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Retrieving African Traditional Religion from the Fringes: Umbanda and the Brazilian Traditions as a Source
Get PDF“Bantu Religion“ is an abstraction, an ideal-type of the consensus between different forms among the Bantu peoples. With the arrival of Bantu people in Brazil five centuries ago, a process of amalgamation began. Core features and structure have reasserted themselves interacting with non-Bantu religios and cultures around, assimilating ideas and practices. According to a systemic theory of syncretism this follows definite rules. It will be shown that Umbanda has preserved a core of Bantu beliefs, ritual practises and spiritual perceptions, in spite of all syncretistic adoptions. Thus Umbanda remains essentially a vital and complex Bantu Traditional Religion in a largely non-Bantu cultural environment persevering in an ongoing syncretistic process. It is thus a source for the retrieval of an ideal-type of African Traditional Religion. In this analytical perspective the comparison of rituals by the water in Umbanda and in South African Bantu culture presented in this study discloses a deeper understanding of their meaning and essence
“When Are You Going to Change Those Stones to Phones?”: Social Media Appropriation by Pentecostal Churches in Cape Town
Get PDFOn May 15th 2016, the Southern Africa Zone 5 Pastor of Christ Embassy (CE), Pastor Rita, appeared on a live stream service that was broadcast to all the churches in the region to talk about the visit to the Holy Land in Jerusalem by Pastor Chris and his delegation. She later announced that the entire visit can be viewed on Love WorldSat Super User and King’s Chat and encouraged the use of the app to encourage viewership. Following the concept of mediatisation and looking at Pastor Rita’s communiques, this paper explores the appropriation of Social Media (SM) by Pentecostal churches (PCs) in Cape Town, South Africa. It seeks to understand how and to what extent innovation and competition propels PCs’ appropriation of SM to disseminate information, position themselves to attract the desired audience and maintain relevance in the face of mounting competition. Acknowledging the premise that the church is fast eroding and peoples’ lives are increasingly on the move, PC understand that the success of church depends on how they stay connected with Christians and evolve with the times. SM thus becomes the tool onthe- get-go, a way for accessing the church, and for PCs to stay connected with Christians, given their accessibility on mobile phones
The Ethics of Collaboration: Perspectives of Batswana Health Seekers on Health Systems Collaboration
Get PDFStudies on the importance of the collaboration between medical healthcare professionals with other players from alternative healthcare systems are on the increase across the world. Most of the studies place the patients at the benefiting end of this collaboration. Notwithstanding the amount of research that underscores the significance of this collaboration, on the ground the nature of this collaboration continues to be riddled with challenges and there are pockets of uncharted areas that still need to be explored. For example, research on collaboration of healthcare systems in young and developing countries like Botswana is still far from being adequate. Further, this collaboration still needs to be investigated from perspectives of other players like the health seekers, religious leaders and community leaders. This paper specifically explores perspectives of health seekers in Botswana on the collaboration of medical and religious healthcare systems. The findings from the study carried out among the Batswana health seekers seem to support the view that the collaboration between modern medical system, represented by medical practitioners and religious healthcare systems should be complementary in nature
Interprofessional Collaboration of Health Care Providers in Botswana: A Holistic Approach to Health Care
Get PDFNotwithstanding the availability of Western medicine across the country, many of Batswana continue to utilize either of the three or all available health systems; namely traditional, Western and pastoral systems of healing and care. There is therefore a need to develop models of collaboration that promote a workable relationship between these three health systems. This paper seeks to establish the possibility of the interprofessional collaboration by medical professionals, African traditional healers and pastoral care givers in Botswana health care system. It is based on both primary and secondary data collected for a period of two years in Botswana. Although it used mixed methods, the study was primarily qualitative in nature. The paper advocates for holistic care as it acknowledges attention to all dimensions of human existence and ultimate healing. It also calls for the implementation of interprofessional health policy in Botswana, collaborative patient centred practice, changes in attitude towards interprofessional collaboration and for the development of interprofessional curriculum in our local educational institutions
Elias Kifon Bongmba, ed., The Wiley Blackwell Companion to African Religions.
