The goal of this assignment is to help you understand and explain the African contribution to world civilization and world spirituality, mainly to monotheism (the Bible, Judaism, Christianity), philosophy and science. In so doing you shall explain African contribution to humanity and world civilization in general and to Western civilization in particular.
While doing this assignment you shall address
- the Egyptian problem
- the Greek miracle ideology (is it a miracle or no, and why is this ideology dangerous and a hindrance to a genuine understanding of Africa and world history in general)
- summarize clearly the African idea of God (spell out the attributes Africans ascribe to God)
- summarize clearly the African code of ethics or moral values, and in so doing explain the African attitude vis-à-vis foreigners and foreign religions.
Some Specific Questions
1. How do these readings dispel negative myths about African spirituality or African traditional religions?
2. What is the African conception of God (the nature of God and his characteristics)
3. Summarize the fundamental moral values of African traditional religions and in so doing explain how Africans define a "good human being," or a genuine religious person or someone regarded as holy or "a good guy." (the "Bumuntu" text is critical here).
4. Explain the origin of Monotheism using these texts, especially the text by Jan Assmann. What is the African contribution to the Bible, to Judaism and to Christianity?
5. How did you feel while doing this assignment? What did surprise you? What did you find unbelievable and why?
6. How did this assignment help you achieve the educational goals of our university ?
7. Identify 5 quotations from the readings that you found significant for our learning process.