Searched the web and found the following on Africa.
BBC news/world service is not a place famed for honesty about non-christoislamic religions, but I guess they thought African Religion was nearly dead and so they could practise a little half-hearted respect.
In any case, some nice things to be had: <!--emo&
--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo-->
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/f...6chapter1.shtml
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>One God And Many Deities</b>
A supreme power, ruling over everything and everyone appears to be a feature of all African religions. This supreme power is the prime mover and creator, who is all knowing and eternal, and was there at the beginning of time. It goes under many different names, and it varies considerably from society to society, as to how near or how remote this supreme power is.
The Abaluiyia of Kenya, the Bambuti of the Congo area, and the Galla of Ethiopia are among those who <b>pray directly to the supreme deity on a regular basis</b>. Here is the example of a common prayer of the Nandi, in Kenya, which reflects the importance of cattle in their community:
<b>God guard me, the children and the cattle,
God guard for us the cattle,
God give us good health!</b>
<b>In other cultures, the supreme being cannot be approached directly.</b> The Igbo, of southeastern Nigeria, talk about 'the rich man' who can only be approached through his many servants.
Most societies have a host of different intermediaries who can be consulted.
<b>THE YORUBA OF NIGERIA</b>
In Yoruba belief, the prime mover is Oludmare, who gives life to the newborn and consigns the wicked to a place of punishment after death. But beneath Oludmare are hundreds of deities, or 'orisas'.
Each has a different province, for example, Orunmila knows every language of earth, Ogun is concerned with iron making and hunting, <b>Shango (or Chango) is a manifestation of Oludmare's anger, drawing on thunder and lightening to express this.</b>
<b>THE BAGANDA OF UGANDA</b>
Similarly in Uganda, Katonda is the supreme deity of the Baganda. But beneath him are fifty or so guardians or 'balubaale', including Walumbe a figure of death, Kibuka presiding over war and <b>Nagaddya, who deals with marriage and harvest.</b><!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
And on this page, an African community is talking to a christian missionary. The difference between the truth of their religion and the falsehood of the christian's comes across clearly - no more rain when they started praying to the non-existent jehovallah:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/f...6chapter5.shtml
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>WHERE'S THE RAIN?</b>
"'We like you as well as if you had been born among us; you are the only white man we can become familiar with (thoaela); but we wish you to give up that everlasting preaching and praying; we cannot become familiar with that at all.
You see we never get rain, while those tribes who never pray as we do obtain abundance.' This was a fact; and we often saw it raining on the hills ten miles off, while it would not even look at us 'even with one eye.'"
Taken from an account of Living with the Bakwain, by Scottish missionary David Livingstone.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->Elsewhere on that page
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Certainly the first Muslim teachers and Christian missionaries had little respect for the traditional religions they came across. Both Islam and Christianity are religions of the book; their doctrinal authority lies in their scriptures.
African traditional religions produced no written works, but derived their authority from oral history, custom and practice, and the power of priests, kings and others gifted in dealing with spiritual issues. This lack of scriptures led to the assumption that people in Africa were not capable of 'proper' religious observance. But some European missionaries and explorers were struck by the intense spirituality of Africans.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->It is then followed by a paragraph that wrongly stereotypes African social customs (I will try to locate and paste something to contradict the stereotype below it):
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Islam sits more comfortably with some aspects of traditional religion than Christianity. <b>A key area is marriage. Christianity demands monogamy, that is, not more than one wife. Islam, by contrast, allows a man to take several wives. So Islam had a better chance of being accepted in the polygamous societies of Africa.</b> If a man converted to Christianity, he was obliged to dismiss all but one of his wives; this was the cause of much resentment and bitterness.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->Islam does not work well with African religions. For instance, from the following which I'd discovered a few years ago (no link, and it's not here either, where I thought it should be). But the reference for the following as I'd saved it is:
<i>The Courier. No. 159, Sept-Oct 1996. Dossier Investing in People Country Reports: Mali, Western Samoa</i>
Women in certain African communities at least, enjoy a lot of freedom - can't go down well with islam or its asymetrical polygamous practices:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Trial marriage</b>
Nearly 500 kilometres separate Segou from Mopti. Midway between the two is San, barely more than a large village. San is bathed by the waters of the Bani, a major tributary of the Niger which it flows into it at Mopti. In the market, fine cotton fabrics can be bought, as can the skills of the blacksmiths. Here, however, there is above all an air of secrecy. The town's inhabitants are members of the Bobo people. The name translates es 'stammering', 'mute' being implied. This is the town which holds the secrets of fatal poisons-cocktails of poisonous plants and snake venom. There are also unguents of all kinds to relieve pain, alleviate scarring, and so on. San has another reputation, that of handing out severe punishment to adulteresses. This seems paradoxical when one discovers that women here enjoy exceptional sexual freedom during adolescence and up to the time of their marriage, and even afterwards. They enter into a trial marriage for three or four years, during which time they are free to 'play the field'. At the end of this period, on the occasion of a feast, they reveal whether or not they will accept their 'provisional' husband. If not, the woman regains her freedom and can start all over again as many times as she wishes. If she decides to become the man's wife, she chooses some of her husband's friends with whom she may 'have a fling' for two weeks, the aim being that she thereby lays to rest her unmarried freedom. She will then swear an oath of fidelity to her husband which she breaks on pain of being cast out of society and even, it would appear, at the risk of losing her life.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->Can you imagine this kind of culture being compatible with islam - or even christianism for that matter (both of which accord no rights, let alone any such freedom, to women)?
