The Revival of African Spiritualities: A Religious Basis for a Sociopolitical Renaissance in Africa

The Revival of African Spiritualities—The Need

The indigenous spiritualities in Africa which were thought forgotten as part of the effects of aggressive Christianity are now gaining interest among Africans for various reasons, sometimes within a Christian framework and other times as anti-Christian phenomena. These spiritualities, despite their spread, seem to be undermined when compared with the Asian spiritualities.

First, few academic works address these spiritualities and their relevance to the African continent. Fewer have addressed African spiritualities as religious corpuses on their own, with as much relevance as the so-called “world religions.” The Afro-Caribbean spiritualities are mostly treated under the historical context of slavery or sociology. African academia is not yet independent-minded enough to form an “intelligentsia that understands the threat to Africa, and is committed to Africa.” ⁴ It has been so negligible that Europe has been speaking in its name.

Second, the values of these spiritualities are not yet manifested in Africa to any remarkable extent. There are still questions, ranging from politics to economics, which seem more existential and cogent to bother Africans, than the question of African spiritualities. This article intends to explain that the future of an Africa that can address the existential burdens of the continent is fundamentally knitted to the various spiritualities in Africa. The spiritualities give an African pivot to the solutions being proffered to the political and economic quagmire of the continent since its fateful 15th/16th-century contact with the European world. “This means that Africa must interrogate its own past for values that might be used for a renaissance.” ⁵ These values are embedded no more clearly than in the traditional spiritualities that constructed the cultures, societies, habits, orientations, and worldviews of Africans as a people. To address Africa rightly, one has to address the spiritualities that defined Africa in toto.

Mazama sees this century as an African century, given the political and economic interests of Asia and Europe in the continent. In his popular view, Africa is domesticating the future and hope of the world. ⁶ If one considers the ecological perspectives over unchartered territories, economic potentials, viable youthful manpower, natural resources, and so on, then Africa must become progressively discursive on the global platform. Since “indigenous traditions and cultures continue to play important roles in forming and refashioning world cultures, beliefs, and identities of the modern nation-state,” ⁷ then the “African century” can only be realized if Africans interrogate the values and cultures their indigenous spiritualities provide.

But then, what is “African spirituality”?

Understanding African Spiritualities

It is by now obvious that the term “African spiritualities” is used in this article instead of “African spirituality,” like many other scholars do. The reasons for this are to avoid the problem of oversimplification of Africa and to respect the difference in the spiritualities of different communities. The tendency to oversimplify many issues concerning the continent of Africa extends also to the continent’s religious/spiritual identities. Through Afro-simplification, a degrading, irrelevant undertone erodes the richness and importance of the multifariousness from this continent.

The religious-spiritual commitments which generate from Africa are diverse. Among the Igbos, for instance, there are so many deities and oracles. Individuals have their Chi and families have their shrines, usually by an Oha tree (Pterocarpus soyanxii) at one corner of the compounds, consulted daily, demanded from, and reported to by the head of the family. ⁸ Then villages/communities have also their own deities, which they name and identify with.

“Traditional religions are not universal: they are tribal or national. Each religion is bound and limited to the people among whom it has evolved. Traditional religions have no missionaries to propagate them; and one individual does not preach his religion to another . . . there is no conversion from one traditional religion to another.” ⁹ It appears, therefore, to someone who has experienced the varieties of these spiritualities, too simplistic when these innumerable mundane-spiritual approaches of a whole continent are reduced to a singular concept: “African Spirituality.”

