Faiths of the Afro-American

Source: Wikipedia

 

Afro-American religion

Afro-American religions (also African diasporic religions) are a number of related religions that developed in the Americas among African slaves and their descendants in various countries of the Caribbean Islands and Latin America, as well as parts of the southern United States. They derive from African traditional religions, especially of West and Central Africa, showing similarities to the Yoruba religion in particular.

 

Characteristics

These religions usually involve ancestor veneration and/or a pantheon of divine spirits, such as the loas of Haitian Vodou, or the orishas of Santería. Similar divine spirits are also found in the Central and West African traditions from which they derive — the orishas of Yoruba cultures, the nkisi of Bantu (Kongo) traditions, and the Vodun of Dahomey (Benin), Togo, southern Ghana, and Burkina Faso. In addition to mixing these various but related African traditions, many Afro-American religions incorporate elements of Christian, indigenous American, Kardecist, Spiritualist and even Islamic traditions. This mixing of traditions is known as religious syncretism.

 

List of traditions

Afro-American Religions
ReligionDeveloped in*Ancestral RootsAlso practiced inRemarks
CandombléBrazilYoruba Some elements of Dahomey Vodun(deities)
and Kongo nkisi Also called Batuque
UmbandaBrazilYorubaUruguay,Argentina
Indigenous elements added
(Preto Velho, Caboclo). Founded in the early 20th century
QuimbandaBrazilKongo
Witchcraft
Brazilian Shamanism		UruguayVeneration of ancestral spirits called
Exu and Pomba Gira
SanteríaCubaYorubaPuerto Rico,USACatholicism Syncretism
Regla de AraráCubaDahomey  
Regla de PaloCubaKongo nkisiPuerto Rico,
USA		Also called Palo Mayombe,
Regla de Congo, Palo Monte
VodouHaiti, BrazilDahomey mythologyCuba,Dominican Republic,
USA
ObeahJamaicaKongo, DahomeyTrinidad and TobagoSimiar to Hoodoo
Winti Suriname   
KuminaJamaica Kongo  
Spiritual BaptistTrinidad and TobagoYorubaJamaica, USAProtestantism Syncretism, since the early 19th century 
HoodooSouthern USAKongo, Dahomey, TogoCurrently practiced widely throughout the USA; not a religion per se, as most practitioners are Christians, but the practice is rooted in the indigenous beliefs of Central and West Africa.
AbakuaCubaEkpesociety of the Annang, Efik, Ibibio, Ekoi and Igbo

.