That same "Courier" article above has another interesting bit. It tells of the failure of islam and of christianity's catholic cult in converting the place:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Segou, the Bambara capital, did not form part of most of Mali's empires. Indeed, the word Bambara comes from 'Ban-Mane', which means 'those who reject a master'. There are 4444 + 1 balanzans to announce the city, all of which are numbered except the last one, which still guards its secret. The balanzans conceal another secret: during the dry season they are covered with leaves, which they lose during the winter. A curious traveller might arrive at Segou with memories of Maryse Conde's fine prose (Segou, Robert Laffont, France, 1984). Her work is an epic fresco of life at the court of the Bambara kingdom in the nineteenth century. The city itself stretches for eight kilometres along the river bank, with a promenade high above the river on an embankment from where there is an uninterrupted view over the water to the horizon. The richly coloured fabrics of the washer women create a dreamlike atmosphere, giving an impression of the shimmering tunics worn by princes, and the women who swim in the river are not given to excessive prudishness, another reminder of the city's enduring rebellious nature. The charm and cleanliness of the town are striking, its administrative buildings stretching along a grand boulevard lined with modern structures. We see in their profiles, the traditional architectural styles as well as a variety of colours. The whole scene is shaded by gardens full of flowers. <b>It is easy to forget that Segou has retained none of its former architectural wealth. This was all destroyed by the organisers of a jihad who sacked this city of infidels who had never been won over to Islam or, later, to Catholicism.</b> The city walls and the regal courtyards are all gone, so what remains is jealously protected: the sceptre and regal symbols of King Diarra, the kingdom's treasures and its secrets. On Mondays, market day, it is possible to see people kneeling at the feet of an old man. He is the custodian of the town's remaining riches, but will never reveal where they are held. Oumar Santara, one of Segou's intellectuals, is attempting to gain an insight into these mysteries in order to protect them better because, he says, the pillage is still going on. <b>Mali's cultural heritage is being ransacked by outsiders.</b> In some villages on the opposite bank of the river, it is still possible to find 13th-century coins in the village squares.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
On African Yoruba beliefs (I had thus far been under the wrong impression that Yoruba is the name of their God(s) but it appears to be the name of a community or of their religion...).
http://www.cultural-expressions.com/ifa/ifabelief.htm (found via link)
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>What the Yoruba Believe</b>
There is One Supreme God
There is no Devil
Except for the day you were born and the day you are supposed to die there is not a single event in ones life that cannot be forecast and if necessary, changed.
   Your spirit lives on after death and can reincarnate through blood relatives  Â
You are born with a specific path. Divination serves as a road map to your path.
  Our ancestors exist and must be honored, respected and consulted. Â
   The Orisa (forces of nature) live within us and deal with the affairs of men.  Â
You must never initiate harm to another human being or to the universe, which you are apart of.
Spiritual, physical, mental, and emotional realms of our existence must all work together and be balanced.
   Sacrifice guarantees success.
<b>What the Yoruba Reject</b>
We are born in sin
The European civilized the African
Jesus Christ is the only way to God<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->My, they reject the very foundations of christianism: "everyone is born in sin" and "jesus is the only way". The heathens! <!--emo&:clapping--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/clap.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='clap.gif' /><!--endemo-->
BBC news/world service is not a place famed for honesty about non-christoislamic religions, but I guess they thought African Religion was nearly dead and so they could practise a little half-hearted respect.
