African Traditional Beliefs Research Articles

Impediments to effective enactment of early childhood education curriculum and pedagogy in Tanzania: issues and experiences of teachers in urban and rural pre-schools

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this study was to investigate impediments to effective enactment of early childhood education curriculum and pedagogy in Tanzania, issues and experiences encountered by teachers in the enactment of the preschool education curriculum and their pedagogy in a Tanzanian context. This study was informed by sociocultural persectives which were used as lenses for framing the study, data analysis, interpretation of findings, and drawing conclusions. This study adopted an interpretive perspective. It took a case study approach to investigate participants’ views on the enactment of the Tanzanian preschool education curriculum from 28 participants. Data was generated through interviews, classroom observation, focus group discussion, documentary review, and informal conversations. The findings indicated that there was a mismatch between the intended preschool education curriculum and the attained curriculum in the field. Ineffective enactment of curriculum and pedagogy in the field was influenced by several factors, such as: policy issues, a power imbalance between local and national levels, political will, and African cultural and traditional beliefs in relation to early year's education. The study recommended that for the better enactment of preschool education curriculum and pedagogical practice, there is a need for the government to prioritise in early education. Government policy makers should identify corrective measures to take in order to achieve the intended quality early childhood education and care.

The Influence of Socio-Cultural Beliefs in Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital (Chbah): A Social Work Perspective

Background: Socio-cultural beliefs play a significant role in healthcare as they influence perceptions of health and illness for both the client and the healthcare provider. These beliefs may influence the need to use a variety of health care providers. By understanding the belief system of patients, clinical social workers can effectively meet the needs of the hospital patients. The aim of this paper was to explore the role of patients’ socio-cultural beliefs in a healthcare setting. Methodology: By means of an exploratory investigation with 24 patients at an academic hospital in Gauteng, this paper identifies some beliefs that patients bring with them into the healthcare institution. Herskovits in-depth relativist approach was used to analyze the data. This paper examines how beliefs contradict, enhance or complement clients’ experiences of health care within a hospital setting. The results illustrate that African traditional and cultural beliefs were reported to be affordable and enable people to connect with their ancestral spirits. Close relatives and traditional healers played an important role during illness and recovery. It is recommended that social workers should always engage with patients and other members of multi-disciplinary team for a holistic patient care approach. Social workers should communicate to holistically understand their patients.

The social construction of ‘deafness’: explored through the experiences of Black South African mothers raising a deaf child

Individual realities and perceptions are embedded in a web of dominant social and cultural views which shape the individual. Mothers of deaf children therefore cannot be understood in isolation, and neither can their experiences, perceptions, and well-being. The present research investigated the construction of deafness through the experiences of mothers raising a deaf child and considered the manner in which these constructions impacted their well-being and relationship with the child. The study explored the experiences of six Black South African hearing mothers of a deaf child between the ages of 3 and 8 years. Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted. Through an interpretive theoretical framework, this qualitative study noted seven main themes, namely, deafness is foreign and unknown, increased awareness and normalising of deafness, religious and Traditional African beliefs about disability/deafness, external pity and the mother’s rejection of it, the discourse of the ‘superiority’ of speech and encouragement of speech and hearing, barriers to communicating with her child, and ‘Why me?’ attribution of cause and the emergence of blame. Extrapolation of the data suggests that there is a lack of awareness regarding the deaf individual, and this creates misinformed perceptions about deafness which impact negatively both mother and child.

Myths and Beliefs About Disabilities: Implications for Educators and Counselors

abstractThis study reviewed past and current literature in Africa south of the Sahara to assess the impact of formal education and Christianity on African traditional beliefs and myths in relation to disability. The review builds on previous studies on the impact of education and Christianity on African cultures. The study reviewed articles that were published before 1970 and after 2000, that are ethnographic in approach, that sampled people with disabilities and their parents as the main participants, and used anthropological theories for analysis. Findings reflect a continued positive and negative impact of traditional myths and beliefs on the contemporary social constructs of disability. However, slight changes in negative attitudes have been observed among parents of children with disabilities where education and counseling are offered immediately after the birth of a child with disabilities. This indicates that formal education is one way of de-mystifying, dispelling and challenging some negative cultural myths and beliefs that are entrenched in history. Therefore, any effective and empowering formal education or counseling program needs to be cognizant of the underlying social construct of disabilities in order to counter any discriminatory myths and beliefs that can perpetuate stereotypes and discrimination of people with disabilities--and encourage those that promote their well-being.

