* Indication of biography about this matter for
personal deepening:
. ALTUNA, Raul Ruiz de Asúa. Cultura tradicional banto. Luanda: Secretar. Arquidiocesano de Pastoral, 1985.
. AWOLALU, J. Omosade. Yoruba sacrificial practice. In: Journal of Religion in Africa 5
(1973), p. 81-93.
. BASTIDE, Roger. As
religiões africanas no Brasil. 3. ed.São Paulo: Livraria Pioneira, 1989.
. BERKENBROCK, Volney J. A experiência dos orixás. Petrópolis: Vozes, 1995.
. BOAVENTURA, Josuel dos Santos. Negritude e experiência de Deus. Disponível em: http://revistaseletronicas.pucrs.br/ojs/index.php/teo/article/viewFile/2702/2053 Acesso em 26 de julho de 2017.
. BÍBLIA SAGRADA. Brasília: Ed. CNBB.
. CINTRA. Raimundo. Candomblé e umbanda. São Paulo: Paulinas,
1985.
. FABBRI, Romeo (per conto
della Campagna Chiama l’Africa). Le
religioni tradizionali d’Africa. Disponível em: http://www.consolata.org/new/index.php/mission/missioneoggiarchi-2/15341-le-religioni-tradizionali-d-africa. Acesso em 26 de julho
de 2017.
. KIPOY Pombo. Introduzione alle
religioni tradizionali e ai valori universali del pensiero africano. Disponibile em
http://www.urbaniana.it/Kalendarium_09_10/FORMAZIONE_MISSIONARIA_09_10.pdfAcesso em: 24 de jul. de 2017.
. L’ESPINAY, François. A religião dos Orixás, Outra palavra do Deus
único?In: Revista Eclesiástica Brasileira, Petrópolis, n. 47/187, p.
639-650, set. 1987.
. LODY, Raul. O povo do santo: religião, história e cultura dos orixás, voduns,
inquices e caboclos. Rio de Janeiro: Pallas,
1995.
. MATTOS, Regiane Augusto de. História e cultura afro-brasileira. São Paulo: Contexto, 2011.
. NKEMNKIA, Martin Nkafu. La teologia africana oggi. (convegno
‘Africa: Continente in cammino’ (Roma,
13-15 marzo 2015).Disponível em: http://www.comboni.org/contenuti/107609-la-teologia-africana-oggi. Acesso em 26 de julho de 2017.
. OBORJI, Francis Anekwe. L’ecclesiologia africana della
‘Chiesa-come-famiglia’: Implicazionimissiologiche. Disponivel em http://www.foborji.org/files/L-ecclesiologia-africana-della-Chiesa-come-Famiglia.pdf. Acesso em 26 de
julho de 2017.
. PIRES, José Maria. O Deus da Vida nas comunidades afro-americanas e caribenhas.
Disponível também em: http://atabaque-cultura-negra-e-teologia.blogspot.com/2009_12_01_archive.html. Acessoem:
24 de jul. de 2017.
. PONTIFICIO CONSIGLIO PER IL DIALOGO
INTER-RELIGIOSO. Attenzione pastorale
alle Religioni tradizionali: Lettera del Presidente del Pontificio Consiglio
ai Presidenti delle Conferenze Episcopali dell’Asia, America e Oceania, in: L’Osservatore
Romano, n. 2,de 21 jan. de 1994.
. PRANDI, Reginaldo. Deuses africanos no Brasil contemporâneo. In: Horizontes antropológicos, Porto Alegre, ano 1, n. 3, p. 10-30, 1995.
. REHBEIN, Franziska C. Candomblé e salvação. São Paulo:
Loyola, 1985.
. SANTOS, Juana Elbein dos. Os nagô e a morte. Petrópolis: Vozes,
1976.
. SILVA, Antônio Aparecido da (Org.). Existe um pensar
teológico negro? São Paulo: Paulinas,
1998.
. ______. SANTOS, Sônia Querino dos (Orgs.). Teologia afro-americana. II Consulta
Ecumênica de Teologia e Culturas Afro-Americana e Caribenha. São Paulo:
ATABAQUE-ASETT - Paulus, 1997.
