Can I oray for my dead ancestors?

In Namibia, near the border of Angola, is a village cemetery where the grave of a famous missionary is buried. Two men kneel before another grave, bent over in humility, lips moving silently in prayer. After some minutes, they move to the next grave marker, then the next, and the next. They say later that they are praying to their ancestors. 

Defining Ancestor Worship

This is not uncommon in Africa. Veneration of ancestral spirits permeates traditional African culture as commonly as drumming and dancing. In the traditional African religion (ATR), the ancestors demand respect and remembrance. Honouring them will lead to blessing. Neglecting them will cause misfortune. 

Variations of ancestor worship exist throughout Africa, but the main idea remains the same. Every person at death becomes an ancestor. The word 'xikwembu' in the Xitsonga language (lowercase x) is the same word for God (capital X). These 'swikwembu' (gods) are sometimes called 'vakokwan'i (grandparents) or va le Hansi (those underground). They become ghost-like ancestor gods for their descendants and hostile spirits for their enemies. 

The 'swikwembu' souls continue to exist after death with great power. They become objects of immense fear, deep awe, and religious worship. They wield the power to bless, meaning they can make the orchards full of fruit and fill a woman’s womb with children. The gods can also curse people with many misfortunes. If the rain fails, if a tree falls, if a child burns with fever, if the business falters, if the wife remains sterile, if the husband loses his job, or if the locusts eat the trees, it may mean the ancestors are unhappy. Maybe it is because the mother's ancestors are upset that the husband never paid the bride price, or maybe it is because the family has disrespected the gods elsewhere. 

For example, some years ago, Prof Adekeye Adebajo gave a speech on Africa Day, hosted by the South African Parliament. The theme of his speech was: “African ancestors are angry because things are not working.”

Satisfying the Ancestors

This is why the ancestors must be appeased—at funerals, weddings, presidential inaugurations, the birth of a baby, and the commencement of a job interview. If not, calamity may follow. In some ways, ancestor worship appears to decline as Mercedes motor vehicles fill the roadways and technology engulfs African homes. The growth of nominal Christianity is also a factor. 

But when times are desperate, some of the most wealthy, educated, and even religious people will fall back upon appeasing the 'swikwembu', driving back home to their villages on the weekend to follow the rituals just to be safe. They’ll even attend church on Sunday. 

In his 1962 book The Life of a South African Tribe, Henri Junod lists seventeen ways Africans have sought to propitiate the gods, either through prayers, gifts, or the slaughtering of animals. 

Someone preached a series on Peace-making, and the preacher was incrrectly told that the best phrase for the word “reconcile” was 'ku phahlelana mariyeta', from the word phahla, which means to pray to ancestral spirits. 

In other words, the essence of ancestor worship is reconciliation with the dead before us. 

Ancestors are not the only source of misfortune. Witches are dreaded because of the great power they carry to harm and kill. Witches may take the form of animals (like owls) or appear in dreams, often unsheathing themselves at night in spirit form to injure and kill. 

To understand the pervasiveness of witchcraft in Africa, consider one of South Africa’s most common surnames—Baloyi—the Tsonga word for “witches”.

Two decades ago, while a preacher lived at the chief’s kraal. As a bachelor, he lived in a humble room on the chief’s property. While he was absent one evening, thieves crept into his quarters and stole several valuables. The chief’s wife, determined to retrieve the stolen items, solicited a local witch doctor, upon which the sangoma required muti to find the looted goods and exact revenge upon the burglars. These practices are not unusual in the village where he lived.

European Ancestor Worship

We mustn’t think ancestor worship exists only as an issue outside the church or in Africa. The pre-Reformation church was up to its eyeballs in prayers to dead saints. 

Even great men, like Ambrose of Milan, the great Latin father, fell into this error. He said: “May Peter, who so successfully weeps for himself, weep also for us and turn upon us the friendly look of Christ.” 

But how could Peter hear such prayers, as that would require omnipresence and omniscience, which only God possesses? The church took James 5:16 and argued that if the earnest prayers of a righteous man hold great power, then doesn’t it follow that the most successful prayers will be from the great saints of the past? Ambrose says:

“The angels, who are appointed to guard us, must be invoked for us; the martyrs, to whose intercession we have claim by the pledge of their bodies, must be invoked. They who have washed away their sins by their own blood, may pray for our sins.”[1]

Doesn’t this sound like ancestor worship with an extra religious twist? Soon, special feast days were assigned to Peter, then Paul and John the Baptist and then a saint for each day of the year. Martin Luther, for example, was named Martin because he was born on St. Martin’s Day. The Church gave great respect to dead bodies and shrines being built over the tombs of great saints. The Church also reverenced certain items of the dead saints, called relics, like clipping hair, bones or clothing. They even adorned the church with paintings of the saints, called icons.

The church tried controlling how much honour dead Christians received. They said “glory” could only go to God, but “veneration” could go to saints, especially Mary. But no one really followed these rules. This became full-fledged worship of Mary, practised by millions of Roman Catholics today. Rome even has a prayer for Mary, our Mother of Africa, that begins thus: 

“Mary, Our Mother of Africa, hear the drumbeat of our prayers.”

Whether it’s ancestor worship in Africa or veneration of the saints in 6th-century Europe, Satan is always tempting sinners to find access to God in ways other than Jesus Christ. How should Christians think about these matters?

Solutions

(1) Beware of the Prosperity Gospel. 

This false teaching has succeeded in Africa because it found there the fertile soil of witchcraft. These days, soliciting a witch doctor is slightly different than sowing seed with prosperity preaching. Both promise success. Both love money. 

(2) Do not fear the Devil. Fear the God of the Bible.

Try this exercise. Read Luke 12:5 to your neighbour. “Fear him who…has authority to cast into hell.” Then ask him from this verse whom we should fear. Chances are, they’ll say demons or Satan. But this verse calls on the reader to fear God, for he alone has the sovereign power to cast sinners into hell. 

(3) Follow Scripture before following culture. 

The Bible is the train engine that pulls along our societal practices, not the other way around. The Christian Creed—“Jesus is Lord”—means Christ determines how we act, including our interaction with the dead. 

(4) Prayer through the only mediator, Jesus Christ.

To venerate the martyrs or ancestors is to break the First Commandment (Ex. 20:3). Prayers to the dead, according to Deuteronomy 18:10-11—are strictly forbidden. At death, the soul does not float invisibly through the world but goes to the presence of God or a fiery torment (Heb. 9:27). There is only one mediator, Jesus Christ (1Tm. 2:5), in whom is our hope and trust. So pray to him (Ac. 7:59) and find answers to your requests.