Conflict and Cohesion in Mission Communities in Africa: An X-Ray

This paper aims to reveal issues involved in the conflict and cohesion between the missionaries and African communities. The objective of this research work is to investigate the issues such as polygamy, African religious beliefs and practices involved in the conflict and cohesion in the course of missionary enterprise in Africa. The significance of this research work is that it shows the reasons why African religion and culture continue to thrive in spite of the onslaught on them by the missionaries. The findings showed that it is better to apply religious dialogue in dealing with the conflict. Since the theme deals with Church history and elements of African traditional beliefs and practices, that is why it is imperative to adopt primary and secondary sources in data collection. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2016.v7n2s1p35

English

This article focuses on the religious encounter between European Christian Missionaries and the African traditional religious beliefs in East Africa. The area of study is Buganda in Uganda. The scope of the study is 1877-when Christianity was first introduced in Uganda to 1962 when Uganda got her independence; the period when Christian missionaries lost influence together with the colonial rulers. Using the qualitative historical research design, the study re-examined the philosophy of African religious beliefs namely the concepts of god, ancestor veneration, divinities and religious rituals. This analysis is based on and aided by secondary sources written on European Christian activities in East Africa. The study contends that the crusading mentality embedded in Christianity underpinned and reinforced the views and attitudes that European Missionaries constructed around African religion and rituals. The perceptions that Christianity was superior to, and in no position to negotiate and dialogue with African religion, contributed significantly towards their failure to understand and to evangelize fully the societies they came in contact with. Moreover the failure to appreciate that traditional religion was a centrifugal force around which all life, and kingship, gravitated, resulted in their disillusionment and immature abandonment of the mission field. The study concludes that failure of Christian missionaries to appreciate and integrate African Traditional beliefs within Christianity contributes to the current rejuvenation of African traditional religious beliefs and practices in Africa. Key words: African god, ancestors of veneration, divinities, diviners, heathen Rites, African religion, conquista mentality.

Reading the near-death experience from an African perspective

The scientific study of near-death experience (NDE) teaches that NDE does not entail evidence for life after death, but a study of NDE from an African perspective implies that NDE could serve as a yardstick which supports African traditional beliefs concerning death and resurrection. Using references from Ancient-Egyptian afterlife beliefs and those of the Yorubas of Nigeria, I argue that, for Africans, the percipients of NDE did not only come close to death but are regarded as having truly died. The purpose of this research is to initiate an African debate on the subject and to provide background-knowledge about NDE in Africa for counsellors who counsel NDE percipients that are Africans.

The Knowledge, Attitude, and Perception towards Epilepsy amongst Medical Students in Uyo, Southern Nigeria.

Background and Aim. Epilepsy remains a stigmatized disease especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. Lack of information and illiteracy has been blamed as the cause of the stigmatization. This stigmatization stems from the fact that the traditional African belief views epilepsy as a spiritual disease. We studied the knowledge, attitude, and perception towards epilepsy amongst medical students comparing the knowledge of the clinical students with that of the basic medical (preclinical) students. Methodology. The participants were medical students in University of Uyo. We administered questionnaires which explored the knowledge of etiology (perceived and medically proven). We studied the beliefs in infectivity of epilepsy, treatment together with their attitudes, and perception to persons with epilepsy. Results. Most of the participants do not have a good knowledge of epilepsy. The knowledge, however, was much better amongst the clinical students. There is some difference in the attitudes of the clinical students compared with the basic students. Conclusion. There is a knowledge gap in epilepsy even amongst medical students. Participants still harbor the traditional African beliefs that epilepsy is a spiritual disease. Mercifully, the knowledge is better amongst the clinical students. This is not surprising since the clinical students have had clinical exposure to epilepsy.

