South Africa and their Religious Practices
Introduction
Religion is a very essential section to many people in the world. There are many divergent religions that celebrate their faith as they give the belief accounts and their teachings. South Africa has been referred to as the rainbow state due to its many ethics, people and religions. In the state, people are allowed to involve in whatever faith they wish and are also allowed to learn about respect of the different spiritual practices in South Africa. Thus South Africa can be also described to as a democratic state when it comes to religion. There are many beliefs that are practiced in South Africa including Christianity, Islamic, Hinduism and traditional African religions.
These beliefs are occupies by the European and other immigrants. The traditional Africa religion is the main belief in South Africa and was brought there by the North and West African intimates. The most essential thing in the South African religion is that religion and spirituality is used to make greater knowledge and harmony rather than creating divergence between the inhabitants as it was formerly did in the State. Most of the customary people inhabited in South Africa from West and Central Africa many years ago.
Many were Bantus and were the descendants of the many South Africans such as the Nguni, Zulu and Xhosa communities. The formal African belief is on the basis of the oral traditions and this means that the simple morals and the existence are derived from the older to the younger generations. These traditional beliefs are not essentially religious practices but are ethnically passed through accounts, legends and stories. The traditional African religion in the community is essential in a person’s life as it is essential in South Africa. The traditional group is made up of individuals who recall and segment the identical cultures. The person lives in the public and split-up from it is poorer than demise. Thus religion in most of the African societies adheres to the moral order and creates the awareness of security and order in the society. There are many spiritual frontrunners, priests and pastors in most of the Formal African religions. These persons are important in the spiritual and religious existence in the community. For instance in the ethnic of the Zulu community, they are spiritualists who are accountable for healing and advising. These traditional spiritualists have to be divined by the ancestors. The formal African faith in South Africa is a way of life that the ancestors are included in any main occasion such as wedding, births and deaths.
They are also part of events such as getting employed and completion of education. Offerings are made to respect and thank the ancestors. Though the formal African religion is aware of an Utmost God, its supporters do not respect him openly as they do not find the worth of it. Thus they ask their ancestors to communicate to God in their behalf. The Supreme Being is called on times of predicaments such as drought so that they may impend the whole community as it is the connection between the people and the surrounding. Most of the Ancestral worship in South Africa is normally good and sympathetic. The ancestral spirits may take a negative action such as illnesses and this is to warn people of any wrong path that they involve in.
Body
There are the major religions that are inhabited in South Africa and each of then describe their worldview; Buddhism was started in India many years ago and the teachings of the Buddhists have been introduced in South Africa where it also led to the building of a Buddhist temple. Christianity is another religion in the South African community and these Christians derived their name from Jesus and believe in God. Christianity was introduced in South Africa as some missionaries wanted to introduce institutes so that they may possibly find ways to instill people on how to recite and put pen to paper. The institutes were recognized as evangelist schools. Hinduism is also a religion in South Africa and it was derived from India and was started about 400 years ago (Smith & Marranca, 2009).
The Hindus believe that Brahma is the maker of the world and through the different portraits of goddesses and gods that is where the supremacy of Brahma’s power is shown. The Hindus believe in reincarnation in that they believe that when a being deceases, his or her ambiance survives and can be later be natural again into a dissimilar body. The Hindus moved toward South Africa in the 1850’s as workers of sugar estates. After they inhabited South Africa, they constructed slight monuments and shrines in the sugar fields. The Islam was other major religious group in South Africa who began with the teaching of Prophet Muhammad (Smith & Marranca, 2009).
The Islam came to South Africa when the Dutch needed laborers who would work at Cape, thus many people were got from the East of Indonesia and were traded as slaves at the Cape. The Islam conveyed with them their beliefs thus the Muslim frontrunners insisted that they should maintain their religion and this made them establish Islamic schools which taught the Muslims about Islamic religion. Judaism was the other religion that inhabited South Africa and they came when there were the mines of diamond and gold and this was after the World War II. They were from Europe and they conveyed their belief with them to South Africa. They had to build synagogues so that they would get a place to worship God and learn the scriptures (Al Zeera, 2001).
The major South African religions worldview differs from the Christian Worldview as the uncertainties between the Christians and the Traditional African way of life is seen as a religious concubinage. This is because the Christians are satisfied in the African religious practices that have not been adapted by the Christian religious ways and practices. The difference comes along with the Traditional African worldview which has a strong effect and shapes power on the African society and it connects the African’s ideas and existence (Sundkler, 2004).
The Christian worldview makes the Christians to have the main reason for the existence is to love and serve God. The religions in South Africa are different as they are not founded on the unfailing Word of God. When one trusts that the Bible is talking the truth, then this creates the basis of saying and doing. As the other different religious communities do not really believe in God, then their proof about God is confusing and misleading. Through the other influences, the secularized African view of history shows that God and Man affects the way people think than we can note (Sundkler, 2004).
