WHI-Chap19-Obj7
The first religion in Africa was, by European standards, an extremely pagan religion. The Africans, starting with the Bantu people, believed in various nature gods who had power over forces like the sun, the moon, the stars, etc. Depending on their geographical location, they altered their heavenly councils - people who lived near or on the eastern coastline had gods of water and waves (this idea was also seen in the societies of the Adriatic Sea, like Greece, Minos, and Sparta in the form of Poseidon, and later, Neptune), people who lived in the mountains of Ethiopia had gods of various natural disasters like earthquakes or avalanches, etc. However, a commonly held idea was that of a god above all earthly, pagan gods - the idea of a "Creator God". As was common in the early, patriarchal societies, this Creator God was usually a male and/or very masculine figure.
Spirits
One of the most important concepts in African religion was the idea of "spirits" - the departed souls of ancient family members who could act like a messenger to the Creator God to grant them wealth, prosperity, happiness, children, etc. Spirits were highly revered and had extensive and expensive rituals and ceremonies put on to please them so that they would grant whoever initiated the ritual their wishes. Interestingly enough, this same idea of conduits to a higher god was present in Christianity in the form of saints, but in Africa, if you died and a certain amount of years had passed since you had died, you automatically became (and were revered as) a spirit.
Rituals
Rituals and ceremonies varied throughout the nearly 3000 different cultural states of Africa, but several aspects of these events remained constant. One important idea that was found in nearly every culture was the necessity to craft beautiful, vivid, and often scary or humorous masks from materials such as clay and metal. These masks were particularly important in temporary apotheosis - people could often transcend to the level of the gods by wearing a mask and could then give advice to the king of their village that allegedly came from "the mouth of God itself" (these religious inspirations were more often the result of the sometimes extensive hallucinogen use on the parts of the mask-wearers rather than actual divine inspiration.
Diviners
In some societies, the truly beautiful masks were reserved for only an elite group of "diviners" - essentially priests that were also soothsayers, psychologists, political analysts, and financial managers for the king. During times of distress, people would approach a diviner for advice on what to do if, for example, their first child died, their crops were failing, etc. The diviner would then consult an oracle and give whatever advice the oracle gave to whoever was in trouble. Diviners had to be extremely aware of the political, economic, religious, and social climate in a village or risk losing their lives or jobs over bad judgment.