The Personal Wellbeing Index in the South African IsiXhosa Translation: A Qualitative Focus Group Study

International scholars who rely on the Personal Wellbeing Index (PWI) to compare cross-cultural quality of life have often been confronted with the problems of nuances getting ‘lost in translation’. This qualitative study explored the meaning of the isiXhosa version of the PWI in focus group discussions with native speakers. Participants in the study discussed how they understood and rated their lives on each item in the index. The discourse conveyed the different shades of meaning associated with the PWI items of life satisfaction and eight domains of life. The study found that PWI items related to material well-being, living standards, achievements in life and future (financial) security were best understood. The PWI items referring to personal relationships and community connectedness were seen as nearly identical in meaning. Both translation and cultural factors may be responsible for the conflation of these two items. Noteworthy is that the PWI item on religion and spirituality was seen to embrace both Christian and traditional African beliefs and practice, without prejudice. A new item on daily activities was piloted with good results. The focus group study also showcased the manner in which discussants worked with the rating scale and drew on social comparisons when evaluating global and domain satisfactions. It is concluded that cognitive testing of PWI items in different translations will serve not only to appraise the validity of PWI ratings across cultures, but importantly also opens a window on what makes for a life of quality in a particular social setting.

Primary School-Going Children’s Understanding of HIV/AIDS: A Narrative Analysis

The aims of the study were to investigate how primary school-going children understand the HIV/ AIDS pandemic and the effect of HIV/AIDS on them. Children's narratives were obtained via four focus groups with a total of 36 children of primary school-going age (average age 7). The results of the study indicated that children's knowledge and awareness was generally adequate for their developmental age as described by Piaget's cognitive developmental theory. However, children from the urban area seemed to have a broader and more accurate knowledge of HIV/AIDS than their rural counterparts. Children from the rural areas also seemed to hold more myths about HIV/AIDS than those from the urban areas. Since parents were an important source of HIV/AIDS information as far as children were concerned, it was recommended that more HIV/AIDS educational programmes should target parents. Also, those involved in the design and implementation of HIV/AIDS educational programmes must ensure that they incorporate accurate and positive African traditional beliefs system.

Exploring Cultural Beliefs About “That Sickness”: Grandmothers' Explanations of HIV in an Urban South African Context

The role of culture in community beliefs about HIV is important to understand, given poor adherence to treatment and the failure of prevention programs in some contexts. An exploration of such models may yield important insight into barriers to care, treatment-seeking paths, and intergenerational differences in cultural beliefs and practices. Our study aimed to understand South African grandmothers' traditional beliefs about HIV. Three focus groups were conducted with 15 grandmothers from different cultural backgrounds in an urban community. Results indicated a variety of cultural explanations for causes, treatments, and prevention strategies. The lack of coherence and fluidity in opinions in this group suggests ways in which grandmothers may have a bridging role in the clinic that may help to validate and alleviate uncertainty, harmonize the voices of medicine and the lifeworld, and provide greater insight into people's ideas about health and treatment seeking, also known as the healthworld.

Plutarch’s Essay on Superstition as a Socio-Religious Perspective on Street Begging

Plutarch (c.46AD), in his work, Peri Deisidaimonia (On Superstition), presents a striking portrayal of superstition in the First Century. The Philosopher who also served for decades as a priest of Apollo portrays the pernicious effects of some supposed religious practices as worse than the outcome of atheism. His position constitutes a forceful explanation to ostensibly controversial socio-religious behaviours. This article discusses some of the priest’s concerns as well as his rebuff of religious attitudes that are borne out of what he describes as misrepresentation of the gods or superstition. Plutarch’s essay is seen as illustrating a reason for a socio-religious situation in Africa, a continent that shares a similar religious background with the world of the writer. Specifically, with the example of the hard fight against street begging in some parts of Nigeria, the article shows how social reform programmes could fail when effects of traditional African beliefs and cultural practices remain potent.

“The Devil Slapped on the Genitals”: Religion and Spirituality in Queer South Africans’ Lives

SummaryUniquely among African countries, South Africa's Bill of Rights offers civil protection to individuals on the basis of vectors of identity including sexuality, gender and religion. Public opinion, however, lags behind the ideals of the Constitution. Against this historical background, a range of books has recently appeared, giving expression to the interface between sexuality, culture and religion from the viewpoint of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people. These texts include autobiographical accounts in three books: Reclaiming the L-Word: Sappho's Daughters out in Africa (Diesel 2011a); Yes I Am!: Writing by South African Gay Men (Malan & Johaardien 2010); and Trans: Transgender Life Stories from South Africa (Morgan, Marais & Wellbeloved 2009). In this article I analyse the effects of autobiographical representations of spirituality and sexuality within different cultural contexts as represented in these books. I show the ways in which religions, including Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism and African traditional belief systems, can constrain the individual rights of sexually nonconforming believers, and I also reveal ways in which believers establish meaningful spiritual and intimate lives despite these tensions. Queer spiritual autobiographies validate the lives of LGBT people, and they also foster the renegotiation of public culture to permit social justice for all, regardless of sexuality or gender expression.

