A Critical Evaluation of the Impact of Religious Belief (Christianity) within Post-Colonial African Burial Rites: A South African Perspective

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Some interesting work here, not very original though, but a sound piece of fieldwork. The language is sometimes difficult to follow and the conclusion is particularly confusing. I don't think it is acceptable for the author  to think that traditional beliefs are problematic!

Comments on the Quality of English Language

Some interesting work here, not very orThe English is often problematic annd leads to a lack of clarity in the text.

Author Response

I attached therein the response to the first reviewer

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

I find this article to be very interesting and engaging, and I support its publication in Religions. I especially enjoyed the careful combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods as related to African religions. While the article's main focus is Christianity, the author(s) did engage somewhat with other indigenous traditions and practices, and they included a wealth of specific numeric data on membership and practice of specific communities of faith. Vote to publish.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

I find this article to be very interesting and engaging, and I support its publication in Religions. I especially enjoyed the careful combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods as related to African religions. While the article's main focus is Christianity, the author(s) did engage somewhat with other indigenous traditions and practices, and they included a wealth of specific numeric data on membership and practice of specific communities of faith. Vote to publish.

Author Response

I uploaded reviewer two's comments, thank you

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The article suffers from severe repetition and lacks substantial discussion on the topic of funerals. Methodologically, it falls short with scant attention to detail, relying primarily on a limited dataset composed of two brief quotes from interviews. The bulk of the piece appears to pivot towards subjective musings rather than a rigorous analysis, proposing the decolonization of Christian churches in Africa based more on personal observations and ideas than empirical data and academic observation.

There are fundamental issues that compromise the article:

1) The author's research focuses solely on a single municipality in South Africa but attempts to generalize insights to encompass the entire African continent. This approach assumes a homogeneity in the so called African culture, undermining the credibility of the work. When we talk about Africa we are talking about more than 1 billion people, half of them are Muslim, 54 nations and thousands of different languages and religions.
If the author did their research in the Collins Chabane Municipality in Limpopo, South Africa, they should focus on that. 

2) The author displays a lack of awareness regarding the religious diversity within Africa, particularly the significant Muslim population.

3) The article erroneously lumps approximately 40,000 distinct Christian denominations under the umbrella term "Christian church," failing to acknowledge the immense diversity within Christianity, rendering the argument ambiguous.

4) The author introduces strong personal opinions without adequate substantiation through data or credible sources, weakening the overall validity and reliability of the presented ideas.

5) There are many mispelling and editing issues.

6) The writing isn't clear of fluid. I would suggest to review the structure of the article. THe author jumps from a topic to another without clear connection between them, making it difficult to follow the point the author is trying to make.

7) Too many times the author wirtes of scholars, events, ideas, etc. without telling us anything about them. "Many scholars think.." We must know who are those scholars. “Parts of the world”, which parts?

 

8) I strongly suggest to read some anthropological literature on christianity in African, traditional African religion and funerals in Africa.

9) I would review how to quote a source.

10) If the author is a member of the community studied, it would be wise to discuss this element and how their position, role and identity is influencing their work.

11) Sources. Too often (strong) statements have nothing supporting them.

12) I strongly suggest to read some anthropological work on religion and the definition of it. I am afraid, the author is too influenced by the western christian view of religion. Faith is not a key element in defining what is a religion. Faith is an extremely Abrahamic element. Indeed, religion is not a way to practice faith, but this is a general thing, not something specific to Africa. Some religions are based on faith, but religion itself isn’t.

 

 

The article requires a more robust methodology, a clearer focus on the intended topic, acknowledgment of cultural diversity, and a foundation of well-supported arguments.

Line 6: almost all human beings from the fall of man (sic) from grace to date. Amongst all other things it is

It doesn’t seem a literal quote, so instead of “fall of man” you can write “fall of humanity” and avoid that (sic)

 

Line 7:  death that managed to visit almost every culture

Why “almost”?. Idem before, why “almost all human”?

 

Line 8:  terrifying stranger, unexpected, and the most feared enemy of human beings.

Here, instead, I wouldn’t be so absolutistic.

 

Line 9: weapons

Why not “techniques”, or “mechanism”, or “coping mechanism”? Something less violent, because it isn’t always a battle.

