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African traditional religion, sometimes referred to African indigenous religion, is an umbrella phrase encompassing a wide, though remarkably related, variety of traditional beliefs and practices shared by most pagan African societies. Many of these beliefs and practices are technically known as animism. Although African traditionalists almost always acknowledge the existence of a high God who created the universe, they perceive this God as distant. In real practice, African traditional religion is not unlike traditional religions in most cultures (e.g., Indian, Greek, or Roman): God is worshipped through consultation or communion with lesser deities and ancestral spirits. The deities and spirits are honoured through libation, sacrifice (of animals, vegetables, or precious metals) and, in some cases, trokosi. The will of God is sought by the believer also through consultation of oracular deities, or divination.

In the proceeding article, some general themes common to many African religions will be discussed, although it must be remembered that African religions are by no means homogeneous, which isn't surprising, considering humans, as a species of African origin, probably had religion in Africa longer than in elsewhere.

Deities

Many indigenous African societies worship one God (Chukwu, Nyame, Olodumare, etc.) by paying obeissance to the God through lesser deities (Ogun, Agwu, Esu, Ifa, Mbari, Da, etc.). Some societies also deify entites like Earth (Ala), Sun (Anyanwu), Oya (Sea), Shango (Lightening), or Nature (Elu-na-Ala). Each deity has its own priest or priestess.

Duality of Self and Gods

Most indigenous African religions have dualistic conceptions of the person. A person is said to be composed of body (ahu) and soul (mmo). Others, however, have tripartite conceptions: in addition to body and soul, there is said to exist "spirit" (ori), an independent entity that mediates between the body and the soul.

One religion has a devil figure, Ekwensu, who is said to be the opposite of God.

Virtue and Vice

In some ATRs, morality is associated with obedience or disobedience to the God in the way a person or a community lives. God, acting through the gods, is said to speak to and be capable to guide the virtuous person as one's "conscience." But so could the Devil (Ekwensu) and the messengers (ajo mmo). A person is said to have good or bad conscience depending on whether one does the bidding of the God or the Devil.

Religious offices

Priest

These are intermediaries between individuals or whole communty and specific deities. Variously called Dibia, Babalawo, Sangoma, etc., the priest is usually presider at the altar of a particular god.

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.

Rainmaker

They are believed to be capapble of bringing about or stopping rain, by manipulating the environment meteorologically (e.g., by burning particular kinds of woods or otherwise attempting to influence movement of clouds).

Holy places and Headquarters of Religious Activities

These are some of the important centers of religious life: Nri-Igbo, Ile-Ife, Oyo, Dahomey, Benin, Uida, Nsukka, Akan, Kanem-Bornu, Mali, and Igbo-Ukwu.

Cult and Rituals

Individuality

Each deity has a 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, Ogun, the god of metal, is patron of all professions that use metals as primary material of craft.

Libation

The living honor ancestors by pouring a libation (paying homage) by giving them first "taste" of drink before the living consume it, or by offering kola nuts.

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, and sorcerers are said to have the skills to bring about or manipulate the relations between the two worlds.

Secret societies

They are important part of indigenous religion. 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, Mau Mau, etc.

Masquerades

Some masquerades are believed to be returning from the dead. Egungu, one of the many kinds of masquerades, for example, means "bone" or "skeleton," i.e., a person risen from the dead. Others are Gelede, Epa, Okwe, Omabe, etc. Some masqurades are considered more serious, more sacred, or more ferocious than others. While some functions as judges and judicial officers, others merely entertain spectators at festivals.

Possession

Some gods are believed to "mount" some of their priests during special rituals. The possessed goes into a trance-like state, sometimes accompanied by speaking in "tongues" (i.e., uttering messages from the god that need to be interpreted to the audience). Possession is usually induced by drumming and dancing.

Mythology

Many indigenous religions have elaborate stories that explain how the world was created, how culture and civilization came about, or what happens when a person dies. Other mythologies are meant to explain or enforce social conventions on issues relating to age, gender, class, or religious rituals. Myths are popular methods of education: they communicate religious knowledge and morality while amusing or frightening those who hear or read them.

(Information presented here was gleaned from World Eras Encyclopaedia, Volume 10, edited by Pierre-Damien Mvuyekure (New York: Thomson-Gale, 2003), in particular: E.C. Eze "Religion and Philosophy," pp. 275-314.)

Further Reading

• Mbiti, John (1990) . African Religions and Philosophy. African Writers Series, Heinemann. ISBN 0-435-89591-5.
• Wade Abimbola, ed. and trans. Ifa Divination Poerty (New York: NOK, 1977).
• Ulli Beier, ed. The Origins of Life and Death: African Creation Myths (London: Heinemann, 1966).
• Herbert Cole, Mbari: Art and Life among the Owerri Igbo (Bloomington: Indiana University press, 1982).
• J. B. Danquah, The Akan Doctrine of God: A Fragment of Gold Coast Ethics and Religion, second edition (London: Cass, 1968).
• Marcel Griaule and Germaine Dietterlen, Le Mythe Cosmogonique (Paris: Institut d'Ethnologie, 1965).
• Rems Nna Umeasigbu, The Way we Lived: Ibo Customs and Stories (London: Heinemann, 1969).
• Sandra Barnes, Africa's Ogun: Old World and New (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1989).
• Segun Gbadagesin, "African Philosophy: Traditional Yoruba Philosophy and Conteporary African Realities (New York: Peter Lang, 1999).
• Bolaji Idowu, God in Yoruba Belief (Plainview: Original Publications, rev. and enlarged ed., 1995)

• Religious faiths, traditions, and movements