Religions In Sub-Saharan Africa
Religions in Sub-Saharan Africa
“Listen more often the Things Beings, Voice of Fire means, Hear the Voice of Water. Listen to the Wind Le Buisson into tears: It is the breath of the ancestors.” This excerpt comes from Senegalese Birago Diop’s poem “Souffles” which shows ancestor worship in Sub-Saharan Africa. Throughout history, Sub-Saharan Africa experienced multi-religious changes throughout 500 BCE - 1750 AD, beginning with animism, polytheism, and anthropomorphic worship of a god; however they were affected by globalization in which other religions, such as Christianity and Islam, vastly changed their beliefs and practices. As far back as historians date in 500 BCE, Sub-Saharan Africa had polytheistic religions such as animism, voodoo, …show more content…
Muhammad started the Islamic faith when he proclaimed he was the prophet of Allah after having a spiritual realization. Since Muhammad was once a merchant, Muslims thought highly of the merchant class and held many way stations for them. As Islam grew into an empire, it highly affected Africa by creating urban centers that appealed to the scholars, which started to urbanize the tribal areas of Africa. The cities and elite were extremely interested, and they had begun to develop financial benefits from the trades. Christianity also had an interesting interaction with Sub-Saharan Africa. Ethiopia was 80% Christian and had a fascination with Judaism in the second wave civilization. They had the most Christian land of Africa due to the isolated location on the eastern tip of Africa. During this time, hunter-gathering tribes still existed, and many of them still believed in animism and polytheism. Although, when Europeans had found the Americas, they took over and used the Natives as slaves before they died out due to diseases. Due to this immense depletion of people, the European’s obtained more slaves from the southwest coast of Africa, in which spreading the Christian religion amongst the Americas and Africa. By the 1450’s, globalization had made its biggest jump in history by connecting four continents
“Listen more often the Things Beings, Voice of Fire means, Hear the Voice of Water. Listen to the Wind Le Buisson into tears: It is the breath of the ancestors.” This excerpt comes from Senegalese Birago Diop’s poem “Souffles” which shows ancestor worship in Sub-Saharan Africa. Throughout history, Sub-Saharan Africa experienced multi-religious changes throughout 500 BCE - 1750 AD, beginning with animism, polytheism, and anthropomorphic worship of a god; however they were affected by globalization in which other religions, such as Christianity and Islam, vastly changed their beliefs and practices. As far back as historians date in 500 BCE, Sub-Saharan Africa had polytheistic religions such as animism, voodoo, …show more content…
Muhammad started the Islamic faith when he proclaimed he was the prophet of Allah after having a spiritual realization. Since Muhammad was once a merchant, Muslims thought highly of the merchant class and held many way stations for them. As Islam grew into an empire, it highly affected Africa by creating urban centers that appealed to the scholars, which started to urbanize the tribal areas of Africa. The cities and elite were extremely interested, and they had begun to develop financial benefits from the trades. Christianity also had an interesting interaction with Sub-Saharan Africa. Ethiopia was 80% Christian and had a fascination with Judaism in the second wave civilization. They had the most Christian land of Africa due to the isolated location on the eastern tip of Africa. During this time, hunter-gathering tribes still existed, and many of them still believed in animism and polytheism. Although, when Europeans had found the Americas, they took over and used the Natives as slaves before they died out due to diseases. Due to this immense depletion of people, the European’s obtained more slaves from the southwest coast of Africa, in which spreading the Christian religion amongst the Americas and Africa. By the 1450’s, globalization had made its biggest jump in history by connecting four continents