TRADITIONAL AFRICANS’ RELIGIOUS CONVICTION AND CHALLENGES POSED BY COVID-19 PANDEMIC IN AFRICA

Résumé

Man was not born genetically as a religious being, but man (Homo-sapien), is a religious being, and inevitably religious either overt or covert. Be that as it may, religion has offered man psychological defence against spiritualities, physical, scientific and empirical proven facts. These religious convictions and defiance adopted by man have been challenged by the challenges posed by the emergence of Corona virus/Covid-19. The leadership of the civil society has been left with no alternative measure to control or prevent the widespread contraction of the virus than to embark on total lockdown. This lockdown sincerely affected religious activities that religious practitioners were left with no other option than to practice their religions in their privacy. It is discovered in this paper, that the act of lockdown and other preventive measures introduced to save human lives against Covid- 19 seriously affected the spiritual, social and economic wellbeing of religious institutions in Africa. It is the position of this paper that religion in its totality should pay attentive attention to science and government even though God is truly in charge. It should be born in our minds that we also believe that God in His infinite power created science and constituted those in authority. Therefore, they should be honoured and acknowledged by every religious adherent. In order to make a sound presentation of these issues, this study employed phenomenological research approach. Both primary and secondary materials were used, and data collected were analysed with descriptive method of data analysis. It is recommended among other things that religious institutions in Africa should form teams that will collaborate with the health teams that go for Covid-19 outreach to convince people more that Covid-19 is real and should be prevented.