This course is an introduction to a cross-cultural study of religions and cultures of Africa through the disciplines of anthropology, history, and sociology of religion. The goal of the course is to teach students to think critically about the traditional religious heritage of Africa as a profound reflection on the human condition. This goal is achieved through a systematic study of the attitudes of mind, beliefs, as well as practices which have evolved in the many African societies such as the Akan of Ghana, Yoruba and Ibo of Nigeria, Malinke of Guinea, the Ewe/Fon of Dahomey/Benin, the Luo of Tanzania, K(G)ikuyu and Masai of Kenya, the Zulu of Southern Africa, and the Mende of Sierra Leone. Through the viewing of documentary films, movies, lectures, and discussions, the meaning, structure, nature, and world views of contemporary Africans are closely examined.

In addition, the course offers an overview of how cultural and religious knowledge is generated, understood, and used as Africans in general and Sub-Saharan Africans in particular, draw on their music and dance, myths, art forms and symbols to articulate and elaborate on the cosmos, life, sickness, health, and death, as they organize their lives. It does so by retrieving and analyzing the significance of creation myths, religious personalities such as rulers, diviners, and healers, in relation to the role of the ancestors.

Finally, it reflects on the social, cultural and historical factors which have engendered religious changes in Africa. Particularly it unpacks the problematic emergence of two world religions, Christianity and Islam—“Guest Religions”—and their encounters with the indigenous religions of Africa. Attention is paid to the impact is the “host” on the “guest” religions. In the end, it is hoped that students are enabled to interpret, articulate and synthesise religious knowledge, experience, and reflection as they deal with African ideas, belief systems and practices.