Olupona argues further that there is a sense in which the simplification of religious Africa was part of the diffusionist ideology which denied Africans the capacity to have produced any meaningful, sophisticated religious traditions, and attributed any such sophisticated traditions to have migrated from the great Mediterranean centers of civilization. ¹⁰ Another argument is that it started with the Christian theologians and missionaries who oversimplified African spiritualities by emphasizing on the similarities, in the interests of Christian missionization. ¹¹

Yes, there are similarities common to these religious/spiritual approaches from Africa. The unicity of the pantheon, especially under one, supreme creator, who is related to by humans through the deities and ancestors, ¹² is an example of the similarities. This is what Magesa meant by “varieties in African Religion must not be taken to mean a diversity of fundamental belief . . . to conclude that there is therefore no internal, essential unity in the various expressions of African Religion is to exaggerate.” ¹³ But the “internal unity” does not imply that the deities or their spiritualities are the same. To an ancestral traditionalist, considering all the spiritualities as one seems senseless. “Some writers perhaps do not appreciate how jarring it could be to the ear of an Igbo to refer to the deities or the Arusi, nature spirits, as gods. Understandably, the claim of God’s unicity becomes very perplexing when one considers the large numbers of these Arusi . . . But this presents no difficulty to the Igbo.” ¹⁴ “African spiritualities” is also used here instead of “African religions” because “spirituality” has become the preferred term among the academia, as almost an opposing concept to “religion.” Since the general concept of religion seems to be rigid over the structural differences among religions and overladen with Western influence in its conceptualization, ¹⁵ “spirituality” especially when nonpopular world religions are involved, seems more fitting.

“Interestingly, religion is often associated with ‘negative’ qualities (e.g., it is dogmatic and may lead to fundamentalist behaviours), whereas spirituality is more positively connoted (e.g., it may lead to expanded self-awareness).” ¹⁶ Hence we use “African Spiritualities” as a generic term bearing in mind that the differences and commonalities of African spiritualities reflect the complexity of African monotheism. The true nature of an African spirituality is thus ambivalent; inclusive and yet exclusive, accommodative but distinctive, involving but not missionary or against the other. ¹⁷

There are three major concepts in understanding African spiritualities for a renaissance of Africa:

Beneath the religious expressions of a distinctive group of people lies a spiritual-cultural disposition which forms the people’s religiousness. In this concept, an African spirituality is that spiritual-cultural disposition, that spiritual consciousness that lies beneath any religious expressions.

For instance, “Africanization of Christianity” is used to express the distinctive Christian religiosity of African people in contrast to the Western Christians or Asian Christians. ¹⁸ This is shown in the different understandings of Christianity, from styles of worship to church teachings, found in the Pentecostal churches of African communities in contrast to the Orthodox churches in the European communities. The Pentecostal style of worshipping, preaching, and praying of the African Christians reflect that spiritual-cultural disposition in them. ¹⁹

Also, even in the Orthodox churches in Africa, Christianity is normalizing the charismatic/Pentecostal mode of worship which is more vibrant and expressive than the former solemn mode of liturgy transmitted by the missionaries. ²⁰ These Orthodox Christians, nonetheless, identify themselves proudly with their Orthodox denominations. But it would seem that African cultural spirituality in them is more fundamental than the religion they identify with. Rather than distorting their Christianity, it enlivens it more. So, a Christian can be emphatic of his or her African spirituality in his or her forms of worship and devotion to Christ. ²¹

Hence, “the dominant features of West African Christianity reflect ancestral religious roots.” ²² The people are wholly Christians, but underneath their Christianity is an African spirituality, not as an autonomous religion but a spiritual-cultural disposition which can express itself in any religion.

As an ideology, African spirituality is that energy that binds the community together. Growing up as an Igbo, Christianity was the norm, the standard of religiosity. But there were few occasions when we had the privilege to witness the relevance of our community ancestral spirituality. Despite the fact that Christians were not very respectful of the deity and its servants, yet the servants of the deity saw themselves as servants of the entire community. When issues that needed their attention arose, like on the feast day of the deity, or a serious accusation needed rectification, or an abomination needed cleansing and the gods needed to be pacified, then they perform sacrifices for the good of the entire community, regardless of the diversity that was already pitting the Christians against them. One thing was obvious, the community ancestral spirituality was not just a spiritual/religious ritualistic phenomenon of some people, but an ideological bond of unity and identity holding all members of the community together.

