ATR vs. Taoism

All the religions of the world differ from each other in many different ways, but some have very synonymous concepts and origins. In this case, ATR (African traditional religion) will be compared to Taoism. Now, African traditional religion is a label referring to a variety of religions indigenous to Africa. Like tribal religions from other parts of the world, African religious traditions are defined largely along community lines. Traditional African religions involve teachings, practices, and rituals that lend structure to indigenous African societies. These traditional African religions also play a large part in the cultural understanding and awareness of the people of their communities. Now, Taoism also known as Daoism refers to a variety of religious traditions that have played a major role in East Asia for over 2 thousand years. Taoist thought generally focuses on nature, men-cosmos correspondence, health, longevity, action through inaction, liberty, and spontaneity. Taoism has a few concepts that differ from ATR that I would like to point out. For example, Taoism has a “founder”.Laozi is the founder of Taoism who lived in 6th century BC. Taoism have a different kind of belief in deity. Taoist believes the supreme being/ultimate truth is beyond words or any conceptual understanding. When asked to name it, it is referred to as Tao or the Way. The Power of the Way is referred to as Te. Although Tao and Te are similar to other practices' ideas of God, Taoists rarely refer to God. The cosmological concept of Taoism is, Taoist believe Tao is a presence that existed before the universe was formed. They believe it continues to guide the world and everything in it, and sometimes identify it as the Mother, or source of all things. Taoism is not monotheistic and Tao is not a god or Supreme Being, it is a force and the ultimate reality.

Early on, Laozi had reflected on the origin of the universe. He considered that Heaven and Earth have not existed indefinitely. Dao preceded the formation of Heaven and Earth. The process of the generation of Heaven and Earth by Dao is resumed in the following method: Dao generates One, One generates Two, Two generates Three, Three generates the Myriad Beings. In other words, Dao generated the primeval unified whole, which divided into two opposing forces, whose interpenetration generated all beings. The two forces referred to by Laozi as the 'Two' are commonly considered to be designate Heaven and Earth. Later on, other Daoist theorists further reflected on the origin of the world and formulated systematic theories. These were discussed in the scripture The Source of Dao, which points out that before the formation of Heaven and Earth, there was nothing but limitless dark space, in which nothing existed. There was only Essential Vital Breath and Vital Breath of Spirit circulating everywhere. These Essential and Spiritual Vital Breaths refer to different functions of Dao, which formed the world and the myriad beings. Taoism doesn’t really have a spirit world or anything of that nature. Essentially, as far as life after death, Taoist don’t seem to have any belief or concept of spiritual life after death.

African Traditional religion on the other hand is a little different in regards to its concepts. ATR does in fact have a Devine concept too. Monotheism and henotheism are widespread among the African traditional religions, as is polytheism. Many indigenous African societies worship a single God and some recognize a dual or complementary twin God such as Mawu-Lisa. This they do by paying obeisance to the God through lesser deities (Ogoun, Da, Agwu, Esu, Mbari, etc.). Some societies also deify entities like the earth, the sun, the sea, lightning, or Nature. Each deity has its own priest or priestes The Ndebele and Shona ethnic groups of Zimbabwe have a trinity - a fundamental family group - made up of God the Father, God the Mother, and God the Son. Among the Fon of West Africa and Benin, God, who is called "Vondu", is androgynous, with both male and female traits.

The Ewe people of southern Ghana have a conception of the high God as a female-male partnership. Mawu who is female is often spoken of as gentle and forgiving. Lisa who is male renders judgment and punishes. Among the Ewe it is believed that when Lisa punishes, Mawu may grant forgiveness. Here we see the complementarily or "supplementary" of male and female that characterizes many of the traditional African religions. The only example in Africa of a female high Goddess is among the Southern Nuba of Sudan, whose culture has matriarchal traits. The Nuba conceive of the creator Goddess as the "Great Mother" who gave birth to earth and to mankind.

In the African world, spirits are everywhere--in persons, trees, rivers, animals, rocks, mountains, and even in automobiles and other personal effects. The presence of these spirits in the African society offers a serious challenge to the behavior patterns of the people on the continent and elsewhere because traditional religious practices permeate every aspect of life on the continent. These spirits in many ways act as moral entrepreneurs of the African society. They abhor crimes like adultery, stealing, cheating, and suicide. These spirits communicate their wishes, demands and prescriptions to the larger society through the traditional priests. These traditional priests are able to satisfy their clients through the performance of rituals. On the African continent, every major event has its own ritual, a ritual that may never be overlooked for any reason. The rituals are often performed through a dance, music, libation or art. In the presence of other religious practices on the continent, these rituals have survived in one form or another.

The practice of medicine and magic is also important in most African societies. They engage in fetishism, in which they believe that certain objects, mostly man-made, have supernatural powers in them. Magic or sorcery refers to the influencing of events and physical phenomena by supernatural, mystical, or paranormal means. They are complexes of beliefs and practices that believers can resort to in order to wield this supernatural influence, and are similar to cultural complexes that seek to explain various events and phenomena by supernatural means. The roles of certain religious functionaries are also important. They have native doctors/physicians, diviners, witch doctors, and traditional birth attendants. All these people have important roles to play in the traditional African society.

The beliefs and practices of African traditional religion and society are based upon the faith of the ancient indigenous people who are referred to as ancestors. This is why it is qualified as traditional, traditional comes from the Latin verb "tradere" which means to hand down doctrines, customs etc., from generation to generation. The belief in ancestors is an important element of African traditional religions. The belief occupies an important place in the understanding of the role of the traditional religion in inculcating the ideals of culture and religion among African peoples. The ancestors are believed to be disembodied spirits of people who lived upright lives here on earth, died 'good' and natural deaths, that is at a ripe old age, and received the acknowledged funerary rites. They could be men or women. This means that not all who die become ancestors, but there are conditions which must be fulfilled while the person is alive. Traditional Africans hold the ancestors as the closest link between the physical and spirit worlds. "The living-dead are bilingual; they speak the language of men, with whom they lived until 'recently', and they speak the language of the spirits and of God .They are the spirits with which African peoples are most concerned: it is through the living-dead that the spirit world becomes personal to men. They are still part of their human families, and people have personal memories of them". Africans believe that the ancestors are essentially benevolent spirits. They return to their human families from time to time and share meals with them, however, symbolically. They know and have interest in what is going on in their families. These ancestors are seen as guardians to the family often reincarnating through new born babies. So it is suffice to say that for the most part, African traditional religion depends very much on the spirit world.

Works Cited.

• "Taoism." Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th Edition (2009): 1. Academic Search Elite. EBSCO. Web. 24 Nov. 2009.

• Elbourne, Elizabeth "African Traditional Religion in South Africa/Islam, Hinduism, and Judaism in South Africa (Book Review)." Journal of Religion in Africa 30.2 (2000): 256. Academic Search Elite. EBSCO. Web. 24 Nov. 2009.