group4spirituality

= Spirituality in South Africa =

The earliest South African religions were practiced by the Khoisan people. They believed in dual energies, one good and one evil. They avoided speaking with the good deity in fear of rousing the evil one. They also believed that these beings ignore humanity most of the time. It was important to use dance and altered states of consciousness to gain knowledge for healing. Healing dances are still one of the most widely practiced rituals in South Africa. The cycle of religious practices based on the cycles of the sun and the moon. Khoisan legends refer to a "trickster" god who could transform himself into different animals, die, and be reborn several times. A sacred animal was the praying mantis and serves as a similar figure to the clever fox in European tales. ("Country Profile: South Africa")



In the first millennium, Bantu-speaking peoples brought new religious practices to South Africa. An influential part of their spiritual life was the belief in a group of powerful ancestors that could communicate with the living.The male head of the home was the ritual leader. Most of these religions had no priesthood. They also believed that political leadership was tied into religious responsibility. They, too, held the belief that rituals could affect the most high deity but performed these rituals for the lesser gods. The high god was beyond human comprehension. media type="youtube" key="mEJWY3Anq_Q" height="338" width="411" Bantu creation stories include myths that humans first rose from a hole in the ground, that they were plucked from a field of reeds, or that they were created from substances by the highest deity. Death was interpreted as the failure of humans or their messengers, such as "a chameleon who was sent to relay a divine message of immortality, but who delayed and was overtaken by the message of death". ("Country Profile: South Africa")

In 1488, Christianity first appeared in South Africa when the Portuguese navigator Bartholomeu Dias erected a cross at the Cape of Good Hope. In the late 18th century, large numbers of missionaries were sent from England, France, the U.S., Germany, and Scandinavia. These missionaries believed the Africans to be godless because they didn't have one supreme ruler, a priest, or a church as the missionaries had known these things to exist. (Evans, Higgs)

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Catholicism was the first Christian religion with abolitionist tendencies. It is also a minority church in South Africa. Catholic schools were integrated in the 1950's, whereas government-funded schools were segregated. Although Christianity is South Africa's largest religion, with 73% of all people, only 10% blacks and 10% whites are Roman Catholic. ("Country Profile: South Africa") The Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference issued a statement in 1977: We affirm that... we are on the side of the oppressed and, as we have committed ourselves to working within our Church for a clearer expression of solidarity with the poor and the deprived, so we commit ourselves equally to working for peace through justice in fraternal collaboration with all other churches, agencies and persons dedicated to this cause. (Evans, Higgs)



Works Cited

__Backintyme: History of the U.S. Colorline__. .

"Country Profile: South Africa." __Countrystudies.us__. 9 Dec. 2008 .

Evans, Jean N and Higgs, Catherine. (2008). EMBRACING ACTIVISM IN APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICA : THE SISTERS OF MERCY IN BOPHUTHATSWANA, 1974-94. The Catholic Historical Review, 94(3), 500-521. Retrieved October 16, 2008, from Research Library Core database. (Document ID: 1509214541 ).

__Israel and Truth__. 9 Dec. 2008 .

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