African Traditional Religion - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The traditional religions indigenous to Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

have, for most of their existence, been orally rather than scripturally transmitted. They are generally associated with animism

Animism

Animism refers to the belief that non-human entities are spiritual beings, or at least embody some kind of life-principle....

. Most have ethno-based creations stories. While generalizations are difficult due to the diversity of African based religions they do share some common features: a belief in a supreme deity above a host of lesser gods or semi-divine figures; a belief in the power and intercession of ancestral spirits; the idea of sacrifice or libation

Libation

A libation is a ritual pouring of a liquid as an offering to a god or spirit or in memory of those who have died. It was common in many religions of antiquity and continues to be offered in various cultures today....

, to ensure divine protection and generosity; the need to undergo rites of passage

Rites of Passage

Rites of Passage is an African American History program sponsored by the Stamford, Connecticut US public schools. The program consists of an extra day of schooling on Saturday for 12 weeks, service projects, and a culminating educational trip to Gambia and Senegal. Gambia and Senegal are the...

to move from the different stages of life (childhood to adulthood, from life to death). The role of humanity is generally seen as a harmonizing relationship between nature and the super-natural forces.

In many parts of Africa harsh distinctions are blurred as aspects of Islam

Islam

Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

and Christianity

Christianity

Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...

co-exist and syncretize

Syncretism

Syncretism is the combining of different beliefs, often while melding practices of various schools of thought. The term means "combining", but see below for the origin of the word...

with elements of indigenous spirituality. While a source of debate, some have argued that Islam is also a traditional African religion, while not indigenous, because of its coexistence in Africa and absorption into African culture. Adherence to African religions has seen a decline since the coming of both Islam and Christianity to the continent. Only Benin

Religion in Benin

According to the 2002 census, 27.1 percent of the population of Benin is Roman Catholic, 24.4 percent Muslim, 17.3 percent Vodun, 5 percent Celestial Christian, 3.2 percent Methodist, 7.5 percent other Christian, 6 percent other traditional local religious groups, 1.9 percent other religious...

has a majority adherence to African religions, although it must be stated here that what would be regarded as a small cult in some places would be considered a large religion in others. For example, it is estimated that only 10% of the population of Nigeria

Nigeria

Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...

is composed of followers of its native faiths. Now even though this segment of the society may seem somewhat insignificant at first, when it is remembered that this figure translates to some 15 million people (a larger number than the total populations of a great many sovereign states), the relative importance of the small community in question (and, indeed, of the many others like it throughout Africa) is easily discernible.

Typological classification

Christopher Ehret

Christopher Ehret , a professor at the University of California at Los Angeles, is a writer on African history and African historical linguistics, particularly known for his efforts to correlate linguistic taxonomy and reconstruction with the archeological record...

postulates five ethno-linguistic religious traditions of Africa. Of these, two (Koman and Khoisan) are nontheistic, as for example among the Uduk people

Uduk people

The Uduk are a Nilo-Saharan group from eastern Sudan. They call themselves Kwanim Pa and are culturally and linguistically related to neighboring communities, such as the Gumuz and the Kwama from the Sudan-Ethiopia borderland. Due to the recent war in southern Sudan they have been forced to...

. One, Afro-Asiatic, is henotheistic; that is, the people worship only one national or tribal deity, though they recognize the deities of other peoples. Two, Sudanic

Eastern Sudanic languages

Ehret 2001 [1984]Ehret, published in 2001 but circulating in manuscript form since at least 1984, calls the family "Eastern Sahelian", and idiosyncratically adds the Kuliak languages and Berta, which Bender assigns to higher-level branches of Nilo-Saharan, and reassigns Nyima to the southern branch...

and Niger–Congo, are monotheistic, as for example among the Maasai and the Ewe

Ewe people

The Ewe are a people located in the southeast corner of Ghana, east of the Volta River, in an area now described as the Volta Region, in southern Togo and western Benin...

Classification and Statistics

Adherents.com

Adherents.com is a website that aims to collect and present information about religious demographics, established in 1998. It is the largest pool of such data freely available on the internet. As of January 2010, the site contains approximately 44,000 references on over 4,300 faith groups...

