10 Facts to know about African Religions

Amazing Facts You Have Never Known About African Religions

1. African Religions can be said to be the aboriginal or native religion of the Africans. It has to do with the faith, the creed, origin, dynamics, fate of its people. Religion is intertwined with culture as it is seen as a way of life.
2.  A peculiar fact about African religion is, the practitioners of the religion are in the minority. A greater section practices Christianity and Islam, but few are still involved in traditional practices.
3. One cogent fact is the dynamism African Religions entertain. There have been lots of changes over time. This can be attributed to diverse factors such as modern technological advancements.
4. African Religion embodies piles of perception and insight about human relations. Given the prevailing religious and tribal crisis, African Religion possesses loads of wisdom to offer not only Africa but the whole Universe.
5. Most religions of the world have scriptures and holy books which contain tenets of the respective religion, African religions form their beliefs and ideas orally and are consequently entwined into social structure, political and material culture.
6. African traditional religions tend to breed peaceful coexistence. Not only among practitioners of the same religion but among members of other religions.
7.  In spite of the dwindling membership as a result of conversion to other religions and changes in peoples’ beliefs, African religion has a global reach. We have the Osun-Osogbo Festival which is celebrated among the Yorubas from the South-Western part of Nigeria being marked among Americas in Brazil, Cuba, and Haiti. African Religion attracts people from all walks of life on an annual basis.
8. The main concern of African Religions centers around wealth, procreation and health, which is the purpose of establishing health institutions, and institutions for the general well-being of their believers.
9. Over the years, there have been wrong perceptions about the African Religion. It is mostly viewed to be socially backward and seen as a direct opposite of civilization. As a result of the fore mentioned, it has suffered from human rights abuses.
10.  Women play a key role in the practice of these traditions. There are many goddesses along with their male counterparts. There are female priestesses, diviners, and other figures, and many feminist scholars have drawn from these traditions to advocate for women’s rights and the place of the feminine in African societies. The traditional approach of indigenous African religions to gender is one of complementarity in which a confluence of male and female forces must operate in harmony. 

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