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Ancient Philosophy
This class will begin with a unit on African Thought Systems, first comparing concepts in African Thought Systems to some concepts found in the Old Testament, and then comparing African Thought Systems to ancient Greek Philosophy. Your first assignment is to read the material presented here which is a preliminary version of a book your instuctor hopes to publish.
African Philosophy compared to
Biblical Concepts
Copyright 1998
by
David W. Felder
All rights reserved
Contents
Preface...................................page 3
Chapter 1: Introduction: ..................................................4
Part I The Main Concepts
Chapter 2: The Creation Story:
African Ontology........................................15
Chapter 3: Afterlife and Immortality:
An African Conception of Time.............24
Chapter 4: Divine Intervention:
Yoruba Concepts of Causality
Chapter 5: Dietary Restrictions:
African Sympathetic Magic
Part II African and Biblical Concepts from A to Z... 28
The Arc: African Sculpture
Chosen People: Hebrews and Massai
Incantations
Kinship: Biblical and African
Mountains that are sacred: Africa's Mt. Kenya
Name Magic
Names of God
Naming Children
Tribes: Hebrew and African
Preface
I was introduced to African Thought Systems when I spent a summer as a participant in a program to develop instructional materials relevant to African American college students. Dr. Henry Olela, a philosopher from Kenya, instructed participants in African conceptual systems. From the start, I was amazed at the similarities between African customs and views, and views in the Old Testament. Further, I found many parallels between African culture and the Jewish culture that I was brought up in. I thought at that time, in 1971, that it would be worthwhile to have a study that compared African and biblical concepts.
My next opportunity to study African Thought Systems came in 1977 when I participated in a seminar on African Thought Systems at New York universities under the direction of T.O. Beidelman. Professor Beidelman lived for two years with the Kaguru people of Kenya, and is the author of over two hundred articles on African societies. I found his approach, of presenting facts about particular peoples, to be a refreshing change from the literature that attempted to generalize about all Africans.
After years of compiling information, I found myself free to complete this study when was offered a sabbatical by Florida A & M University in 1993. I was surprised that no one had done a study of this sort yet, and continued to believe that the comparison of African and biblical concepts was long overdue.
Chapter 1:
Introduction
Biblical Concepts, European Concepts, and African Concepts
This study uses insights into African thought systems to gain insights into the Bible. My method will be to follow passages of the Bible with a discussion of African concepts, based on studies of particular African peoples. This method succeeds if the reader believes the African concepts help illuminate the biblical concepts.
It is natural to understand another culture using the concepts of the culture we live in. For most of us that is modern European culture. However, our understanding of the Old Testament is limited if we are only familiar with European concepts. In reading the Old Testament, we must not forget that the Bible was written two thousand years ago by people who lived between Africa and Asia Minor. In many ways the viewpoints of the ancient Hebrews are incomprehensible to one who is only familiar with European thought. Our understanding can be improved by adding African concepts to the collection of concepts that we use.
If one contrasts European concepts with African concepts, it is apparent that many of the concepts in the Bible are closer to African concepts than to European concepts. This should not be surprising. The people of the Old Testament interacted with other African and Middle Eastern peoples, and had no contact with Europeans.
Israel, Near Eastern Cultures, and African Cultures
The land of Israel is part of the fertile crescent, a narrow green strip of land that connects Africa to Asia Minor. It might be likened to a river of commerce in the middle of a large desert. This land was a meeting place, and battle ground between the empires of Egypt to the West and Babylon and Persia to the East. Physically, Israel is closer to Egypt. Today Palestinians speak Arabic with an Egyptian accent which indicates the natural pattern of contact. The ideas of the Hebrews were shaped by those they had contact with. A person who has studied either African or Near Eastern cultures can offer insights into the Old Testament.
Israel and the Near East
Unfortunately, only insights into Near Eastern sources have been examined -- African parallels have been lacking. What the comparisons with Near Eastern cultures has revealed is described by Jon D. Levenson.1
Israel and Africa
While comparisons have been made to Near Eastern Cultures, they have not yet been made to African cultures. This may in part be due to misunderstanding of the geographical relation of Israel to Africa. In ancient times there was no physical barrier between Israel and Africa. John S. Mbiti of Uganda notes in his survey of African Religions and Philosophy that,
"The ancient Jews were more "African " than "Asian" in many respects,
and were it not for the Suez canal they might be less associated
with Asia and more with Africa."2
Professor Mbiti states that the "religious and social life of
the ancient Jews is similar to that of many African societies."3 Israel is physically within the African influence, and the culture
of the ancient Hebrews was similar to that of African peoples.
