Spiritual Traditions

African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church

1816 – present

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States; later the U.S. South and Africa

Independent Black Methodist denomination organized in Philadelphia in 1816, when Bethel Church and allied congregations elected Richard Allen bishop; it expanded across the South after the Civil War and into Africa.

Stub: research pending

Ausar (Osiris)

Ancient Egypt, c. 3000 BCE – Ptolemaic and Roman periods; revived in modern Kemetic practice

Abydos and throughout Egypt (Kemet)

Ausar (Usir; Greek Osiris) is the Egyptian lord of the afterlife and judge of the dead, linked to fertility and the Nile; his murder by Set and revival by Auset were re-enacted at Abydos.

Stub: research pending

Auset (Isis)

Ancient Egypt, attested from c. 24th century BCE (Pyramid Texts) to 6th century CE; revived in modern Kemetic practice

Egypt (Kemet), later Greece and the Roman Empire

Auset (Eset; Greek Isis), mother of Heru (Horus) and wife of Ausar, was revered for protective magic and motherhood; her worship spread across the Roman world and continues in modern Kemetic practice.

Stub: research pending

The Book of the Dead (Pert em Heru)

c. 1550 BCE – 30 BCE (New Kingdom to Ptolemaic period)

Egypt (Kemet)

Called by Egyptians the spells for going forth by day, the Book of the Dead gathers about 200 funerary spells, many drawn from the Pyramid and Coffin Texts, for the deceased's continued existence.

Stub: research pending

Candomblé

Late 18th century – present

Brazil (especially Salvador da Bahia)

Afro-Brazilian religion centred in Bahia and organised into 'nations' that honour Yoruba-derived orixás, Fon-derived voduns and Kongo-derived inquices. Scholars debate how much each tradition shaped its formation.

Djehuty (Thoth)

Ancient Egypt, c. 3000 BCE – 4th century CE; revived in modern Kemetic practice

Hermopolis and throughout Egypt (Kemet)

Djehuty, called Thoth by the Greeks, is the Egyptian deity of writing, wisdom, magic and the moon, shown as an ibis-headed man or baboon, who records the verdict at the weighing of the heart.

Stub: research pending

Dogon people and tradition

c. 15th century – present

Bandiagara Escarpment, central Mali (extending into Burkina Faso)

The Dogon of Mali's Bandiagara cliffs and plains keep living traditions of masked dances, ancestor rites and Awa initiation; their homeland is a UNESCO World Heritage cultural landscape of 289 villages.

Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church

c. mid-4th century – present

Ethiopia (headquarters Addis Ababa) and the diaspora

Oriental Orthodox church rooted in the Aksumite kingdom's adoption of Christianity under King Ezana in the fourth century, with Frumentius as its first bishop; it remained Ethiopia's state church until the 1974 revolution.

Haitian Vodou

18th century (colonial Saint-Domingue) – present

Haiti and its diaspora

Haitian religion that took shape among enslaved Africans in Saint-Domingue, serving spirits called lwa through song, drumming and possession; it draws on Fon, Kongo and Yoruba traditions and links many lwa with Catholic saints.

Hoodoo

Era of slavery to present

Continental North America, especially African American communities in the United States

African American spiritual tradition, also called conjure or rootwork, developed by enslaved people from Central and West African practices interwoven with Christian and European elements, used for healing, protection and divination.

Stub: research pending

Kimpa Vita (Dona Beatriz)

c. 1684 – 1706

Central Africa (Kingdom of Kongo, present-day Angola/DR Congo)

A Kongolese prophet who said Saint Anthony possessed her and led the Antonian movement to restore the divided Kingdom of Kongo, teaching an African Christianity. She was burned as a heretic in 1706.

Stub: research pending

The rock-hewn churches of Lalibela

c. 7th – 13th c. CE (traditionally reign of Lalibela, r. c. 1181 – 1221)

Lalibela, Amhara, northern Ethiopia

Eleven monolithic churches carved from rock in northern Ethiopia, traditionally credited to King Lalibela as a 'New Jerusalem'. Scholars date them in several phases, and they remain active places of worship and pilgrimage.

Ma'at

Attested from the Old Kingdom (c. 2613 – 2181 BCE) through the Ptolemaic period (ended 30 BCE)

Egypt

Ancient Egyptian concept of truth, justice and cosmic order, also honoured as a goddess with an ostrich feather; kings were expected to uphold it, and hearts were weighed against her feather.

The Neteru (Kemetic deities)

c. 3000 BCE – 6th c. CE; modern revival since the late 1980s

Ancient Egypt (Kemet); modern Kemetic communities worldwide

Netjer (plural netjeru) is the Egyptian word usually translated 'god'. It named the many divine beings of ancient Egyptian religion, who could take human and animal forms. Modern Kemetic communities have revived their worship since the late 1980s.

Prince Hall and Prince Hall Freemasonry

d. 1807; lodge founded 1775

Boston, Massachusetts

Prince Hall, a formerly enslaved Bostonian, and fourteen other Black men were initiated as Masons in 1775; their African Lodge, chartered from London in 1787, became the root of Prince Hall Freemasonry.

Stub: research pending

Rastafari

1930s – present

Jamaica; now worldwide

Anticolonial, African-centered faith that arose in Kingston, Jamaica, after Haile Selassie's 1930 coronation. Adherents regard him as divine, read the Bible through that lens, and draw on Marcus Garvey's Pan-Africanism.

Richard Allen

1760 – 1831

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Delaware, United States

Born enslaved in Philadelphia and held in Delaware, Allen bought his freedom in the early 1780s, founded Bethel Church, was ordained a Methodist deacon in 1799, and became the AME Church's first bishop in 1816.

Stub: research pending

Santería (Regla de Ocha / Lucumí)

19th century – present

Cuba; spread to Puerto Rico, the wider Americas and the United States

Afro-Cuban religion, also called Regla de Ocha or Lucumí, created by enslaved Yoruba and their descendants. Devotees honor the orishas, which in Cuba became paired with Catholic saints and feast days.

Yoruba religion and Ifá

Ancient to present

Yorubaland (Nigeria and Benin) and the diaspora

Yoruba religious practice honours many òrìṣà, who vary from town to town, and includes Ifá, a divination system in which babalawo priests interpret signs through a vast body of chanted verses.