Traditional African Religions

There is no single description that could comprehensively detail the motley of religions that have dotted the African continent, but it wouldn’t hurt to appreciate the many religions that have defined the continent long before Christianity and Islam entrenched themselves.

Even though traditional African religions (ATR) differ from community to community, they do share some similarities. For one, all seem to acknowledge the existence of one supreme deity, below whom were minor divinities/gods and spirits. Below these were the ancestors who could ascend into divinity over time. The ancestors and gods made intercessions to the supreme deity on behalf of the person, who was considered undeserving of the presence of the supreme deity.

This belief system is first apparent in the religion of Ancient Egypt, where Amun-Ra was exalted above the more than 50 other gods as the King of the Gods, and ancestors were venerated for fear of letting them die a second, unbearable death. Egypt isn’t what it used to be millennia ago, religious wise, but the pyramids bear silent testimony to a traditional belief system that strongly believed in the afterlife, and centuries before Abrahamic religions introduced their own concepts of the same.

In the far south, the isiZulu also had the same belief system, believing in the creator god (Nkulunkulu) who could only be accessed through one’s ancestors (AmaDlozi), a form of worship that is similar to the Yoruba of West Africa.

They believed in Olodumare, the supreme deity who of course could only be approached through one of the many ‘orishas’, who were anywhere between 300 and 4000, and could be anything from a stream to rock.

There have been as many different ATRs as have been ethnic communities on the continent, and all I wanted was to develop an appreciation of a past that has been largely erased by the advent of Abrahamic religions.

While all these may seem like a lesson in history, it is not wholly so; many of the ATRs are still very much alive, surviving on as syncretized versions of Christianity and Islam.  If it were otherwise, Nollywood productions wouldn’t be so obsessed with magic and charms as I have found them to be.

By Matengo Chwanya

Sources: Ebohonculturalcentre/ Studiesincomparativereligion/ Pewforum/ Africamission/ Mcaegypt/ Uiowa/

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