African Traditional & African Diasporic Religions
It may seem incongruous to distinguish African primal (traditional) religions from the general primal-indigenous category. But the "primal-indigenous" religions are primarily tribal and composed of pre-technological peoples. While there is certainly overlap between this category and non-African primal-indigenous religious adherents, there are reasons for separating the two, best illustrated by focusing specifically on Yoruba, which is probably the largest African traditional religious/tribal complex.
Yoruba was the religion of the vast Yoruba nation states which existed before European colonialism and its practitioners today -- certainly those in the Caribbean, South America and the U.S.-- are integrated into a technological, industrial society, yet still proclaim affiliation to this African-based religious system. Cohesive rituals, beliefs and organization were spread throughout the world of Yoruba (and other major African religious/tribal groups such as Fon), to an extent characteristic of nations and many organized religions, not simply tribes. Historians might point to Shinto and even Judaism as the modern manifestations of what originally began as the religions of tribal groups who then became nations.
Just as Yoruba may legitimately be distinguished from the general "primal-indigenous" classification, valid arguments could be made that other religious traditions such as Native American religion (less than 100,000 self-identified U.S. adherents) and Siberian shamanism should also be separate. But African traditional religion has been singled out because of its much larger size, its considerable spread far beyond its region of origin and the remarkable degree to which it remains an influential, identifiable religion even today.
It may seem incongruous to distinguish African primal (traditional) religions from the general primal-indigenous category. But the "primal-indigenous" religions are primarily tribal and composed of pre-technological peoples. While there is certainly overlap between this category and non-African primal-indigenous religious adherents, there are reasons for separating the two, best illustrated by focusing specifically on Yoruba, which is probably the largest African traditional religious/tribal complex.
Yoruba was the religion of the vast Yoruba nation states which existed before European colonialism and its practitioners today -- certainly those in the Caribbean, South America and the U.S.-- are integrated into a technological, industrial society, yet still proclaim affiliation to this African-based religious system. Cohesive rituals, beliefs and organization were spread throughout the world of Yoruba (and other major African religious/tribal groups such as Fon), to an extent characteristic of nations and many organized religions, not simply tribes. Historians might point to Shinto and even Judaism as the modern manifestations of what originally began as the religions of tribal groups who then became nations.
Just as Yoruba may legitimately be distinguished from the general "primal-indigenous" classification, valid arguments could be made that other religious traditions such as Native American religion (less than 100,000 self-identified U.S. adherents) and Siberian shamanism should also be separate. But African traditional religion has been singled out because of its much larger size, its considerable spread far beyond its region of origin and the remarkable degree to which it remains an influential, identifiable religion even today.
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