Traditional Religion in West Africa and in the New World
This chapter discusses the major manifestations of African traditional religion in the New World. It outlines significant general principles and practices carried to the Western Hemisphere by captive Africans from two regions, which inform West and Central West African religious practices as well as the major New World African religious manifestations establishing where Hoodoo fits in vis-à-vis the other New World syncretic religious forms. It considers the practice of spirit possession by a deity, spirit, or ancestor as part of West and Central West African religious tradition, and how it came to be observed in sacred contexts among African Americans in the United States in the twenty-first century. The chapter also examines the place of spiritual forces in herbal and naturopathic healing within the context of African traditional religion. Finally, it looks at the role of divination in the diagnosis of physical or mental illness in both traditional African society and in old plantation Hoodoo.