How is then, that a study comparing African and biblical concepts
has not been done before? I believe that the similarities between
Africa and ancient Israel have been ignored for the same reasons
that similarities between ancient Greek and Egyptian civilization
have been ignored.
The fact that the African contribution on Greek civilization was
distorted due to racism has been documented by Martin Bernal in
Black Athena. Bernel argues that in the Ancient World, African contributions
to civilization were acknowledged, but that this changed with
the advent of slavery and racism. To demonstrate the ancient Greek
attitude toward Africa, Bernal quotes Diodoros Sikeliotes, who
wrote in the 1st century BC.4
And since Egypt is the country where mythology places the origin
of the gods, where the earliest observation of the stars are said
to have been made, and where, furthermore, many noteworthy deeds
of great men are recorded, we shall begin our history with events
connected with Egypt.
I maintain that just as the African influence on the development
of ancient Greece has been ignored, so the influence of African
cultures on the Ancient Hebrews has been ignored. This volume,
which compares the views of the Ancient Hebrews with the views
of people in African societies is an attempt to correct that imbalance.
In contrasting African and biblical concepts, I assume that there
was extensive physical contact between Africans and the Ancient
Hebrews. Contact is needed to make the transmission of concepts
possible. I will first present evidence that the necessary contact
existed. This will show that the Hebrews might have been influenced
by African concepts.
The Physical Evidence
One African Egyptologist, Cheikh Anta Diop, claims that Egyptian
civilization originated in Africa and that all the indigenous
Pharaohs were Black Africans.5 Among other forms of evidence, Diop presents photographs that
show that Pharaoh Ramses II, the Pharaoh traditionally associated
with Moses, had the same physical features and hairstyle of a
modern Watusi warrior."6 Anyone looking at renditions of the early Pharaohs can notice
a black African presence.
We know that the land of Canaan was a province of Egypt at the
time of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. The Jews were in Egypt
for several hundred years. But the argument for a possible African
influence on the Hebrews does not rest on contact with Egypt alone.
There are references in the Bible that show that the Hebrews interacted
with Black Africans. According to Professor Cain Hope Felder (no
relation),
"There is an impressive array of Black people in the Old Testament,
beginning with those in Genesis 9 and 10 or 1 Chronicles1: Hagar,
from Egypt (Gen. 16:1); the Cushite wife of Moses in Numbers 12:1;
Jeremiah 38:7 and 39:16; Isaiah 37:9; perhaps even Zephaniah,
the son of Cushi (Zeph. 1:1; see Zeph. 2:12, 3:10); and the Queen
of Sheba (1 Kings 10:1-10). Aaron's grandson, regarded as the
progenitor of the Zadokite priesthood (Exod. 6:25; Num. 25:7;
Ps. 106:30) and one of the sons of Eli (1 Sam. 1:3; 2:34) had
the Egyptian name Phinehas, literally meaning "The Nubian."7
These references are to individuals who are identified as Black
Africans. It is clear that the ancient Hebrews had contact with
Black Africans and therefore it is possible that many of the concepts
in the Old Testament could have been African concepts. Contact
means that the means of transmission was there. Whether the concepts
are similar or not, whether or not African concepts shed light
on the Old Testament, will be up to you, my reader to decide.
This study compares concepts in the Bible with concepts held by
Africans. First I will discuss my choice of a version of the Old
Testament for this comparison, and second I will discuss my source
for material on African concepts.
The Old Testament
All biblical citations are from the Revised Standard Version of
the Old Testament. This is the translation that is known as The
Common Bible, the Christian version used by most readers, cited
by most commentators, and the most convenient version for those
who want to look up passages using a concordance. It is not the
best version for a scholastic study of the Old Testament. The
most authentic version of the Hebrew Old Testament would be the
Tanakh: A New Translation of the Holy Scriptures According to
the Traditional Hebrew Text.8 The distinction between Old and New Testament is of course a
Christian one, Jews have only only one Testament or "Covenant."
The Jewish scriptures are called Tanak which combines the first
consonants of the Hebrew words for the three major divisions of
the Hebrew Bible: Law (Torah), Prophets (Nebi'im), and Writings
(Ketubim). In every case when the Old Testament is cited, I will
inform the reader when there is a significant difference between
these version of the Bible. The Revised Standard Version is used
only because that is the version that is familiar to most readers.
