Tenth International Conference on Religion & Spirituality in Society

Abstract

Ancestors constitute the essential link in the cycle that never breaks within indigenous religious framework. Ancestors are the “living dead” that continue to police the society and maintain the historical memories of lineages and families. This paper examines the role of ancestors in African Traditional Religions, especially in terms of how they relate to human ethical responsibilities. In these religious traditions, ancestral veneration is a powerful way to connect both the visible and the invisible realities within African sacred cosmos. In a cosmos that is replete with powerful spiritual forces, ancestors also preserve religious and communal memories. I submit that sustained narratives concerning ecological concerns and challenges in many African contexts must seriously grapple with the enduring contributions of the ancestors. Ancestral rites undergird certain aspects of indigenous epistemology concerning the environment, nature, and ethics.