Browsing by Subject "African Traditional"

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The Range Of African Traditional Communication and the Development in Information Technology in the Church.
(Tangaza University College, 2000-02) Mang'ong'o, Vincent
African traditional media had a strong tradition of Oral communication. Apart from Islamic literature that can be traced in North Africa especially in Egypt and Sub-Sahara, there was little opportunity or need for the development of written materials, let alone newspapers, magazines, television or radio as in the secular world or as we have it today in the church. It was only after the coming of the early missionaries and the introduction of new Communication media and literacy in Africa, that we saw the beginning of the local media and the advancement of technological information in the church. In this essay we shall see in Chapter One how the range of communication from the African perspective, in advancement has evolved historically. Then in Chapter two we shall look at how far modern information technology of media in the church has been established, the problems being encountered and search for the ranges of religion and mass media. This of course has to do with the "word" or the messages involved in communication. That is, messages have the capacity to influence people, thus owners of the means of mass communication of different kind, indeed contain the power to influence those who receive their message. In Chapter three will examine the theological implications of communication in our contemporary world , especially in meeting the challenges that Christians face and how to give positive responses to the question people out there are asking about media. Eventually will find a theology of communication and see how Jesus if he were alive today, the methods he would use to spread the gospel. Then finally we shall give in Chapter four the suggestion and recommendation of communication in range of technological development in the Church of Africa. It should not be taken for granted that the Media can perform miracles in bringing transformation in the society. Otherwise this be left as one of the methods; simple because "it" has to take careful planning analysis of the phenomena that covers the whole communication process, and evaluation in order to design and prepare communication that will achieve the desired results.
The Traditional Religious Leaders among the Gogo Society Of Central Tanzania
(Tangaza University College, 1999-02-12) Chilala, Mlabu E.
"My son; for the contemporary generation and this religion of yours, it is very difficult to understand and appreciate what has been done and what is being done by the real traditional diviners". It is a statement by an old lady, about eighty years old, called Chando Msonjela When I was interviewing her, in detail about the traditional religious leaders in the Nyambwa community she was not comfortable, because it is her belief that the world we are living is quite different from the world she lived; we are living in a chaotic world. The reasons being that, there is no respect for the traditional customs, traditional religious leaders are becoming fewer and fewer and most of those who are calling themselves traditional religious leaders are not true diviners but liars. Her world view is just in a small village called Sanza and other neighbouring villages in the Eastern part of Singida region in Tanzania. Mama Chando, was trying to express how it is becoming so difficult for the new generation to value and appreciate the traditional religious leaders in the Nyambwa community; this community is part of the (logo society in central part of Tanzania. The Gogo society is divided into two main communities, the Nyaugogo community in the eastern and central part of Dodoma, and the Nyambwa community which is in the western part of Dodoma and the eastern part of Singida region, situated in the Central Rift Valley . These two communities speak the same language but they differ in accent and some few expressions of words. As a result of my interviews from experienced elders of the Nyarnbwa community and going through different books, I hope that this paper will be helpful for us to understand about the traditional religious leaders in Africa, using the Gogo society specially the Nyambwa sub-group, as a case study. In this paper I will try to explain the reality of the African traditional religious leaders, their existence, role and how the African communities looked at them. Explaining the past about these religious leaders it will not be enough without trying to see , what is the attitude of the contemporary society toward them. Having an idea of who are these religious leaders and their importance to the African societies it will not help us, unless we pick something from them that could help our Christian priests and the whole Christian community at large in their Missionary work. The song of inculturation will not click to any mind, unless the wisdom and knowledge of the African traditional religious leaders is consulted,since their wisdom is the foundation of the African beliefs. It is my hope that, something positive and educative from the African traditions will come out. With open and critical mind we will be able to understand the African traditions, which later on is going to be very helpful for our missions in Africa.
Wisdom and Sagacity in African Traditional Conflict Management Processes and Systems
(Tangaza University College, 2014-09) Mwania, Patrick
For centuries until recently, the black man’s mind and the African culture have been conceived by the Europeans as extremely alien to reason, logic and various habits of scientific inquiry. This mentality is felt all through as one reads books by Western philosophers about Africans. Kwame (1995) writes “… As far as the east is from the west so far is Africa removed from philosophy. The West is the home of civilization and philosophy. Africa is the home of wild trees, wild animals, wild people and wild creatures” (p. 69). Since Africans were at some point in history considered as incapable of critical individual intellectual activity, anything like African philosophy was construed as constituting a contradiction, a self-contradiction. Africans lack intellectual faculties and as such they are not able to engage in any philosophical activity. For the Europeans anything African could not be rational hence philosophical, neither could anything philosophical be African. Levy Bruhl is one of those who held such a conception of Africans as he says that African mind is pre-logical and not conceptual, and because of this the African mind, can with a lot of ease accommodate a contradiction. For him the African mind can entertain several propositions which the European mind would straight away reject as absurd (cf. Ochieng’ Odhiambo, 1995, p 7). The German philosopher Emmanuel Kant too is quoted saying that the African person is quite black from hand to foot a clear proof that what he says is stupid. He further observed that the difference between the white race and black race appears to be as great in regard to mental capacities as in color. These are just but a few examples to show the way how the people from the West thought about Africans as backward, irrational and a people without a history. It took a lot of courage and hard work for some African thinkers and scholars of the 19th century and beyond like John Mbiti, Placide Tempels, Odero Oruka etc to get up and fight against this intellectual and ideological slavery by endeavoring to prove that Africans like other human beings are rational and as such are capable of philosophical activity. This presentation is an attempt to join in the fight of many African thinkers and scholars to prove that rationality and critical thinking and hence a philosophical mind is a universal human endowment and traditional Africans were not an exception. There existed in traditional African culture wise men and women, folk sages who helped the community to understand and to interpret the realities of life in different circumstances.