Christian writers view the New Testamant as the continuation of
the old in one Judao-Christian tradition. An examination of the
similarities between African and Ancient Hebrew concepts may lead
the reader to contrast the concepts that appear in the Old and
New Testaments. Indeed, I argue that in several places the New
Testament replaces African concepts in the Old Testament with
European concepts. One example of this is in the conception of
an afterlife. The New Testament has an emphasis on individual
immortality and future afterlife, which is consistent with the
European temporal categories that include a distant future. Like
many African societies, the Old Testament has a view of collective
immortality that consists of being connected to the past of one's
people.
The modern historical-critical approach to the Bible separates
the Old Testament from the New and examines each in their historical
context. I will be examining only the Old Testament, except when
I point out contrasts between the Testaments.
Sources for African Concepts
I do not claim that there is any causal link between African cultures
and the views expressed in the Old Testament, although one could
argue for causal links. No attempt is made here to claim that
the Hebrews were either an African culture or a Near Eastern culture.
The Hebrews were Hebrews, a unique people. Rather, the claim is
made that the study of African concepts can provide us with new
ways of viewing many concepts in the Old Testamentways that would
not be open without such study. Many of these African concepts
are more consistent with the Bible than the European views.
I do not make any claims about there being an African viewpoint
that all Africans share. I know that it was not possible to generalize
about even the four African Societies I studied as a visiting
scholar in African Thought Systems at New York University -- the
Nuer, the Yoruba, the Ibo, and the Kaguru people. If it is not
possible to generalize about four societies in Africa, then it
is certainly not possible to generalize about all African societies.
And, even if there were one view that all traditional African
societies share, such as the use of phenomenal time that reckons
time based on events instead of on clocks, such a view might be
true of all pre-industrial societies and not peculiar to Africa.
The source for information on African concepts comes from literature
written by anthropologists, from compilers of stories, and from
those who have written about "African Philosophy." For some twenty
years, there was a debate among Africans on whether an "African
Philosophy" existed and on what should count as "African Philosophy."9 This controversy which rests on definitions of philosophy need
not concern us here. We shall simply talk about African concepts,
and people certainly have concepts, whether or not they have philosophers.
The Danger of Generalizing About All African Cultures
Another controversy is the issue of whether all Africans in pre-colonial
time shared one philosophy. In my contribution to this discussion,
I expressed my suspicion of those who want to claim that all Africans
share one viewpoint. A popular candidate for a commonly held viewpoint
is the view that all Africans embrace collectivism rather than
individualism. I responded to this view in a paper read at the
University of the District of Columbia, quoting the work of B.
I. Chukwukere.10 who wrote that ""underlying Igbo social organization is an individualistic
principle, which is, in fact, a pervasive trait of Igbo culture."
In addition to not wanting to generalize about all Africans, I
do not want to claim that even all members of a particular culture
share the same beliefs. I agree with Paulin J. Hountondji who
wrote,11
What we must understand is that never in any society does everyone
agree with everyone else. One of the most perverse myths invented
by ethnology, whose effects in return contribute to the survival
of ethnology itself, is the myth of primitive unanimity, the myth
that non-Western societies are 'simple' and homogeneous at every
level, including the level of ideology and belief. What we must
recognize today is that pluralism does not come to any society
from outside but is inherent in every society.
The Scope of This Study
There are, however, some generalizations that can be made. People
in one part of the world may share a basic ontology, which may
differ from the ontology held by most people in another part of
the world. In our modern world, we can categorize everything as
alive or not alive, or as animal, vegetable, or mineral. In African
societies, people have other ways of categorizing. In chapter
two, I present an African ontology that I believe provides insights
into the biblical account of the creation.
Everyone using European languages indicates whether an event occurs
in the past, the present, or future. Our rules of grammar mandate
that we use these temporal categories. There are other ways of
indicating time. Speakers of most African languages must indicate
whether an event occurs only at the present time or whether it
occurs habitually. This is called habitual tenses or the aspect
of a verb. We might say that those who use time with tenses share
one set of temporal concepts, while those who use aspect share
another set of concepts. If we limit our discussion to views such
as shared ontological categories or temporal concepts, we might
speak of African and European views. In chapter three, I argue
that the Old Testament assumes an African concept of time, while
the New Testament assumes a European concept of time.