(as of 2007) lists "African Traditional & Diasporic" as a "major religious group", estimating some 100 million adherents. They justify this combined listing of traditional African and African diasporic religions, and the separation from the generic "primal-indigenous" category by pointing out that

the "primal-indigenous" religions are primarily tribal and composed of pre-colonization peoples. While there is certainly overlap between this category and non-African primal-indigenous religious adherents, there are reasons for separating the two, best illustrated by focusing specifically on Yoruba, which is probably the largest African traditional religious/tribal complex. Yoruba was the religion of the vast Yoruba nation states which existed before European colonialism and its practitioners today; certainly those in the Caribbean, South America and the U.S.; are integrated into a technological, industrial society, yet still proclaim affiliation to this African-based religious system. Cohesive rituals, beliefs and organization were spread throughout the world of Yoruba (and other major African religious/tribal groups such as Fon
Fon people
The Fon people, or Fon nu, are a major West African ethnic and linguistic group in the country of Benin, and southwest Nigeria, made up of more than 3,500,000 people. The Fon language is the main language spoken in Southern Benin, and is a member of the Gbe language group...

), to an extent characteristic of nations and many organized religions, not simply tribes. (Major Religions Ranked by Size)

Practitioners of traditional religions in sub-Saharan Africa are distributed among 43 countries, and are estimated to number about 70 million, or 12% of African population, while the largest religions in Africa

Religion in Africa

Religion in Africa is multifaceted. Most Africans adhere to either Christianity or Islam. Many adherents of either religion also practice African traditional religions, with traditions of folk religion or syncretism practised alongside an adherent's Christianity or Islam.Judaism also has roots in...

are Christianity

Christianity

Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...

and Islam

Islam

Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

, accounting for 45% and 40%, respectively. As everywhere, adherence to an organized religion does not preclude a residue of folk religion

Folk religion

Folk religion consists of ethnic or regional religious customs under the umbrella of an organized religion, but outside of official doctrine and practices...

in which traditions predating Christianization or Islamisation survive.

West African religious tradition

The work of both Karade and Doumbia support the stance that the concept of 'force' or 'spirit' is a shared underlying theme among the spiritual traditions of the "Sudanic" cultures (i.e. those west of Cameroon

Cameroon

Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon , is a country in west Central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west; Chad to the northeast; the Central African Republic to the east; and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo to the south. Cameroon's coastline lies on the...

and south of the Sahara). Karade asserts that in the Yoruba tradition of Nigeria, 'force' is called 'ashe'. He further posits that the task of a Yoruba practitioner is to contemplate and/or ceremonially embody the various deities and/or ancestral energies/profundities in ways analogous to how chakras are contemplated in kundalini

Kundalini

Kundalini literally means coiled. In yoga, a "corporeal energy" - an unconscious, instinctive or libidinal force or Shakti, lies coiled at the base of the spine. It is envisioned either as a goddess or else as a sleeping serpent, hence a number of English renderings of the term such as 'serpent...

yoga. In other words, the deities represent energies, attitudes, or potential ways to approach life. The goal is to elevate awareness while either in or contemplating any of these states of mind such that one can transmute negative or wasteful aspects of their energy into conduct and mindsets that serve as virtuous examples for oneself and the greater community. Doumbia and Doumbia echo this sentiment for the Mande tradition of Senegal

Senegal

Senegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...

, Mali

Mali

Mali , officially the Republic of Mali , is a landlocked country in Western Africa. Mali borders Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west. Its size is just over 1,240,000 km² with...

, and many other regions of westernmost Africa. Here however, the 'force' concept is represented by the term 'nyama' rather than 'ashe'.

Divination

Divination

Divination is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic standardized process or ritual...

also tends to play a major role in the process of transmuting negative or confused feelings/thoughts into more ordered and productive ones. Specifically, this process serves as a way to provide frames of reference such that those who are uncertain as to how to begin an undertaking and/or solve a problem can get their bearings and open a dialectic with their highest selves concerning their options on their paths.

Akan Religion

The Akan people

Akan people

The Akan people are an ethnic group found predominately in Ghana and The Ivory Coast. Akans are the majority in both of these countries and overall have a population of over 20 million people.The Akan speak Kwa languages-Origin and ethnogenesis:...

of Ghana and Ivory Coast believe in a supreme god who takes on various names depending upon the region of worship. Akan mythology claims that at one time the god interacted with man, but that after being continually struck by the pestle of an old woman pounding fufu, a traditional Ghanaian food, he moved far up into the sky. There are no priests that serve him directly, and people believe that they may make direct contact with him. There are also numerous spirits(abosom), who receive their power from the supreme god and are most often connected to the world as it appears in its natural state. These include ocean and riverine spirits and various local deities. Priests serve individual spirits and act as mediators between the gods and mankind. Nearly everyone participates in daily prayer, which includes the pouring of libations as an offering to both the ancestors who are buried in the land and to the spirits who are everywhere. The earth is seen as a female deity and is directly connected to fertility and fecundity.

