AFRICAN MAGIC AND SORCERY

magic has always been seen as the manipulation of the physical world which involves incantations to bring about a desired outcome or effect on the body of an estate or harms on a fellow human being.
magic are basically distinguish in two broad ways, either according how harmful or beneficial the outcome of magic can be.
*when the out come of magic is beneficial it is known as 'white magic' in the language of anthropology.it is an expression of the common usage of magic,the individual uses it for the benefit of others,to heal,to cure diseases and to ward of harms and danger,likewise using it to gain wealth.
*when magic is used to do harm or cause harm it is known as 'black magic' in anthropology it is called sorcery because its involves the employment of objects to cause harm to people.
 black magic makes use of two principle :
1.the principle of sympathetic magic,meaning like beget likes
2.the principle of contagious magic,meaning a part affecting a whole for instance when a a part of what  an individual makes use of is manipulated for example a lady sanitary pad can be manipulated with the use of magic to stop her from getting pregnant.
in understanding African magic there has always been a great deal of literature and at the same time a great deal of falsifications,prejudice and ignorance . such ignorance is made up of two camps !
.firstly it is made up of a large camp,those whose ignorance,false ideas and exaggerations has be little the whole concept of mystical power
.second view are made up African scholars who seriously considers African fears,uses and the manipulation of African fears.

An image of a typical African voodoo man.

IN REALITY most of these distortion came from the mostly the Europeans and American writers,missionaries and formal colonial administrators most of them who grew up in African environment have perchance experienced this mystical powers in form of magic,divination and sorcery and most times in forms of witchcraft which i will talk more on in my next post, for them they have all seen this in effect and thus defies scientific explanation,,for instance an account was in 1962 by a man named Mr Neal,who was then a British investigation officer in Ghana then,he told a story to an anthropologist that during his teen age back then,when he was growing up in a village then about how they witnessed a locust invasion in every bodies farm in that community except the farm of one elderly woman who had previous burnt an anti-locust medicine around her farm land which automatically secured her field from such locust invasion,thus this was a mystical power and no body was able to explain it.although he later sought and fought such power but ended up sorting and seeking refuge in such same power as an European ironically we may say its seems weird but of a truth such power still and does exit in African only an experience will further expose us to such fact.sign up to my blog for more of this in my subsequent post thanks and i hope to see your comments.

religion as a belief system:The cosmology of African religion

religious belief system it is seen as a system of belief and practices organized around the existence of a supernatural power. the belief by humans is that we have two dimension of religion. they include:
1.supernatural beings(our ancestors)
2.supernatural force(deities)
*Supernatural forces: they are seen as forces that controls the universe according to the belief in African mythology they are seen as principles and forces located in the metaphysical world which awaits to be used by humans who harnesses them and thus they end up assuming a function according to the individual launching it.a good number of forces are witchcraft,magic and sorcery
*Supernatural being: they are those supernatural beings presume to posses human like qualities such as bodily form,appetite,feelings,while it is also believed that in Greek mythology that those supernatural beings can as well marry,eat and die.these supernatural forces have a will and a purposeful principles and they can also make demands on humans,they favor those who do their will and punishes those who disobey their rules.example,the Greek who believe in gods like Oedipus
 The universe of the African religious belief comprises of the supernaturals. the mountain is not just a mountain but it is either a deity or the apple of a deity,there is a sun but a closer look will review is not a heavenly body but its a deity.the head in the religious cosmology is not just the head,it symbolizes a destiny.they worship only one supreme God,beneath God u would now find deities and ancestors...for instance their are oluku small god, ogun small god,Amadioha small god,e.t.c             The view of the world from an African religious cosmology it is believed that universe is divided into two part,the metaphysical and the physical and they are located in the same lane.
it is believe that man goes through a transition into this world from metaphysical to the physical.in the metaphysical realm it is believe that what ever one says or do will surely come to pass in the physical,that is to say what ever happens in the metaphysical(meaning spiritual realm/world) will also happen in the physical world.destinies are predicted here,when one is given birth to it is assumed that he/she has a predestined life to live in the physical world,so what ever happens here automatically affect the individual in the physical world and no forces or whatsoever dimension can stop it. while it is also believed that supernatural powers are all found in the metaphysical world.
in conclusion the metaphysical world are just a product of the human mind,it can not been seen but it is based on how we perceive and belief about it. thanks i do hope to hear some comments from you my readers..

belief system: capitalism as a belief system

As we have red from my previous post,capitalism is another type of belief system which i would like to deliberate on this post,,capitalism which we all know has to do with ownership of the means of production of goods and services by a sole entity,its also a situation were by some individuals are in control of the majority of the scares resources which are often used for production activities. having gotten an understanding of what these means,we can deduce that its all a form of sole enterprise and management ventures were people are obliged to work and own an entity that they could call their own.interestingly also there are things we can often found in it universe,things like material and social resources.their world is built around such two vices. most importantly also there are two major categories of people we often see in this same universe.
 below are some diagram and images i was able to extract from some of it sources.

diagram source from www.philosophers forchange.org

diagram source from www.newleftreview.org

 

1. those who control productive resources: few people are often found in this class,they control the means of social,political and economic activities of the capitalist universe majorly it could be as a result of inheriting such wealth or they acquired it through hard work which could be through decent way or it could also be the other way round which are not legal.they are likewise tagged as the holders of the economic power because who ever is in control of this is un arguable the controller of the productive activities of a nation,they have the powers to protect them self,further their interest and deprive others from accessing most of this useful resources because they are in control
2.while it is also made up of those that doesn't have:these are people with little,limited or no access to productive resources whom are often the majority of the population in a particular place and are deprive of such resources because of it being under the control of the minority . such people are often known as the workers,the peasant e.t.c . they are left in dire mercy at times,they are usually bullied and left to suffer in poverty. thus having discussed about the various group of people living side by side in this capitalist environment,we would also discover that as a result of all this fracas and continue marginalization and deprivation of the majority by few dominant minority who are in charge of these resources,as such continues there are bond to be conflict,such conflict may include ethnic strive,marginalization,inequality and exploitation. such conflict often arises as a result of perceived deprivation and when such groups perceives that they are not only deprived but oppressed they tend to form a group which 'Karl Marx' one of the fathers of capitalist society calls it class for itself,and when they recognize that they are being oppressed by a group they further metamorphose into class for themselves and later on when they start fighting because with those that are oppressing them it will now be seen as class struggle(the antagonist fighting the perceived protagonist) further down th e line ,when such class struggles continues and without no resourceful mediation by a third part or likewise a tangible agreement by two parties as regards to a stop to such conflict it would now become a revolution(a situation were by the parties on ground are removed and being subsequently replaced by a new party). this are all the make up of a capitalist society..