. SOUZA Jr., Vilson Caetano de. As raízes das religiões afro-brasileiras. in: Sem fronteiras, número especial, São
Paulo, p. 5-20, jul. de 1994.
Introduction
As we said in the previous text, the traditional African religions in
the Brazilian context, after retrievals, adaptations and resignifications,
became Afro-Brazilian religions. We also said that this system of mediation
bears a resemblance to the African system of government, that is, there is the
king with his intermediaries and his subjects. Thus, we have a Supreme Being with
innumerable ancestral spirits and human beings.[1] In this part of our study, we want to consider
briefly the theological dimension of these religions from their African roots.
For this study, we will make use of some elements of African theology. There are
two ways of approaching the African theological question, which are, The African
Christian Theology and The Theology of African Religious Experience.[2] When one speaks of religious experience in Africa,
one understands “the traditions, the religious rites, the ceremonies, the
songs, the prayers, the dances, the many gestures directed to approach the
community to God Creator, Father, Mother and Eternal Life where the Ancestors already
live for ever.”[3] One of the institutions, which have contributed
greatly to preserve this common theological heritage of all African people, is
the “African Traditional Religions” - ATR. Of course, our focus is Black
Africa,[4] for historical and contextual reasons in its
diversity and unity at the same time.
1
Questions Concerning the terminology “Traditional African Religions” - ATR[5]
Africa is unitary in its monotheistic conception of God, but diversified
in the particular experiences of his presence. Generally speaking, in each
tribe and in the traditions, the religious structures that have been
established over time are preserved and the worship of God through the
ancestors is still practiced. According to the theologian M. N. Nkemnkia, “it
is because of these aspects that it is still possible to study, understand, and
communicate African religious experience.”[6] Religions of African origin are called
traditional, not because they are primitive or savage, “outmoded”
(anti-modern), but because they refer to the context of these cultures. They
are religions of the African context. “If there is a reference to an
inheritance of the past, it does not exclude a constant restructuring due to
historical challenges and circumstances.”[7]
Those who criticize Afro-Brazilian religions for realizing in Brazil
something “ancestral” and that in Africa does not exist anymore, need to be
better informed, since the ATR are very alive in Africa as the Afro-Brazilian
religions are in Brazil and there are constant exchanges between these two
groups and their researchers. The position of dedicated African writers stands
as a parameter so that we can change our way of thinking about these religions.
African religions are contemporary with the modern African human being and
these “constitute a privileged place, a real and central element of African
culture.”[8] Still about this matter, it is important to
mention an official pronouncement of Catholic Christianity:
By traditional religions, we mean those religions that, unlike the world
religions that are widespread in many countries and cultures, remain in the
socio-cultural context. The word “traditional” does not refer to something
static or immutable, but refers to this localized matrix. There is no agreement
on what expressions to use when referring to these religions. Some names (eg.
paganism, fetishism) have a negative meaning and furthermore do not actually
describe the content of themselves. (...) While in Africa these religions are
generally called “African Traditional Religions”, in Asia they are called “Folk
Religions” in America “Indigenous Religions and Afro-American Religions”
(Native Religion And Afro-American Religions) and in Oceania “Indigenous
Religions”.[9]
This text is revealing of a mature and respectful stance that repairs
the great mistake of the first colonizers and missionaries when they arrived in
African lands, believing that they had no soul. Truly, it was a dramatic encounter
because these foreigners, “when they did not deny the existence of any
religious manifestation, minimized or ridiculed.”[10] Their reference to the Holy Scriptures to
speak about the divine revelation completely ignored the rich revelatory
experience that the African people received as inheritance from their ancestors
through oral tradition and the current significant events of their communities.
Their revelations “came about through dreams, presages, divinations, visions,
and mediumistic possessions, and for that Europeans believed in their
diabolical origin.”[11] The situation was not different in Brazil,
especially from the 18th century. These religions were considered “magic
practices”, “witchcraft” and “coarse superstition”. During the Estado Novo, in 1930, the persecutions
against them were intensified, because they were judged to be against public
morality, especially because they made animal sacrifices.