African spirituality is also the spirit that sustains the sincere efforts to realize a better identity. This spirit is the willingness to defend and restore Africa. African academia, artists and various institutions reflect the love in this spirit in their efforts to restore Africa. Asante argues thus: “We must not allow those who have for nearly five centuries been the engineers of our despair, the architects of our disorientation, and the designers of our mis-education, to continue their assaults on our ancestors, traditions, morality, ethics, and values.” ²³

This spirit supported the struggles of the ill-fated Africans who were victims of the slave trade. It also sustained their adaptation in the diaspora, expressed in the Afro-Caribbean spiritualties. From a sympathy to this past that indicted Christianity and an aversion to Westernism, this spirit is ideologized into a strong motivation for the revival of African spiritualities. It is the “close association between missionary efforts and the colonial enterprise that has led to the emergence of a hostile African intellectual opinion against Christianity.” ²⁴

As an ideology “African spirituality” wins supportive sympathy for Afrocentric projects and groups. Such groups organize awareness programs for African consciousness. There is the 25th of March international annual day for the victims of slavery. There is also the annual Remembrance Day on Coney Island in Brooklyn, NY, remembering the slaves who died at sea. In the United Kingdom, another annual event, known as the Black History Walk, takes place; its observance includes remembrances of the victims of slavery’s inhumane treatment and an educational program on Africa’s role in the development of Europe’s economic power. ²⁵

African spirituality thus becomes an ideology for anti-Western religiosity and racial grievance against the people and institutions responsible for the abuse of Africa. It becomes a consciousness of freedom, pioneered by people whose intentions are far from anything spiritual or religious. ²⁶

African spirituality, in this sense, is understood as a religious corpus per se, a specific religion like Christianity or Islam, a unique form of mundane–transcendent relationship of African origin with its rituals and ordinances, where one can be an adherent to a particular spirituality of a deity. One who identifies wholly with it shows primary allegiance to the spirituality.

In this sense, “many contemporary African scholars describe a distinct monotheism at the heart of African traditional religions.” ²⁷ They understand “African spirituality” not as a mere ideology or non-ritualistic, non-systematic phenomenon, but rather as a complete and unique form of religiosity which predates racial distinctions and abuses. Mbiti cautions that “the God described in the Bible is none other than the God who is already known in the framework of our traditional African religiosity. The missionaries who introduced the gospel to Africa in the past 200 years did not bring God to our continent. Instead, God brought them.” ²⁸

The adherents of African spirituality would generally characterize it as:

Whether as a deeper spiritual-cultural value, or as an Afrocentric ideology, or as a unique form of religiosity, the concepts show that “African spirituality” is the root of all existential meanings for Africans. It is that anima that enlivens the totality of life of the African without which the African cannot live. Even more, it is the life compass without which he or she cannot live right, either politically, socially, or economically. When cut off from this root, he or she withers.

Positive Afrocentrism

When visible colonization started waning, a strong ideology of Afrocentrism was in trend. “Afrocentricity is a quality of thought or action that allows the African person to view himself or herself as an agent and actor in human history.” ³¹ It was the intellectual, physical, and psychological movement that struggled to bring forth the Africanness that has been obscured and subdued by European imperialism. This ideology was intended to counter the sullen, negative image of the black person against the attempt to justify the project of his or her dehumanization. ³² Now, this pride consciousness in Africa has been promoted from academics to basic things like music, hairstyle, modes of attire, and cuisine.

This is reflected also in the reintroduction of “African spirituality” in a positive light. It “is by no means, a faith dedicated to working evil,” ³³ nor the dark, secret, bloody religion dealing on evil charms and curses. To promote African spirituality, the notion of “Black Magic” as evil or hurtful because it is termed “black”/African, has to be expunged. African spirituality is now communicated as a spirituality of freedom and meditation, empowering one to be in control of one’s spiritual life. This trend of Afrocentrism contributes to the revival of African spiritualities.

