ON DIVINE PROVIDENCE IN AFRICAN COSMOLOGY

Abstract

Within the context of African cosmology, God is a fundamental determining force. In fact, over the whole of Africa, it is believed that God does not just create; he creates, sustains and maintains the world that he has created by providing the needs of his creatures. It is in this regard that the Ewe refer to him as He who does not withdraw his gifts, and the Banyarwanda speak of him as the underlying force that sustains the universe, and that if he should be no more, the world would collapse. The Igbo refer to him as Osebuluwa - that is, the sustainer of the universe or he that carries the universe in his hands. This piece discovers that the African believes that God provides and sustains the universe he has made through the laws that he has put among his people; through the activities of his deans; through magic, herbs, divination and charms, and his provisions, including the natural elements that he has made and the protection that he offers his creation. The phenomenological approach would be employed in the collection and analysis of data on the African understanding of providence and sustenance. As against the absence of the belief in the divine sustenance of creation by God in Western thoughts, this work argues that within the African parameter of belief, the world is provided for and sustained by God.