African Religions

South Africa The Bantu West and Central Africa Caribbean

This section has texts on the traditional spirituality of Sub-Saharan Africa.

The texts here have primarily been scanned from original copies in libraries. Finding texts about African religion in the public domain was not difficult. These books have a great amount of useful information on this topic, some of it written before colonialism destroyed or greatly modified aspects of traditional culture. The problem with these works is that they were for the large part written by Europeans with their particular biases and agendas. For this reason, we encourage you to 'read between the lines'.

The texts here are provided for scholarly purposes. They may contain racist characterizations, errors of interpretation, or misrepresentations of traditional culture. For instance, the term 'Kaffir', which is used in many of these texts to refer to the Xhosa (Nelson Mandela's tribe), is now considered derogatory.

South Africa

The Religious System of the Amazulu by Henry Callaway [1870]
Specimens of Bushman Folklore by W.H.I. Bleek and L.C. Lloyd [1911]
South African Folk-Tales by James A. Honey [1910]
Kaffir (Xhosa) Folk Tales by Georg McCall Theal [1886]

The Bantu

Myths and Legends of the Bantu by Alice Werner [1933]
This book covers the Bantu as a whole. Most of the books below also have material on the Bantu of West Africa.

West and Central Africa

The West African area is important because this is where the majority of slaves departed for the New World. Hence large elements of West African, particularly Yoruba, religion (blended with Catholicism) can be found in religions such as Vodun (also known as Voodoo) (Haiti), Candomblè (Brazil) and Santeria (Carribean).

Myths of Ífè by John Wyndham [1921]
Notes on the Folklore of the Fjort, by R. E. Dennett. [1898]
At the Back of the Black Man's Mind by R. E. Dennett. [1906]
Folk Stories from Southern Nigeria By Elphinstone Dayrell, Introduction by Andrew Lang. [1910]
Fetichism in West Africa by Rev. Robert Hamill Nassau. [1904]
Hausa Folklore by Maalam Shaihu, translated by R. Sutherland Rattray. [1913]
This book stands out here because it was actually written by a Hausa, not a European.
Woman's Mysteries of a Primitive People by D. Amaury Talbot. [1915]
The Yoruba Speaking Peoples by A.B. Ellis [1894]

Caribbean

Jamaica Anansi Stories by Martha Warren Beckwith [1924].
Jamaican folklore, music and riddles, featuring an indominable trickster hero.

Rastafarianism

The Wisdom of Rastafari
This is a short anthology of quotes from Haile Selassie compiled by a Rastafarian group.

Vodun

Last of the Voudoos [1885]
New Orleans Superstitions [1886]

Here are two books relating to Haitian Voodoo (Vodun). They were written by an outsider to the religion who was ultimately unable to penetrate its inner mysteries; however both of these books has strengths as historical and ethnographic background on the topic:

Voodoo and Obeahs By Joseph J. Williams. New York, [1932].
Psychic Phenomena of Jamaica By Joseph J. Williams. New York, [1934].

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