Book contents
- The Cambridge History of Atheism
- The Cambridge History of Atheism
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Contributors
- Introduction
- Part I Preliminaries
- Part II Atheisms in History
- Part III Reformation, Renaissance, Enlightenment
- Part IV Classical Modernity: Philosophical and Scientific Currents
- Part V Classical Modernity: Social and Political Currents
- Part VI Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries: Intellectual and Artistic Currents
- Part VII Lived Atheism in the Twentieth- and Twenty-First Centuries: Case-Studies
- 42 Latin America
- 43 The Road to Modern China
- 44 Contemporary China
- 45 Atheism in India: Twentieth Century and Beyond
- 46 The Soviet Union
- 47 Modern Germany
- 48 The Nordic and Baltic Countries
- 49 United States
- 50 The Pacific Northwest
- 51 Tunisia
- 52 Southern Africa
- 53 Traditional Societies
- Part VIII Emerging Atheisms in the Twenty-First Century
- Part IX Conclusion
- Index
- References
52 - Southern Africa
from Part VII - Lived Atheism in the Twentieth- and Twenty-First Centuries: Case-Studies
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 September 2021
Book contents
- The Cambridge History of Atheism
- The Cambridge History of Atheism
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Contributors
- Introduction
- Part I Preliminaries
- Part II Atheisms in History
- Part III Reformation, Renaissance, Enlightenment
- Part IV Classical Modernity: Philosophical and Scientific Currents
- Part V Classical Modernity: Social and Political Currents
- Part VI Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries: Intellectual and Artistic Currents
- Part VII Lived Atheism in the Twentieth- and Twenty-First Centuries: Case-Studies
- 42 Latin America
- 43 The Road to Modern China
- 44 Contemporary China
- 45 Atheism in India: Twentieth Century and Beyond
- 46 The Soviet Union
- 47 Modern Germany
- 48 The Nordic and Baltic Countries
- 49 United States
- 50 The Pacific Northwest
- 51 Tunisia
- 52 Southern Africa
- 53 Traditional Societies
- Part VIII Emerging Atheisms in the Twenty-First Century
- Part IX Conclusion
- Index
- References
Summary
The cultural and intellectual history of Africa rarely mentions atheism as being and living in Africa. Frequently, what is emphasized is the notoriety and inevitability of belief and its diverse performances in the form of rituals and deities and practices related to human attempts at appeasing and manipulating their assumed powers (Parrinder 1954; Mbiti 2015). However, atheism and its culturally informed performances are diffused in (southern) Africa. This is a core claim of Okot p’Bitek in his disagreement with Mbiti’s thesis on the notoriety of African religiosity: Africans make fun or jokes about the gods; sometimes what may seem a religious performance is in reality a religious ridicule of the deities. In fact, some performances – such as oracle consultation and divination, the choice of a new king, or the cause of death or disease in a community – that are considered acts of God are human acts disguised as God’s.
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- The Cambridge History of Atheism , pp. 971 - 981Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021
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