Albinism: a life of ambiguity – a Zimbabwean experience

I argue that people with albinism lived in ambiguity. I also assert that the double meaning happened because albinism was linked to water spirits and ascribed/notional celibacy. I also maintain that the biggest obstacle preventing people with albinism from taking full part in Zimbabwean society derives from African traditional religious myths and beliefs, which made them to live in ambiguity. These persist today and stigmatize people with albinism. I also assert that, viewed from the ritual murder and raping context, albinism was believed to bring good health, financial and material wealth, but when examined from the blemish context, people with albinism must be discriminated and killed because they were a curse to the community, for their presence result in natural calamities such as droughts and floods, human, animal and plant diseases and deaths. The research findings were that ambiguity in which people with albinism live was caused by the fact that albinism was linked to water spirits and ascribed celibacy. The research also found that the double meaning of albinism was fuelled by the occult market and a lack of scientific and technological development as well as by poverty and the failure of academic education to produce material prosperity.

Discordant Perspectives on Girl Fertility and Egg Donation in an African Context

The aim of the study was to assess the extent to which girl fertility and egg donation are understood in an African context. The study surveyed discordant ideas about girl fertility and egg donation in Africa. A survey of literature showed that girl fertility is largely understood from a cultural perspective in some African societies. There are various beliefs that surround girlhood and womanhood in Africa. The concept of egg donation is a fairly new phenomenon in African literature. It was revealed in this study that some of the girls in Africa embrace egg donation as a form of empowerment for girls and women who fail to conceive. It is argued in this study that the donation of eggs could be based on altruism and financial benefits. The study highlights some of the unethical practices that could be perpetuated by international egg donor agents and how girls and women could be exploited unknowingly. It is argued in this study that global forces in support of egg donation could have a domineering effect on traditional African beliefs that are against assisted reproductive technologies. The literature survey depicts the desire by egg donors to be in contact with their genetic children and the biological mothers. The controversy surrounding laws that prohibit contact between egg donors, receivers and children is discussed. Future studies can focus on laws on egg donation and rights of egg donors and embryos in Africa.

"You Must Know Where You Come From": South African Youths' Perceptions of Religion in Time of Social Change.

This study examined South African youths' perceptions of religion during a period of social and economic transition. In-depth interviews were conducted with 55 Black South African youth (age 18) living in the Johannesburg-Soweto metropolitan area. Data were analyzed in a manner consistent with grounded theory methodology and structural coding. Beliefs about the function of religion were captured by the following themes: provides support, connection to the past, moral compass, promotes healthy development, and intersections between African traditional practices and Christian beliefs. Themes are discussed and directions for future research are presented. In addition, applications of the current research and implications for promoting youths' resilience are offered.

Myths or theories? Alternative beliefs about HIV and AIDS in South African working class communities

Despite three decades of public health promotion based on the scientific explanation of HIV/AIDS, alternative explanations of the disease continue to circulate. While these are seen as counter-productive to health education efforts, what is rarely analysed is their plurality and their tenacity. This article analyses the ‘AIDS myths’ collected by African HIV/AIDS workplace peer educators during an action research project. These beliefs about HIV/AIDS are organised, in this article, around core ideas that form the basis of ‘folk’ and ‘lay theories’ of HIV/AIDS. These constitute non-scientific explanations of HIV/AIDS, with folk theories drawing on bodies of knowledge that are independent of HIV/AIDS while lay theories are generated in response to the disease. A categorisation of alternative beliefs about HIV/AIDS is presented which comprises three folk theories — African traditional beliefs, Christian theology, and racial conspiracy — and three lay theories, all focused on avoiding HIV infection. Using this schema, the article describes how the plausibility of these alternative theories of HIV/AIDS lies not in their scientific validity, but in the robustness of the core idea at the heart of each folk or lay theory. Folk and lay theories of HIV/AIDS are also often highly palatable in that they provide hope and comfort in terms of prevention, cure, and the allocation of blame. This study argue that there is coherence and value to these alternative HIV/AIDS beliefs which should not be dismissed as ignorance, idle speculation or simple misunderstandings. A serious engagement with folk and lay theories of HIV/AIDS helps explain the continued circulation of alternative beliefs of HIV/AIDS and the slow uptake of behavioural change messages around the disease.

