13/09/2025
My sister, that is where the misunderstanding comes in. In African tradition, nobody ever worshipped a dead person. Our ancestors were never regarded as gods, and they never claimed to be gods. That is colonial claptrap.
They were respected as elders of the family who had gone ahead of us, and were seen as intercessors — much like how Catholics pray through saints or how Christians ask pastors to pray for them.
The worship was always directed to God, the Creator, not to the ancestor. The ancestor was simply the bridge, the same way in Christianity Jesus is the bridge to God, or the same way people ask others to stand in prayer for them.
So to call it worshipping the dead is to misrepresent what Africans actually practised. It is crucial to acknowledge the deep cultural significance and nuances of African traditions away from colonial indoctrination!
