Portal:Traditional African religions

Welcome to the Traditional African religions portal

Introduction The traditional African religions (or traditional beliefs and practices of African people) are a set of highly diverse beliefs that include various ethnic religions. Generally, these traditions are oral rather than scriptural, include belief in a supreme creator, belief in spirits, veneration of the dead, use of magic and traditional African medicine. The role of humanity is generally seen as one of harmonizing nature with the supernatural. According to Lugira, "it is the only religion that can claim to have originated in Africa. Other religions found in Africa have their origins in other parts of the world." Selected article The Okuyi is a rite of passage practiced by several Bantu ethnic groups in different countries mainly across the west coast of Central Africa. Some of the countries where the rite is exercised include Cameroon in West Central Africa, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea. Traditionally, the rite is performed at numerous special occasions including funerals and weddings. Usually when an infant reaches four months of age or when a child becomes an adolescent, an Okuyi ritual is applied as well. Today, the Mekuyo rite is exercised by a range of ethnic peoples within the Bantu cluster. The coastal community known as Ndowe, also known as playeros, is a primary example, as peoples across Equatorial Guinea frequently perform the ritual in public. Gabon has two chief ethnic groups that exercise the Okuyi rite including the Mpongwe and Galwa from Lambaréné, Gabon. Selected images The Mbot mask. Symbol of the Serer peoples' Ndut initiation rite. Credit: Tamsier More about the Ndut rite of passage.... An Igbo Ukwu bronze ceremonial vessel made around the 9th century AD. Credit: Ukabia More about this picture on Archaeology of Igbo-Ukwu... An early 20th century Yoruba divination board. Credit: Tamsier For more about this picture, see Divination in Traditional African religions and African divination Bakongo masks from the Kongo Central. In traditional African religions, masks play an important part in many ritual ceremonies. Credit: Ndoto ya Afrika For more about this picture, see Practices and rituals in traditional African religions, Traditional African masks, African art and African sculpture. An early-20th-century Igbo medicine man in Nigeria, West Africa. Credit: Ukabia For more about this picture, see Divination in Traditional African religions, African divination, Traditional African medicine and Igbo religion. Vodun altar with several fetishes in Abomey, Benin (West Africa). Credit: Dominik Schwarz More about this picture on West African Vodun... The star Yoonir, symbol of the Universe in Serer religion and Cosmogony. The peak of the star (top point) represents the Supreme Deity (Roog). The other four points represent the cardinal points of the Universe. The crossing of the lines ("bottom left" and "top right", and "top left" and "bottom right") pinpoints the axis of the Universe that all energies pass. The top point is "the point of departure and conclusion, the origin and the end". Among the Serers who cannot read or write the Latin alphabet, it is very common for them to sign official documents with the star of Yoonir, as the star also represents "good fortune and destiny". Yoonir also represents the Serer people and the Serer precolonial Kingdom of Sine. Credits: Sarang, AnonMoos, (and Yoonir file by Tamsier) For more about the pentagram in Serer spirituality, see Yoonir in Serer religion and Serer creation myth. Serer representation of the universe. The three worlds : the invisible world, the terrestrial world and the nocturnal world. Credit: Henry Gravrand - La civilisation sereer : Pangool For more about this picture, see Serer creation myth and Serer religion (A ƭat Roog). The Senegambian stone circles (Wassu section) believed by archaeologists and historians to be built by the Serer people of the Senegambia region. The Senegambia stone circles are the largest concentration of stone circles seen anywhere in the world according to UNESCO. They are sacred burial grounds and a place of ritual offerings (kuur in Serer). Credit: Atamari For more about this picture, see Senegambian stone circles, Mummification and Cult of the Upright Stones in Serer religion, and Serer ancient history. Traditional healer of South Africa performing a divination by reading the bones. Credit: User:FastilyClone (Fastily) For more about this picture, see Divination in Traditional African religions and African divination Festivals There are several religious festivals found in the various Traditional African religions. Some of these are listed below next to their corresponding religion : Afro-Cuban religion : Plantes Igbo religion : Ekpe festivals - New Yam Festival of the Igbo — The Iwa ji festival Jamaican Maroon religion : Kumina — Kromanti dance San religion : Healing dances Serer religion : Daqaar mboob — Diouck — Gamo - Jobai — Khanghere - Mindisse - Mbosseh (or mboosé) — Mboudaye — Ndut — Randou Rande — Raan (held at Tukar, see also Saltigue) — Sam Southieh — The consultation at Ngalagne — The massacre of Cadde - The royal struggle - The session struggle at Ndiaye-Ndiaye — The session struggle Jiloor (Jijaak) — Tobaski — Tourou Peithie — Xoy (main Xoy held at Fatick) Yoruba religion : Odun Egungun — The Yoruba calendar (the year in festivals) Selected biography Cheikh Anta Diop (29 December 1923 – 7 February 1986) was a Senegalese historian, anthropologist, physicist, and politician who studied the human race's origins and pre-colonial African culture. Though Diop is sometimes referred to as an Afrocentrist, he predates the concept and thus was not himself an Afrocentric scholar. However, Diopian thought, as it is called, is paradigmatic to Afrocentricity. His work was greatly controversial and throughout his career, Diop argued that there was a shared cultural continuity across African peoples that was more important than the varied development of different ethnic groups shown by differences among languages and cultures over time. Diop's work has posed important questions about the cultural bias inherent in scientific research. Cheikh Anta Diop University (formerly known as the University of Dakar), in Dakar, Senegal, is named after him. Selected quote “ The environment and nature are infused in every aspect of traditional African religions and culture. This is largely because cosmology and beliefs are intricately intertwined with the natural phenomena and environment. All aspects of weather, thunder, lightning, rain, day, moon, sun, stars, and so on may become amenable to control through the cosmology of African people. Natural phenomena are responsible for providing people with their daily needs. ” Roger S. Gottlieb Source: Gottlieb, Roger S., The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Ecology, Oxford University Press (2006), p. 261, ISBN 9780199727698 [1] Did you know ...that the organizers of FESTIMA, a festival in Burkina Faso celebrating traditional African masks, estimate that 100,000 people attended in 2016? Related portals Africa Religion Topics For more Traditional African religion topics, see Category:Traditional African religions. 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