Double Personality: The Relationship between Human and Animal Tono in Chautengo, Guerrero, Mexico in 2005

AbstractAfter reading the research of Mexican anthropologists concerning the possible retention of traditional indigenous African beliefs in contemporary Mexican communities of African descent, I interviewed women of the region who migrated to Atlanta, Georgia about their spiritual beliefs and practices. I was surprised by the similarities in their reports to those recorded by Gonzalo Aguirre Beltran, who worked in Mexico over 60 years ago. I traveled to the town of Chautengo in coastal Guerrero state in 2005 to talk with women about their beliefs, especially those that relate to the existence of a relationship between humans and animal‐tonos. The human–animal‐tono relationship exemplifies a belief in an intimate relationship between humans and totem animals. The well‐being of the human partner depends upon the well‐being of the animal. Keeping the human–animal relationship balanced is key in the conceptualization of illness and informs related healing practices. I present an interview with a woman from Chautengo with an interpretation that exemplifies the persistence of ideas related to human–animal relationships that are possibly informed by traditional indigenous African cosmologies, brought by enslaved Africans over 500 years ago, and have been archetypally preserved in isolated communities along the Pacific coast of Mexico.

Locating Context in Counselling: The Development of Indigenous Psychology in South Africa

This article attempts to foreground the role played by the local context in influencing the development of Indigenous Psychology. The development of psychology in South Africa is discussed in relation to global trends and models that describe the developmental process of any Indigenous Psychology. This discussion is illustrated with reference to the impact of African traditional beliefs on the psychological wellbeing of the indigenous people of South Africa, and the impact of not taking local context into consideration when conducting counselling; and to a particular research study conducted under the author's supervision. In terms of developing a South African Indigenous Psychology, the article concludes by outlining certain shifts necessary in order to move towards, in Azuma's model, indigenisation and integration. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Water and space: Unraveling meaning in the weavings of Allina Ndebele

For more than three decades, artist-weaver Allina Ndebele has drawn on traditional Zulu symbolism and thought systems as inspiration for her work. She began her career as a trainee nurse in a Swedish mission environment at Ceza, KwaZulu-Natal, in the early 1960s, during an era when restrictions on traditional African beliefs and practices were being challenged by some enlightened missionaries. Ndebele then learned weaving from Ulla Gowenius, a Swedish art school graduate. She was encouraged by Ulla's husband, Peder Gowenius, to draw on African and personal themes, in a narrative, ‘free weaving’ style in the few such weavings she made at this early stage of her career. Later, when starting out on her own as a professional artist working independently from the weaving workshop at the Evangelical Lutheran Church Art and Craft Centre, Rorke's Drift—which she had helped the Goweniuses establish in 1963—Ndebele experienced a crisis of uncertainty in her choice of subject matter. When she subsequently gave herself licence to draw on the traditional stories her grandmother used to tell during her childhood the dilemma was resolved, albeit that the themes were considered transgressive in the mission environment in which her family lived. These accounts became an ongoing source of inspiration for Ndebele's intuitive ‘free weaving’ works for some thirty years. This essay explores some of the layers of reference and interpretation in two of the concepts that appear repeatedly in Ndebele's iconography: ‘living water’ and the ‘ordered homestead’. In the form of rain that falls from heaven, runs in streams, fills rivers and collects in pools, ‘living water’ emanates from the munificence of the great god in the sky, uMvelinqangi, fertilising the earth and making all forms of life possible. A further sense of prosperity is denoted by the ordered Zulu homestead, with its dwellings arranged around the central cattle kraal. These animals are markers of economic wellbeing and serve as spiritual links with the ancestors. Conversely, the absence of these fundamental resources, and the consequences thereof, are played out in this work.