Early African Religion

The earliest evidence we have for religious faith in Africa is from Egypt, where by 3000 BC people were already worshipping Isis, Osiris, Ra, and the Amen. Further south, the Kushites seem to have also worshipped these gods.

Outside of Egypt, however, the Bantu people of West Africa seem to have been more monotheistic. They thought of there being one god, sometimes a sky god or sun god and sometimes not. By around 1300 BC, we can see the first strains of an interest in monotheism emerging in Egypt with Akenaten.

Polytheism triumphed when Akhenaten died, though, and survived through the conquest of North Africa by the Phoenicians and Greeks, and then by the Romans, each of whom introduced their own gods to North Africa, like the goddess Tanit.

Around 300 AD we have the second great change in African religious belief when many North and East Africans gradually followed the Roman Emperor’s lead in converting to the monotheistic faith of Christianity. The great Christian theologian St. Augustine was from North Africa. By the 500’s AD Christianity won over most of North Africa, including Egypt, and also the kingdom of Axum south of Egypt (modern Sudan, Eretria, and Ethiopia). The Christians of North Africa were split among the Donatists, the Catholics, and then the Vandal Arians.

In this same time period, the Bantu were gradually expanding across southern Africa, bringing their faith with them. Bantu faith continued to de-emphasize polytheism, while having instead a firm belief in ghosts and their power over living people. Some of these ghosts were your own dead parents or grandparents. Others might be the ghost of a dead king or hero, and these might be remembered for a long time, rather like Christian saints.

In the late 600’s AD, another monotheistic faith, Islam, came to Africa, first to Egypt and then spreading rapidly across North Africa. A hundred years later, virtually the entire population of North Africa had been converted to Islam. Islam quickly spread across the Sahara Desert as well, so that many people of the Sudan, the grasslands south of the Sahara, became Muslims as well. All the way south to the great rain forests, there were many Muslims or people who followed at least some Muslim beliefs. And, thanks to Arab and Indian traders, the entire east coast of Africa became Muslim, as far south as Mozambique.

South of the rain forests, however, in central and western Africa, Bantu religion remained dominant. In the Kalahari desert, the San people retained their own faith, which was very similar to the Bantu faith in its emphasis on ancestor ghosts.

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