Journal of Philosophy and Theology

African Philosophy on the Concept of Time and Its Influence on the View of Death and Afterlife – A Zimbabwean Perspective
J. Moyounotsva Marava

Abstract
In general, the concept of Time in Africa has been researched on in a number of perspectives. The concept of time plays a pivotal role in the way a society derives its values, beliefs and conceptions. One of the areas where time is of importance is when analyzing people’s perceptions on death and afterlife. The thrust of this paper was to investigate how Zimbabweans perceive time and how such conceptualizations affect their views on death and afterlife. The specific objectives for the current study were to determine and evaluate people’s views on whether life terminates at the point of physical death and whether there is communion between the living and the dead. A research survey was conducted using semi-structured questionnaires and personal interviews to collect data for the study. The methodology employed in this paper can be summarized by the words of Plato that: “Thinking is characterized not only by treatment of visible objects as symbols but also by reasoning from hypothesis.” The findings of the study revealed that the majority believe in life after death whilst a third of the respondents believed that there is communion between the living and the dead through dreams, spirit mediums and necromancy. In addition, some few respondents believed that they will meet their beloved dead one day. Lastly, few respondents believed that the dead do not understand present and future time whilst a small number of the respondents believed that ghosts are spirits of the deceased people. This reflects that death is another life time zone whereby a dead person can continue to live.

Full Text: PDF     DOI: 10.15640/ijpt.v3n2a9