Odinani

Odinani encompasses the traditional religious and spiritual concepts and practices of the Igbo

Igbo people

Igbo people, also referred to as the Ibo, Ebo, Eboans or Heebo are an ethnic group living chiefly in southeastern Nigeria. They speak Igbo, which includes various Igboid languages and dialects; today, a majority of them speak English alongside Igbo as a result of British colonialism...

. It is a panentheistic

Panentheism

Panentheism is a belief system which posits that God exists, interpenetrates every part of nature and timelessly extends beyond it...

faith. In Odinani, there is one supreme God called Chukwu

Chukwu

Chukwu is the infinitely powerful, undefinable, indefinable, absolute supreme deity encompassing everything in space and space itself, in traditional Igbo spiritual belief system and Igbo mythology. Linguistic studies suggest that the name "Chukwu" is a portmanteau of the Igbo words "Chi" and "Ukwu"...

who was before all things and heads over smaller deities called Alusi

Alusi

Alusi, also known as Arusi or Arushi, are deities that are worshiped and served in the religion of the Igbo people. There are a list of many different Alusi and each has its own purpose...

. There are different Alusi for different purposes, the most important of them is Ala

Ala (mythology)

Ala is the female Alusi of the earth, morality, death, and fertility in Odinani. She is the most important Alusi in the Igbo pantheon. In Odinani, Ala rules over the underworld which holds the deceased ancestors in her womb...

the earth goddess. A traditional herbalist/priest among the Igbo is called Dibia.

Serer Religion

The Serer people

Serer people

The Serer people along with the Jola people are acknowledged to be the oldest inhabitants of The Senegambia....

of Senegal and The Gambia believe in a universal Supreme Deity called "Rog" also termed "Rog Sene" (Rog The Immensity). Their elaborate religious traditions deals with various dimensions of life and death, cosmology

Cosmology

Cosmology is the discipline that deals with the nature of the Universe as a whole. Cosmologists seek to understand the origin, evolution, structure, and ultimate fate of the Universe at large, as well as the natural laws that keep it in order...

, astronomy

Astronomy

Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...

, symbolism, poems, ancient chants etc. Lesser Gods and Goddesses include the Goddess "Mendis" (Goddess of the River); the God "Thiorak" or "Tulrakh" (God of Wealth

Wealth

Wealth is the abundance of valuable resources or material possessions. The word wealth is derived from the old English wela, which is from an Indo-European word stem...

) and The God Taahkarr or "Takhar" (God of Justice

Justice

Justice is a concept of moral rightness based on ethics, rationality, law, natural law, religion, or equity, along with the punishment of the breach of said ethics; justice is the act of being just and/or fair.-Concept of justice:...

or Vengeance).

Ceremonies

West African religious practices generally manifest themselves in communal ceremonies and/or divinatory rites in which members of the community, overcome by 'force' (or 'ashe', 'nyama', etc.), are excited to the point of going into meditative trance in response to rhythmic/mantric drumming and/or singing. In this state, depending upon the types of drumming or instrumental rhythms played by respected musicians (each of which is unique to a given deity/ancestor), participants embody a deity/ancestor, energy and/or state of mind by performing distinct ritual movements/dances that further enhance their elevated consciousness, or, in Eastern terms, excite the kundalini

Kundalini

to a specific level of awareness and/or circulate chi

In traditional Chinese culture, qì is an active principle forming part of any living thing. Qi is frequently translated as life energy, lifeforce, or energy flow. Qi is the central underlying principle in traditional Chinese medicine and martial arts...

in a specific way within the body. When this trance-like state is witnessed and understood, culturally educated observers are privy to a way of contemplating the pure/symbolic embodiment of a particular mindset or frame of reference. This builds skills at separating the feelings elicited by this mindset from their situational manifestations in daily life. Such separation and subsequent contemplation of the nature and sources of pure energy/feelings serves to help participants manage and accept them when they arise in mundane contexts. This facilitates better control and transformation of these energies into positive, culturally appropriate behavior, thought, and speech. Further, this practice can also give rise to those in these trances uttering words that, when interpreted by a culturally educated initiate/diviner, can provide insight into appropriate directions that the community (or individual) might take in accomplishing its goal.

Deities

Followers of traditional African religions pray
to various secondary deities (Ogoun

Ogoun

In the Yoruba and Haitian traditional belief system, Ogun is a orisha and loa who presides over iron, hunting, politics and war. He is the patron of smiths, and is usually displayed with a number of attributes: a machete or sabre, rum and tobacco...

, Da

DA, da, or dA may refer to:* Da , a Tony-winning play by Hugh Leonard* Da , a movie adaptation of the play by Hugh Leonard* Adi Da, a spiritual leader once known as Da Free John, and Da Love-Ananda...

