African rituals, like other phenomena of African
cultural heritage are usually faced with criticisms of being either
superstitious, fetish, mundane or simply irrational. These criticisms, often
based on certain logical criteria, have categorized the African mode of thinking as illogical, unreasonable
and non-rational. Given the proclivity of the African mode of thinking of
fusing the epistemological into the metaphysical, such criticism could either be
excused or be regarded as a misinterpretation, misrepresentation and non-sequitur. However, the issue at
stake calls for a deep examination of some of these phenomena to establish
their reasonableness as veritable reality among Africans with serious
existential import. One of such phenomena is ritual, which is actually
pervasive as far as African existential reality is concerned. This paper
examines African ritual to establish its reasonableness by establishing its
ontology. The paper argues that based on African ontology, African rituals
cannot be judged on the principles of Western scientific rationality but rather
should be seen as a non-rational action like other human phenomenon like love
or possessing rationality internal to the metaphysical beliefs that underpin
the African worldview.
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