2
Common theological principles of African and Afro-Brazilian religious
experience
Like all traditional African religions, Afro-Brazilian religions express
themselves through symbols, gestures, myths, rites, dances and formulas - words
and prayers. The oral tradition finds here central place, because all the
teachings are preserved and transmitted by the word: “spoken word, sung word
and word sound. Sound added by gesture, look, body expressions, reinforcements
of other sounds emitted by the body itself or by other means like musical
instruments and other unconventional methods.”[12] Through ceremonies, sacrifices and offerings
are made to the Ancestors, recognizing their importance as an integral part of
the community and their influence on living.
Most of the feasts, such as birth, initiation into adulthood, funeral
rites, sowing, harvesting, raining, etc., involve religious practices. For the
faithful of these religions, the way of life is moulded by religious
experience, according to which one must live in harmony with everything that
exists, because reality is part of the human being and the human being is part
of it. Therefore, these religions seek to maintain the balance of life,
rescuing the unitary dimension of the world. The actions of care for nature and
everything that exists is one of the concrete proposals as a contribution to maintaining
the balance and harmony of the universe. Through worship, the person expresses
his/her insertion in the world and his/her dependence on God.[13]
a)
Monotheism
Diverse are the African peoples and diverse is also the way to express the
faith in God, but there is a consensus among the scholars and among the
Africans themselves that their religions are monotheistic.[14] In all of Black Africa the sense of a single,
universal God, creator of all things, has always been conceived. God is
recognized as the first cause of all that exists. This conception makes the
African people realize their activities impregnated with the religious sense.[15] When one affirms “God exists,” he does not
want to refer to a philosophical statement, but it is a cry of thanksgiving
full of love, demonstrating a deep filial relationship. Many Bantu tribes, for
example, use the expression Nzambi to turn to God, and although it is common to
call the Father God – Tatá Nzambi - in some groups, He appears as Mother - Mama
Nzambi. As they are able to unite the notion of Father or Mother to God, usually,
when referring to Him, they show an exceptional affection to consider he is
full of tenderness and solicitude for the creation.[16]
Africans believe in a unique, uncreated and creative God who is beyond
us and has strength and power for himself. It is he who gives existence and
growth to all beings. For Yoruba, He
is the Supreme God Olorum[17] - lord or owner of the Orum - who lives in heaven, but who assures life, the earth and
everything in it. He does not need to act directly in the world, for he has
given the Orishas the responsibility
and the strength to do so.[18] They believe that, because He is infinitely
large, God does not diminish to the point of intervening in people’s lives. No
homage is addressed to him; there is not a single house of worship consecrated
to him and no regular worship is done in his honor. There is only some mention
of his name in some ejaculatory expressions. He is thus a distant and
inaccessible god to human manipulation and there is no image about him.[19]
In Africa, there are many fetish statues depicting humans, animals and
spirits, but none portrays the Supreme Being. It can only be the object of
speech, and the African peoples have reserved a myriad of names to try to
assimilate their face and determine his nature. The term Zambe, for example, occupies with slight variations (Zamba, Nyame, Nzambi, Anzambe) a
geographical area that extends from the Ivory Coast to Botswana. The pygmies call the Supreme Being Epilipilia (Lord of the hunt), the bushmen, Raggen (Father), the hotentotes, Tsuri-Goab (Creator of the
visible world). Other widespread names are, Mungu-Midunga
(the One in the sky), Yankompon (the
Great Friend) of the ashantes, who
consider the sky as their resplendent face, Aforun
(the one who is by himself) of the Yoruba, and Ngai (the Rain) of the masai.[20]
It is interesting that although all the African peoples see the Supreme
Being as distant, at the same time they can feel Him present in the quotidian
of their lives and provident before their needs. To understand better the
apparent paradox of the distant and near God, some proverbs - another age-old
spontaneous production of these peoples - are useful: “‘Nyamuzinda does not forget his own’ (bashi); ‘There is no such valley alone that the Supreme Being does
not see’ (Madagascar); ‘The Sun does not forget any village’ (Congo).”[21] According to the yoruba of Nigeria, although distant, Olorum does not abandon the creation nor the human being, sending
the Orishas, who are a sign of his
presence, care and protection, as wisely reported the author F. de l'Espinay: “The
Orishas is essentially oriented
towards the good of the human being: therefore he loves. How can we not believe
in a God-Love who creates and sends the Orisha? The conviction grows that God
follows all the steps of his children as a mother.”[22]
b)
African understanding of existence with an emphasis on the Yoruba’s experience
It is about an understanding that is based on the fundamental unity of
all things, for the whole is within each part, just as each part is in the
whole. Something very deep connects all beings and makes them interdependent.
