religion and morality and then looks at particular
ways that reverence is shown. It concludes with an
examination of how ancestor devotion influences
ideas about death and dying.
Veneration Is FundamentalThe veneration of the ancestors is a fundamental
part of African religion. There is a clear reason
for such veneration. The ancestors are respected
and venerated because they are elders and have
walked the path that living people will walk.
They are predecessors to all of those who are liv-
ing and are in a spiritual state of existence that
gives them power to assist those who are living.
People have believed for a long time that the rit-
ualized propitiation and invocation of ancestors
could influence the fate of the living. This is a
belief and practice that has been brought to a
complex and elaborated level by thousands of
years of African thinking.
Indeed, ancestors serve the living as the living
beings serve them. Ancestors assist the living in
court cases, in marriage, in mediations between
family members, and in health situations; in
return, the living offer ceremonies to feed the
ancestors. Libations are usually offered through
drink or food because the ancestors are believed to
continue to live as they did when they were on the
Earth. Thus, even in their spiritual state, they need
to have sustenance. Offerings may be granted to
them individually or collectively or by religious
officials who perform on festival occasions.
Everything in life that matters to the order and
harmony of society must be approached through
the ancestors. This means that in African reli-
gion, there is always ancestral priority, presence,
and power. The ancestral spirits are the most
intimate divinities and must be consulted on
important occasions. This is the reason that
Africans regard the ancestors as the keepers of
morality. One of the ways descendants of the
ancestor maintain a balanced society is by avoid-
ing the activities that were considered immoral
by the ancestor. The living must do everything
they can to avoid leaving the moral path laid
down by the departed ancestors. If someone vio-
lates the moral path, then it is possible that the
ancestors might bring about sudden death.
The social fabric of the African community is
woven together by ancestor reverence. It is the
source of many domestic and institutional rela-
tionships. Therefore, it is necessary to explain that
it is not merely a reflection of the supernatural
world; it is the only world lived in by many
Africans. Thus, the manner of reverence among
African people is relatively similar, which makes it
possible to speak of the commonalities of ancestor
reverence among Africans.The Descent Line
The descent line is the basic structural component
for all groups who practice ancestor reverence.
People know whom they owe reverence by know-
ing to whom they belong. Constant ritualizing of
the First Ancestors helps to reinforce the appreci-
ation for a particular descent group. Sometimes
the main descent group can be augmented by
other ethnic or clan groups. For instance, the
Ndebele people of Zimbabwe were originally a
royal clan related to the Zulu of South Africa, but
during their migration and conquest northward
out of South Africa, they acquired new clans and
ethnic groups who now appropriate some of the
same ancestors.
Among many African people, the descent is
through the mother—that is, matrilineal. In that
case, many of the ancestors to be revered would
come from the matrilineal side of the family. The
husband would be a part of the family by virtue of
his marriage to the direct descendant. In some
cases, the husband may also revere the ancestors
of his father. The idea is that the ancestor revered
must be within the family structure. If the kinship
structure is patrilineal, this means that the ances-
tors are from the father’s side, and because of legal
affinities, the wife may participate in the reverence
as a member of the family.
African religion is preeminently a religion of
reverence for the ancestors. The Swazi king
appeals to the ancestors on behalf of the nation,
showing himself to be the chief priest. The pattern
of royal intercession is followed by many other
African groups. What is also common and exten-
sively practiced is sacrifice, which always implies
obligation. Kofi Asare Opoku, a major African
scholar on religion, has written extensively on theAncestors 47