15
FACTS ON
AFRICAN RELIGIONS



African religions cover a diverse landscape of ethnic groups, languages,
cultures, and worldviews.


1. African traditional religion refers to the indigenous or autochthonous
religions of the African people. It deals with their cosmology, ritual
practices, symbols, arts, society, and so on. Because religion is a way of
life, it relates to culture and society as they affect the worldview of the
African people.

2. Traditional African religions are not stagnant but highly dynamic and
constantly reacting to various shifting influences such as old age, modernity,
and technological advances.

3. Traditional African religions are less of faith traditions and more of lived
traditions. They are less concerned with doctrines and much more so with rituals,
ceremonies, and lived practices.

4. When addressing religion in Africa, scholars often speak of a “triple heritage,
that is the triple legacy of indigenous religion, Islam, and Christianity that are
often found side by side in many African societies.

5. While those who identify as practitioners of traditional African religions are
often in the minority, many who identify as Muslims or Christians are involved in
traditional religions to one degree or another.

6. Though many Africans have converted to Islam and Christianity, these religions
still inform the social, economic, and political life in African societies.

7. Traditional African religions have gone global! The Trans-Atlantic slave trade
led to the growth of African-inspired traditions in the Americas such as Candombl
in Brazil, Santería in Cuba, or Vodun in Haïti. Furthermore, many in places like
the US and the UK have converted to various traditional African religions, and the
importance of the diaspora for these religions is growing rapidly. African religions
have also become a major attraction for those in the diaspora who travel to Africa
on pilgrimages because of the global reach of these traditions.

8. There are quite a number of revival groups and movements whose main aim is to
ensure that the tenants and practice of African indigenous religion that are
threatened survive. These can be found all over the Americas and Europe.

9. The concerns for health, wealth, and procreation are very central to the core
of African religions. That is why they have developed institutions for healing,
for commerce, and for the general well-being of their own practitioners and
adherents of other religions as well.

10. Indigenous African religions are not based on conversion like Islam and
Christianity. They tend to propagate peaceful coexistence, and they promote
good relations with members of other religious traditions that surround them.

11. Today as a minority tradition, it has suffered immensely from human rights
abuses. This is based on misconceptions that these religions are antithetical
to modernity. Indeed indigenous African religions have provided the blueprint
for robust conversations and thinking about community relations, interfaith
dialogue, civil society, and civil religion.

12. Women play a key role in the practice of these traditions, and the internal
gender relations and dynamics are very profound. There are many female goddesses
along with their male counterparts. There are female priestesses, diviners, and
other figures, and many feminist scholars have drawn from these traditions to
advocate for women’s rights and the place of the feminine in African societies.
The traditional approach of indigenous African religions to gender is one of
complementarity in which a confluence of male and female forces must operate in
harmony.

13. Indigenous African religions contain a great deal of wisdom and insight on
how human beings can best live within and interact with the environment. Given
our current impending ecological crisis, indigenous African religions have a
great deal to offer both African countries and the world at large.

14. African indigenous religions provide strong linkages between the life of
humans and the world of the ancestors. Humans are thus able to maintain constant
and symbiotic relations with their ancestors who are understood to be intimately
concerned and involved in their descendants’ everyday affairs.

15. Unlike other world religions that have written scriptures, oral sources form
the core of indigenous African religions. These oral sources are intricately
interwoven into arts, political and social structure, and material culture. The
oral nature of these traditions allows for a great deal of adaptability and
variation within and between indigenous African religions. At the same time, forms
of orature – such as the Ifa tradition amongst the Yoruba can form important
sources for understanding the tenants and worldview of these religions that can
serve as analogs to scriptures such as the Bible or the Qur’an.


15 facts on African religions
https://blog.oup.com/2014/05/15-facts-on-african-religions/



African Religions
http://global.oup.com/academic/product/african-religions-a-very-short-introduction-9780199790586



African Religions: A Very Short Introduction
http://global.oup.com/academic/product/african-religions-a-very-short-introduction-9780199790586



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A Gathering of Readers
https://www.ischool.utexas.edu/~gathread/index.html



Malawi Project
http://www.malawiproject.org/



Afro Kids
http://www.afrokids.com/



THE FREEMAN INSTITUTE
http://www.freemaninstitute.com/



Africa Resource
http://www.africaresource.com/



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Real History World Wide
http://www.realhistoryww.com/



History Facts/Science Facts - Quatr.us
http://quatr.us/



African-American Resources
http://www.ushistory.org/more/african-american.htm



African American Studies Library Research Guide
http://www.public.iastate.edu/~savega/aframer.htm



African Music Encyclopedia
http://africanmusic.org/



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AFROPEDEA
http://www.afropedia.org



World Afropedia
http://worldafropedia.com/afropedia/Main_Page



African Indigenous Science and Knowledge Systems
http://www.africahistory.net/



Natives Wiki
http://tribalspedia.wikia.com/wiki/Natives_Wiki



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Islamic Wiki
http://islam.wikia.com/



List of African mythological figures
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_African_mythological_figures



Minority Treaties
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minority_Treaties



Sexism
http://www.understandingprejudice.org/



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AFRICAN AMERICAN INDEX

AFRICAN AMERICAN LINKS

AFRICAN STUDY

AFRICAN SUB-INDEX

AFRO-LATIN AMERICAN

AFRO-LATIN AMERICAN RESOURCES

AFRICAN NATIVE AMERICAN

AFRICAN NATIVE AMERICANS RESOURCES

DIASPORA

DIASPORA RESOURCES

THE PARADOXICAL COMMANDMENTS


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