Sacrifice In African Traditional Religion: A Philosophical Overview
Sacrifice is a universal religious phenomenon. However, scholars differ on the idea of what constitute the actual definition of sacrifice. In African Traditional Religion, sacrifice is the most potent means worshippers use to influence divinity to take interest in their affairs. But what is worrisome is the idea of use of human as the object of sacrifice. This work discovered that at some point, this idea was abandoned but what is disheartening today is that the young generation are reverting to human sacrifice in our contemporary society. This work, using the method of hermeneutics, argues that since sacredness of life is one of the cardinal African values and Africans abhor shedding blood, the use of human for sacrifice is not rationally tenable in African ethos. This is because it creates disharmony in African sacred cosmological universe. Again, it suggests that following Kant’s principles of categorical imperative, this act cannot be universalized; hence, it needs to be prohibited. It concludes by asserting that any deity or gods that demands human sacrifice should be sacrificed on the altar of another higher deity.
Keywords: african, overview, philosophical, religion, sacrifice, traditional