In any case, some nice things to be had: <!--emo&
--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo--> http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/f...6chapter1.shtml
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>One God And Many Deities</b>
A supreme power, ruling over everything and everyone appears to be a feature of all African religions. This supreme power is the prime mover and creator, who is all knowing and eternal, and was there at the beginning of time. It goes under many different names, and it varies considerably from society to society, as to how near or how remote this supreme power is.
The Abaluiyia of Kenya, the Bambuti of the Congo area, and the Galla of Ethiopia are among those who <b>pray directly to the supreme deity on a regular basis</b>. Here is the example of a common prayer of the Nandi, in Kenya, which reflects the importance of cattle in their community:
<b>God guard me, the children and the cattle,
God guard for us the cattle,
God give us good health!</b>
<b>In other cultures, the supreme being cannot be approached directly.</b> The Igbo, of southeastern Nigeria, talk about 'the rich man' who can only be approached through his many servants.
Most societies have a host of different intermediaries who can be consulted.
<b>THE YORUBA OF NIGERIA</b>
In Yoruba belief, the prime mover is Oludmare, who gives life to the newborn and consigns the wicked to a place of punishment after death. But beneath Oludmare are hundreds of deities, or 'orisas'.
Each has a different province, for example, Orunmila knows every language of earth, Ogun is concerned with iron making and hunting, <b>Shango (or Chango) is a manifestation of Oludmare's anger, drawing on thunder and lightening to express this.</b>
<b>THE BAGANDA OF UGANDA</b>
Similarly in Uganda, Katonda is the supreme deity of the Baganda. But beneath him are fifty or so guardians or 'balubaale', including Walumbe a figure of death, Kibuka presiding over war and <b>Nagaddya, who deals with marriage and harvest.</b><!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
And on this page, an African community is talking to a christian missionary. The difference between the truth of their religion and the falsehood of the christian's comes across clearly - no more rain when they started praying to the non-existent jehovallah:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/f...6chapter5.shtml
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>WHERE'S THE RAIN?</b>
"'We like you as well as if you had been born among us; you are the only white man we can become familiar with (thoaela); but we wish you to give up that everlasting preaching and praying; we cannot become familiar with that at all.
You see we never get rain, while those tribes who never pray as we do obtain abundance.' This was a fact; and we often saw it raining on the hills ten miles off, while it would not even look at us 'even with one eye.'"
Taken from an account of Living with the Bakwain, by Scottish missionary David Livingstone.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->Elsewhere on that page
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Certainly the first Muslim teachers and Christian missionaries had little respect for the traditional religions they came across. Both Islam and Christianity are religions of the book; their doctrinal authority lies in their scriptures.
African traditional religions produced no written works, but derived their authority from oral history, custom and practice, and the power of priests, kings and others gifted in dealing with spiritual issues. This lack of scriptures led to the assumption that people in Africa were not capable of 'proper' religious observance. But some European missionaries and explorers were struck by the intense spirituality of Africans.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->It is then followed by a paragraph that wrongly stereotypes African social customs (I will try to locate and paste something to contradict the stereotype below it):
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Islam sits more comfortably with some aspects of traditional religion than Christianity. <b>A key area is marriage. Christianity demands monogamy, that is, not more than one wife. Islam, by contrast, allows a man to take several wives. So Islam had a better chance of being accepted in the polygamous societies of Africa.</b> If a man converted to Christianity, he was obliged to dismiss all but one of his wives; this was the cause of much resentment and bitterness.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->Islam does not work well with African religions. For instance, from the following which I'd discovered a few years ago (no link, and it's not here either, where I thought it should be). But the reference for the following as I'd saved it is:
<i>The Courier. No. 159, Sept-Oct 1996. Dossier Investing in People Country Reports: Mali, Western Samoa</i>
Women in certain African communities at least, enjoy a lot of freedom - can't go down well with islam or its asymetrical polygamous practices:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Trial marriage</b>
Nearly 500 kilometres separate Segou from Mopti. Midway between the two is San, barely more than a large village. San is bathed by the waters of the Bani, a major tributary of the Niger which it flows into it at Mopti. In the market, fine cotton fabrics can be bought, as can the skills of the blacksmiths. Here, however, there is above all an air of secrecy. The town's inhabitants are members of the Bobo people. The name translates es 'stammering', 'mute' being implied. This is the town which holds the secrets of fatal poisons-cocktails of poisonous plants and snake venom. There are also unguents of all kinds to relieve pain, alleviate scarring, and so on. San has another reputation, that of handing out severe punishment to adulteresses. This seems paradoxical when one discovers that women here enjoy exceptional sexual freedom during adolescence and up to the time of their marriage, and even afterwards. They enter into a trial marriage for three or four years, during which time they are free to 'play the field'. At the end of this period, on the occasion of a feast, they reveal whether or not they will accept their 'provisional' husband. If not, the woman regains her freedom and can start all over again as many times as she wishes. If she decides to become the man's wife, she chooses some of her husband's friends with whom she may 'have a fling' for two weeks, the aim being that she thereby lays to rest her unmarried freedom. She will then swear an oath of fidelity to her husband which she breaks on pain of being cast out of society and even, it would appear, at the risk of losing her life.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->Can you imagine this kind of culture being compatible with islam - or even christianism for that matter (both of which accord no rights, let alone any such freedom, to women)?
