What are the origins of African religion in America?
RABOTEAU: The origins are multiple. Clearly African religions played an important role in the development of the religious life. Slaves this was their heritage and, of course, Africa is a continent not a country. So, it would have been a variety of African cultures from which the ancestors of the slaves came, and also, a variety of religious traditions, though within certain areas there were a great deal of similarities. And those religions particularly of West Africa and of West Center Africa stretching from the Senegambia region to the Zaire River – River Congo and on into Angola were the major areas from which the ancestors of American slaves came. And while there are a great number of peoples in those areas, there were certain doctrines that were similar across the differences. One of those being that many of the African religions were religions of the powerful dead. That is the ancestors were seen as extremely important ongoing presences within the lives of Africans and one needed