We are talking about all levels of the cosmos: visible and invisible, sensitive
and insensitive. The whole visible world is seen in a spiritual way, as an
extension of the invisible world and with it forms one and the same universe.[23] In this unitary view of life, some particular
aspects deserve attention. Everything that exists takes place on two levels:
the Orum and the Aiye. Nothing can exist outside of them. They do not correspond to
spaces or places, but are forms of existence, which do not oppose, but exist in
parallel, but without equating. The Orum
is the invisible, unlimited and spiritual reality, while the Aiye is the physical, material, visible
reality, the earth.
The beings of the Aiye are
called Ara-Aiye, to whom humanity and
the inhabitants of the world correspond in general. The beings of the Orum are called Ara-Orum or Irunmale,[24] corresponding to the Orishas and the dead - Eguns.[25] Besides these, also “every individual, every
tree, every animal, every city, etc., possesses a spiritual and abstract double
in the Orum (...) or, on the
contrary, everything that exists in the Orum
has its material representations no Aiye.”[26] It is this reality that gives the existence a
dimension so unified and totalizing.
It is good to make it very clear that the fact of being parallel levels
of existence does not mean that Aiye
exists outside the Orum. The Orum, in fact, covers the totality of
existence, and can be anywhere, even in the Aiye.
The author V. J. Berkenbrock uses the illustrative image of “a limited uterus
in an unlimited body.”[27] Thus, the Orum
and the Aiye are separated, but not
totally disconnected. They are in a very close and harmonious relationship. The
harmony of existence as a whole depends on the harmony that exists between them.
However, it is not a relationship between equals. The Orum governs the Aiye,
material existence in general and also individual. The Ara-Orum, especially the Orishas
can enter the Aiye, but the same does
not happen from the other part. As the Orishas
are spiritual realities, their appearance in the visible world is only possible
through the body of their sons and daughters.[28]
c) The
force of existence
As the part is in the whole and the whole is in the part, the dynamics
of life comes from an energy, present in all things - the life force (the yoruba people call it Axé). This force
seems to be the central element to achieve what is the ideal of existence - the
harmony of all things. As the reality is seen from this force, everything that
the human being does can conserve, increase, restore or diminish this vital
force. It is this vital force that provides or blocks the good relationship
between the visible and the invisible world, between human beings and spiritual
beings. The source of this energy is Supreme Being. The life force that flows
from God reaches all directly or through the intermediary spirits, the
ancestors, the leaders.[29]
Everything that exists has vital energy and at the same time transmits
it. Without this force, the existence would be paralyzed and devoid of any
possibility of realization.[30]Rites, sacrifices and offerings are performed
in order this vital force may be constantly renewed and developed. The lack of
these celebrations can lessen the vital energy and even prevent its flow.
Therefore, rites, sacrifices and offerings are celebrated to reinforce the
vital energy of the community and contribute to the harmony of the universe.[31] It is a system of exchange, that is, giving
and receiving: the human being makes this celebrations and receives the renewal
of the life force. Sacrifice is the rite par excellence. According to some
authors, the animal sacrifice refers to a time when the victim was a human
person, including among the yoruba
people.[32]
d) The
centrality of the community
As an integral part of the universe, the human being is called to live
in harmony with everything that exists. He finds one of the foundations of
living conceiving the earth as a living, maternal, and fruitful being.[33] But this harmony is only possible if he/she is
integrated into a family, a community. This experience characterizes his/her identity
in a very original way, because for the bantu
people, NZambi when created the human
being, did him/her in a communitarian way. In one act only, he created the
entire family-community: man, woman and children. Therefore, in addition to be
the oldest institution, the family is also the founding concept for
understanding the origin and destiny of the world and the people. For yoruba people, it is no different: Olorum created the man and the woman at
once. He created them together, making the community the center of their
experiences.[34]
Afro-Americans retain this characteristic very much, “because for them
the God of life is a communal God. God calls and saves not only the individual,
but all the people. In this case, the fundamental role remains the family, as a
basis for community building and understanding.”[35] Life, therefore, only makes sense if it is in
community, if the human being feels multiplied in the other members and helped
by them. Here we also refer to the meaning of extended family in Africa.[36] The sense of the community-family is very
present in the theological reflections of the black people, as pointed out by
A. A. da Silva:
The community is therefore the point of reference in life and death: ‘Who
lives communally, never dies - At the end of his/her days, he/she remains in
the community as an ancestor.’ On the contrary, 'one who lives in an exclusive
way, selfishly, dies and becomes nothing more than a corpse.[37]
The community is then the point of interchange between the living
and the dead; it is the encounter of the visible world with the invisible. Every
person needs to be supported, to feel the warmth and solidarity of the group,
without which they would feel lost and without horizons to walk and to realize
themselves. The vital force is only possible in community; Outside of this, the
life loses its meaning, that is, its flow. What is pursued in community is
always the ideal of existence, as V. Berkenbrock recalls, “Only in this
condition of belonging to the community can the process of integration of the Orum forces present in a person be generated.