Searching for the African Identity

Olupona was once asked, What would Africans lose if they lose African spirituality? He replied, “We would lose a worldview that has collectively sustained, enriched, and given meaning to a continent and numerous other societies for centuries through its epistemology, metaphysics, history, and practices.” ³⁴ In other words, Africa will lose its identity. The question of Africans regaining their identity has been a major topic of the 20th century across interdisciplinary academia. In theology, it was the question of inculturation (Charles Nyamiti). In philosophy, it was the question of African hermeneutics (Theophilus Okere). In sociology, it was the question of cultural and linguistic heritage (Molefi Keke Asante).

The 15th/16th-century slavery encounter with the “whiteman” caused a monumental loss of identity. Bristol argues that without discarding the Catholic practices of the society in which they found themselves, the African slaves turned to their traditional spirituality as a way of “dealing with the hardships and disruptions inherent in their slave life.” ³⁵ Hence, the Afro-Caribbean spiritualities were created.

The Africans in Africa, on the other hand, had to deal with the slow and systematic loss of identity through colonization and missionization. Considering that from the academic level, where a thought-structure must be accepted in the Western standard to be considered academic, to the level of skin color and language where Africans bleach their skins into white as the standard for “beautiful,” and cannot proudly learn and speak their mother tongues, the awareness to regain identity might seem already late. Yet, it must be done, starting with recovering the source of epistemology, metaphysics, history, and practices of the African people; the Afro-spiritualities.

The Decadence of Morals/Social Ethics

It is usual to have the elderly lament over a feeling of moral decadence and loss of social values among the younger generation. In the African narrative, however, Christianity seems much implicated in this decadence. “The same channel through which Christianity came to it (the West) is now the very channel through which devaluation and destruction of Christian moral values—sexual moral values—are invading its borders in the contemporary world.” ³⁶ So, there is a belief that a visible relevance of a religion is its moral strength. “Morals take a central place in African society.” ³⁷ In their indigenous spiritualities, African peoples have held a strong belief that spiritual powers are deeply concerned about the moral conduct of individuals and communities alike. Since an individual’s “sins” could have socioeconomic consequences for the entire society, ³⁸ resorting to a spirituality that upholds taboo and retributive justice seemed meaningful. Hence, African spiritualities are being revived.

Foreign Influence

One must not undermine the influence the Africans in diaspora, or how other foreign interests in African spiritualities can have an impact on those in Africa through their affluence or financial support. Olupona confesses:

The religions developed in the Americas impact Africa in that devotees of the African diaspora have significant influence on practices in Africa. Some African diasporans are returning to the continent to reconnect with their ancestral traditions, and they are encouraging and organizing the local African communities to reclaim this heritage. ³⁹

Financial benefit would always dispose people who struggle with daily needs into actions and readiness to impress the financial source. But besides the finance, those who had the tendency to revive their indigenous spiritualities are only motivated by the foreign interests who reflect a sense of worth in their spiritualities. ⁴⁰

Immanent Orientations of African Spiritualities

Another important reason for the revival of African spiritualities is its tendency for imminent and feasible solutions to individual problems. For Christians and Muslims, these African ancestral beliefs sometimes appear more practical to their concerns. Thus as a Christian, the African wants “to experience what one expects from a concerned and providential God; an experience of the liberating, healing or therapeutic hand of God.” ⁴¹

Also, immanent orientation means that the spiritualities relate well with natural objects. This is different from the so-called “Ecospirituality,” ⁴² spiritualizing eco-friendly developments and worldviews. African spirituality does not spiritualize objects or worship trees and rocks. The natural elements serve as tangible instances of connecting to the spirits and gods which imbibe them. God, the Supreme Being, is far away, but has agents as gods and goddesses which are revered as oracles and deities. These, in turn, are accessible to humans through natural objects. “This does not presuppose nature worship since the belief is that the objects are inhabited by spiritual beings who are intermediaries between God and humans.” ⁴³

With the human tendency for expediency and the clamor on a global scale for ecological concerns, the revival of African spirituality raises interests.