, Agwu

Agwu (Deity)

Agwu Nsi, in Odinani, is the Alusi of health and divination. He is one of the concepts that was used by the Igbo to explain and understand good and evil, health and sickness, wealth and poverty, and fortune and misfortune. Belief in Agwu was widespread in Igboland in the past....

, Esu

Eshu

Èṣù is both an orisha and one of the most well-known deities of the Yoruba mythology and its related New World traditions.He has a wide range of responsibilities: the protector of travelers, deity of roads, particularly...

, Mbari, Thiorak, etc.) as well as to their ancestors.
These secondary gods serve as intermediaries between
humans and the creator god. Most indigenous African societies believe in a single creator god (Chukwu

Chukwu

, Nyame

Nyame

Nyame is the Sky god of the Ashanti people of Ghana and of the Akan,the leader of the Abosom, the Ashanti and Akan spirits and minor Gods.His wife is Asase Yaa goddess of earth and fate and they have two children, Tano,river god and Bia, goddess of wild animals.Also theyr children or servant and...

, Olodumare, Ngai

Ngai

Ngai is the supreme God in the religions of the Kamba, Kikuyu and Maasai nationalities of Kenya....

, Rog

Serer religion

The Serer religion, Fat Rog is the original religious beliefs, practices and teachings of the Serer people. The Serer people believe in a universal Supreme Deity called "Rog. "The Serer people are found throughout the Senegambia Region...

etc.). Some recognize a dual or complementary twin god such as Mawu-Lisa. For example, in one of the Yoruba creation myth, Olodumare, the supreme god, is said to have created Obatala

Obatala

In the religion of the Yoruba people, Obàtálá is the creator of human bodies, which were supposedly brought to life by Olorun's breath.Obàtálá is also the owner of all ori or heads. Any orisha may lay claim to an individual, but until that individual is initiated into the priesthood of that orisha,...

, a secondary deity, who then created humans on earth. Olodumare then infused those human creations with life. "Some societies also deify entities like the earth, the sun, the sea, lightning, or Nature

Nature

Nature, in the broadest sense, is equivalent to the natural world, physical world, or material world. "Nature" refers to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general...

. Each deity has its own priest

Priest

A priest is a person authorized to perform the sacred rites of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities...

or priestess."

Practices and Rituals

There are more similarities than differences in all African traditional religions. Often, God is worshiped through consultation or communion with lesser deities and ancestral spirits. The deities and spirits are honored through libation

Libation

, sacrifice (of animals, vegetables, or precious metals). The will of God is sought by the believer also through consultation of oracular deities, or divination

Divination

Divination is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic standardized process or ritual...

. In many African traditional religions, there is a belief in a cyclical nature of reality. The living stand between their ancestors and the unborn. African traditional religions embrace natural phenomena - ebb and tide, waxing and waning moon, rain and drought - and the rhythmic pattern of agriculture. According to Gottlieb and Mbiti:

"The environment and nature are infused in every aspect of African traditional religions and culture. This is largely because cosmology

Cosmology

and beliefs are intricately intertwined with the natural phenomena and environment. All aspects of weather, thunder, lightening, rain, day, moon, sun, stars, and so on may become emenable to control through the cosmology of African people. Natural phenomena are responsible for providing people with their daily needs."

For example in the Serer religion

Serer religion

, one of the most sacred star in the cosmos is called "Yoonir" the (Star of Sirius

Sirius

Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky. With a visual apparent magnitude of −1.46, it is almost twice as bright as Canopus, the next brightest star. The name "Sirius" is derived from the Ancient Greek: Seirios . The star has the Bayer designation Alpha Canis Majoris...

). With a long farming tradition, the Serer High Priests and Priestesses (Saltigue

Saltigue

Saltigue are Serer High Priests and Priestesses who precide over the religious ceremonies and affairs of the Serer people. They usually come from ancient Serer paternal families. Such a title is usually inheritted by birth right.- Sources:Louis Diene Faye,...

) deliver yearly sermons at the "Xoy" Ceremony (divination ceremony) in Fatick

Fatick

Fatick is a city in Senegal, located between M'bour and Kaolack. Its 2005 population was estimated at 24,243. It is the capital of Fatick Region....

before Yoonir's phase in order to predict winter months and enable farmers to start planting.

Divination

One of the most traditional methods of telling fortunes in Africa is called casting (or throwing) the bone

Bone

Bones are rigid organs that constitute part of the endoskeleton of vertebrates. They support, and protect the various organs of the body, produce red and white blood cells and store minerals. Bone tissue is a type of dense connective tissue...

s. Because Africa is a large continent with many tribes and cultures, there is not one single technique. Not all of the "bones" are actually bones, small objects may include cowrie shells, stones, strips of leather

Leather

Leather is a durable and flexible material created via the tanning of putrescible animal rawhide and skin, primarily cattlehide. It can be produced through different manufacturing processes, ranging from cottage industry to heavy industry.-Forms:...

