The African continent is home to more than 6,000 different ethnic and cultural groups, each with its own religious customs. Yet these many traditions have much in common, including an almost universal belief in a Supreme Being, a close interconnection between the sacred and the nonsacred, and a reliance on a rich oral tradition to pass on religious and ethical precepts from generation to generation. For a very long time, the indigenous religions of...

This volume traces the social, historical, and political contexts of those religions of the Caribbean that harken back to African roots. It examines the cultural traditions and transformations of every African-derived religion of the Caribbean, along with its cosmology, beliefs, cultic structures, and ritual practices.