‘The state of being a person, of being human, can only be achieved in
community.’”[38] In other words, the development of human
potential is only possible through community experience. In Nigeria and Benin,
this involvement in the community is strongly provided by the confraternities.
This is expressed by F. REHBEIN:
These confraternities or communities, also known as ‘famílias-de-santo’, constituted a system
of alliances, ranging from simple ‘brotherhoods’ to the most complex hierarchical
organization; in this way is established a mystical community-kinship with ties
and similarity of the African lineages. ‘Pais’
and ‘mãe-de-santo’, the spiritual
leaders of these communities, play the role of heads of families; In this, the
'sons' belong to different ethnicities, from the pure Africans to the most
varied mestizos. All are part of a whole, ‘inbreed’ members by ties of
initiation, also linked to the ancestors of the community.[39]
In this sense, when the Africans speak about community, they do not
think only the living, those who are visible, but also the ones who are not
seen and who are perceived as present in the life of the community. Truly, when
a person dies, his/her vital energy does not disappear rather it strengthens
the vital energy of the community. Thus, it is understood that death is not an
absolute end, but only a passage to the Orum
form of existence. If the person has been linked to a family and to a
community, he/she becomes an ancestor.[40] The worship directed to him/her is the
certainty that life goes on.[41] Therefore, the community is made up of the
living and the dead. This expression ‘dead’ is inadequate, for they consider
alive not only the visible people but also the invisible ones. The author F. A.
Oborji says that the family-community “is not limited only to those who are
still alive in the flesh. The invisible ancestors and the members who are about
to be born are also part.”[42] That is why they prefer the expression visible
and invisible.
All this leads us to conclude with an extract from the experience of father
F. L'Espinay who agreed to be initiated into one of these communities of yoruba tradition. Among the important
aspects of his experience, he vibrantly highlights these aspects of unity and
respect for the ancestors, who continue participating in the life of the
community and even any celebration does not happen without remembering them well.
This is how F. L’Espinay expresses himself: “The sacred wheel never begins
without each and every one making a greeting first to the door: it is in fact
the beyond, the ancestors, the dead. Each terreiro
de candomblé, as small as it is, even symbolically, is always divided into
two parts: the living and the dead,”[43]that is, the living visible and the invisible ones.
This communion reminds us of a Scripture that says, “Let us praise the famous
men, our ancestors through the generations. Your gestures of kindness will not
be forgotten. They remain with their descendants. Their bodies will be buried
in peace and their names will endure through the generations. The people will
proclaim their wisdom, and the assembly will celebrate their praise (Eclo 44: 1.
10-11. 14-15).”
Author: Josuel Degaaxé dos Santos Boaventura
PSDP - Fr Ndega
Theological review: ThD Fr Luis Carlos Susin
English review: EdM Mary Kung'u
[1] About the yoruba, the author F.
Rehbein says: “As there is only one king in the earth, there is only one God in
the universe as well. As the king communicates with his subjects through the
intervention of mediators, in the same way the Supreme God, Olorum, can entre in contact with the
human beins through (…) Orishas
(REHBEIN, F. C. Op. cit., p.
30).”
[2] Cf. Nkemnkia, M. N. Op. cit. p.2.