No full textTha academic study of religion in Africa continues to grow, defying many challenges. One of the major stumbling blocks in the discipline has been the absence of scholarly literature. Whereas material on other aspects of religious studies, such as theory and method, has been developed in abundance, literature on the religions of Africa has been limited. The volume under review contributes significantly in this regard. It is a rich, informative and scholarly contribution to the academic study of religion in Africa
Editor\u27s Note
No full textI am very much delighted to introduce and welcome readers to the maiden issue of the AASR E-Journal for the academic study of the religions of Africa and the African Diaspora, a peer-reviewed, open-access journal of the African Association for the Study of Religions (AASR). This marks a significant milestone in AASR’s history, and represents a systematic progression in published output by the AASR, which also produces a biannual AASR Bulletin that is available to AASR members; as well as libraries and universities through subscription. The E-Journal will serve primarily as an interdisciplinary journal in which members and non-AASR members, publish the outcomes of their original research on the religions of Africa and the African Diaspora. It will cover the wide range of religious t raditions that were or are found, were founded, and exist and operate in Africa and the African Diaspora; and topics useful to scholars involved in the academic study of religions in Africa and the African Diaspora, and to a wider readership of academics in the general study of religions. The E-Journal shall be published as electronic issues only, with two (2) issues per year. Articles will be published in English only in the first instance, but in future, if the number of Francophone AASR members would expand significantly, articles will also be published in French. AASR EJournal will be incorporated into the AASR website and be posted in its public part in order that, as an open access journal, it will be accessible to the widest academic and general public
Excerpts from a Conversation with Renfrew Christie and Rodney Wilkinson, during the Conference on ‘Anti-Nuclear Activism in Africa: A Historical Perspective’, held at the Johannesburg Institute for Advanced Study, 3 April 2023.
Get PDFThe focus of the conference is on anti-nuclear activism as part of the anti-apartheid struggle. We are curious to know of the international links during this period and the engagement with the government of the day. We are also curious to know the kind of actions that have been taken in the anti-apartheid struggle and engaging nuclear energy as part of that struggle
Bridging the Digital Divide: Fostering STEM Education for Digital Economy Leadership
Get PDFAs BRICS countries strive to build a digital economy, these nations must prepare their populous for the ‘future of work.’ Digital economies tend to create middle to high-skilled jobs. This is problematic as many workers are trapped in low-skill occupations and lack the expertise to participate in a digital economy adequately. A digital economy requires a population that is literate in Science, Technology, Engineering, and mathematics (STEM). While BRICS has made progress in educating their populous in these fields, they still have a long way to go. More STEM graduates (especially women) must be produced to maintain and create a digital economy. This policy brief maps out strategies for BRICS countries to increase STEM participation
The West and the Rest of Us? A Review of The Political Economy of Intra-BRICS Cooperation: Challenges and Prospects
Get PDFA number of the luminaries of the Pan-African movement such as Kwame Nkrumah, George Padmore, W.E.B Dubois, C.L R James and Eric Williams as anti-colonial thinkers and political leaders cherished aspirations of an alternative international order. Their anti-colonial struggle was not just nationalistic and continentalist in outlook but was inspired by visions of “world-making” (Getachew 2019). Their project of African Independence as undergirded by Pan-Africanism sought to challenge the West as the embodiment of slavery and colonialism (Chinweizu 1975) not only on the continent where it created colonies but the post-World War II dispensation. Many of them propagated socialist sentiments and objectives. W. E.B. Dubois was a Marxist until the moment of his transition. It was in this sense that as Marxist in ideological outlook and socialist in political praxis, they were anti-capitalist in orientation. They embraced the Afro-Asian call of cooperation (Bandung spirit) to challenge the world hegemony of the West which characterised “the long twentieth century” (Arrighi 2010). Thus, a foundation of the “global South” as a victim of underdevelopment by the West was laid. They wanted to challenge the hegemony of the political economy of the imperialist West.
You are too Black: Nationalistic and Ethnic Dimensions of Xenophobic Attacks in South Africa
Get PDFThis paper argues that xenophobia in South Africa is a result of intersecting historical, economic, and socio-political factors specific to the South African nationalist project embarked upon after independence. It will show how a confluence of the aforementioned factors in the country have, for the most part, contributed to an environment which is fertile for xenophobia and its expression through physical violence, especially towards other black Africans. This argument is significant because xenophobia is usually viewed from a resource scarcity perspective