Africa Religion

Understanding Africa Religion Is Key to Understanding African Heritage

3^rd January 2022

Africa Religion (AR) is one of the oldest forms of religion in the world, but not organized. Before Christianity and Islam set foot on the African soil, AR was the religion of the continent. Even though it has many different sects and forms, Africa Religion is not as plural as many modern scholars think. Africa Religion is one religion just as Christianity and Islam are. But how did it all start?

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What Is Africa Religion?

Africa Religion as defined above is a religion founded and based in Africa. The people of Africa before the coming of the organized religions, Islam and Christianity, had their own religion. This religion manifested in many different distinct forms and types, making foreigners think that these differences are but different religions, leading to the name of the title being plural, African Traditional Religions, a phrase I won’t use because it’s suggesting primitivity.

But it’s also true that the religion in Africa is one with different sects and branches, just as most world religions do have their sects and branches, teaching different doctrines but on/about the same religion.

However, the West concluded that Africa Religion is a form of worship of animals, calling it animist, yet, this is an insult or at least, a name out of pure ignorance to the fact that Africans don’t worship animals as such. If they do, even the Jews, too might be categorized under the same category, animists. This is so because the Africans used animals as sacrifices, just as the animals were used in the Old Testament (Bible).

Thus, Africa Religion is as old as Judaism. It is as old as other eastern or Asian Religions. It is the way Africans seek to know and relate with the Creator in their own unique natural ways. It is the original religion on the continent. It has both evil and good sides.

Look, not every African religious person/believer is evil, and most of the religious practices in Africa were/are meant for the good instead of the evil. Not understanding how Africa Religion works don’t translate to it being animism or satanic in that matter. Rather, it simply means one don’t understand how it works, and therefore one needs someone else who knows much about it to explain it better.

But unfortunately, Africa is no longer unique and special because we have sold our birthright to the West and the East. We (Africans) don’t know the importance of the Africa Religion anymore, thus, we seek similar spiritual fulfilments in foreign gods and religions, Christian Religion, Islam Religion, Jewish Religion, and Easter Religion.

But it is not too late yet to explain things to younger African generations. It is our role as Africans to explain our faith, not the other way round. It is us to tell the rest of the world what we believe in and how our belief system works instead of the world to explain or interpret our religion for us. In this way, Africa Religion is not Traditional African Religions, or ATR, as we have been told. Rather, it is a single religion, with sects and branches, such as Christianity and Islam.

Where Did The Africans Get Their Religion?

Like the Jews and the Indus, Africans have several revelations and religious experiences with God and other gods. Through these different revelations, there came many different encounters with the divine, thus, the many known ways of worship.

In Africa, there is God and there are many other gods, just as the Bible teaches. God is the Creator of all things, including smaller gods and spirits for His own divine purposes.

There were/are spiritual healers in Africa, and this means they were/are not working for the Devil but against him and his works. This also means there were both true as well as false prophets in Africa.

In short, the Africa Religion originated right in Africa, just as Christianity and Islam originated in the Middle East. Just as Buddhism and other Asian and Eastern religions originated from those places many years ago, so does the Africa Religion. It was not imported, and thus, it is not foreign to Africans. This is why those born and grew up in the African villages will always have the true African worldviews regardless of their new education or foreign influences.

Only those young innocent Africans, born in modern cities, filled with foreign ideas, don’t know or grasp anything about the beliefs and practices in Africa, their own. Some may call this very statement, evil, or satanic, and there is no way to blame them since they are innocent and ignorant of their own origins and history. Indeed, Africa has its own unique history. It has its own religion, culture, science, worldviews, morals, and ethics. Africa has everything of its own.

I can boldly say that Africa Religion came from God. Unless one strongly believes that God, or the idea of God, came from the Middle East, East, or the West, one must settle that God is indeed the Creator of Africa and her everything: land, people, history, religion, and all therein.

If God created Africa, as He did the rest of the world, then everything in Africa comes from God. He revealed Himself to the Africans in the unique African ways, thus, the origin of the Africa Religion.

How Did The Africans Use Their Religion?

Religion in Africa was and is part of life. Religion is the relationship between God and His people. It is both a spiritual as well as a physical relationship. Religion is part of everyday life in Africa. It tells us the relationship between the living and the dead.

In Africa, we believe that the dead have just left or changed into a different life form, which means that they have access to our physical world. This is why in many African cultures, the dead are treated as if they are still living, otherwise, the story of Jesus rising from the dead won’t make any real sense to an African.

Africans used religion for both good and evil. There are both good and evil forces in the universe/world, and we, the living humans, can make use of them in the way we want.

But even long before Christianity and Islam, the Africans knew that evil is bad. This is why they made use of their spirits to take care of thieves and wicked folks in society. For example, if you are hungry, you are allowed to eat anything you can find ready for food in my garden: tomatoes, mangoes, guavas, groundnut/peanuts, and whatever is edible. But you are not allowed to take it away for other commercial uses. This will be considered stealing, and my spirits will make sure you come back to the field with the same things that you have stolen stuck on your head.