 

Line 10:  Africans

I would be more precise. If you did your research in the Collins Chabane Municipality in Limpopo, South Africa, focus on that. With Africans we mean more than 1 billion people, speaking around 2000 different languages, living in 54 different countries and with an incredible number of different religions, and you didn’t do research on Africa, but just on the Collins Chabane Municipality.

 

Line 13:  AGT

First time, write the entire name, then use the acronym. Never give for granted that the reader knows what you know.

 

Line 24-28

Is this a quote from what? Is it correctly reported? There seems to be some mistakes. Are you quoting the introduction of another article? I would avoid doing that. Rewrite it.

 

Line 36: your African extended relationships)

I would make it clearer what you mean with it. I had to read it twice and it helped be that also in my culture it is normal to have extended relationships. Not all readers know that African people have extended relationships. I don’t even know “extended relationships” is the right term to express what you want to say here.

 

Line 42:  the basic general African belief

Again, I don't think it is possible, or right, to flatten in this way the incredible complexity and diversity of the numerous cultural, ethnic and religious realities present in the immense African continent. The source is from 1978, quite old, and I think it is necessary to clarify this point about the concept of “Africa”.

 

Line 47: There is an agreement amongst some scholars that many Africans would go to church

Almost half of African population is Muslim. Please, just be more specific. “That many Christians in Africa would go to church…”

 

Line 49: When Religion

I don’t think the capital letter is needed.

 

Line 80

There are the important works of Maurice Bloch, Jonathan Parry and Peter Metcalf.

 

Line 91-92 It should be noted that during apartheid, IN SOUTH AFRICA, the African Independent Religions…

 

Line 96-98

This “supposed to be” doesn’t sound right. It is possible to express the same idea with different words? Without the European, maybe, all Africa would be Muslim. Without question, the European had a negative, although complex, impact on the African continent, but I would bring in the play various “What if…”.

 

Line 108: There is no doubt that all aspects of knowledge, including the religious knowledge is still dominated by European worldviews (Kaya & Seleti, 2013:34).

No doubt? What about the immense African population that is Muslim? And the atheist?

 

Line 123 African population? South African population?

If it is African population, how is this helpful while discussing the religious reality in Limpopo

 

Line 123-130 Why is this part useful?

 

Lines 135-140

Repetition of entire quote. I would delete it.

 

Line 142 My little experience of being a church minister for more than 25 years

I think, the author should be dedicate a paragraph of the article focusing on its role and identity and position,  and how this shaped and influenced his work.

 

Lines 150-158

First the author says that psychology says that religion influences funerals. Than it says that psychology is too west-centered (good point), but then it says that anyway, death is interpreted in accordance with their own religion.

So, general psychology and African psychology agree?

 

Line 170- Who are these 25 traditional leaders? Are they Christian?

 

Line173-176

If a person is a member of a Church, why the family shouldn’t respect their desire to be have the funeral they want?

 

Line 176-178 That isn’t the worst part, it is the BAD part. If somebody is Christin, they have the right to have a Christian funeral. If somebody isn’t Christian, they should have the right to don’t have a Christian funeral.

 

Lines 194-196 So, is it a good thing? Does it make people happy? Even if somebody is Christian, all the representatives of all the Christian denomination will come?

 

Line 200 5 P.M.

Are the funerals, all organized the same with the same timing? It is confusing because it isn’t clear of which denomination the author talks about.

 

Line 206 – There are circa 40000 different Christian denomination and their funerals are not all the same.

 

Lines 2007-211

I’ve read it more than once but I still don’t get it. The western pastoral care is irrelevant but, at the same time, it is helpful?

 

Line 217 Who is Chimurenga?

 

Line 214 which oppressive history? Is Kaoma from South Africa? The quote from Kaoma needs context and clarification.

 

Lines 225-117

I don’t get the point. The prayers directed to the dead, a very common practice in some forms of Catholicism and Christianity in general, are the sign of what Africans are missing from the Chistian church? The relationship with the dead? This affirmation needs support.
Moreover, Christian church has no meaning.

 

Line 229 – Shouldn’t the author tell us more? It seems an important element for the article.