The happenstance between Christianity and the South Africa religious beliefs is a postcolonial approach in ways such as humanity, sacrifice and ancestors. The increase of the many religions in South Africa can affect the way that a Christian leader leads the church as the religious practices in South Africa has been featured into many inter-religious conversations. The Christianity leadership and the other South African religious practices has been a delicate issue. For many Christian believers, the Christian leadership is based on supremacy, respect and personal advantage. Christian leadership is based on service more than domain. Christian leadership is mainly affected by the current ranked management. Some Christian leadership practices are expressed in religious languages thus a Christian leader in South Africa can be affected by the differences between the worldly and the Christian beliefs of leadership. Thus the Christian leaders may connect the worldview of leadership to their disadvantage (Hopkins, Smith, Laurie & Olson, 2010).
The common awareness is that achievement cannot be gained by the leader alone but is gained through combined influences of the other religions and Christianity. Thus the Christian leaders and managers should be confident in Jesus and show an example in their occupation so that their existence and religion can be recognized. These effects are of great importance as they use them as development devices of leadership qualities and management by the Christians. These features also motivate the other non-Christians as they make a serious evaluation of their own religion as it is connected to business. Planning based on biblical approach is a talent to decide what should be done tomorrow. This can also affect a leader who is based on the Christian way of life as he plans not only in a technological way but it also encompasses that lack of putting God in his blessings , all his efforts and planning are all in vain. This is taken negatively by the non-Christians who do not take the leadership in a biblical way. The Christian leader also directs his trust with the capability of making things happen in the company due to the friendly workplace condition and the culture in the society (Hopkins, Smith, Laurie & Olson, 2010).
It is the principle of a Christian leader to walk the talk and this is also seen to be negative by the other religious leaders. Transformational and transactional leadership have an optimistic consequence on the growth of quality management practices that support the workers management and the customers focus. The effects on Christian leadership from the other religious beliefs can be based on culture, place and time. There has been the challenge on the evaluation on the Christian leadership to have personal skills and the reliability of a person’s performance. The other religions are weak in ruling with truthfulness which is the aptitude to stay connected with the people one is working with. It shows the manger’s talent in having a close connection with different shareholders of a company (Hopkins, Smith, Laurie & Olson, 2010).
This shows the important role of the human management and leadership. This research is used as a way of studying other religions including Buddhism, Islam and others in South Africa. The Christian leaders should be confident and humble and their show of who they are should portray a positive attitude to others. This is demonstrated on the actual awareness and knowledge of one’s personality. The responsibility of a leader despite the challenges from others starts with the how we are fixed in the understanding of leadership and the pressures that are reconstructing the leadership approach in the nation. This calls for a responsible leadership. The leaders who do not mind about the challenges from other leaders have their standard that helps them to concentrate on their energy and activity. They are leaders with an objective and focuses on their skills thus avoiding the challenges and distractions (Hopkins, Smith, Laurie & Olson, 2010).
The liberty to worship is a thing that everyone needs as we believe that whatever we do is right but it is also that we should not respect the beliefs of other religions and practices. The Christian managers and workers who have a responsibility based on his religion should know the needs of the religion that is done in this nation and ensure that they do not engage with them but this does not mean that they have to alternate into the belief. For instance, if the religion wants that they should not practice their Christian religion in public, it is better to practice the worship from their homes to remain on the safe side and to avoid of the law (Cole, Bedeian & Bruch, 2011).
The Islam religion in the nation demands that people who are settlers should not outfit in their religious wears but they should be diffidently dressed all the time and that is important for the workers of a specific organization to practice that. Another main thing that Christian laborers should be aware of is the religious practices such as prayer time and permit the people that they are managing to go and perform their prayers in any time they want. The managers of the workers should not take prayers in a negative way but should also respect their religious practices (Cole, Bedeian & Bruch, 2011).
The religion respect will also make them to have the similar respect for their Christian practices. The workers who are based on the Christian faith in the South African State should not disapprove any religious practice if they feel that it is not based on their Christianity belief. The reason is that many people from the different religions have divergent understanding of the holy book and its teachings about religion. The attempt to change the other laborers to your own belief should not be entailed in a company even if the manager is a Christian or the other staff workers, thus labor and religious beliefs should be outlined as two different matters. The positive and the respected principle that should guide the Christian manager in addressing the differences while working in the South African state should be addressed as the respect of other religious practices and their believes and continuing to do what is good without having any negative attitude towards the other religion or disrespecting the Christian beliefs and practices. In a workplace basis, the Christians should be agents and holders of the assets that are derived from the company (Cole, Bedeian & Bruch, 2011).
The Christian managers are advanced in their work places by the Christianity beliefs that make them have creative ideas that help them deal with the current practices in the work force. The understanding that there are divergent teachings for the Islam and the Christian faiths will help a manager of a specific company in South Africa to be able to perform his occupation positively in the nation even if most of the religions in the nation are not what he believes in (Cole, Bedeian & Bruch, 2011).
Reference
Al Zeera, Z. (2001). Wholeness and Holiness in Education An Islamic Perspective. IIIT.
Cole, M. S., Bedeian, A. G., & Bruch, H. (2011). Linking leader behavior and leadership consensus to team performance:
Hopkins, P., Baillie Smith, M., Laurie, N., & Olson, E. (2010). Young Christians in Latin America. The experiences of young Christians who participate in faith-based international volunteering projects in Latin America.
Smith, H., & Marranca, R. (2009). The world's religions. New York: Harper One.
Sundkler, B. (2004). Bantu Prophets in South Africa. James Clarke & Co.