Now, if the Africans used these spirits to tame the wild, keep moral values, and shun that which is evil, can we call it satanic? Well, the answer depends on whether we have been brainwashed or not.

In fact, most Africans believe in the spiritual world more than any other people on the planet, just because they don’t just believe; they know firsthand how the spiritual world operates.

If you think I am lying, visit a well-known African village and try to steal things away, then tell me what happens to you after that in the comments below.

In short, we have been using the spiritual world in everyday life. We know the fact that life is spiritual. We knew that gaining wealth in the wrong way has its own consequences, even here on earth.

We, most old Africans, don’t believe in hell and heaven, because we can’t confirm those things. But we know that the spiritual world is all over the place. We can tap into it by doing some spiritual things such as rituals, songs, and sacrifices, and the Bible teaches the same.

Look, divination is a biblical reality, and we in Africa have been doing it for years long before the Bible came to us in any form. God revealed these things to us long ago, and we know instead of merely believing that they are real.

Why Did The Africans Use Their Religion?

We use our own religion because that was all we had before the world became a global village. We still use it because that’s what we know and have. We use Africa Religion because we can relate to it and because it works for us.

It’s not a mere belief system because it is a reality of life that life is indeed spiritual. The spiritual world is more real than the physical world because we can work with it.

We use our Africa Religion to make good and bad things happen, depending on the need. For example, if your son is out in the bushes, and you suspect something bad might have happened to him, you can use the spiritual world to find out. This is a good thing, right?

If you can be able to tell what is going on with the young man while he is deep in the forest, and you are at home, that may help because if he is in danger, people can go and find him and rescue him. If he is fine and not lost, then you can relax, knowing that he is going to come back home by himself.

What if people are in a need of rain? Well, if you can do something to make it rain, then that’s excellent, isn’t it?

We Africans can make it rain by performing some rituals and sacrifices to the gods of the sky. These gods may just make it rain, or they go and ask God on our behalf, and there we go.

Is this not the same thing when we pray to God in the name of either Mohammed (peace be upon him) or Jesus Christ?

What if someone raped your wife and you can’t find him, and your wife can’t remember who he was? Can we use the spirits to find out exactly who the guy was so that he is brought to justice? Yes, we can. We can find him without guessing or making a mistake or picking the wrong person in the community. What if someone killed your relative and runs away unseen, can we find him and bring him to justice? All these are the ways Africans have been using their religion.

In fact, the word “religion” is foreign to us in Africa because there is no such thing as a belief or unbelief. Whether you believe that the spiritual world is real, or you don’t, it doesn’t make any changes at all. The spiritual world and the relationship between us and gods is as real as you and I are. Thus, we use our spirituality in many possible ways, here in Africa.

What Is The Importance of The Africa Religion?

Africa Religion is very important in order for us to be known as Africans. It is one of the things that define and give us meaning, a reason to live. It is the very reason that makes me believe in the stories of the Bible, including the incarnation of God in the form of man, who then lived, served, suffered, died, and then rose again to glory. Without my previous knowledge (not mere belief) of the spiritual world through Africa Religion, I can’t believe in these Bible tales.

Because I know that the spiritual world is real, I do believe and experience the Holy Spirit in a personal unique way. Because the Africa Religion shows me how evil forces are powerful, I also take the Holy Spirit seriously, because He is the good force that we had many years before we heard of Him in the Bible, here in Africa.

Don’t forget that the Holy Spirit is everywhere and that He has been working and is working in every people group in all parts of the world. He was working even in the Old Testament, even long before the Pentecost. He is God, and therefore, He is everywhere at the same time. This is the importance of Africa Religion because it prepares us for the new forms of religion. It makes us understand both the Bible and the Qur’an. It helps us understand Hinduism, Judaism, Islam and other organized and unorganized major world religions.

But Africa Religion does not only help us become Christians. It helps us define ourselves and the world we live in. It helps us live with purpose since the dead are actually living but in a different form. It helps us live morally since the living-dead will judge or punish us, here and now, not in the world unknown. It helps us see the fact that curses and blessings are real.

My Final Words

Here are my final words of advice and wisdom to you, my dear reader. I hope you have taken some minutes to read from the beginning to this point in this article. If so, I would like to summarize my points here. I would like to say that Africa has everything, including religion. Our religion is not as evil as you might have been taught it is. In every human religion, there is both good and evil.

It’s not God’s view that everything we are or have in Africa is that evil, but how we use our African spiritual knowledge may be evil.

Take your time to understand Africa Religion before you simply believe what you have read or what someone told you is the absolute truth. We, humans, are naturally biased, and this means we despise each other’s beliefs and worldviews.

Africa is a very rich continent. We are rich, not only with land and natural resources, but also with spirituality and purpose.

I hope Africa Religion as an article has been helpful to you, personally. Would you like to share your thoughts about it below? I will deeply appreciate your comments, positive or negative, and I think other readers will love to hear from you. You can leave a comment below.

May God bless and keep you and your loved ones safe during and after the global pandemic. Shalom!

Further Readings

• Religion in Africa—Wikipedia.
• The Spirituality of Africa—The Harvard Gazette.
• What Is Africa Religion?—Bing Search