Africism:
A Geo-Ontological ApproachFor many years, the religious and thought system of
Africa was perceived through the highly subjective
and often contemptuous lenses of outsiders and
failed to reflect the African reality correctly. The
geo-ontological approach has as its goal the ade-
quate naming of African religion and philosophy,
the concepts behind the religious and thought
system that is indigenous to Africa.
The components of the termgeo-ontologicalare
the prefixgeo–, which means “Earth,” andonto-
logical, an adjectival form of “ontology,” the
branch of philosophy that studies the nature of
being or existence. A geo-ontological approach to
the naming of the religious and thought system of
Africa, therefore, means naming it on the basis of
the origin and relationship of its being, within the
context of its geographical reference point. A name
is a point of identification for the bearer of the
name. Africism reflects a geographical belonging-
ness to Africa because this is where the religious
and thought system of concern here originates.
An etymologically clarifying note about Africa
may be helpful. Africa is the name of the conti-
nent. It is derived from the people of North
Africa, whose name wasAfer(sing.)/Afri(plur.).
After the homeland of theAfriwas colonialized
by the Romans in 146 BC. the name of the home-
land was changed from Carthage to Africa to
mean “the land of theAfri.”Afric– stood as the
root word to which suffixes are added to deter-
mine the meaning. The suffix –ca added to Afri–
results interra Africa, that is, “land of theAfri.”
Originally, Africasignified what today is called
the former Roman province in North Africa. In
the course of time, through metonymy, the figure
of speech consisting of the use of the name of a
part for the whole thing, the term Africa was
applied for the whole continent of Africa.
Similarly, the suffix –ismcan be added to the
root wordafric–. Linguistically, it is sound to
employ the suffix –ismin forming the name of a
system, of a theory, or of a practice that can be
religious, ecclesiastical, and philosophical
depending on the situation at hand. Thus, the
termAfricismwas coined. It is an umbrella term
that, by essence, represents the oneness of African
religion, as manifested in the diverse religious
expressions observed in Africa.
Salient Features of Africism
The salient features of Africism include concepts
about the Supreme Being, suprahuman beings,
human beings, and the universe. They are the
springboard from which a substantive reflection
on Africism is made.The Supreme Being
In Africism, God is the Supreme Being. This
supremacy is recognized through the numerous
African primary sources that, from time immemo-
rial, have consistently been handed down, in
African folklore, from generation to generation.
Until the globalization of literacy started taking
effect in Africa, most Africans depended primarily
on oral methods and visual texts to convey and
transmit knowledge about their religious and
thought system. The end result of all this was the
promotion of African sagacity and sages.
Within the context of Africist authenticity, a sage
is a person whose upbringing qualifies him or her
to be regarded as an educated person. The two
main ingredients expected to be found in such a
personality are religion and wisdom, which have
been acquired through the oral depository of
African mythology, legends, proverbs, riddles, tales,
songs, names, artfulness, ritualistic performances,
and so on. Out of such cultural storehouse,
Africans have drawn conclusions that have directed
them to the sensing of the hierarchical orderliness
around them. They have identified the source and
origin of such orderliness to be what they regard as
the Supreme Being above which there is no other
being. In Africism, the Supreme Being is the pyra-
midal apex of the African concept of God.
However, this one God is known by many
names, according to the cultural peculiarities of
African peoples. The many names by which
Africans express themselves about the uniquely one
Supreme Being do not, in any way, turn their under-
standing of the Supreme Being into many Supreme
Beings. Here the concept of the Supreme Being
enjoys the unity of essence, on the one hand, while
it entertains the diversity of the manifestations of the
names, on the other hand. By unity, the Supreme
Being is expressive of Monotheism in the religious
and thought system of Africa. Because monotheism
is the recognition of the existence of one God, so,
Africism is a monotheistic religion.12 Africism