[3] Ibid., p.2.
[4] The
consensus reached here is what P. Kipoy calls a “unitary vision”, based on
authors who have already been consecrated in researches related to traditional
African religions. According to the author, “despite the diversity of the
religious expressions typical of the different tribes present in black Africa,
one fact is certain: this diversity does not change the unity of Black Africa.
This is demonstrated by the researches of eminent scholars such as: Cheikh Anta
Diop, V. Mulago, J. Mbiti, E. Mveng, A.T. Sanon, Bimwenyi, L.-V. Thomas, J.
Jahn, G. Guthrie, Hampate Ba, D. Zahn, etc. (KIPOY P. Op. cit., p. 4).”
[5]In a meeting that
took place in Abidjan (Ivory Coast) in 1961 on ‘African religions’, all
participants considered that the most appropriate terminology for defining
religious experience in traditional Africa is not that of animism but that of ‘Traditional
African Religions’(cf. Ibid. Op. cit., p. 6).”
[6] Nkemnkia, M. N. Op. cit. p. 4.
[7] Cf. BANLENE GUIGBILE, D. –ERNY, P., Vie, mort et ancestralité. p.
29. Apud KIPOY, P. Op. cit., p. 4.
[8] KIPOY, P. Op. cit., p. 3.
[9] PONTIFICAL COUNCIL FOR THE INTER-RELIGIOUS DIALOGUE. Attenzione pastorale alle Religioni
tradizionali. Letter of the
Pressident of this Council to the Presidents of the Bishop’s Conferences of the
Asia America and Oceania”, in L’Osservatore Romano del 21 gennaio 1994,
n. 2.
[10] KIPOY, P. Op.
cit., p. 5.
[11] MATTOS,
R. A. de. Op. cit., p. 84. The
Federal Constitution safeguards the right of worship of these religions, but the
prejudice is so ingrained in the society that it has become common to invade terreiros and the destruction of sacred
objects by members of other religious movements. What these religions most
expect from Brazilian society is to be respected as alterity and difference.
[12] LODY, R. Op.
cit., p. 38.
[13] Cf. PRANDI, R. Op.
cit., p. 17.
[14] Cf. PIRES, J. M. O Deus
da Vida nas comunidades afro-americanas e caribenhas. In: SILVA, A.
A. da., QUERINO, S. (Orgs). Teologia
afro-americana. Op. cit., p. 23. He also says on the
same page: “Theologians and shephards would do a good service to Christian
communities if they help them to understand that there is no polytheism in
African religious culture. The Black People from Africa weren’t polytheists.
They believed in a supreme Being, creator of everything. Even that the peoples
of Nagô-Yorubá culture call him by
the name of Olorum (The Inaccessible) as the Hebrews called him Elohim, even the
Bantos call him Nzambi (the one who says and does) or Kalunga (the one who gathers) or Pamba, Or Mandau, as the
Greeks called him Theos or we call
him God and the Indigenous Tupan, he
is always the supreme, the unreachable, Lord of heaven and earth.”
[15] Cf. ALTUNA, R. R. de A. Op. cit., p. 389.
[16] Cf. Ibid., p. 398. . In Brazil
there are news of Black people of Bantu origin who formed some religious groups
around Rio de Janeiro. They were Africans and their descendants from Angola,
Mozambique and Congo. They cultivated faith in a superior Being, creator of the
world. They used various names to designate this Being: Nzambi or Zâmbi (in
Angola), Nzambiam-pungu or Zambi-ampungu (in Congo), Marimo, Reza, Molungo (in Mozambique).
They invoked, above all, the spirits of the deceased and ancestors.
[17] Olorum is derived of o-ni-orun, that means “The One who is or possue the Orum”.
He is also called Obá-Orum, ‘King of Orum’ (cf. SANTOS J. E. dos. Op. cit. p. 56 e 72).
[18] Cf. Ibid.,
p. 59s.
[19] Cf. REHBEIN, F. C. Op. cit., p.
28.
[20] FABBRI, R. Op. cit., p. 2.
[21] Ibid., p. 3. “The African religions knew how to conciliate distance and
proximity, absolut trancendence and absolut presence” (Ibid., p. 2).
[22] L’ESPINAY, F. Op. cit., p. 646.