 

Lines 236-238 How is it possible to decolonize something that it is the very source of colonization?

 

Lines 250-253. Instead of using four lines to write the title, why didn’t use that space to elaborate the topic of the editorial gate-keeping and decolonization?

 

Lines 255-259

It is still not clear if the author wants to support the African Traditional Religions, and thus fight Christianity, or it consider Christianity the answer but it must be severed from the Western head. It isn’t clear the position of the author toward the traditional religions.

 

Lines 272-274 There is already a conflict? Christianity came to Africa with the very aim to eliminate any other religion.

 

Lines 275-278 – Please, directly quote Coertze.

 

Lines 284-288

I don’t get the link between the difficulty of separate religion from funeral tradition and the fact that religion promoting the quality of life and personal development.

 

Lines 291-296. This quote needs more context. African white leaders? African black leaders?

We could rise the issue of politics being a form of religion, and the fact that the funerals of the oppressors and the funerals of the oppressed have two very different goals, thus, very different religious and political language.

 

Lines 297-299 Do we have data on it or it is just personal observation with all the issues that it brings?

 

Line 301- Thos are just two samples, because we don’t know who those “others” are. It would be interesting an analysis of the speeches done in these two funerals. Anyway, we are still talking exclusively about the South Africa.

 

Lines 308-308 repeated over and over. Is this something that happens only in Africa?

 

Lines 314-315 The fact that it cannot being easily individualized it doesn’t’ mean that the mourning of the single member isn’t important.

 

Lines 318-319. If there is any criticism to the African Grief Therapy, I would present and discuss it.

 

Lines 337 who says that?

 

Line 340 who are these African scholars?

 

Lines 365-366 Why only the one that are not detrimental to Christianity? How can they be detrimental to Christianity?

 

Line 373 ???

 

Lin 374 what are faith communications?

 

Line 378 Conference in Africa or worldwide? Theologian conference or also religious studies conferences?

 

Lines 380 – 385 It seems that the problem is the total lack of anthropological knowledge and approach.

 

Line 399. Who is we? Who has the problem?

 

Line 402 Either of the religions? What are these religions? Christianity has circa 40000 different denomination.

 

Lines 403-405 Not all theologians are religious, so it isn’t’ the duty of the theologian or theology to bring people into church. To liberate them from what thinking?

 

Lines 408 – 409 In this article, funeral are almost not present.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

The grammar is fine but the writing isn't fluid. Some bits must be read more than one to understand them, but sometimes they remain unclear. 
The ideas of the author ar not clearly expressed.

Author Response

I have uploaded the response to reviewer three, much appreciated

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 4 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This is a relevant and important topic within the broader subject of the influence of Christianity on African Traditional Religions and the mentioned three-year project.  My evaluation is solely on the content of this particular paper without knowledge of the content conveyed in the rest of the project.

 

I indicated that "I am not qualified to assess the quality of English Language in this paper" but want to acknowledge that there were multiple typographical and grammar errors.  There is also inconsistency in the use of first person and third person when author is referring to self.

1. It can help to consider and address the notion of culture being a dynamic and not static phenomenon.  Culture is bound to influence and be influenced by any and all religious beliefs that come into contact with it, whether in Africa or any other continent.  Has the experience of other populations been different?

The statement in line 114 can be true of any populations around the world

2. The paragraph following Sub Title 8 line 308 addresses recommendations moving forward.  This paragraph seems like a critical evaluation of steps that have already been taken or recommendations that have been made in addressing the issue and not a critical evaluation of the issue itself  "the Impact of Religious Beliefs" as proposed in the title of the paper.

 

3.  You raise an important question in concluding the paper on line 407- "How can one become a true devoted Christian without losing an African identity?"- probably, that could be an ideal starting point in this discussion.  the answer of which, might inform your problem statement and method of study.  A definition of what you understand as an "African identity" in Post-Colonial Africa can help your readers understand the extent of the impact that Religious beliefs have had on burial rites and culture as a whole.

Thank you for sharing your knowledge in this subject 

 

 

Author Response

This is attached to the reviwer number four, thanks

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The work done on the article has undoubtedly improved it.

Reviewer 4 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Your revisions are hereby acknowledged