, or flat pieces of wood

Wood

Wood is a hard, fibrous tissue found in many trees. It has been used for hundreds of thousands of years for both fuel and as a construction material. It is an organic material, a natural composite of cellulose fibers embedded in a matrix of lignin which resists compression...

. Some castings are done using sacred divination plates made of wood or performed on the ground (often within a circle) and they fall into one of two categories:

Casting marked bones, flat pieces of wood, shells, or leather strips and numerically counting up how they fall—either according to their markings or whether they do or do not touch one another—with mathematically-based readings delivered as memorized results based on the chosen criteria.

Casting a special set of symbolic bones or an array of selected symbolic articles—as, for instance, using a bird's wing bone to symbolize travel, a round stone to symbolize a pregnant womb, and a bird foot to symbolize feeling.

In African society, many people seek out diviners on a regular basis. There are no prohibitions against the practice. Those who tell fortunes for a living are also sought out for their wisdom as counselors and for their knowledge of herbal medicine.

Duality of self and gods

Most indigenous African religions have a dualistic concept of the person. In the Igbo language

Igbo language

Igbo , or Igbo proper, is a native language of the Igbo people, an ethnic group primarily located in southeastern Nigeria. There are approximately 20 million speakers that are mostly in Nigeria and are primarily of Igbo descent. Igbo is a national language of Nigeria. It is written in the Latin...

, a person is said to be composed of a body

Body

With regard to living things, a body is the physical body of an individual. "Body" often is used in connection with appearance, health issues and death...

and a soul. In the Yoruba language

Yoruba language

Yorùbá is a Niger–Congo language spoken in West Africa by approximately 20 million speakers. The native tongue of the Yoruba people, it is spoken, among other languages, in Nigeria, Benin, and Togo and in communities in other parts of Africa, Europe and the Americas...

, however, there seems to be a tripartite

Tripartite (theology)

In Christian theology, the tripartite viewpoint holds that man is a composite of three distinct components: body, soul and spirit. It is less popular than the bipartite view, where "soul" and "spirit" are taken as different terms for the same entity....

concept: in addition to body and soul, there is said to exist a "spirit

Spirit

The English word spirit has many differing meanings and connotations, most of them relating to a non-corporeal substance contrasted with the material body.The spirit of a living thing usually refers to or explains its consciousness.The notions of a person's "spirit" and "soul" often also overlap,...

" or an ori

Ori (Yoruba)

Ori is a metaphysical concept important to Yoruba spirituality and way of life.Ori, literally meaning "head," refers to one's spiritual intuition and destiny. It is the reflective spark of human consciousness embedded into the human essence, and therefore is often personified as an Orisha in its...

, an independent entity that mediates or otherwise interacts between the body and the soul.

Some religious systems have a specific devil-like figure (for example, Ekwensu

Ekwensu

Ekwensu was a Trickster God of the Igbo people who served as the Alusi or God of Bargains and the tortoise. Crafty at trade and negotiations, he was often invoked for guidance in difficult mercantile situations...

) who is believed to be the opposite of god.

Virtue and vice

Virtue in African traditional religion is often connected with the communal aspect of life. Examples include social behaviors such as the respect for parents and elders, appropriately raising children, providing hospitality, and being honest, trustworthy and courageous.

In some ATRs, morality is associated with obedience or disobedience to God regarding the way a person or a community lives. For the Kikuyu, according to Mbiti, God, acting through the lesser deities, is believed to speak to and be capable of guiding the virtuous person as one's "conscience." But so could the Devil and the messengers. In indigenous African religions, such as the Azande

Azande

The Azande are a tribe of north Central Africa. Their number is estimated by various sources at between 1 and 4 million....

religion, a person is said to have a good or bad conscience depending on whether he does the bidding of the God or the Devil.

Religious offices

African indigenous religions, like most indigenous religions, do not have a named and known founder, nor a sacred scripture. Often, such religions are oral traditions.

Priest

In some societies, there are intermediaries between individuals or whole communities and specific deities. Variously called Dibia, Babalawo

Babalawo

Babalawo is a Yorùbá chieftaincy title that denotes a Priest of Ifá. Ifa is a divination system that represents the teachings of the Orisha Orunmila, the Spirit of Wisdom, who in turn serves as the oracular representative of God...

, etc., the priest usually presides at the altar of a particular deity.

