Even now I hesitate to use the term “African ancestor worship”
without worrying about legitimate concerns that I might be
denigrating African religions, for the practice I am about to describe
has been so maligned in the West that even African scholars
apologize when they use the term. The Christian African theologian
John Mbiti warns us that in traditional West African societies,
Africans do not worship their ancestors. Rather, they believe that
when a person passes (and this phrase is important, as it is still
consistently used by African Americans), that is, “dies,” in the
Western sense, they do not disappear as long as someone remembers
them, their name, their character. Mbiti states: “So long as
the living dead is thus remembered, he is in the state of personal
immortality” (32). The acts of feeding the dead and pouring libations
are meant as symbols, active symbols of communion, fellowship,
and renewal. Thus continuity, not only of genes but also
of active remembering, is critical to a West African’s sense of her
or his own personal being and, beyond that, of the beingness of
the group.
(Source: howtobeterrell, via ariyfa)