Migration and Media in Reviving African Spiritualities

Migration and the media are two major reasons for the revival of African spiritualities. Through migration, it becomes easier for people to carry along their spiritual practices from one place to another. ⁴⁴ African spirituality, understood either as a spiritual-cultural disposition or as an ideology or as a specific religion, is enhanced by the exposure from migration. These movements, accompanied by cultures, customs, and religious practices, imply resettlements, which in turn provide new locations for the spread of African spiritualities. This explains one of the primary means of the spread of the African spiritualities or their recreated South/North American forms in modified practices and rites.

The media is also a powerful agent of exposure and propagation. It brings the practices that were once held secret to the limelight and even enable different versions and adaptations of the same spiritual practices. ⁴⁵ The media is playing a serious role in the propagation of African spiritualities beyond territories. Books, television, movies, and so on are all forms of projecting African spiritualities. Even more readily, through social media like YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook, anyone can reach anybody with anything as “African spirituality.”

The Re-Synchronization Process

A major aim of this article is to argue that through the revival of Afro-spiritualities, a necessary factor for the renaissance of Africa is being provided. The process through which this can be realized is called the re-synchronization process. African spiritualities teach that “a porous border exists between the human realm and the sky, which belongs to the gods. Similarly, although ancestors dwell inside of the earth, their activities interject into human space.” ⁴⁷ In other words, human activities involve both realms, and from the spirit world, the ancestors and gods bless and punish humans according to their deeds, in this human realm first. The repercussions of evil as part of social justice were not just a responsibility of society, but also that of the gods and ancestors.

With the arrival of Christianity, a contrary teaching from “judgment day” theology and much later, the Pentecostal “justification by faith alone” (sola gratia) theology overpowered the ancestral repercussive spiritual consciousness across different generations of Africans. “The logic of this thinking might appear absurd to most non-African Christians but African Christianity has a works-orientated understanding of salvation rather than an entirely divine undertaking.” ⁴⁸

The consequences of this lost spiritual consciousness for social justice are exposed in the dubious disregard for fairness and justice in society, the increasing level of indiscipline and unethical conducts, and the woeful political situations ravishing the continent. While the Christian message of “judgment day” justice is fortified by immediate judicial and punitive measures in the Western world, the African, having left his or her spiritual consciousness of immediate repercussions for evil, now struggles to live with the social consequence of waiting for a “judgment day” justice. It appears that everybody, nowadays, from the politician to the clergy, from the rich to the poor, can do whatever they want with no fear of any consequence from the justice system. If anything had kept the African in check before, it was the awareness of the unavoidable repercussion of evils from the spiritual realm. But “Africans have lost their own story and absorbed another people’s story.” ⁴⁹

The re-synchronization process is, therefore, a process that reengages certain decisive factors of African spiritualities and synchronizes them into the sociopolitical life of the contemporary African. This process, if properly analyzed and applied, would contribute immensely to the renaissance of Africa. Then against the popular imagination of what a better Africa would be, erecting infrastructures is not the problem. It is having a sustaining source for social justice, fairness, and politico-economic accountability that is from African roots, and not dependent on foreign solutions. African spiritualities can be this source.

The Phases of the Re-synchronization Process

Let me elucidate on how this process can function. In 2010, Nigerians cheered the news that “a no-nonsense traditional ruler, Oba Akenzua, in Benin, Nigeria, ordered his chief priests to perform a ritual against kidnapping in the city.” ⁵⁰ There are two things to observe here. First, a Nigerian tabloid reported the spiritual-cultural disposition behind this decision as “Oba of Benin leads traditional worshippers to curse criminals as a real African solution to a problem caused by white colonial institutions that don’t work!” ⁵¹ “Sensing that the problem would not dissipate and would continue to evade the state security forces, he requested that the ritual be performed as a prophylaxis against kidnapping.” ⁵² Two, after this African solution approach, the masses believed that kidnapping had subsided because of the fear of the curses ⁵³ and some of the criminals being apprehended was due to the curses laid on them. ⁵⁴ This situation exemplifies the effect of an African spiritual consciousness over repercussions for willful social ills.

