Ancestor Veneration

Africans have long believed that the ritualized propitiation and invocation of dead kin could influence the fate of the living. This is not exclusively an African practice, but it has probably been brought to its most complex and elaborate levels by Africans. The Chinese, Melanesians, and Japanese also have constructed system of ancestral veneration. In Africa, the relationship between the living and the dead is a manifestation of the continuity of community in a specific familial way. When a society passes concepts, art forms, and myths from generation to generation, those ideas are enshrined in the society's memory as worthy of emulation.

Everything must be approached through the ancestors. This means that in classical African religion (CAR) there is always ancestral priority, presence, and power. The ancestral spirits are the most intimate divinities and must be consulted on important occasions. Africans regard the ancestors as the keepers of morality. One of the ways descendants of the ancestors maintain a balanced society is by avoiding the activities that were considered immoral by the ancestors. Sudden deaths are often thought to be attributed to punishments inflicted by ancestors. Therefore, the living must do everything they can to avoid crossing the moral path laid down by the departed ancestors. The social fabric of African communities is woven together by ancestor reverence. It is the source of many domestic and institutional relationships. It is not a reflection of any supernatural world, but rather, a part of the world in which Africans who practice CAR live. Thus the manner of reverence of African people is relatively similar, making it possible to speak of the commonalities of ancestor reverence among Africans.