Chapter four examines the biblical concept of divine intervention
in human events and compares this to the concept of causality
among the Yoruba people, based on he work of Dr. John Sodipo.
The entire concept of spiritual explanation will be examined by
looking at a culture that has no secular method of explanation.
In chapter five, I examine the dietary laws of the ancient Hebrews.
Here, as in many other cases, I will argue that African parallels
can provide insights. The restriction against cooking a kid in
its mothers milk, especially the importance placed on this prohibition,
make no sense in relation to European concepts. It does make sense
when placed in the context of the African concept of sympathetic
magic.
In Part II, I examine many Old Testament concepts and practices
and compare them to their African counterparts. The Arc of the
Covenant is compared with African Sculpture, which like the arc
is constructed to hold a spirit. Mount Sinai is compared with
holy Mount Kenya. Many concepts are listed in alphabetical order
with cross referencing.
What you will find here are biblical passages and passages describing
African concepts that illuminate those passages. The African concepts
might be from folk tales, found by analyzing the grammatical structure
of particular African languages, the thoughts of African thinkers,
or thoughts that anthropologists' claim are held by particular
people in Africa. All I claim is that there are Africans concepts
that can illuminate concepts in the Bible.
Each section begins with a passage from the Bible, poses a puzzle
in how to interpret the passage, and then examines some African
concepts that help to solve the puzzle of interpretation.
Chapter 2:
The Creation Story:
African Ontology
The Biblical Creation Story
I begin a comparison of African and biblical concepts at the beginning
with the account of creation. God creates the world by uttering
words.
And God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light. And God
saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from
the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called
Night. And there as evening and there was morning, one day.
And God said, "Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters
and let it divide the waters from the waters." And God made the
firmament and and separated the waters which were under the firmament
from the waters which were above the firmament. And it was so.
And God called the firmament Heaven. And there was evening and
there was morning, a second day.
Note that the world was created with words. The pattern of creation
by uttering words is repeated again and again in the book of Genesis.
And God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven
. . And it was so.
And God said, "Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures."
So God created the great sea monsters and every living thing that
moves...
. And God said, "Let the earth bring forth living creatures.....
And it was so.
And God said, "Let us make man in our image, . . . So God created
man in his own image....
So out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field
and every bird of the air, and brought them to man to see what
he would call them; and whatever the man called every living creature,
that was its name. The man gave names to all cattle, to the birds
of the air, and to every beast of the field....
How can one create a world using words? This concept does not
make sense in the European conceptual framework. God names everything
that is created up to the creation of man, and then has man name
the creatures of the earth. What is the significance of naming
creatures, and of the power of names found in such biblical concepts
as the commandment against taking the name of the Lord in vain.
The concept of names having power is a foreign notion to a European.
Note the pattern that is followed in the book of Genesis. God
utters words and creation occurs. Then God gives names to what
he is created up to the creation of man. After man is created,
it is up to man to name every living creature. First, I will discuss
an African conceptual system that has higher forces commanding
lower forces through the magic power of words, and then I will
discuss the significance of names and naming in African cultures.
Nommo, The Magic Power of the Word
Alexis Kagame, a member of a Bantu speaking tribe in Ruanda, wrote
a dissertation in philosophy which described the thought system
of his people.12 In his study, he identified categories of beings that he argued
were assumed by speakers of the Bantu group of languages. He claimed
that the class of a word could be identified by a group of sounds
that preceded the stem words. Kagame called these sounds "determinatives"
to differentiate them from prefixes. If prefixes in words like
"unpleasant" or "impossible" are removed, the words "pleasant"
and "possible" still remain, but when a determinative is removed
the result is meaningless. Kagame believed that by examining the
categories that the speakers of Bantu languages use we can understand
their thought system.
Kagame's academic treatise was written in French, but fortunately
a popular rendition of Kagame's work was published German that
has been translated into English. In his book entitled "Muntu",
Jahnheinz Jahn wrote,13
In order to keep the concepts we are borrowing from Kagame's mother
tongue as simple and easy to remember as possible, we shall suppress
the tones as well as the true prefixes which, in this language,
precede the determinatives. So we get in simplified form four
basic concepts . . . ."
The concepts are Muntu, Kintu, Hantu, and Kuntu. In describing
the first of these Jahn writes.14
"Muntu includes the living and the dead, orishas, loas, and Bon
Dieu [the good Lord]. Muntu is therefore 'a force endowed with
intelligence', or better: Muntu is an entity which is a force
which has control over Nommo."