Healer

Practice of medicine is an important part of indigenous religion. Priests are reputed to have professional knowledge of illness (pathology), surgery, and pharmacology (roots, barks, leaves and herbs). Some of them are also reputed to diagnose and treat mental and psychological problems.

The role of a traditional healer is broader in some respects than that of a contemporary medical doctor. The healer advises in all aspects of life, including physical, psychological, spiritual, moral, and legal matters. He also understands the significance of ancestral spirits and the reality of witches.

Rainmaker

They are believed to be capable of bringing about or stopping rain, by manipulating the
environment meteorologically

Meteorology

Meteorology is the interdisciplinary scientific study of the atmosphere. Studies in the field stretch back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not occur until the 18th century. The 19th century saw breakthroughs occur after observing networks developed across several countries...

(e.g., by burning particular kinds of woods or
otherwise attempting to influence movement of clouds).

Holy places and headquarters of religious activities

While there are human made places (altars, shrines, temples, tombs), very often sacred space is located in nature (trees, groves, rocks, hills, mountains, caves, etc.).

These are some of the important centers of religious life: Nri-Igbo

Nri-Igbo

Nri is an ancient Igbo city-state in Anambra State Nigeria. The Kingdom of Nri was a center of learning, religion, and commerce in pre-colonial West Africa...

, Ile-Ife, Oyo

Oyo, Nigeria

Oyo is a city in Oyo State, Nigeria, founded as the capital of the Oyo Kingdom in the 1830s and known to its people as 'New Oyo' to distinguish it from the former capital to the north, 'Old Oyo' ) which had been deserted as a result of rumors of war. Its inhabitants are mostly of the Yoruba people...

, Dahomey

Dahomey

Dahomey was a country in west Africa in what is now the Republic of Benin. The Kingdom of Dahomey was a powerful west African state that was founded in the seventeenth century and survived until 1894. From 1894 until 1960 Dahomey was a part of French West Africa. The independent Republic of Dahomey...

, Benin City

Benin City

Benin City, is a city and the capital of Edo State in southern Nigeria. It is a city approximately twenty-five miles north of the Benin River. It is situated 200 miles by road east of Lagos...

, Ouidah

Ouidah

Ouidah , also Whydah or Juda, is a city on the Atlantic coast of Benin.The commune covers an area of 364 square kilometres and as of 2002 had a population of 76,555 people.-History:...

, Nsukka

Nsukka

Nsukka is a town and Local Government Area in South-East Nigeria in Enugu State. Other towns that share common border with Nsukka, such as Enugu Ezike, Orba and Obollo-Afor , Ede-Oballa, Uzo Uwani and Mkpologwu, now also claim the name Nsukka, hence they all collectively fall into the political...

, Akan, Kanem-Bornu, Mali

Mali

, and Igbo-Ukwu

Igbo-Ukwu

Igbo-Ukwu is a town in the Nigerian state of Anambra which was the site of three famous archaeological sites that revealed a highly sophisticated metal-working culture. The first, Igbo Isaiah, was uncovered in 1938 by Isaiah Anozie a local villager who stumbled upon the bronze works while digging...

Liturgy and rituals

Rituals often occur according to the life cycle of the year. There are herding and hunting rituals as well as those marking the rhythm of agriculture and of human life. There are craft rituals, such as in smithing. There are rituals on building new homes, on the assumption of leadership, etc.

Individuality

Each deity has an its own rituals, including choice objects of sacrifice; preference for male or female priest-officer; time of day, week, month, or year to make required sacrifice; or specific costumes for priest and supplicant on ritual occasions.

Patronage

Some deities are perpetual patrons of specific trades and guilds. For example, in Haitian Vodou, Ogoun

Ogoun

(Ogun among the Yorubas of Nigeria), the deity of metal, is patron of all professions that use metals as primary material of craft.

Libation

The living often honor ancestors by pouring a libation (paying homage), and thus giving them the first "taste" of a drink before the living consume it.

Magic, witchcraft, and sorcery

These are important, different but related, parts of beliefs about interactions between the natural and the supernatural, seen and unseen, worlds. Magicians, witches, shamans and sorcerers are said to have the skills to bring about or manipulate the relations between the two worlds. Abuse of this ability is widely condemned. Magic, witchcraft, and sorcery are parts of many indigenous religions..

Secret societies

They are important part of indigenous religion. Among traditional secret societies are hunting societies whose members are taught not only the physical methods, but also respect for the spiritual aspect of the hunt and use of honorable magical means to obtain important co-operation from the animal hunted.

Members are supposed to have been initiated into, and thus have access to, occultic powers hidden to non-members. Well known secret societies are Egbo, Nsibidi

Nsibidi

Nsibidi is a system of symbols indigenous to what is now southeastern Nigeria that is apparently ideographic, though there have been suggestions that it includes logographic elements...

