How is this God to be approached? He is to be approached directly and indirectly only through his chosen priests. Libations or prayers are the only supplications acceptable. And they are made by his chosen priests in traditional rituals and ceremonies. The priest becomes the keeper of the welfare of the people and subsequently is entrusted with the sacred rituals of worship. The African, therefore does not need to prove the existence of God to anyone. God is self existing and needs no proof. His existence is self-evident and even children know by instinct that the Great One exists. There is a proverb that says, “No one points out the Great One to a child.” This God then is given regular and direct worship at regular intervals and the calendar is kept by dedicated priests. However, there is continuous indirect worship on a daily basis through the divinities and ancestors at all times during the day by each family and individual. The ritual altars in the African villages are the indigenous peoples’ way of reaching out and praising the Great Creator. To the Africans they are the boundary between heaven and earth, between life and death, between the ordinary and the world of the spirit. The constant pouring of drink, food and sacrificial animal blood makes them sacred and no one would dare abuse them. Some altars are simple, especially the ones in homes, but some communities and villages have communal altars for the entire village as vehicles for channeling the positive forces from the Great one and the ancestors to the whole community.
These are some of the components of the traditional beliefs that the Africans who were brought to the Americas as slaves brought with them. They arrived in this hemisphere with the cultural imprint of the traditions of their elders, and what they retained in fact or symbol is the very essence of contemporary black spirituality. Thus there are many common and latent traditions and cultural behaviors among contemporary African Americans that could be derived from the traditional African beliefs and religious systems. Religion today plays such an important part of the contemporary African America’s life that it would be hard to ignore the vestiges of African tribal life. Indeed today, in spite of the hurt and suffering, the denial of the existence of Black Americans, the denial of equality in all aspects of American life, the Black church is still the only viable social institution which is dominated, operated, and totally controlled by African Americans. It is a tribal instinct which has survived years of change and abuse. The Priest Leader and spokesperson is still the Black Preacher. The intense need to be free motivated African Americans to adapt their Christianity to the African way of life and the tradition continues today. The African traditional religious life has always considered all life to be the sphere of the Almighty, the powerful (the Otumfoo), the Omnipotent (Gye Nyame). He is wise, and all seeing and all knowing. He is the Great Spider (Ananse Kokroko), and the Ancient of Days (Odomankoma).
In the private and public life of the African religious rites, beliefs, and rituals are conssidered an integral part of life. Life then is never complete unless it is seen always in its entirety. Religious beliefs are found in everyday life and no distinction is made between the sacred and the secular. The sacred and the secular are merged in the total persona of the individual African. Life is not divided into compartments or divisions. Thus there are no special times for worship, for everyday and every hour is worship time. There are no creeds written down because through the traditions of the Elders all creeds and functions are carried in the individual’s heart. Each individual by his very nature and life style is a living creed from the time one rises until one retires at night. An understanding of the basic nature of the African religious tradition surely illuminates the meaning of spirituality in the contemporary African American church.
In the Black Church to be full of the Holy Spirit is being filled with such inspiration that one can feel as it were the breath of God. It gives one power to do the impossible. In contemporary language it enables some to “do great things for God,” to even love your neighbor though that neighbor may be your enemy or your oppressor. The Holy Spirit does not free one from pGet Laid Children And Divorce Femaledancerblonde Female Blonde Es Go Rays Hair Shop Female Dancer Blonde YJHM: Rev. Peter Eric Adotey Addo, "Origins Of African American Spiritualism"v Youtube mGet Laid Children And Divorce Femaledancerblonde Female Blonde Es Go Rays Hair Shop Female Dancer Blonde YJHM: Rev. Peter Eric Adotey Addo, "Origins Of African American Spiritualism"c w Blonde