Women and Religion

It appears that goddesses played prominent roles in the African creation myths, and other
aspects of religious worship. While we know a lot about female deities in Yoruba, Asante, Ibo
Dahomey, Mossi, and other tribes, knowledge is lacking about goddesses in Ghana, Mali,
Songhay,
and Kamem Bornu. Veneration of goddesses is still present today among Africans and Africans
living in Europe and America.
In the earliest times, African religious practices were what modern-day scholars called
animism and ancestral worship. