the continent of Africa, and the earliest human
consciousness toward the awesomeness of nature
and the mysteries of life and death was an African
experience. In Africa, the world exists as a place
full of energy, dynamism, and life, and the holding
back of chaos by harmonizing the spirit world is
the principal task of the human being in keeping
with nature. In the African world, spirits exist.
This is not a debatable issue in most African soci-
eties. The existence of spirits that are employed in
the maintenance of balance and harmony repre-
sents the continuous search for equilibrium.
The idea that a creator exists is also at the base
of this African reality. In fact, African people have
lived with the name of a Supreme Deity longer
than any other people because the first humans
who responded to the unknown with the
announcement of awe originated on the African
continent. This is not just true in the sense of oral
tradition, but in historical time we know that the
names of Bes, Ptah, Atum, Ra, Amen, Khnum,
Set, Ausar, and Auset are among the oldest names
for divinities in the world.
Nothing in ancient African culture was more
standard and more consistent than the belief in a
First Ancestor. Whether one was in the Nile,
Congo, or Niger valley, Africans accepted the idea
of a Supreme Being or a First Ancestor. There is
generally the belief that a Supreme Being or First
Ancestor arrived with the first ancestor of a group
of people in a region. Sometimes these two entities
are the same being, and at other times they are
separate. An Akan saying is “God is the Great
Ancestor.” A woman dies and she is remembered
for what she did on Earth, and the story is passed
down from generation to generation; in the trans-
mission, the story is embellished so that a current
generation revels in the supernatural deeds done
eons ago. She becomes the First Ancestor. We are
in the province of mystery here because the
numerous powers that may be called on to explain
various phenomena will have their roots in the
ancestral world.
The African Supreme Being, however, rarely
plays a role in the daily activities of the people. No
one would even think of knowing this being or
trying to know him or her as “a personal savior.”
The Abrahamic deity of Judaism, Christianity,
and Islam is quite different from the African God
of Yoruba, Zulu, and Gikuyu. Who could fathom
the possibilities of the Creator being involved on a
personal level with humans? How could one have
a personal relationship with God? How could
God be a dictator in human life? Thus, the myths,
stories, legends, and narratives that are created
by the various branches of Popular Traditional
African Religion Everywhere (PTARE) are
designed to approximate the nature of the God of
Gods or, at least, to provide the necessary and
attendant assistants in the process of maintaining
ethics without the universe.
What is believed intensely all over the continent
of Africa is that the Supreme Being, who could be
male, female, or both, created the universe, ani-
mals, and human beings, but soon retreated from
any direct involvement in the affairs of humans. In
some cases in Africa, the Supreme Being does not
finish the creation; it is left to other deities to com-
plete. Among the Yoruba, this delegation of cre-
ation appears when Olorun, the Owner of the Sky,
the Supreme God, starts the creation of the
universe and then leaves it to Obatala, a lesser
deity, to complete the task. Among the Herero of
Namibia, the Supreme God, Omukuru, the Great
One, Njambi Kurunga, withdrew into the sky
after creating lesser divinities and humans. There
are neither temples nor shrines to the God of Gods
among most people in Africa. In most cases, the
lesser divinities are worshipped, revered, loved,
and feared. Why should an Akan person fear
Almighty God Nyankopon or the Yoruba people
become frightened of Olorun or the Herero be
scared of Omukuru?
Only at the most critical moment when it seems
the entire universe is topsy-turvy or the cosmos
may fail will the African person appeal to the
Creator God. Of course, this situation is not
expected. It is probably best summed up by the
behavior of the Ewe of southern Ghana, who do
not invoke the name of Dzingbe, the Universal
Father, unless there is a drought. With a drought
comes the possibility that there will be no food,
and if there is no food, there will be no life. It is a
time of severe crisis. They might then say,
“Universal Father, Dzingbe, who rules the sky, to
whom we are grateful, mighty is the drought and
we are suffering; let it rain, let the earth be
refreshed, let the fields be resurrected and the
people prosper!” Otherwise, they do not bother
the awesome Dzingbe.Introduction xxiii