Southern Africa

Michael Ruse

doi:10.1017/9781108562324.053

52 - Southern Africa

from Part VII - Lived Atheism in the Twentieth- and Twenty-First Centuries: Case-Studies

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 September 2021

Edited by

Michael Ruse: Affiliation:
Florida State University
Stephen Bullivant: Affiliation:
St Mary's University, Twickenham, London

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Summary

The cultural and intellectual history of Africa rarely mentions atheism as being and living in Africa. Frequently, what is emphasized is the notoriety and inevitability of belief and its diverse performances in the form of rituals and deities and practices related to human attempts at appeasing and manipulating their assumed powers (Parrinder 1954; Mbiti 2015). However, atheism and its culturally informed performances are diffused in (southern) Africa. This is a core claim of Okot p’Bitek in his disagreement with Mbiti’s thesis on the notoriety of African religiosity: Africans make fun or jokes about the gods; sometimes what may seem a religious performance is in reality a religious ridicule of the deities. In fact, some performances – such as oracle consultation and divination, the choice of a new king, or the cause of death or disease in a community – that are considered acts of God are human acts disguised as God’s.

Type: Chapter
Information: The Cambridge History of Atheism , pp. 971 - 981

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108562324.053 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2021

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52 - Southern Africa

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