, Ngbe, Mau Mau, Ogboni

Ogboni

Ogboni is a fraternal institution indigenous to the Yoruba language-speaking polities of Nigeria, Republic of Bénin and Togo...

, Sangbeto, etc.

Possession

Some spirits and deities are believed to "mount" some of their priests during special rituals. The possessed

Spiritual possession

Spirit possession is a paranormal or supernatural event in which it is said that spirits, gods, demons, animas, extraterrestrials, or other disincarnate or extraterrestrial entities take control of a human body, resulting in noticeable changes in health and behaviour...

goes into a trance-like state, sometimes accompanied by speaking in "tongues" (i.e., uttering messages from the spirit that need to be interpreted to the audience). Possession is usually induced by drumming and dancing.

Mythology

Many indigenous religions, like most religions, have elaborate stories that explain how the world was created, how culture and civilization came about, or what happens when a person dies, (e.g. Kalunga Line

Kalunga Line

The Kikongo word for "threshold between worlds" is Kalunga. For people of Africa who ended up in the slave trade ports of New Orleans and Charleston, the Kalunga Line was specifically the Atlantic Ocean. They believed the soul after death traveled the path of the sun as it set in the west. The...

). Other mythologies

Mythologies

Mythologies is a book by Roland Barthes, published in 1957. It is a collection of essays taken from Les Lettres nouvelles, examining the tendency of contemporary social value systems to create modern myths...

are meant to explain or enforce social conventions on issues relating to age, gender, class, or religious rituals. Myths

Mythology

The term mythology can refer either to the study of myths, or to a body or collection of myths. As examples, comparative mythology is the study of connections between myths from different cultures, whereas Greek mythology is the body of myths from ancient Greece...

are popular methods of education: they communicate religious knowledge and morality while amusing or frightening those who hear or read them. Examples of religions with elaborate mythologies include the native religion of the Yoruba people, see Yoruba mythology

Yoruba mythology

The Yorùbá religion comprises the original religious beliefs and practices of the Yoruba people. Its homeland is in Southwestern Nigeria and the adjoining parts of Benin and Togo, a region that has come to be known as Yorubaland...

Religious persecution

Adherents of African traditional religions had been persecuted, e.g. practitioners of the Bwiti

Bwiti

Bwiti is a West Central African spiritual practice by the forest-dwelling Babongo and Mitsogo people of Gabon, where it is counted as one of the three official religions, and the Fang people of Gabon and Cameroon...

religion by Christian missionaries and French colonial authorities, as well as some members of the present Gabon

Gabon

Gabon , officially the Gabonese Republic is a state in west central Africa sharing borders with Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north, and with the Republic of the Congo curving around the east and south. The Gulf of Guinea, an arm of the Atlantic Ocean is to the west...

government.

Traditions by region

North Africa

Berber mythology
Berber mythology
The traditional Berber mythology is the ancient and native set of beliefs and deities developed by the Berber people in their historical land of North Africa...
Egyptian mythology
Egyptian mythology
Ancient Egyptian religion was a complex system of polytheistic beliefs and rituals which were an integral part of ancient Egyptian society. It centered on the Egyptians' interaction with a multitude of deities who were believed to be present in, and in control of, the forces and elements of nature...

(Pre-Christian
Pre-Christian
Pre-Christian may mean:*before Christianization**historical polytheism *BC**Classical Antiquity**Iron Age...

)

West Africa

Akan mythology (Ghana)
Ashanti mythology
Ashanti mythology
The Ashanti people of Ghana in West Africa are known for their colorful folktales and mythology. But they are mostly Christians Now.The supreme being in the pantheon of the Ashanti is Nyame , the omniscient, omnipotent sky god. His wife is Asase Ya and they have two children, Bia and Tano. Asase...

(Ghana)
Dahomey (Fon) mythology
Dahomey mythology
The Dahomey are a nation located in Benin, Africa. The mythology of the Dahomey includes an entire pantheon of thunder gods; for example,*Xevioso is the god of thunder in the So region....
Efik mythology
Efik mythology
In Efik mythology, Abassi is considered to be the creator god. His wife, Atai, is known as the mediator. It is believed that Atai convinced Abassi to allow two humans , also known as their children, to live on Earth, but forbade them to work or reproduce. The children were required to return to...

(Nigeria, Cameroon)
Odinani of the Igbo people
Igbo people
Igbo people, also referred to as the Ibo, Ebo, Eboans or Heebo are an ethnic group living chiefly in southeastern Nigeria. They speak Igbo, which includes various Igboid languages and dialects; today, a majority of them speak English alongside Igbo as a result of British colonialism...

