African religions

African religions, religious beliefs and practices of the peoples of Africa. It should be noted that any attempt to generalize about the nature of “African religions” risks wrongly implying that there is homogeneity among all African cultures. In fact, Africa is a vast continent encompassing both geographic variation and tremendous cultural diversity. Each of the more than 50 modern countries that occupy the continent has its own particular history, and each in turn comprises numerous ethnic groups with different languages and unique customs and beliefs. African religions are as diverse as the continent is varied. Nevertheless, long cultural contact, in degrees ranging from trade to conquest, has forged some fundamental commonalities among religions within subregions, allowing for some generalizations to be made about the distinguishing features of religions indigenous to Africa. (With the exception of the influence of Christianity on New Religious Movements in Africa, religions that were introduced to Africa from elsewhere, such as Islam and Christianity, are not covered in this article.)... (166 of 2,912 words)