"Nommo" is the magic power of the word. What sets the highest
beings apart is that they are beings that have control of language,
and through language, they are able to control other beings. Those
other beings are described by Jahn as follows:15
"The second category Kintu embraces those forces which cannot act for themselves and which
can become active only on the command of a Muntu.... In the category
Kuntu belong plants, animals, minerals, tools, objects of customary
usage, and so on. They are all Bintu, as the plural of Kintu is
expresses. None of these bintu have any will of their own, unless,
like animals, they are given a drive by the command of Bon Dieu
[the good Lord]. The bintu are 'frozen' forces, which await the
command of a Muntu."
Jahn goes on to say that "space and time fall together in the
category Hantu" and that Kuntu includes forces such as beauty
and laughing. He acknowledges that some of this is very difficult
to understand when he notes,
"Laughing is an action that somebody performs--but how is laughing
to be understood as an independent force, without anybody being
there to laugh?"
We need not concern ourselves with this question. The point for
us here is that there is a hierarchy of forces and that the highest
forces affect the lower with use of the words. As Jahn explains
Nommo, the magic power of the word, "Nommo is the physical-spiritual
life force which awakens all 'sleeping' forces and gives physical
and spiritual life."
Suppose that we apply the categories of Kagame to the Old Testament
account of the creation. We have God as the Supreme force who
creates the world by summoning other forces with the magic power
of the word.
As Jahnheinz Jahn writes.16
The word frees the frozen forces of minerals, brings activity
to plants and animals, and so guides bintu, the 'things', to meaningful
behavior. The word of the muntu--and 'muntu', once more, includes
living men and the dead and the gods--is an active force which
causes and maintains all movements of 'things'.
Names and Naming
God names light, darkness, heaven and man. His naming these means
he shall command them. Man names the animals and this means that
man shall rule over the animals. This assumes a view of naming
that connects names to having power over what is named. It is
a view that has no counterpart in European thought.
"You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain; for
the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain."
(Exodus 20:7)
What does this mean? Does this mean that you should not swear?
That is a common interpretation, But it does not really fit? To
understand what this commandment means it is helpful to examine
some African concepts.
In many African societies, names and naming have a significance
beyond anything in Europe. In some societies, people believe that
after a person dies they can be summoned only if there is someone
who knows their name. The spirit world is reachable only through
names, and one who has the name of a departed ancestor has the
power to command that ancestor's attention.
Being known by name changes an individuals ontological status.
In some societies a departed person is in a special category,
of the living-dead, as long as a living person knows their name.
According to John. S. Mbiti,17
Attention is paid to the living dead of up to four or five generations,
by which time only a few, if any, immediate members of their families
would still be alive. When the last person who knew a particular
living-dead also dies, then in effect the process of death is
now complete as far as that particular living-dead is now concerned.
He is now no longer remembered by name, no longer a "human being,"
but a spirit, a thing and IT.
Just as losing a name can change one's ontological status, from
human to an "it", according to T. O. Beidelman, naming a child
changes its ontological status.
"Kaguru who die young without being initiated are never formally
and extensively mourned though, of course, grief is shown. It
is said that such persons do not become ghosts which one can address
by name . . .18
Spirits can get the attention of the living and the living can
get the attention of spirits though the use of names. Mbiti states
that "In many societies it is said that spirits call people by
name." 19 If spirits have a person's name, they can call that person, and
if living people have the name of a spirit, they can command the
attention of that spirit.
African and Jewish Naming Customs
There are many similarities between African and Jewish customs
of naming infants. Jewish customs differ from European customs.
Jews never name their children after themselves. Names are always
chosen after a departed relative. In trying to understand the
origins of this custom, Joshua Trachtenberg writes in his book
entitled "Jewish Magic and Superstition",20
The name carried with in all the associations it had accumulated
in history, and stamped the character of its earlier owners upon
the new bearer, so that the choice of a name was fraught with
grave responsibility. But the desire to bless a child with a richly
endowed name was balanced by the fear that the soul of its previous
owner would be transported into the body of the infant--a fear
which stood in the way of naming children after living parents
or after living persons, and thus robbing them of their soul and
their life.
