Covenant: A socio-cultural practice in African society

Abstract

Covenant is a contract under seal, a promise to do or not to do certain action or that a given state of thing shall exist or not. Because of this complex  nature, African people do not have just a word for covenant. Thus, African words for covenant includes, promise, oath, vow, bargain or agreement. In  modern society, this can be called a contract. However, this is a very intimate kind of contract. It is believed in Africa that the notion of covenant is not in  any way foreign to African Tradition Religion. In any typical African Religion, the very idea of religious worship presupposes some form of covenant  relationship between the worshipper or worshipping community and the deity. However, the covenant normally does not terminate at the vertical pole.  Besides the fact that the members of the community themselves may actually enter into particular covenants among themselves, the bond between each individual and the gods also has horizontal covenantal implications in their daily life interactions. This paper x-rays the view of Africans on covenant. The  method adopted for this paper is sociological approach. This paper believes that “there is a covenant between earth and man. The earth produces the  food that man eats. The earth becomes the greatest supernatural force that controls every product that is in it. Covenant is very sacrosanct in African  religious view. This work also concludes with the types of covenant obtained in the African society and reasons for entering into covenants. People resort  to covenants administered with the ancestral staff and other objects such as kolanut. The administration is usually by a ritual leader or a priest before a shrine. We therefore recommend that our society should resort to covenant to restore discipline and tranquility in the society.