Does anyone know what religion was practiced amongst African slaves before they were brought over to America?

Answer 1

This would be one:
Santería:
religious tradition of African origin that came to Cuba in the late 18th and early 19th centuries with the Yoruba (of modern Nigeria and Benin), who were brought to work as slaves on sugar plantations. By masking their deities with the faces of popular Roman Catholic saints, the Yoruba were able to preserve their religious tradition despite the scrutiny of slaveholders. Santería, or Lucumí, as practitioners of the religion prefer to call it, spread to neighbouring islands and the United States.

The main focus of the religion is the development of a personal relationship with one of the numerous patron spirits (Yoruban: orishas) and the performance of rituals associated with them. Among the principal saints are Saint Peter, who is identified with Eleguá, the gatekeeper to the gods, and Saint Barbara, who is associated with Shangó, the embodiment of justice and strength. Although not immortal, orishas are powerful spirits who offer protection, success, and wisdom to their devotees. They often seek them out in times of crisis. Devotees are assisted by a priest—babalorisha (Yoruban: “father of the orisha”), iyalorisha (Yoruban: “mother of the orisha”) or, in Spanish, santero or santera—whose body and consciousness have been entered by an orisha. The priests practice divination, using fetishes made of bones or shells to determine the source of the devotee's problems. Devotees offer food and perform ritual animal sacrifices, rites that establish permanent unions between them and the orishas. The most important and dramatic rituals are the bembés, ceremonies suffused in elaborate rhythms and involving communal drumming and dancing. During these ceremonies, it is believed, orishas enter, or “mount,” the bodies of the celebrants, sing and dance with them, and offer advice to the other participants.


But also:
Slave religions usually had a supreme being and a host of lesser spirits brought from Africa, borrowed from the Amerindians, and created in response to local conditions. There were no firm boundaries between the secular and the sacred, which infused all things and activities. At least initially African slaves universally believed that posthumously they would return to their lands and rejoin their friends.

Answer 2

In addition to the answers already supplied, many of the slaves taken from the area of West Africa (current day Mali etc) could well have been Muslim, Jewish or even Christian.

To be honest the slave traders, both the native Africans and the various European nations, probably were not all that concerned about the religion of the commodity they were selling.

Answer 3

Most were animists, they had a set of worship practices that highlighted the spiritual power all around them.

Many however were Muslim. Much of Africa is Islamic and slavers didn't usually take the time to ask one of their victims his religious beliefs. A particular example is Job ben Solomon, (second link).

Third link is just an interesting passage from Oluadah Equiano who wrote extensively on what it was like to be a slave. Don't know what his religious beliefs were.

Answer 4

My hunch was that it would have been an earth-based spirituality more than an actual religion, much like the Native Americans. I wasn't sure, so I looked it up.

From the source below, it was actually earth-based, what is generally called pagan, with goddesses overlooking and protecting them. They did dances in worship, also like the Native Americans.

This kind of worship is really the beginning of religion, before "rules" started evolving. It is also the basis of the quickly spreading wiccan beliefs.

Answer 5

there as so many variations of religions in Africa that the slaves practiced before they were taken from their natural environment. each area, usually small tribe of sorts, has its own specific beliefs. all of which are based upon animism, as mentioned above. in general, the peoples who believe in this type of religion, make objects, amulets, shrines & have many rituals involved with these objects as well as costumes & dances. it is hard to generalize this area, because of such differences between groups of peoples.

Answer 6

you're kidding, actual? study a background e book. virtually each society that is going decrease back fairly a variety hundred years has a prior that is composed of slavery. some have been ethnic, yet maximum have been financial.

Answer 7

animism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_religions