What is Indigenous African Spirituality?
Indigenous African spirituality is the general name for the shared principled beliefs practiced throughout the continent of Africa by various cultures. The beliefs of these African cultures share certain features such as: the belief in a supreme being, higher spirits, nature spirits, ancestors, esoteric power, herbal medicine, offerings and the belief that earth and the universe are populated by various positive and negative forces.
Indigenous African spirituality is based on natural science, empirically studied by the ancestors for thousands of years. In fact, in ancient times the sciences began by the spiritual communities and education was hand in hand with spiritual practice. Earlier cultures included the ancient Kemetic culture, now called Egypt, as well as Meroe, Abyssinia, Yoruba, Gha, Zulu, Bakongo, etc. The importance of indigenous African spirituality lies in Africa's primacy in the world as the birthplace of humanity. As it has been already validated by science that human beings migrated from African to other regions of the world, it is no suprise to see similarities between the ancient cultures in African and the earliest cultures in other regions of the world. In essence, when we study indigenous African spirituality, we are studying a global tradition which has given birth to all other traditions of the world. For further study, click here for suggested books.
