what type of beliefs about God do the native Africans believe?

Question

besides Christianity
Thanks

Answer 1

This is from my website, it is about West African religions. It may give you some idea.

To the traditional African, everything has a spirit, including inanimate objects. Everything has a purpose.

There are 7 Categories of Beings in the West African religions:

1. The Supreme Being

The Supreme Being, or God, is very transcendent and therefore does not play the dominant role in African religion as He does in Monotheistic religions. Africans may pray to the Supreme God daily or in times of battle, but most prayers would rather be addressed to other gods or spirits.

2. Spirit

Every human, plant, and animal has this Spirit. It is a force, or energy and it does not die with the body. It can be good or bad.

3. Humans

The responsibility of humans is to grow, learn, and improve. Each person strives to fulfill his or her potential and become a good person.

There is a saying among Africans, "There is a little man in the big man." The little man is that essence of the human that lives on after death. The big man is God. The "little man" comes into contact with the "big man" after death. Some slaves who converted to Christianity spoke of the experience by saying that "the little man had met the big man."

4. Living Dead and Divinities

"Divinities" are lower than God. They are sort of an intermediate class between humans and God. These are a bit like the Angels in Christianity. Some of these had previously been humans and others have never been embodied. These can be good or bad. The ones who had been human tend to carry on whatever personality they had when alive.

5. Time and Space

Many West African languages have only one word for both time and space. There is concern for the past and present, but not so much for the future. The stress which Christians tend to place on the future would probably have seemed odd to many West Africans. There is a Spirit of Place. A Spirit will inhabit a particular location, such as a home, a rock, or a river.

6. Causes of Good and Evil

The Supreme Being is good. The natural state of things is good. Evil is caused by a spirit or a person violating the social order. A violation can occur as the result of a deliberate act of evil, but also as a result of forgetfulness or carelessness. West African religions emphasize the consequences of an individual’s action, for each individual’s action has repercussions for the whole community. Everyone is interrelated, and everyone acts as a part of the community. What is good for the community as a whole is good, and what is bad for the community as a whole is evil.

The people rely upon religious leaders to find the causes of the good and evil that occur in their midst. These religious specialists can communicate with the divinities and spirits, who will show them if a taboo has been broken, and what to do about it.

7. The Purpose of Life

The purpose of life is to affirm joy and be conscious of what is good in life. It is one’s goal to find the good, even in the worst of times. It is this positive outlook that gave the slaves the peace of mind they needed in order to endure their brutal circumstances.

Rituals are integral in West African religions. Rituals are the outer expression of the inner spirit. Ritual is essentially belief in action.



There are 4 Categories of Ritual in the West African traditions:

1. Praise of the Divinities, usually through verbal expression.

2. Ritual Sacrifice. (This can include animals, especially birds, but also medicinal or other plants).

3. Veneration of the Ancestors. (Offering respect to and remembrance of the ancestors. The ancestors are looked to much as Christians look to a guardian angel). Ancestors are tied to a particular place. When the Africans were kidnaped and taken far from their ancestral homes, they could not continue this custom of honoring the ancestors. Who would be their guardians in this foreign land? This was a terrible problem, and many slaves began to believe that through death, they would be released to return to Africa where they could once again be with their ancestors.

4. Possession Rituals. A trance-like state is often achieved through chanting and drumming. In order to be possessed by a particular deity, one would play the song associated with that deity. Once the divinity possesses the worshiper, the worshiper dances and sings, and gives messages on behalf of the deity to the people.

Music plays an enormous role in all the forms of ritual. Music has also been one of the most important ways that African religion has influenced American Christianity. They use a type of call-and-response singing that is still used today in African American churches, and among other churches as well. A leader calls out a verse, and the worshipers sing back the chorus. Also characteristic of West African singing, and of modern African American Church singing, is the ornamentation of notes, slides from one note to another, repetitive choruses, and the particular rhythms. The singing is accompanied by clapping the hands, tapping the foot, and other motions. The Spiritual grew out of this type of music and has been the source of some of Christianity’s most beloved songs, such as Swing Low, Sweet Chariot and I’ll Fly Away.

Answer 2

Islam
Judaism
Hindu
Traditional African religion encompasses a wide variety of traditional beliefs, including:
ancestor veneration:
Animism
Vudu