Template talk:Traditional African religions

Redoing the sidebar

As the sidebar is now it just displays sporadic info about the many different traditional african religions. There are many diverse beliefs and practices within these religions and the sidebar should reflect that this is such a broad topic. Having just little random links to things that involve only a specific religion doesn't seem right. Even the image for the sidebar only concerns Serer religion. I feel like this should be more about all the religions in general and the specifics are for the sidebars about the individual religions. Opinions?Mangokeylime (talk) 23:26, 17 March 2019 (UTC)

I agree with what you are trying do. I didn't create this template and I didn't add that image. Over the years I've helped to update this sidebar but I'm not the creator. The editor who added the mbot image probably didn't had much of a choice when it came to using a Traditional African religious symbol and just opted for one that is symbolic (just like other religious templates) than using a picture of a statute. Sure, we do have lots of images at Commons related to traditional African religions, but almost 99.9% of them are not symbols/symbolism for lack a better word but pictures of statutes, etc. Therefore, I sympathised with the editor who was left with little choice but to use the mbot image. I wish we have more like those on other traditional African religions at Commons but we don't. I ran into the same problem about 4 years ago when I created the Portal:Traditional African religions. I deliberately did not want to use any of the Serer religious symbols i.e. the Serer pentagram (Yoonir) or the mbot image but desperately looked for another image that is authentically African, with 100% connection to a Traditional African spirituality/religion with no connection or influence from Islam or Christianity. However, I found nothing. As a result, I put out a notice on the Traditional African religions' talkpage asking others for their opinions, but no one commented. In the end, I opted for this image and asked the portal team to link that image to the portal. Even though that image is not actually a symbol but a statue, I had very little option when it came to selecting images, and I was adamant not to use any of the Serer religious symbols. Since I was familiar with the religious symbolism behind that statute, I decided to use that one instead.

I personally do not care which image we use. All I care about is that, the image should be authentically African and be linked to African spirituality/religion in its orthodox or authentic form without any syncretism whatsover. We cannot use an image which symbolises a form of syncrotism of Traditional African with any of the Abrahamic faiths. The image/symbol must be 100% "Sub-Saharan" African spirituality/religion - in terms of religious significance. I emphasize the term "Sub-Saharan" (a disgusting term if you ask me, but anyway) African because when people think/are referring to Traditional African religions, they generally mean those belief systems from the so called "Sub Saharan" Africa.

It is also my understand that you want to add as many images to represent all of the TARS. Unfortunately, this is a template/sidebar, and noble as it may sound, we can't apply equal opportunities here. All those images would not fit in the box and it will just clogs it up. We simply need to select one image and stick with it I'm afraid. Any other images should be added in the template gallery in the TAR article or its portal (under selected pictures). That's the best we can do. However, as regards to content of the sidebar, we cannot just add a few content and call it a day, just because we want it to be shorter. We must add relevant and useful clickable content that helps the reader. Of course the current version can be improved, however the one you created before was reverted because it lacked the key ingredients. Looking at it, it was evident to me that the objective was an abbreviated sidebar without regard for the useful links beneficial to the reader. That was the reason I reverted it. I couldn't care less about the image. At least with the current version many of the key links are there, but in your version, practically everything was gone, hence the revert.Tamsier (talk) 02:51, 18 March 2019 (UTC)

As regards to image, I would advise using the same image that I've used in the portal in order to maintain consistency. Let's just use that one (see above). As regards, to content, we can discuss what to include here. I would like to see the headings as they stand at the moment, because those headings are pretty useful. Something about creation myth is also helpful (which is not added). Finally, there is no point doing all this work if we are not going to post it in relevant articles. Over the years, I spent a lot of time organising the categories, and adding the sidebar and portal in the relevant articles. We really need to be doing this otherwise there is no point doing it as people will not see it.Tamsier (talk) 10:02, 18 March 2019 (UTC)

I could make a quick image that would be useful. Maybe something like a silhouette of Africa with traditional religious symbols inside? Something quick and easy that gets the job done?Mangokeylime (talk) 16:26, 4 April 2019 (UTC)

Sure! Go for it.Tamsier (talk) 00:23, 7 May 2019 (UTC)