ABSTRACT
Religion forms part of ancient African traditions, and as such African religious traditions are complex and diverse to reflect the size of the continent and its peoples. Kamara (2000:504) puts forward a view that to be African is to be religious, to be alive is to be religious and to be religious is to work towards the enhancement of the community to please the Supreme Creator. The religious traditions provide a means of meeting spiritual needs and as such spirituality is integral to the way in which many Africans understand the world and their place in it (Nangoli 1986, Kamalu 1990, Karenga 1993, Ver Beek 2002). From the views put forward by these authors, it would appear that in African religious traditions, there is a visible physical entity and an invis ible world inhabited by the supernatural. Therefore, among those who subscribe to this worldview, the physical and the spiritual are intertwined and as such provide meaning that informs people’s actions. As a frame of reference in distilling this complexity into a manageable format, Karenga (1993:213) provides four distinctive themes that are highlighted as follows. Theme one focuses on the idea of God: among believers, the supremacy of God guides their conduct in all aspects of their life. This God is viewed as male; therefore, the term father is used in most African societies. Theme two considers God to be immanent and transcendent: this Supreme Being is both near and far. This aspect is demonstrated through the engagement with divinities that are seen as intermediaries. Theme three gives attention to ideas around Ancestor veneration: ancestors are venerated as models of ethical life, and that they are intercessors between the human being and the Creator. Theme four addresses individual and collective identity: in this regard, religion stresses the necessary balance between one’s collective identity and
has responsibility as a member of society. A person is defined as an integral part of a specific community. In addition to the four general themes, Karenga (1993) acknowledges and refers to the work by Mbiti (1970), who highlights the importance of acknowledging the moral ideal of harmonious integration of self with the community and that the highest moral ideal is to live in harmony. Linked to harmonious living is an important value of respecting the natural world. In this regard, nature is respected for its association with God as well as its relevance to people and humanity. These ideas expressed thus far about community, harmonious living, respect for the environment and belief in God, do not contradict the principles of social care. It is therefore possible for social care practitioners in the UK to work effectively with families whose outlook on family life is influenced by African religious traditions. The diversity and complexity of religious beliefs in Africa has been compounded further by external influences and, as such, some Africans who migrated to the UK are likely to have brought with them an outlook on family life that has been influenced by African religious traditions, their understanding of Christianity and Islam as they were introduced to them, and subsequently adapted and Africanized. Some of the evidence suggests that Christianity and Islam have a significant following in SubSaharan Africa (Gyimah et al. 2006). Christianity has two strands. One strand is Coptic Christianity that came out of ancient African religion and flourished in Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt. The second strand is European Christianity that was introduced by missionaries from the North and has tended to remain tainted with cultural colonialism (Kamalu 1990). This form of European Christianity spread through West, Central, East and Southern Africa in different circumstances within the context of colonial and settler power. The negative association is not about Christian religion per se, but the use to which it was put in subjugating the colonized to a new culture. Apart from Christianity, Islam is considered to have come from outside Africa. Islam was not the religion of the colonial power nor of Western education, and it has different international connection and its own particular formulations of the relations of sacred and secular power (Ranger 1986:1). Islam came to Africa from Arabia after the death of Muhammed in ad 632. It is claimed that the impact of Islam has been more widely felt than that of European Christianity, possibly because it is less remote from the African traditional way of life. The timing for the spread of Islam is linked to migration for economic trade.