Joshua Trachtenberg describes the view that names have power,21
To know the name of a man is to exercise power over him alone;
to know the name of a higher, supernatural being is to dominate
the entire province over which that being presides. The more such
names a magician has garnered, the greater the number of spirits
that are subject to his call and command. This simple theory is
at the bottom of the magic which operates thought the mystical
names and words that are believed to control the forces which
in turn control the world. The spirits guard their names as jealously
as ever did a primitive tribe. "Tell me, I pray thee, thy name,"
Jacob demanded of the angel with whom he had wrestled, but the
angel parried the question and his name remained his secret, lest
Jacob invoke him in a magical incantation and he be obliged to
obey.
The power of the word and names are closely related. Whoever knows
a name has a power, and whoever names something has power over
what they name. Thus, in the Old Testament, God names man and
man names the animals.
In the Bible the concept of a name having power is repeated many
times. Right after God reveals his name to Moses the commandment
is given that,
"You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain; for
the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain."
(Exodus 20:7)
The real name of God was revealed to only those chosen by God,
because one who knows the name of God can summon God. This is
similar to the view in African societies that names have power
and that spirits can be summoned by name. Applying African concepts
to the Bible, the commandment is saying that the Hebrews are privileged
to know the true name of God, that knowing this name gives them
accessibility to God's attention, and that they should use this
power with caution.
See also Incantations, Name Magic, Naming Children, Names of God
Chapter 3:
Afterlife and Immortality--
African Concepts of Time
The worst transgression in the Old Testament is to break the covenent,
and the punishment for this is:
"that soul shall be cut off from his people: he hath broken the
covenent." The threat is not to deny an individual personal immortality,
but rather to cut a person off from the history of their people.
This notion of a collective rather than in individual immortality
is one that is found in African cultures. It is related to a concept
of time that emphasizes the past rather than the future and an
ontology that stresses the notion that I exist because we exist.
African Conceptualization of Time
A popular rendition of an African concept of time is offered by
Dr. John Mbiti in his book African Religions and Philosophies. Mbiti says that Africans have two periods of time, Sasa and
Zamani, which roughly correspond to our past and present, except
that the present is intended to include everything close to the
present. Thus the period of nowness includes perhaps a few days
past and a few days aheaddepending on whether we consider these
periods part of our immediate lives. The African view, unlike
the Western view, recognizes that life is finite and divides a
finite life into Zamani and Sasa dimensions. When we are young,
a greater portion of our life involves immediacy than past living
and when we are old more of our life is in the past than in the
immediate period. Thus life moves from the present to the past.
When one dies they move into the past. Mbiti adds to this concept
of time a chain of being with the living connected by name to
those who have departed but are still remembered by name, and
the living dead connected to their ancestors, and thus everyone
is connected in one chain of being. Mbiti has God at the end of
this chain of being as existing in the sacred past which is a
period known only through myth.
The Western view of time is linear with an emphasis on what point
on a time line an event occurs; whether past, present, or future.
The line extends infinitely before us for we can always add a
year - 1977, 1978, 1979, etc. Unfortunately, our lives do not
extend infinitely before us. We can think of a future that we
cannot be part of.
Problems arise on the Western view of time which cannot even be
expressed on the African view. A linear view of time assumes a
time line with a beginning and an end. The European view of time
brings up the problem of accounting for the beginning and accounting
for the end.
Thus Christianity is concerned with explaining the origin of the
world, and the last judgment. Another problem with the European
view of time is that the future stretches infinitely before us,
but whereas the time line is infinite our lives are finite. Thus
death makes no sense on the European view and Christianity is
concerned with promising the much needed afterlife. In contrast
to an African emphasis on the present and the past, the European
view is future oriented.
Christian interpreters of the old testament have tried to read
into the Old Testament an emphasis on afterlife, last judgment,
and other notions which emphasize a future orientation. I suggest
to you that Christianity represents the Europeanization of the
basically African notions in the old testament. They add to it
the emphasis on the future and read the Bible from a European
viewpoint.
Individual Vs. Collecive Immortality
It is extremely important for an African to be part of his tribe.
The African is connected to all others in his tribe through the
system of kinship, and he is also connected to all those who have
lived before him through contact with the departed who exist in
mythology. There is one chain of being between God and the tribe
and one attains immortality by being part of the tribe. One cannot
become immortal unless one is married and has children who will
remember his name. There is thus a system of collective immortality
which differs markedly from the Christian concept of personal
immortality. The Christian can get himself saved by himself; the
African cannot separate himself from his people. He lives on by
becoming one with his people. He is related to everyone in his
tribe and related to every ancestor and the land occupied by all.
