Ontology

African ontology is the fundamental hermeneutical key that unlocks the meaning of African religious views and practices. Within the discipline of philosophy of religion or theology, the notion of ontology refers to that body of knowledge that deals with the question of being or the nature of reality. What is the fundamental nature of being? Is reality unified or are various beings fundamentally different from one another? This inquiry begins with the most fundamental question of all: Why is there something rather than nothing? In African religion, this is the question of origin. It is addressed within the framework of African cosmology and cosmogony. This entry leaves such a question to creation myths and focuses instead on the essential ontological question (i.e., the nature of being).

In African religion, there are a variety of conceptions of being. Water, air, fire, and Earth play a critical role in African creation myths. But the fundamental notion remains that humans share a profound kinship with the whole created world.

The most systematic studies of Bantu ontology articulated by Alexis Kagame and Mulago gwa Cikala Musharamina have generated a heated and ongoing debate that shed light on one central point: the role that the notion of “vital force” plays in [Page 492]African ontology. Every being is characterized by life and dynamism. Being is not a static essence. The African notion of vital force transcends the Aristotelian categories of substance and accidents. Vital force is not a mere biological life, but that fundamental and original vital impulse that constitutes existence and is the property that underlies all things. It is in light of such a conception of being that African religious traditions see integration rather that opposition between body and soul, matter and spirit, the world of the living and the world of the Dead, the human world and the nature world. This fundamental unity of being is captured in the often misunderstood notion of animism, whereby Africans consider nature not as dead matter, but rather as a living being, in such a way that water, wind, trees, and animals become our brothers and sisters, fathers or mothers. Such is the foundation of the fundamental African reverence for nature. It stems from an ontology that establishes a basic kinship between humans and the whole cosmos. It is also this ontology that defines the African vision of reincarnation, in which a child, for instance, becomes the father of his father. African ontology rejects both monistic and dualistic views of reality. It is an ontology of kinship and solidarity in which “I am because we are,” as John Mbiti pointed out.

Because the being is not a static essence, to be is fundamentally to become. To be religious is not to hold abstract definitions of spirituality, but to act religiously. According to this ontology of becoming, a person of bad character is viewed as somebody who has emptied his humanity to become a nonhuman (Kintu, a thing). Likewise, good conduct (good thought, good speech, good deeds, and “good eye”) restores the lost or diminished humanity. Because no being stands in isolation, every act that diminishes the humanity of an individual ipso facto diminishes that of the perpetrator; hence, the ethics of personal responsibility. Every negative action carries with it an ontological break of vital force in the individual and the community; hence, the notions of forgiveness and reparation.

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