THE AFRICAN’S BELIEF
In this chapter we shall tell about something altogether different from
what you have been reading. We shall go into the spirit land of the
African children, and we shall try to find out something of what they
believe about God.
In the great black part of Africa there are no temples and wonderful
gods to write about. There are no old books to be found containing the
wisdom of their forefathers written down and preserved through long
ages. In fact there is not very much in native African belief that can
be made very interesting to white boys and girls. But I shall try to
do my best, to let you understand something about it.
Some people at home think that the heathen tribes of Africa know
nothing at all about God. But it is not so. They do know something,
be it only a very very little. In some tribes it is so very little as
to be almost nothing, and shows us how far they have fallen away from
a knowledge of their Creator. Let me tell you what some of the tribes
here believe about God.
God, our loving heavenly Father, is to them but a far-away spirit whom
they call the old, old one, or the great, great one. He made the world
and everything in it and sends rain and sunshine, and is all-powerful.
But He is very far away from us and takes little interest in the people
of the earth.
When people die, their spirits, they say, go to the land of this old,
old one. Spirit villages are there, I have heard it said, inhabited
by the spirit folk. As a man was on earth so is he in the land of the
spirits. So a chief on earth remains a chief in spirit land. Now, the
spirits of the chiefs are supposed to be on very intimate terms with
the old, old one, and are allowed to do almost whatever they like with
the affairs of the people on earth. So it is the spirit of the dead
chief that receives the sacrifices and prayers of the people. The old,
old one is felt to be so far away and so indifferent that he is passed
over, in some tribes forgotten altogether, and the spirit of the chief
receives the homage due to the great, great one, because the people
feel that he, the chief, has a personal interest in them.
The more famous, generally the more fierce, a chief was on earth in his
life-time the more is his help asked for after he is dead, and has
gone to the land of the spirits. It is not considered wise to neglect
him in case he revenge himself upon the people.
The spirits of the common people are just ordinary inhabitants of
spirit land and are of no account, except to their near relatives. A
man in private matters of his own may seek the aid of the spirit of his
father or of his grandfather. But on the whole, it is the spirit of the
chief whom the people knew and were familiar with that is prayed to and
receives the sacrifices of the people.
The spirits when they wish to speak to the people may enter into any
person and cause that person to rave like a madman. He retires to the
darkness of a hut while his fit of madness lasts. His sayings are not
set aside as mere idle words, but are remembered and repeated to the
interpreter, generally an old person, who explains to the people that
under cover of these words spoken in delirium by the person possessed
the spirits mean that so and so should be done. Dreams also are thought
of as journeyings to the land of the spirits.
Now I think that will be enough about the spirits for you to understand
a little of what many of the African children believe about the Great
Spirit who made everything. It is only when the children are big that
they are told all these things about the spirits. The people do not
like to talk about such things, and the children avoid the places where
the spirits are supposed to come and visit. They are afraid to give
offence to the spirits, I think, and, in fact, all their sacrifices
seem to be made with the idea of appeasing the anger and earning the
good will of the spirits.
Sometimes the sacrifices are made at the base of a tree. Very often
a small hut is built in which sacrifice is offered up. The offerings
are of flour or native beer, and at other times of animals. Only small
bits of the flesh of the sacrificed animal are offered, the rest of
the meat being eaten by the people. The bits offered up are wrapped in
leaves and placed at the root of the sacrificial tree. It is the chief
who offers up the sacrifice and says the prayers. In times of great
calamity large sacrifices are held in which several chiefs join their
people together and make prayer to the departed ones. Sacrifices are
also made for rain, for success in hunting, for safety in travelling,
and for freedom from sickness.
The prayers are generally very simple requests like the following one
for safety, “Watch over me, my forefather, who died long ago, and tell
the great spirit at the head of my race from whom came my mother.”
Here is a short account of a sacrifice for rain. “The chief goes to
the spirit hut to offer sacrifice for rain and the people stand round
about having brought the meat for the sacrifice. Then the chief begins
to complain to the spirits saying, ‘Give us rain and do not harden your
heart against us.’ With many other prayers he continues to implore,
while the people round about clap their hands, and some of the women
sing:--
‘Kokwe Kolole, Kokwe Kolole
Mbvula ya kuno sikudza
Kokwe Kolole.’
which means:--
‘May there come rain, sweeping rain,
The rain here has not come;
May there come rain, sweeping rain.’”
When the rain does come the people believe that it came because they
appeased the anger of the great, great one with their sacrifice.
But wherever the Gospel of Jesus is preached the people are learning
that there has been offered up for them by God Himself one great
sacrifice which has redeemed the fallen sons of men--the sacrifice of
His only Son on Calvary’s Cross.