1. African Religions in Medieval Times
7.14 Draw evidence from informational texts to describe the role of the trans-Saharan caravan trade in the changing religious and cultural characteristics of West Africa and the influence of Islamic beliefs, ethics, and law.
7.18 Compare the indigenous religious practices observed by early Africans before and after contact with Islam and Christianity.

2. Traditional African Religions
Similarities to Christianity, Judaism, and Islam
Believes in one supreme God
God is creator of all things.
God sustains creation
God provides for and protects creation
God rules over the universe
God is all powerful (omnipotent)
God is all-knowing (omniscient-knows everything that happens in the world)
God is viewed as parent (sometimes as a father and sometimes as a mother)
God supports justice
Human beings cannot directly know God.

3. Traditional African Religions
The similarities end there…
However, after creation God was not directly involved in the human society or the individual lives of people.
Spirits
Ancestral spirits (Recent dead ancestors, spirits of the long dead)
Nature spirits (Not all African indigenous religions share this belief)
Bad spirits

4. Ancestral Spirits
When someone dies they are still interested in what happens to their families and communities.
Recent Dead Ancestors – after an elder dies, his or her spirit remains actively interested and engaged in the life of their family and community for many years.
If the living do something bad, the ancestor withdraws their protection. The ancestor hopes that the illness or misfortune will be seen as a warning to remind the person to stop the inappropriate the behavior.
Spirits of the Long Dead – After years pass, the spirits of the recently dead withdraw from the lives of their descendants to go live with God. But some ancestral spirits remain actively engaged for many generations – spirits of important people (great rulers, founders of nations, etc.)

5. Honors for Ancestral Spirits
There are special shrines to ancestral spirits, have a similar function to grave stones in Christian and Jewish traditions.
Respect is shown by giving libations to ancestors
Symbolic drink and food is presented to the ancestors
Ancestral spirits are not worshipped and are not feared. But it is important that you use appropriate behavior to maintain harmony with them.

6. Bad Spirits
As with many other major world religions, just like there is a good in the world, African religious traditions believe there is also evil.
Suffering and misfortune is the result of inappropriate behavior on the part of the individual or community OR the intervention of bad spirits.
These bad spirits are referred to as the devil or Satan in Christianity, Islam and Judaism.
Most African societies have specially trained spiritual professionals who are trained to deal with this.

7. Traditional African Religious Leaders
Priests – officiate at religious ceremonies and rituals, sometimes certain priests were affiliated with a particular spirit and was dedicated to that spirit’s shrine, could also enter a trance-like state so he could be a vessel for ancestors to communicate with the living
Rain-makers – People thought that droughts were brought on by something evil they had done. The Rain-maker’s job was to communicate with the ancestors to find out the cause of the drought and tell the people what the ancestors say is the remedy for the drought.
Healers – Good health was seen as the response of appropriate behavior, so if you were sick, you needed a religious healer to help get rid of the bad spirits that are at work against you.
Herbalists – Use herbal remedies to heal illnesses. If they encounter something strange or new, they would seek assistance from the spirit world to find a remedy.
Spiritualist/Diviner – Seeks assistance from the spiritual world to determine the cause of the illness and the remedy.

8. Islam in Africa
Many traders who traveled across the Sahara Desert in camel trains were Muslims. They weren’t just trading the goods they brought from faraway places they from which they came; they brought with them their culture and their religion.
The Muslim traders introduced a written language, new ideas of law, a system of government, and a system of formal education.
Ghana did not welcome the Muslim traders. The rulers secluded them to protect his people from their foreign ideas.

9. Islam in Africa
The kings of Mali however thought the religion of Islam was interesting and welcomed freedom of religion.
During this time a man named Ibn Battuta, an Arab lawyer from Morocco, set out in 1325 to see the Muslim world. He arrived in West Africa in 1352 and saw that while some people were Muslims others still practiced the traditional African religions. He was very pleased with the work of Mansa Musa.
By the rule of the Songhai, Islam had many followers. The Islamic culture suited many West Africans because the beliefs were similar to beliefs they already had.