Destiny

Molefi Kete Asante

Destiny in Africa is the idea that a person's path through life has been predetermined. The notion of destiny, for example, among the Akan and Yoruba people in West Africa is not fatalism. There is no sense that one's destiny is bad or evil, but rather that one must work each day to work out the destiny that was designed before birth. African religion does not trivialize the idea of destiny to ideas like romance or the futility of working. One does not have to try to outmaneuver destiny, but one can embrace it because one can choose to accept destiny or fight against it. Rather than see destiny in Africa as a fixed sequence of events that is inexorable, one should view it as nkrabea , the Akan idea of destiny that takes its character from human uniqueness. Thus, nkrabea begins with the person. This entry uses Akan In ...

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