This consciousness can be engaged on a higher level. If this synchronization process can be more expedient, why would many Africans not want it in the sociopolitical structures of their communities? The Western sociopolitical systems, which were adopted alongside the foreign religions, have proven ineffective, if not detrimental, to a progressive Africa. The sociopolitical structures borrowed or imposed as government structures have never been African or functioned properly in Africa. ⁵⁵ Many are ashamed of how African politics is synonymous with corruption. Religion—Christianity and Islam, or the versions that were brought to Africa—has not uplifted the continent as it did in the Western world. So, if the synchronization of Afro-spiritualities into the sociopolitical fabric of the continent would ingrain and sustain a better Africa, then Africans of all circles ought to support it.

This process of re-synchronization involves three intertwined phases.

Before the colonization contact, the politico-social structure that was obtainable in most African societies afforded a level of responsible autonomy to different communities. It was called communality—for lack of a better English expression. One could see this among the Igbos of Nigeria, for example. Bonded by the same language, name, and identity, there were yet so many ethnicities with different orientations, cultures, and dialects so different that not every Igbo could understand them. A society was dissipated into smaller communities or units of Umunna. This communality had two major advantages.

First, the communities became more practical and easier to manage. The communities had the responsibility of addressing their social needs, ranging from security to social justice and spiritual sustenance.

Second, a “good name,” a reputable community identity, was a crucial objective for the individual and the community as a whole. The works of artists bore the names of their communities, for example, not their individual names. This was because the community strength was valued more than the individual. So, there were Abigbo (music) from Mbaise, Oji n’aka togbo (music) from Enugu, Artifacts from Afikpo, and so on. The community bore the responsibility of the individual, for better or for worse. A thief or evil person would be condemned as his or her community (ndi Anambara, ndi Nkwerre—Anambara people, Nkwerre people).

The existence of the individual in corporate Igbo communal consciousness is underlined by a strong sense of solidarity . . . “Igwebuike,” which is the Igbo word for community consciousness or solidarity means “there is power in big number” or “togetherness is strength” . . . It serves not only as a socio-cultural advancement catalyst but also it motivates ingeniously both personal and communal economic and entrepreneurial activities that are progressive orientated. ⁵⁶

There was a competitive consciousness which was necessary for improvement and ingenuity. True, sometimes this competitiveness rippled into inter-ethnic tensions or rivalries, but it challenged the communities into bringing forth their best in the face of the others’ developments. ⁵⁷

The dissipation into communities enabled the social structure which challenged each ethnicity to build, protect, and develop its identity in comparison to others. Nowadays, this communality consciousness has been replaced by a destructive level of individualism.

This first phase of the re-synchronization process advocates for the restructuration of the African countries into smaller units where some level of autonomous responsibilities like provision of amenities, security, and the value of community identity are granted to the communities. It is in these smaller units/communities that an African community spirituality would effectively unify the people in one purpose and renew the “Igwebuike” community identity.

A major weakness in the sociopolitical settings of many African countries is the gross deficit of political consequentialism at all levels. Any politician can get away with anything. One cannot blame only the individual politicians taking advantage of this situation. They mostly did not create the conducive conditions that allow this. To address this, one must understand the conditions that enabled it.

A pertinent factor that enabled non-consequentialism is the electoral system of government which Africa accepted as the best form of getting a leader. It is easy for anybody with affluence to come into power through their own prowess or willingness to dispose of their opponents by any means. After such expensive enterprises, the person feels more entitled to the common purse or not accountable to anybody else. Political positions thus become lucrative businesses, and as in all businesses, the profit and growth of the business are the goals. Hence, Africa has rulers older and richer than their countries, ruling up to four or five decades.