That same "Courier" article above has another interesting bit. It tells of the failure of islam and of christianity's catholic cult in converting the place:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Segou, the Bambara capital, did not form part of most of Mali's empires. Indeed, the word Bambara comes from 'Ban-Mane', which means 'those who reject a master'. There are 4444 + 1 balanzans to announce the city, all of which are numbered except the last one, which still guards its secret. The balanzans conceal another secret: during the dry season they are covered with leaves, which they lose during the winter. A curious traveller might arrive at Segou with memories of Maryse Conde's fine prose (Segou, Robert Laffont, France, 1984). Her work is an epic fresco of life at the court of the Bambara kingdom in the nineteenth century. The city itself stretches for eight kilometres along the river bank, with a promenade high above the river on an embankment from where there is an uninterrupted view over the water to the horizon. The richly coloured fabrics of the washer women create a dreamlike atmosphere, giving an impression of the shimmering tunics worn by princes, and the women who swim in the river are not given to excessive prudishness, another reminder of the city's enduring rebellious nature. The charm and cleanliness of the town are striking, its administrative buildings stretching along a grand boulevard lined with modern structures. We see in their profiles, the traditional architectural styles as well as a variety of colours. The whole scene is shaded by gardens full of flowers. <b>It is easy to forget that Segou has retained none of its former architectural wealth. This was all destroyed by the organisers of a jihad who sacked this city of infidels who had never been won over to Islam or, later, to Catholicism.</b> The city walls and the regal courtyards are all gone, so what remains is jealously protected: the sceptre and regal symbols of King Diarra, the kingdom's treasures and its secrets. On Mondays, market day, it is possible to see people kneeling at the feet of an old man. He is the custodian of the town's remaining riches, but will never reveal where they are held. Oumar Santara, one of Segou's intellectuals, is attempting to gain an insight into these mysteries in order to protect them better because, he says, the pillage is still going on. <b>Mali's cultural heritage is being ransacked by outsiders.</b> In some villages on the opposite bank of the river, it is still possible to find 13th-century coins in the village squares.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
On African Yoruba beliefs (I had thus far been under the wrong impression that Yoruba is the name of their God(s) but it appears to be the name of a community or of their religion...).
http://www.cultural-expressions.com/ifa/ifabelief.htm (found via link)
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>What the Yoruba Believe</b>
There is One Supreme God
There is no Devil
Except for the day you were born and the day you are supposed to die there is not a single event in ones life that cannot be forecast and if necessary, changed.
   Your spirit lives on after death and can reincarnate through blood relatives  Â
You are born with a specific path. Divination serves as a road map to your path.
  Our ancestors exist and must be honored, respected and consulted. Â
   The Orisa (forces of nature) live within us and deal with the affairs of men.  Â
You must never initiate harm to another human being or to the universe, which you are apart of.
Spiritual, physical, mental, and emotional realms of our existence must all work together and be balanced.
   Sacrifice guarantees success.
<b>What the Yoruba Reject</b>
We are born in sin
The European civilized the African
Jesus Christ is the only way to God<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->My, they reject the very foundations of christianism: "everyone is born in sin" and "jesus is the only way". The heathens! <!--emo&:clapping--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/clap.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='clap.gif' /><!--endemo-->