[23] REHBEIN, F. C. Op. cit., p. 25.
[24] This expression is used by the author J. E. dos Santos.
[25] These are natural ancestors of humans. When they have finished their days
in the Aiye, what remains of them remains at the level of Orum (see
BERKENBROCK, Op. cit., p. 24). The
author J. E. dos Santos presents some aspects that differentiate these
Ancestors from the Orishas: “For the Nagô, the Orishas are not Eguns. They
are two very differentiated liturgical practices, two types of organizations
and institutions, two priesthoods: the cult of the Orishas and the cult of the Eguns
(...) The cult of the Orishas crosses
the clan and dynastic barriers. The Orisha
represents a value and a universal force; The Egum, a value restricted to a family group or to a lineage (SANTOS,
J. E. dos. Op. cit. p. 103s).”
[26] SANTOS, J. E. dos. Op. cit. p. 54.
[27] BERKENBROCK, V. J. Op. cit., p. 180s.
[28] Cf. Ibid., p. 182s.
[29] FABBRI, R. Op. cit., p. 2.
[30] Cf. REHBEIN, F. C. Op. cit., p. 24.
[31] “The
offering has the purpose of regenerating the individual and group life force.
In general it is done to ancestors and spirits, to whom the life force is not
constant because they have no life of their own as the Supreme Being, because
by giving it they lose it, their forces diminish and they need to regenerate it”
(FABBRI, R. Op. cit.p. 4)
[32]In the footnote, the author F. C. Rehbein quotes the
African author J. O. Awolalu, describing how the atoning sacrifice was done using
human victims: “Formerly, human sacrifice was considered the highest form of
sacrifice, done with the conviction that it is better to sacrifice a life for
the good of the community than to let all perishing. Human sacrifice was done
in times of national crises and disasters, with the purpose of appeasing the
deities and making them propitious, and of purifying the community. Where the
sacrifice had the propitiatory and substitutive meaning, the victim was carried
through the towns or villages, and the men placed their hands on him/her,
asking for the forgiveness of their sins and the blessings of the gods, since
this one was considered as representing the community before the higher powers,
to submit their requests. Generally, after the human sacrifice, the priests in
charge of the rite did penance for seven days, abstaining from joys and asking
the deities to accept the sacrifice and to grant the forgiveness of their sins (AWOLALU, J. O. Yoruba sacrificial practice,
p. 81-93. Apud REHBEIN, F. C. Op. cit., p. 55s).”
[33] Cf. REHBEIN. F. C. Op. cit.,
p. 40.
[34] Cf. SILVA, A. A. da. Jesus Cristo
luz e libertador do povo afro-americano. In:
SILVA, A. A.da. Existe um pensar
teológico negro?, p. 50; see also REHBEIN, F. C. Op. cit., p. 43. “Among
Africans, the emphasis on the concept of family is not about legality, but
about being together, about communion, about respect for traditions and about
the uncontested acceptance of what the ancestors did, sanctioned and
Established as a mode of behavior due. From this point of view, we can here
reaffirm that the accent is on the community. Community life is the soul of all
African traditional society” (OBORJI, F. A., Op. cit., p. 14).
[35] SILVA, M.
R. da. Caminhos da teologiaafro-americana.
In: Silva, A. A. da. (Org.). Op. cit., 22s.
[36] REHBEIN.
F. C. Op. cit., p. 43: “The family,
the most well-characterized social group, is the basis of African coexistence
and solidarity, covering father, mother, grandparents, uncles, cousins, all
consanguines and the like, and blood relatives.”
[37] SILVA, A. A. da. Jesus Cristo, luz e libertador do povo
afro-americano. In: SILVA, A.
A. da. Op. cit., p. 50.
[38] BERKENBROCK, V. J. Op. cit., p. 293.
[39] REHBEIN. F. C.Op. cit., p. 72.
[40] “The ancestors (called undead) are alive in a
particular way. Death has not changed their personality; only the way of life is
changed. They continue being part of the community of the living (FABBRI, R. Op. cit., p. 4).
[41] Cf. REHBEIN, F. C. Op. cit., ps. 47-53.
[42] OBORJI, F. A., Op. cit., p. 12.
[43] L’ESPINAY, F. Op. cit., p. 647.
