Tswana Religion
TSWANA RELIGION. Traditional religion among the Tswana of the high veld of southern Africa centered upon the supreme being, Modimo, and ancestor spirits known as badimo. The fact that badimo is the plural form of modimo, an honorific term used to express awe and reverence toward elders as well as toward the supreme being, indicates that the difference between Modimo, the ancestors, and human beings is one of degree rather than kind. While they occupy different positions in a complex hierarchy of spiritual power, all beings—whether spiritual or human—are intimately connected with each other. As the Tswana Christian theologian Gabriel Setiloane indicates, it is a basic premise of Tswana thought that a representative is identical with the person being represented or that a symbol is that which it symbolizes. Hence, the Tswana say, "Motho ke modimo" ("Man is modimo"), something that implies a far greater degree of interaction than the English "There is something of the divine in every man" (Setiloane, 1976, p. 21).
Modimo is believed to be the source and root of all existence. Intangible and all-pervasive, irreparably part of human experience but not directly sensed, he is a source of appeal in times of affliction and the guardian of the moral order.
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