In many African states, the people do not really know who their leaders are, literally. They never knew them before elections, nor can they contact them after elections. There is no forum or structure that enables the governed to be part of the government or hold rulers accountable when they are failing. ⁵⁸ So the rulers are far away from the people and live with no consequences for their actions. Without consequence for sociopolitical irresponsibility, mismanagement, and incompetence triumph with impunity. In order to properly engage responsibility and consequentialism in Africa, then the political status quo of distant-government must be expunged and the Umunna sociopolitical system reinstated.

For example, imagine that each community selects one person from the eligible persons, and as a community, instructs the selected person that he or she is going to represent the community at the government as a middle person, conveying them to the center and bringing back their quotas for them to use in their communities according to the priorities of their communal needs. The job of the selected individual, for which he or she is paid, is to serve the community in politics. He or she did not win an election out of some political prowess; rather his or her community will choose him or her.

His or her allegiance to the community will be confirmed through a ceremony in which the politician, in the context of ancestral community spirituality, promises not to act dubiously with the community purse or selfish interest. Community spirituality plays a key role here because when one is ultimately accountable to a spiritual sense of justice then one expects repercussions over willful and selfish mismanagement of the communal purse. ⁵⁹ When there is failure to act responsibly, then the community can hold employers accountable, and appropriate consequences can follow.

I think that the depth of political decadence in Africa now should warrant punitive measures to discourage arrant exhibition of corruptions. It was argued earlier that among the factors that enabled the sociopolitical conditions for corruption in Africa, two interconnected points pertain to us. One is that the Christian teachings on “forgiveness of sins,” “vengeance is for God,” and “last judgment day” distance the consequences of corruption from bad people. ⁶⁰ Second, the Western justice system seems effectively impracticable in African. The legal process of prosecution and imprisonment if found guilty was imbibed from the West. This has not been very effective. As it is, the more powerful the politicians are, the deeper they are involved in corruption and the stronger is their immunity from such a justice system. Even imprisonment has not been a common punishment in Africa to those found guilty. Instead of imprisonment, African communities exiled incorrigible people when they could no longer accommodate their evils.

Among the Igbos, for example, a punishment especially deterrent of social vice is shameful stigmatization/ostracism. ⁶¹ If a thief is caught, the community hangs the stolen object around the thief’s neck; the thief dances around the market square, naked and ashamed. The family of the thief is stigmatized as well. Trade, sports, interactions, and all sorts of relationships are denied them. Marital ties to the family are ill-advised. ⁶² The stigmatization punishment is such a feared and effective deterrent that it is also termed the “family curse punishment” because such families would eventually flee from the community.

However, it is the spiritual aspect that sustains this punitive measure. A thief is not to be buried in the community. The corpse is thrown into the evil forest; and if the thief were a man, he would not be acknowledged as an ancestor. ⁶³ Hence, people avoid deeds that will attract stigmatization, or at worst, would not flaunt them.

That consciousness of stigmatization can be seen these days in the perverted form of jungle justice, sometimes cruelly marshaled out on petty criminals, through brutal lynching and burning. Rich politicians are not subjected to such harsh punishments. While this social intolerance to vices, like stealing, is a hopeful sign, the unrefined and erroneous manners of executing it must be condemned, especially since it seems to victimize only the petty street thieves. The punitive consciousness to social vices must be applied to the religious and sociopolitical settings against corrupted people, who through their irresponsible selfishness, have ruined the many lives they were supposed to serve.

Within this re-synchronization sociopolitical context, if the selected politicians are consciously aware that, regardless of their religious and political connections, the community can punish them in ways that their political money or influence cannot remedy, they will avoid dubious management of public resources. It is the responsibility of communities to devise such punitive measures that would discipline their politicians. Such punishments can differ according to communities but must be African-orientated and beyond the influential or “affluential” remedy of the politician.

These three processes above are interconnected. The system of smaller units or communities enables easier accountability and management. When drastic punitive consequence follows an irresponsible political lifestyle, then proper governance of the people will be realized.

In this re-synchronization sociopolitical context, these three phases reinstate the effectiveness of African spirituality in the community.