African Religion and Its Influence on Christianity and Islam Essay

The indigenous tribes of North America have much in common with the indigenous religions of Africa but there are also many differences in the belief of an afterlife, supreme deity, and the daily practices of each. Today many of these lesser known religions are hardly ever studied but they exist and are still practiced all over North America and Africa. We will discuss how these religions differ in their main beliefs and practices, and we will also discuss how they correlate with one another on smaller aspects.

Like many other continents in the world Africa has a lot of differences in itself for example there are differences in geography ,language, politics, religion and other things in life due to Africa’s lack of political government over an extended period of time.

African slaves were brought to America from many tribes and they brought with them a variety of beliefs and practices. In some ways, the religion that many West Africans practiced bears a striking resemble to the practices of Christianity and Judaism. There are however several differences that make it clear that it is its own separate faith. On the plantations in America slaves were taught a “modify” version of Christianity so that they would obey their masters, and often times slaves would hold their own services. Other slaves believed in and practice what was called “conjuration” along with Christianity.

However, for the sake of this essay, I am going to focus on Islam, its introduction, its practice, and its role in the lives of West Africans in the 8th through 15th centuries. With that being said, historians date the arrival of Islam in West Africa to roughly the 8th century C.E. Islamic scholars who had come from Arabia, through the Savannah, began to write about the history of West Africa and the role their religion played [1]. With the spread of Islam came the expansion of trade routes spanning across the continent. Along these commercial highways, Islamic culture fostered intellectual development and innovation never before known in West Africa. With this philosophical and theological expansion came increased literacy among native peoples and thirst for knowledge that resonated among West Africans for centuries. In short, Islam and its practice had just as much of an effect on the material world of West Africans as it did their intellectual

The majority of Africans religion is Christianity or Islam. African people often combine the practice of their traditional belief with the practice of Abrahamic religions. Abrahamic religions are widespread throughout Africa. Many African’s whose religion is Islam or Christianity are involved in traditional religions. In “There Is No Exile” by Assia Djebar explains about a family whose religion is Islam and what are their traditions in beliefs and sayings.

The cultural diversity and advancements portray the progression developed in African history. The growth of these two subcontinents prove that American and European historians were incorrect on how advanced and civilized Africa was.

Like in any religion the people have certain beliefs. In the african religions there is no single religion. Researchers try to identify similarities in world views and ritual processes across the african boundaries. African Religions are polytheistic; which means they believe in more than one god. They believe in one overall god, but also ancestral spirits. Most African religion’s creation story reveal the creation of humans more than

The history of Africa is very complex. Europeans invaded Africa and stripped them of their culture and denied future generations their history. Despite the focus on the time of enslavement in modern history, African history expands far beyond that. African history has been consistently whitewashed and many historians have attempted to put our history in a box. In order to understand and study the African experience, one must realize that the history of Africa extends far beyond the times of enslavement and colonialism.

Africa, being the second largest continent on earth, has always enticed foreigners to exploit their land and way of life. The biggest offender of trying to diminish their way of life is the western presence, always attempting to alter their normality into their own because they see it as the best way to live, which is not always the case. Throughout history, Africa has been under the impression of the white man and their customs, which can be demonstrated in the novels The Posionwood Bible, by Barbra Kingsolver, and The Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad. Both Conrad and Kingsolver display the futile efforts of the western presence to “civilize” Africans with their numerous points of view, clever symbolism, and conveying diction.

In my research, to understand how we undertake the study of the African experience you have to start in the beginning of time which dates back hundreds of thousands years ago and go into one of the first civilizations known as ancient Egypt. Understanding where the people come from and where they are at today does not even cover a quarter of understanding the true African experience. To understand truly how to undertake the African experience you must understand the social structure, governance, ways of knowing, science and technology, movement and memory, and cultural meaning (The six conceptual categories). With these concepts you understand that in a cosmograph known

One of these points being the differences between religion and spirituality. Religion seemed to be more structured, fear-instilled, ritualistic, and institutionalized. Alternatively, spirituality seemed to be more informal, more free, open-ended, and individual. Before colonization, African Religion was more about spirituality than religion itself. It was about believing in the supreme being and believing that this supreme being is embedded within nature. God was everywhere, God was every, and most importantly, God was good. Not only was this a concrete belief, but it was also believed that African ancestors had the ability to intervene in the life of the living. Before their ancestors would pass away, important information would be passed down from them orally. This concept of orality highly contributed to the retainment of African culture during slavery. Although this is true, a sense of culture and spirituality was lost. During colonization, religion was forced upon slaves. This concept of a White supreme being acted as fuel for White people. If the supreme being was believed to be White then it was the Africans duties to cater to the White man as they were seen as kin of the supreme being. This ultimately led to the disconnect between the African people and their sense of spirituality. Today, many Black people believe that without religion there is no sense of spirituality. Not only

This chapter in Africans and Their History by Joseph Harris presents some of the roots of the stereotypes and myths about Africa in the past and for the most part are still held today. Harris discusses how the “greats” of history, geography, and literature starting a path of devaluation of Africans that writers after their time followed. Harris also denounced the language that these “greats” used to describe and talk about Africans. He asserts that this language inherently painted Africans as inferior and subhuman.

As of today, the world’s two largest religions Christianity and Islam share an estimated 3.6 billion members, more than half of the world’s population. On the surface, they appear to have almost nothing in common, however, as one goes beyond the surface and examines the other factors such as the rituals, beliefs, ethics, founders, and convictions, the two religions share many similarities. However, in order to truly see and understand these similarities and differences, one must date back to the rise and birth of Christianity and Islam.

     Before one starts to outline the traditional religion in Africa, one must first explain the way Africa is as a whole. Without the knowledge of the past combined with knowledge of culture, one would have a very vague, if any, understanding of traditional religion.

Christianity in Africa is not a recent happening nor is it a product of colonialism if we go back to the very time of the apostle. Christianity in most area was confronted during the centuries after the struggle by Islam, the Christian religion suffered in some measure, but did not disappear. Christianity has been flourishing on the northern part of this continent for years before Islam was born. Christianity in North African seemed to have been well founded deeply entrenched and firmly led.