In spite of being so close to Spain, Africa is still a very little known continent. The Spanish mass media coverage is scarce and when conflicts concerning any of its countries are broadcast, they are usually dealt with in a shallow way, leaving no room for the analysis of their deeper causes. The media lens usually focuses on negative aspects such as wars, the mass scale of refugees, epidemics and dictatorships.

However, the African continent is the depositary of a rich legacy of cultural traditions shaped by hundreds of peoples that have been passing them on orally from generation to generation for many centuries. A large part of this heritage has a religious character. Many researchers hold that the basic foundation of all African cultures is mainly religious, even if the sheer number and great diversity of traditional spiritual expressions explains the fact that these range from a very clear belief in a supreme being to the presence of many spirits –often the souls of the ancestors- in everyday life, and most noticeably at moments of crises.
 
Traditional religion in Africa cannot be set apart from any other areas of human concern for it cuts across all domains of existence. Many Africans do not object to a process of blending their beliefs, rituals and inherited practices with another religion, which they may profess more “officially”, such as Christianity (in any of its denominational branches) or Islam. Certain typically traditional African traits, such as the veneration of their forefathers, a communal vision of human life, or the importance of reconciliation to overcome conflicts, are uniquely combined with other personal or collective spiritual experiences of the Christian or Muslim faiths, whose local expressions are thus greatly enriched.  Many Africans today can thus separate, without the least hesitation, those positive aspects of their own religious tradition from other negative elements (witchcraft and black magic), and they choose the more truly human and humane factors as an integral part of their everyday life.

  El 24 de octubre de 2008 se presentaron en Ávila los trabajos de Jacques Lipchitz, José Antonio Sarmiento y Usrsula Schulz como  parte  complementaria al Congreso Internacional de Mística “La trama de la vida: Textos Sagrados de la humanidad”, organizado por el ayuntamiento de Ávila y en el que la Junta de Castilla y León, a través de la Fundación Siglo, colabora con la presentación de cuatro exposiciones bajo el título “Arte y Misticismo”


  informacion_exposicion_pdf
  jacques_lipchitz_pdf

 
CONCIERTO DE MARÍA DEL MAR BONET

  amic_amat

   Taller de Ikebana (arte floral japonés) en el Centro de Interpretación del Misticismo, dentro de la iniciativa Patrimonio Vivo en Castilla  y León, de la Junta de Castilla y León. (6 de julio, 3 de agosto y 7 de septiembre de 2008)

ikebana