festival, healing, the human life cycle, and interplay with the mystical and invisible world. The account embraces foundational traditions, while touching on elements that spawn transitions, including migration, the spread of Christianity and Islam, political-economic development, and modern communication. This popular introduction leaves readers with informed knowledge of the riches of African heritage.

Explores the many manifestations of African religious belief and their expressions, in the past and in the present, as well as the hopes for the future.

First published in 1992, this title explores the religious diversity of South Africa, organizing it into a single coherent narrative and providing the first comparative study and introduction to the topic. David Chidester emphasizes the fact that the complex distinctive character of South African religious life has taken shape with a particular economic, social and political context, and pays special attention to the creativity of people who have suffered under conquest, colonialism and apartheid. With an overview of African traditional religion, Christian missions, and African innovations during the nineteenth century, this reissue will be of great value to students of religious studies, South African history, anthropology, sociology, and political studies.

This book connects traditional religions to the thriving religious activity in Africa today.