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Some thirty to forty percent of Africans practice traditional
religions, many of which survive in Western monotheistic faiths.
These traditional religions, generally tied to ethnic groups
in the sub-Saharan region, are dramatic more than philosophical;
oral more than literary; and mythical and
magical more than conceptual. Prominent dramatic
features include masks, special clothing, dancing, singing,
ecstatic utterances, and special rituals. Oral traditions
include folklore, riddles, proverbs, and stories (many of which
are oriented to teach children about the ways of their elders).
The mythical and magical components include sacrifices,
spirit mediums, and belief in ancestor spirits.
These
typically monistic religions affirm that all reality
flows from one substance or principle, which is believed to
be manifested in many different gods, values, powers, and practices.
Gods are therefore both good and evil; a "trickster"
deity often expresses the fundamental ambiguities of human life.
Life is seen to achieve its wholeness through a balance of opposites.
Though
Christianity had an early African influence (especially in North
and Northeast Africa), Islam
spread throughout Africa during the 8th and 9th centuries. Most
Christian influence in Africa came in two waves: that of European
mercantilism (1400-1600, mostly Catholic),
and north European imperialism (19th and 20th centuries, primarily
Protestant).
Yet most traditional beliefs are quite consistent with Islam
and Christianity and have combined with them.
African
religions were transported to the New World with the slave trade,
taking root in Brazil and the Caribbean in movements including
Candomble', Umbanda, Xango, Tamor de Mina, and Nago.
In Brazil, these religions have mixed with the Catholic veneration
of the saints, as practiced by the majority of the population;
they affirm the existence of orishas (lesser gods), voduns
(spirits), santos (saints), guia (guides) and
entidade (deities). Voudoo (voodoo) is a hybrid
of traditional beliefs and Roman Catholicism. Santeria
(or "worship of the saints") is a magico-religion directly
related to the Yoruba religion of western Africa. In North American,
the enslaved African-Americans converted primarily to Protestant
Christianity with an emphasis on holiness, sanctification, and
charismatic practices.
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