Portal:Traditional African religions
Introduction Local ceremony in Benin featuring a zangbeto. The traditional beliefs and practices of African people are highly diverse beliefs that include various ethnic religions. Generally, these traditions are oral rather than scriptural and are passed down from one generation to another through folk tales, songs, and festivals, and include beliefs in spirits and higher and lower gods, sometimes including a supreme being, as well as the veneration of the dead, and use of magic and traditional African medicine. Most religions can be described as animistic with various polytheistic and pantheistic aspects. The role of humanity is generally seen as one of harmonizing nature with the supernatural. (Full article...) Selected article'Zulu traditional religion contains numerous deities commonly associated with animals or general classes of natural phenomena. Unkulunkulu is the highest God and is the creator of humanity. UNkulunkulu ("the greatest one") was created in Uhlanga, a huge swamp of reeds, before he came to Earth. Unkulunkulu is sometimes conflated with the Sky Sun god UMvelinqangi (meaning "He who was in the very beginning"), god of thunder, earthquake whose other name is Unsondo, and is the son of Unkulunkulu, the Father, and Nomkhubulwane, the Mother. The word Nomkhubulwane means the one who shapeshift into any form of an animal. Selected images
FestivalsThere are several religious festivals found in the various Traditional African religions. Some of these are listed below next to their corresponding religion :
Selected biographyMolefi Kete Asante, (born Arthur Lee Smith Jr.; August 14, 1942) is an African-American professor and philosopher. He is a leading figure in the fields of African-American studies, African studies and communication studies. He is currently (as of 2019) professor in the Department of Africology at Temple University, where he founded the PhD program in African-American Studies. He is president of the Molefi Kete Asante Institute for Afrocentric Studies. Selected quote
Source: "The Oxford Handbook of Global Religions", (Editor: Department of Global and International Studies University of California Mark Juergensmeyer Professor of Sociology and Director, Santa Barbara), p. 537, Oxford University Press, USA (2006), ISBN 9780199727612
Did you know
Related portalsTopics
For more Traditional African religion topics, see Category:Traditional African religions.
Categories Category puzzle Select [►] to view subcategories
Traditional African religions African art African shamanism African witchcraft Akan religion Ancient Egyptian religion African deities Dogon religion Films about traditional African religions Jola religion African mythology Names of God in African traditional religions Sacred sites in traditional African religions Serer religion Traditional African religions portal West African Vodun Yoruba religion WikiProjects
Things you can doAssociated WikimediaThe following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:
Discover Wikipedia using portals
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
