The Ubiquity of the Character Strengths in African Traditional Religion: A Thematic Analysis

Positive psychology has relied on world philosophical and religious traditions for its understanding and classification of core virtues and character strengths and in demonstrating their ubiquity across cultures. However, in this endeavour, reference to African traditional religion (ATR) is minimal. The aim of the present qualitative study was to discern if the ubiquity of character strengths extends to ATR. The catalogue of Values in Action (VIA) was chosen as the coding template; some anthropological textual data on the life cycle of the individual, collected in Nairobi, Kenya, were used as the data set. Using a hybrid approach of deductive data analysis and inductive theme development, thematic equivalents were identified, and further validated with the help of other scholarly sources. Evidence of convergence with one or more anthropological domains was found for 18 out of the 24 character strengths. Citizenship and spirituality emerged as stronger themes, and elderhood rites featured as the most significant anthropological domain. A case is made for the African elder being a cultural paragon of character strengths.