Mbiti says of the African "to remove Africans by force from their
land is an act of such great injustice that no foreigner can fathom
it." The same might have been said of the Hebrews.
There is a continued emphasis in the Bible on the importance of
Jews being connected to their people. Of the uncircumcised the
Bible says "that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath
broken the covenant." Of those who commit abominations the Bible
says "Souls shall be cut off from their people." In Leviticus
after stating that "Ye shall eat the blood of no manner of flesh
... the threat is repeated, "whosoever eateth it shall be cut
off." What is it that people will be cut off from? Is it the future
or the past? I suggest that there is a model of chain of being
which extends into the past and the threat is a threat of being
cut off from the past of one's people which ties us to God. There
is also the notion that I exist because we exist and that a person
cannot exist without the tribe. Contrast this with Christian individual
salvation. The notion in the Bible is that of collective immortality,
not individual immortality.
Differences Between Judaism and Christianity
An examination of Judaism from the African perspective can provide
some insights into Judaism and how Judaism and Christianity differ.
The conception that Judaism is a religion, in a sense that Christianity
is a religion, is a misconception. Africans are not members of
religions that involve doctrines one has to accept. Africans are
members of tribal groups and their religion is simply the beliefs
shared by most members of their tribal group. Their identity is
defined in terms of being a part of a people and the religion
is defined in terms of the beliefs of those people. On the European
notion of religion one accepts the creed and then joins the religion.
On the African view people cannot convert or be excommunicated;
they are part of the people by birth or identification with the
tribe.
Part II :
African and Biblical Concepts from A to Z
Arc of the Covenant
There are such odd sayings in the Bible as "God is come into the
camp" when the ark is brought into a camp. There is the notion
that God is somehow in the ark. In some African societies people
accept the view that a higher forces can inhabit lower forms.
A spirit can inhabit a tree or a rock.
Why build an ark? The ark is associated with God just as African
sculptures are associated with their spirits. If a sculpture was
broken, even in a place that did not show, the sculpture was destroyed
and a new one made. In studying African art one learns that artistic
creations were not made for aesthetic purposes but for the religious
purpose of summoning spiritual forces. This might be the explanation
of the ark?
Chosen People
Many African societies believe that they are the chosen people.
The Massai have a myth that they were chosen to own all cattle
in the world. To those who accept this myth the cattle of all
other people is stolen and returning the cattle from others is
only right.
Creation Stories
Most African societies have creation myths which might be used
to explain the origin of all people but are mainly concerned with
the origin of the on African society. One might take the Bible
as concerned mainly with explaining the origin and history of
the Hebrews, with no interest in universality.
Coming of Age Rituals
African societies have various rituals to celebrate puberty, just
as the Hebrews have the Bar Mitzvah ceremony.
Holy Mountains
There are the notions of holy land and sacred time in the Bible.
"Joshua stood on a place that was holy." There are sacred mountains
such as Mt. Sinai in the Bible. How many sacred mountains do you
find in America or Europe? There are mountains which are considered
sacred today in Africa.
Kinship
In both the Bible and African societies one finds an emphasis
on kinship system. African tribes are often made up of millions
of people who are all related to each other by an intricate kinship
system. When one African meets another from the same people the
first thing they do is establish their kinship by asking what
family they are from. This is important because the relationship
between the people, how they should relate to each other, is determined
by their relationship in the kinship system. One finds this same
interest in establishing relationships in the Bible among the
ancient Hebrews. Saul asks of David after David has killed Goliah,
"What family is he from?" for now Saul must take David seriously.
Names
Observing the customs of the Nuer people, E.E. Evans-Pritchard
wrote,
Dead persons, though for the most part only men, are remembered
in their names, and this is a matter of great importance both
for the Nuer themselves and also for an understanding on our part
of their sentiments. Every man likes to feel that his name will
never be forgotten so long as his lineage endures and that in
that sense he will always be a part of the lineage. Consequently,
Nuer do not so much think of the ghosts of their forebears as
being those members of their lineage who are in the home of the
dead, but rather as names numbered, as it were, in the archives
of the lineage. They think of the dead continuing in this way
in the living. It is to ensure the survival of the dead in their
names."
