a brief note on the history of indigenous and foreign religions in African history, and the Kimpasi society of Kongo

The majority of Africans today primarily identify as Christians and Muslims of various denominations, with a relatively small fraction adhering to other belief systems often referred to as 'indigenous' or 'traditional' religions.

The history of religion in Africa is as old and invariably complex as the history of its societies, of which religion was an integral component. It was determined by multiple internal developments in Africa’s belief systems and social institutions, and the continent’s interaction with the rest of the Old World.

As African societies increasingly interacted with each other and the rest of the old world, they created, adopted, and syncretized different belief systems in a process familiar to scholars of religion from across the world.¹

For this reason, so-called "indigenous" and "foreign" religions have co-existed and influenced each other across the history of many different societies, so much as to render both terms superfluous.

The belief systems of ancient Kush, for example, included a rich pantheon of deities, religious practices, and myths that were derived from the diverse populations of the different kingdoms that dominated the region.

From the solar deities and ram cults of ancient Kerma to the shared deities in the temple towns of New-Kingdom Egypt and Nubia, to the southern deities introduced by the Meroitic dynasty, the religion of ancient Kush was a product of centuries of syncretism/hybridism and plurality, influenced by political and social changes across its long history.

Temple reliefs on the South wall of the Lion Temple at Naqa, Sudan. Kush’s King Natakamani, Queen Amanitore, and Prince Arikankharor facing the gods; Apedemak (a Meroitic deity), Horus (an Egyptian deity), Amun of Napata (a Nubian-Egyptian deity), Aqedise (a Meroitic deity), and Amun of Kerma (a Nubian-Egyptian deity).

Similar developments occurred in West Africa, such as in the kingdom of Dahomey, where the promotion of religious plurality led to the creation and adoption of multiple belief systems, religious practices, and deities from across the region.

Dahomey's "traditional" belief systems and practices, called Vodun, were syncretized with "foreign" belief systems, especially at its capital Abomey, which contained numerous temples dedicated to local and foreign deities. The people of Dahomey adopted deities from its vassal kingdom of Ouidah (eg the python god Dangbe), as well as other deities and practices from its suzerain —the empire of Oyo, where the Ifa religion was dominant, and from where the Vodun/Orisha of Gu/Ogun originated.²

Practicioners of Gu and Tohusu in Abomey, ca. 1950, Quai branly. The former is in the courtyard of the temple of Gu (ie: Ogun) the god of iron and war, to whom the massive sword is dedicated.

Reliefs on an old Temple in Abomey, ca. 1940, Quai branly. This wall may have been part of a section of the temple of Dangbe, the python deity from Ouidah.

In the Hausalands of northern Nigeria, the adherents of "traditional" belief systems recognized and adopted different kinds of deities that evolved along with the "foreign" belief systems of their Muslim peers.

In the kingdom of Kano, internal accounts by local Muslim scholars document the evolution of the ‘traditionalist’ religions over the centuries from “Tsumburbura”, to “Chibiri”, to “Bori” —the last of which is only the latest iteration in the polytheistic religion of the Maguzawa Hausa, whose deities also included ‘Mallams’ (ie: Muslim clerics). These traditionalists are presented as active agents in Kano's history whose status was analogous to the dhimmis (protected groups) in the Muslim heartlands such as Christians and Jews.

This brief outline demonstrates that the terms 'traditional' and 'foreign' are mostly anachronisms that modern writers extrapolate backward to a period when such binary concepts would have been unfamiliar to the actual people living at the time. Religions could emerge, spread, decline, and evolve in different societies in a process that was influenced by multiple factors.

Since 'religions' weren't separate institutions but were considered an integral part of many societies' social and political structures, the history of Religion in Africa was inextricably tied to broader changes and developments in Africa's societies.

The Kingdom of Kongo presents one of the best case studies for the evolution of 'traditional' religions in Africa. While much of the kingdom adopted Christianity on its own terms at the end of the 15th century, the kingdom’s eastern provinces were home to a powerful polytheistic religious society known as the Kimpasi whose members played an influential role in Kongo's politics during the 17th and 18th centuries.

The kimpasi society co-existed with the rest of Kongo's Christian society well into the 20th century and was considered by the latter as a lawful institution, despite being denounced by visiting priests.

The history of the Kimpasi religious society and the 'traditional' religions of Kongo is the subject of my latest Patreon Article.

Please subscribe to read about it here:

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Photos from a Hausa community in Tunis, ca. 1914.

Top: "Spirits of the Great Mallams". (ie: Muslim teachers)

Bottom: "Uwal Yara, or Magajiya, the spirit which gives croup and other ailments to children."

1. Religious Studies: A Global View by Gregory D. Alles, Syncretism in Religion: A Reader edited by Anita Maria Leopold, Jeppe Sinding Jensen

2. Wives of the Leopard: Gender, Politics, and Culture in the Kingdom of Dahomey by Edna G. Bay pg 60-63, 189, 255-257.