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Religious Studies: African

Religion 101

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“Ashes fly back into the face of he who throws them.” (Baba Ifa Karade)

Regions

Characteristics

  • Belief in the Cult of the Dead (Berber)
  • Megalithic Culture (worship of rocks) (Berber)

Specific Traditions

  • Berber Tradition (Morocco (including Western Sahara), Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Chad, Burkina Faso)
  • Kemetism (Egypt & Sudan)
  • Kushite mythology (Nile River Valley)
  • Punic Religion (Tunisia, Algeria, Libya)

Primary Resources

Characteristics

  • Ancestor worship
  • Spiritual connection to the land and nature

Specific Traditions

  • Abaluhya mythology (Kenya)
  • Abaluhya mythology (Kenya)
  • Dini Ya Msambwa (Bungoma, Trans Nzoia, Kenya)
  • Dinka religion (South Sudan)
  • Gikuyu (Kenya)
  • Kalenjin mythology (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania)
  • Maasai mythology (Kenya, Tanzania, Ouebian)
  • Malagasy mythology (Madagascar)
  • Somali mythology (Somalia)
  • Waaqeffanna (Ethiopia)

Primary Resources

Characteristics

  • Central notion of individual redemption that affects the entire clan.
  • Humanity is equated with the lineage, especially with the clan.
  • Goal: reincarnation as ancestors or, still better, of their return to the earth to be among their people at some future time
  • Animism and the worship of nature deities
  • Diviners: ritual specialists who have mastered a technique for reading signs that communicate the will of the divinities.

Specific Traditions

  • Abwoi religion (Nigeria)
  • Akan religion (Gana/Ghana, Ivory Coast)
  • Asaase Yaa (Bono people) (Gana/Ghana and Ivory Coast)
  • Bantu mythology (Central, Southeast, Southern Africa)
  • Bushongo mythology (Congo)
  • Dahomean religion (Benin, Togo)
  • Dogon religion (Mali)
  • Edo religion (Benin kingdom, Nigeria)
  • Efik religion (Nigeria, Cameroon)
  • Godianism
  • Hausa animism (Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Gabon, Gana/Ghana, Ivory Coast, Niger, Nigeria, Togo)
  • Ijo religion & Odinala (Ijo people, Nigeria)
  • Lotuko mythology (South Sudan)
  • Serer religion (Senegal, Gambia, Mauritania
  • Vodou (Gana/Ghana, Benin, Togo, Nigeria)
  • West African mythology (the umbrella term of all traditional religions of West Africa)
  • Yoruba (Nigeria, Benin, Togo)

Primary Resources

Characteristics

  • Animal Stories & Tales
  • Communication through Natural Entities (plants, animals, weather evetns)

Specific Traditions

  • Badimo (Botswana)
  • Bantu mythology (Central, Southeast, Southern Africa)
  • Dinka peoples' religion of South Sudan
  • Indigenous religion in Zimbabwe
  • Lozi mythology (Zambia)
  • San religion (Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa)
  • Traditional healers of South Africa
  • Tumbuka mythology (Malawi)
  • Zulu traditional religion (South Africa)

Primary Resources

References

Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (2023, September 24). African religions. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/African-religions

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