Impressions of the Meaning and Significance of African Religion

As time has progressed, religious scrutiny has expanded. Systems of faith are often written off as fruitless, but religion holds strong purposes. Cultures have religion to explain surroundings, unite individuals, and provide hope.

This paper has presented a definition of religion, as well as an examination of its parts to determine if the definition is adequate to apply appropriately. Secondly, this paper has examined several practices and experiences common to both major religions of the worlds, as well as indigenous religions. Lastly, the key critical issues of the study of religions and reasons for their consideration have been identified and discussed.

There are many religions throughout the world today. Although there are several different religions, many individuals are not educated about the other beliefs besides there own. Religions today do have differences but are also very much the same. This is demonstrated between the religion of Yoruba, and Christianity. The Gods that the people in these religions worship are different but have the same purpose throughout the lives of each individual. Each individual’s purpose and goal in these religions also display similarities. Furthermore the rituals that are done throughout these religions are done for directions and to improve the relationship between the individual and their god. There are various differences and similarities between

American author Christopher Hitchens once wrote, “Religion is part of the human make-up. It's also part of our cultural and intellectual history. Religion was our first attempt at literature, the texts, our first attempt at cosmology, making sense of where we are in the universe, our first attempt at philosophy.” I enjoy this quote because it acknowledges a key aspect of the human condition: our overwhelming desire to know and understand our place in the world. Religion, in turn, is our attempt at that, a construction of what we believe to be the relationship between us, our surroundings, and beyond. For two cultures, religion played an important role in everyday society: the Aztec Empire in Mesoamerica and the Islamic empires of West Africa. Now, I am going to compare and contrast West African and

While the Native Americans and the Africans inhabited two different continents, their belief system has a plethora of similarities pertaining to their core values. The basis of their religion also, in some ways, epitomizes modern day religion such as rites of passage. Their differences are shallow in context when it comes to what they view as sacred and holy and including religious rituals that are performed for a specific reason or transformation. Both Native American and African mythologies center around the ideology of harmony, balance, and cyclical nature of all beings through animistic symbolization. To a certain degree, all outsiders or nonnatives who study the belief systems of indigenous religions have found that indigenous religion is more than just a religion or belief system but rather an inherent way of living. To name or label indigenous beliefs as “religion” or any other is to have a bias based on our own views of transformation and ultimacy.

Religion plays an important role in people’s daily life. It gives them a sense of belonging and brings communities together. After doing research, it is clear that for African Americans religion brings them a great sense of comfort, belonging and brings them together as one; it has played a big role in helping African American’s be where they are today and it continually fights for their freedom and rights.

Religion is a social construct embedded in the African American experience through the ages. Whether it be Christianity, Muslim, Judaism and many other religions that found itself in the Americas the religions derived from the African diaspora was very mixed, they had traditional belief about magic which are derived from some Yoruba and Muslim belief system, Christianity was something new to them. As their, ancestors were brought to the Americans they brought their own traditional belief system. African American religious institutions served as contexts in which African Americans create a meaning to their experience during their enslavement, thus they interpret their relationship to Africa and charted a vision for a collective future that will

It is impossible to get at the roots of one’s religious attitudes without taking in account the psychological and historical factors that play upon the individual.  (Hamilton 19).

The Catholic Church allowed ethnic associations – Cabildos – to form and develop, wherein African dancers worshiped before Catholic images, mostly the Virgin

However, there should be something constant about religion, especially when it touches a community and is so intrinsic in a community such as the African-American community as a standard for righteousness and purity in a world that doesn’t make sense.

The exchange of religion and ideas has been a common theme within the works that have been read. Many of the religious people studied mix their existing views of the world, which are often described as traditional “African” beliefs, with a mixture of the cosmology of Christianity, Islam, and other popularized, organized religion originating from across the world. Cosmological views held by different groups of people tend to vary, clash and change the way people go about their daily life.

Practicing a religion or having religious beliefs is a tremendous deal and can help us through our journey of life. In an article by

The Africans came to America with religious beliefs and practices, including the belief in a loving God who had created the universe and was its ultimate Provider. The Africans have faced problems to those tending religious beliefs and practices both the “Middle Passage” and the effects of slavery. The Africans which had survived the “Middle Passage” had a powerful impact on early African spirituality is the African understanding of life. Slaves held on this understanding of life, and the end result was that their worship was restricted to neither time or place (www.ministrymagazine.org.).

I completely agree with this statement, I think Gomez' narrative of the history of Africans in the Islamic World is indeed favorable.

     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.