(Nigeria, Cameroon)
Isoko mythology (Nigeria)
Yoruba mythology
Yoruba mythology
The Yorùbá religion comprises the original religious beliefs and practices of the Yoruba people. Its homeland is in Southwestern Nigeria and the adjoining parts of Benin and Togo, a region that has come to be known as Yorubaland...

(Nigeria, Benin)

Central Africa

Bushongo mythology
Bushongo mythology
The Bushongo are an ethnic group from the Congo River and surrounding areas. The creation god in Bushongo mythology is called Bumba. The god Bumba is said to have vomited forth the sun, moon, earth, plants and animals, and then humanity...

(Congo)
Bambuti (Pygmy) mythology
Bambuti mythology
Mbuti mythology is the mythology of the African Mbuti Pygmies of Congo.The most important god of the Bambuti pantheon is Khonvoum , a god of the hunt who wields a bow made from two snakes that together appear to humans as a rainbow...

(Congo)
Lugbara mythology
Lugbara mythology
The Lugbara live in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda. In Lugbara mythology, Adroa appeared in both good and evil aspects; he was the creator god and appeared on Earth as a human who was near death. He was depicted as a very tall white man with only one half of a body, missing one...

(Congo)

East Africa

Akamba mythology (East Kenya)
Dinka mythology
Dinka mythology
The Dinka, or Jieng/Muonyjang, are a Nilotic ethnic group in South Sudan.In Dinka mythology, the supreme, creator god is Nhialic . He is believed to be present in all of creation, and to control the destiny of every human, plant and animal on Earth...

(South Sudan)
Lotuko mythology
Lotuko mythology
The Lotuko are an ethnic group from South Sudan.The chief god of the Lotuko is called Ajok; he is generally seen as kind and benevolent, but can be angered. He once reportedly answered a woman's prayer for the resurrection of her son. Her husband, however, was angry and re-killed the child...

(South Sudan)
Masai mythology
Masai mythology
The Maasai mythology involves several beliefs of the Maasai people, an ethnic group living in Kenya and Tanzania.-Neiterkob:According to some sources Neiterkob/Naiteru-kop may also be a reference to Enkai...

(Kenya, Tanzania)
Malagasy mythology
Malagasy mythology
Malagasy mythology is rooted in oral history and has been transmitted by storytelling , notably the Andriambahoaka epic, including the Ibonia cycle....

(Madagascar)

Southern Africa

Khoikhoi mythology
Khoikhoi mythology
This is a summary of some of the gods, heroes and monsters that appear in the beliefs of the Khoikhoi, an ethnic group from southern Africa.- Gods and heroes :...
Lozi mythology
Lozi mythology
The main function of Lozi mythology is to show that the original Lozi people were dwellers on the Barotse Floodplain of the upper Zambezi River and that they are, therefore, entitled to claim unchallenged title to that homeland...

(Zambia)
Tumbuka mythology
Tumbuka mythology
The Tumbuka are an ethnic group living in Malawi, Zambia and Tanzania. In Tumbuka mythology, Chiuta is the chief deity; he is all-powerful, omniscient and self-created. Chiuta literally means Great Bow and is symbolised in the sky by the rainbow. He is also a god of rain and fertility.Tumbuka,...

(Malawi)
Zulu mythology
Zulu mythology
Zulu mythology contains numerous deities, commonly associated with animals or general classes of natural phenomena.Unkulunkulu is the highest God and is the creator of humanity. Unkulunkulu was created in Uhlanga , a huge swamp of reeds, before he came to Earth...

(South Africa)

External links

African Religions in Diaspora
Theology in Africa: ATR Specialized articles on African Traditional Religion
Afrika world.com A website with extensive links and information about traditional African religions
Asomdwee Fie, Shrine of the Abosom and Nsamanafo A Traditional Akan Spiritual Shrine
Baba Alawoye.com Baba'Awo Awoyinfa Ifaloju, showcasing Ifa using web media 2.0 (blogs, podcasting, video & photocasting)
Roots and Rooted For those that love traditional African Religion

Typological classification

Classification and Statistics

West African religious tradition

Akan Religion

Odinani

Serer Religion

Ceremonies

Deities

Practices and Rituals

Divination

Duality of self and gods

Virtue and vice

Religious offices

Priest

Healer

Rainmaker

Holy places and headquarters of religious activities

Liturgy and rituals

Individuality

Patronage

Libation

Magic, witchcraft, and sorcery

Secret societies

Possession

Mythology

Religious persecution

Traditions by region

External links

Further reading