Introduction
African religion prior to the arrival of Muslim and Christian missionaries comprises of a variety of traditional believes which are indigenous to the African continent. Although most customs in the traditional religion are common in most African societies, every ethnic group has unique believes and some of these aspects are still maintained by most African Muslims and Christians religion. African religions are associated with concepts of culture, ethnic identity and language of the African people and affect every aspect in life and therefore they are unlimited to beliefs in God and the spirit. (Mbiti, 1991 pp23-25)
Importance of African religion prior to the arrival of Muslim Christian missionaries
Traditional African religion comprises of teachings and practices that formed structures to the native societies and the way the locals perceived the supernatural with a slight variation from one community to another. The Africans believed in the existence of a God, the creator of the universe while others recognized a complimentary god and the existence of priests for various deities like sun, lightening and the earth.
They worshiped their God through consultations with ancestral spirit and lesser deities which were honored through sacrifice of precious metal, animals and vegetables. Oracular deities were also consulted by the believers so that the will of God may be sought while at the same time they believed that the living connected the ancestors and the unborn. They did not believe in heaven or hell or any physical reinforcement like holy texts, temples or prophets but when they were in great need like natural calamities and unexplained deaths, they could have a correspondence with their higher being.
Traditional African religion during its teachings did not engage children in vigorous training during the time of maturation which made the missionaries believe that African religion was non-existent. The Africans also believed that a good person who would be compared with the one going to heaven was the one who was being remembered after death by other people during ceremonies. Going to hell was compared with the person who would be completely forgotten after his death. (Mbiti, 1991 pp26-30)
Virtues and vices of traditional African religion
Traditional religion in Africa was connected with aspects of life in the community such a social behavior like respecting parents and elderly, rising of children appropriately, being courageous, honest and able to provide hospitality. If a person engaged in immorality this was taken to be disobedience to his God depending on the way the community lived. They believed that God could guide a virtuous person through his conscience just like the devil would do for a bad person.
Priests existed in some communities to act as intermediaries between persons or whole communities and the deities and would preside at the deity. Field of medicine in the African traditions was another very important part in their religion where the priests were known to have knowledge of illness, surgery and in treating psychological problems. They had knowledge about roots, leaves, barks and herbs which could cure certain illnesses and this made them better healers than the modern doctors. (Lugira, 2004 pp11-13)
Conversion efforts of Islam and Christianity in post-classical Africa and the legacy left behind
Muslim states in West Africa had a pattern of combining local traditions with Islamic. The conversion effort was confirmed in major states beginning from rulers of Ghana in 10th century and Mali followed in 13th century.
In East Africa, although most of its coastal margins had several Muslim enter ports, Muslims did not convert many people from the interior and as a result most of the African states like Kenya, Mozambique and Tanzania are mostly dominated by Christians. The reason for less effort by Muslims to convert Africans from the interior was that, most of these states were sources of slaves as they were pagans and the laws of Islam prohibits Islam from being used as slaves. These means if the states were converted into Muslim states, they would have lost their source of slaves.
On the other hand, Christians penetrated far to the interior of sub-Saharan Africa making its proportion increase faster compared to Muslims. As a result, there are more Muslims in the sub-Saharan Africa than Muslims. When the Islam penetrated the interior regions of southern Africa, some parts of interior central as well as east Africa, it was in form of trade or looking for slaves. In west Africa, the arrival of Islam was inform of elite religion of courts that brought high civilization and this played a great role in converting Nubian and almost trying to conquer Ethiopia in the horn of Africa. Christianity on the hand assimilated most Africans through colonization when Europeans arrived in Africa and this did not have anything to do with the Islam. (Mbiti, 1990 pp11-14)
Conclusion
Most churches in both Islam and Christianity have begun shedding away central doctrines with teaching about separation and concentrating on the ideology of inclusion which implies that churches have tended to conform to the society. For example, it would appear arrogant in society for a Christian to argue that only the followers of Jesus Christ are save and regard the Muslims as lost. However it is wise to admit that most of the African traditional religion has now been assimilated and taken roots either into Christianity or Islam religion.
References
Lugira A (2004): African Religions-facts on file: Hardback, pp. 11-13.
Mbiti J. (1991): Introduction to African Religion: Heinemann, pp. 23-30.
Mbiti J. (1990): African Religions and Philosophy: Heinemann, pp. 11-14.