This is more than the European notion of remembering a person's
name. Whether or not a name is remembered changes the ontological
statues of the dead. A person gains immortality only through the
remembrance of their name. Again, I quote E.E. Evans-Prichard,22
If a man dies without a male heir and without leaving a widow
to fear him male heirs it is a paramount duty for his near kin
to marry a wife in his name before they take wives in their own
names. In theory at any rate, therefore, every man has at least
one son and though this son his name is forever a link in a line
of descent. This is the only form of immortality Nuer are interested
in. They are are not interested in the survival of the individual
as a ghost, but in the survival of the social personality in the
name.
The memory of a dead man is thus kept alive by its being constantly
on people's lips though the favoured patronymic usage during the
lifetime of this children and afterwards in the recitation of
the line of descent. This is why at the mortuary ceremony Nuer
stress that a man who has died is not entirely finished. 'His
children will carry on his name.'23
Pork
People throughout Africa have prohibitions against eating pork.
When Dr. John Mbiti of the University of Uganda visited Florida
A & M University, some students suggested taking him to a soul
food restaurant which was done. Mbiti wouldn't touch the stuff.
He preferred kosher food.
Tribes
There are specialized tribes in Africa just as the twelve tribes
of Israel were specialized.
Bibliography
J. H. Hayes, "The History and Study of Israelite and Judean History,"
in Israelite and Judean History, OTL, ed. Hayes and J. M Miller
(London: SCM, 1977) 1-69.
Many scholars who have studied African societies believe that
it is possible to speak of an African World View which is common
to all of Africa extending even into the Middle East. Some generalizations
can be made. Just as we can generalize about the West and say
that in Western world, the concept of time includes past, present,
and an extended future, one can say that there is no extended
future on the African view of time. While Western philosophies
differ in many regards, and African views also differ, there are
basic views which all Western people have - and there are different
basic beliefs which are shared by Africans. By saying that I am
exploring the World View of Africans I am saying that I am dealing
with basic beliefs such as concepts of time and concepts of what
the world is made up or; and it is these basic concepts which
are shared by many African cultures.
© David W. Felder, African and Biblical Concepts, 1994, page
1 Jon D. Levenson, Sinai and Zion: An Entry into the Jewish Bible (Minneapolis: Winston Press, 1985), p. 10.
2 John S. Mbiti, African Religions and Philosophies (New York: Doubleday, 1970), p. 336.
3 ibid.
4 Martin Bernal, Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization, Volume I: The Fabrication of Ancient Greece 1785-1985 (New Brunswick,
N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1987), p. 111.
5 Cheikh Anta Diop, The African Origin of Civilization: Myth or Reality? translated by Mercer Cook (New York and Westport: Lawrence Hill
and Company, 1974 [1955]), p. 78.
6 Diop, op. cit., p. 19
7 Cain Hope Felder, Troubling Biblical Waters: Race, Class, and Family (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 1989), p. 12.
8 Tanakh: A New Translation of the Holy Scriptures According to
the Traditional Hebrew Text (Philadelphia, New York, Jerusalem: The Jewish Publication Society,
1985).
9 David W. Felder, Review of African Philosophy: An Introduction, Teaching Philosophy, Volume 5, Number 3, July 1982, pages 263-265.
10 B. I. Chukwukere, "Individualism in an Aspect of Igbo Religion,"
The Conch, III, No. 2 (1971), p. 109. First read at a meeting
of the Ghan Sociological Association in Legon, Dec. 1967.
11 Paulin J. Hountondji, African Philosophy: Myth and Reality, translated by Henri Evans (London: Hutchinson University Library
for Africa, 1983 [1976]), p. 165.
12 Alexis Kagame, La Philosophie Bantu-Rwandaise de l'Etre (Brussels: Royal Academy of Sciences, 1956) This book was originally
a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the Gregorian
University at Rome.
13 Janheinz Jahn, Muntu: An Outline of the New African Culture, translated by Marjorie Grene (New York: Grove Press, 1961),
p. 100.
14 ibid, p. 101-2.
15 ibid, p. 102.
16 ibid, p. 126.
17 John S. Mbiti, op, cit, p. 109.
18 T. O. Beidelman, The Kaguru: A Matrilineal People of East Africa (New York: Holt, Rinehard and Winston, Inc.), p. 35.
19 Mbiti, op. cit. p. 105.
20 Joshua Trachtenberg, Jewish Magic and Superstition: A Study in Folk Religion (New York: Atheneum, 1939), p. 78.
21 Joshua, Trachtenberg, op. cit., p. 79-80.
22 E. E. Evans-Pritchard, Nuer Religion (New York: Oxford University Press, 1974), p. 162-3.
23 ibid.