African Religions

African religions have been global in their impact around the world on diaspora African communities, and in the effect of global religions on the characteristics of the religious traditions of Africa. Africa is home to more than 6,000 different ethnic and cultural groups. Many traditionally have their own religious beliefs and customs. Despite this variety, many indigenous religious traditions share a belief in a Supreme Being, a close interconnection between the sacred and the non-sacred, and rich oral traditions that pass both religious and ethical teachings down from generation to generation. For long periods of time, it looked as though many African indigenous religions would eventually become extinct. This was mainly due to the development of importance of two of the world religions: Christianity and Islam, which together threatened to overwhelm many if not all African traditional religions. In the 21st century, however, there is a vibrant resurgence of African religions throughout much of the continent. Leaders of African religions can often organize and render spiritual and healing services without hindrance from the state or rival religions. Yet, most Africans today are followers of either Christianity or Islam, while a minority belongs to various expressions of African religion. Although many such religions share a belief in a Supreme Being, they are also in many cases syncretistic systems of belief, sometimes practiced alongside Christianity or Islam.

The term African religion refers to two particular attributes. First, it is a label conventionally applied to religious groups in Africa that may have roots in, inter alia, Islam or Christianity, yet additionally adopt characteristics derived from specific African cultures and belief systems. Many of today's African religions are syncretistic, although this is not necessarily their defining characteristic. In fact, it might be argued that the very use of the term syncretistic merely reflects an ethnocentric certainty that one interpretation of a faith—whether Christianity or Islam—is merely that of the dominant orthodoxy, which derives from, for example, Rome, Canterbury, Saudi Arabia, or Iran.

Second, many African religions have emerged and developed relatively recently, a result in part of the destabilizing effects of colonially induced modernization, including the socioeconomic consequences of state centralization and rural-to-urban migrations so characteristic of recent African development. In other words, the recent advance of many African religions is reflective of the efforts of ordinary people to come to terms with changing socioeconomic environments, which changed massively within one or two generations in the 20th century. It is also consequential to the effects of the centralization of power, typical of the overwhelming majority of African states, which led to many people feeling both marginal and impotent in relation to state domination.