African Religion: The Quarry of the Rock of Monotheism

By John Wesley Zwomunondiita Kurewa

Worldwide scholarship has established the fact that Africa is the cradle land of humanity. Dr. Kurewa promotes the theory that African Religion could very easily have been the proto-religion of humanity, and a religion from which other monotheistic religions, such as Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam have their roots.

The author shifts the traditional African historical studies stance of looking at Africa from Egypt alone, and instead looks at Africa from inside Africa. Dr. Kurewa invites a debate regarding our understanding of African Religion, the indigenous religion of millions of people in sub-Saharan Africa today.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Discipleship Resources
• Release date: Sep 1, 2016
• ISBN: 9780881776560

John Wesley Zwomunondiita Kurewa

Dr. John Wesley Zwomunondiita Kurewa, the founding Vice Chancellor of Africa University (AU), now serves as the E. Stanley Jones Professor of Evangelism at AU. Dr. John Wesley Zwomunondiita Kurewa, a member of the Zimbabwe Area, is a prolific writer and is dedicated to the vitality of the United Methodist Church in Africa. He is married to Gertrude Rufaro and they have two children and three grandchildren.

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Preface

In 1999 I was a visiting scholar at Baldwin Wallace College, Berea, Ohio, where I taught a course on African Religion for a semester. Since that time, I’ve continued to think about this topic and it has developed into this book— African Religion: The Quarry of the Rock of Monotheism.

Considerable advances have been made in a number of fields of African studies: African history (including pre-colonial history), archaeology, anthropology, economics, and politics. However, similar advances need to be made in the area of religious studies, particularly with regard to African Religion. The study of African Religion is important for a number of categories of people: (a) young people, some of whom take biblical studies in school as part of religious studies curriculum, but without any study of African Religion. (b) African people who have been proselytized to Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and other religions who tend to look down upon the indigenous religion of their own people, and the result is misunderstanding and misinterpreting significant portions of their people’s religious culture. (c) All persons who hold a leading position in Africa. African Religion is one of those religions that permeates the total life of its adherents—meaning that often action and/or behaviour are heavily determined by religious belief and practice. Therefore, it is important for leaders—in education, health, industry, church, and other areas—to understand the role of African Religion in the lives of people.

It is time that African Religion, the indigenous religion of the majority of the people of the continent of Africa, finds respect; and it deserves that respect, especially from the Africans that have proselytized to other monotheistic religions. The colonialists and some of the early missionaries discredited and had hoped to eradicate or demise African Religion in order to substitute it with Christianity and western ways of life. Although we still have churches on the continent that have a passion to witness to the demise of African Religion and its evil practices, African Religion has stubbornly held on. After the political independence of the African nations from colonialism in the 1960s and 1970s, African Religion seems to have gained ground and has moved into the cities of Africa with even greater influence than during the colonial era. However, it does not proselytize; rather it permeates even the lives of those who have been proselytized to other religions.

Today worldwide scholarship has established as fact that Africa is the cradleland of humankind. Time and again, we run into the assumption that the proto-communities lived on the face of this earth without some form of religion; but that religion was needed to explain and celebrate their existence and the experiences of life. If we accept that the first humanity on the face of the earth existed around the Great Lakes of Africa—call it the Garden of Eden—they must have had some kind of a religion. That religion must have been the proto-religion. Similarly, as those old communities began scattering northward—with many spilling and settling in the mega-Sahara region, and later spread toward the north, northwest, south—they must have shared some common religious notions and culture. We may never know exactly what that original religion of the first community of the Great Lakes of Africa was—religion of the first people to be created by God, the Creator—but what we may know is that they had a form of religion. We may then want to ask ourselves several questions: Why is it that in spite of variations in religious practices, when it comes to central belief all sub-Saharan Africa believes in One Supreme Being—God, the Creator of humankind and all that we see on earth? Another central question is: Was it by accident or design that (as we shall see this idea developed later) all religions that emerged around the mega-Sahara region (African Religion, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, Islam) are monotheistic? What is the historical root of these grand monotheistic religions?

The thesis of this book is: (a) Worldwide scholarship has established the fact that Africa is the cradleland of humanity—that is, the Great Lakes of East Africa is the Garden of Eden where God created the first community of humanity. (b) If we go by the assumption that no people lived on the face of the earth without some form of religion, the proto-humanity must have had some kind of a religion, which we are not yet in a position to know what it was. However, whatever it was, it must have been the proto-religion. Chances are that, as generations of those first people spread toward the north and northwest, and into the mega-Sahara region, and later on into all the sphere of influence of the mega-Sahara region, elements of monotheism might have been already planted from which eventually emerged the five monotheistic religions mentioned above. (c) The origin of African Religion is unknown, however, it appears the manifestation is evident during the period of the sudanic kingdoms, that is around the fourth century BCE, and at that stage it shows that it is a religion that covered almost all ethnic groups of sub-Saharan Africa.

Thus, the purpose of the book is threefold: (a) to explore the theory that African Religion could very easily have been the proto-religion of humanity, and a religion from which other monotheistic religions, such as Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam have their roots; (b) to show that the above mentioned monotheistic religions of the world emerged from what I call the mega-Sahara societies, which emerged many years ago before the desiccation of the Sahara desert, and developed in their various ways; (c) to assure the reader that, although he/ she may not come across any conclusive statements concerning the priority of African Religion in this book, the author believes many minds will have been stirred to take this issue of the priority of African Religion seriously.

In terms of the methodology, the author shifts the traditional African historical studies stance of looking at Africa from Egypt alone, and instead looks at Africa from inside Africa. This ancient approach to the study of Africa, which isolated Egypt from the rest of the continent, reflects the stance of an outsider who wears lenses of a particular scholarship. We will look at Africa from this two-fold new positioning: the Great Lakes of Africa, where the history of humankind has confirmed its origin; and, (b) the mega-Saharan region, which later consisted of the ancient African kingdoms of Egypt, Kush, Kanem, ancient Ghana, and indeed the Nile Valley, whose Nile river proved to be the lifeline for both the ancient and today’s world. In the light of the new archeological, anthropological, and world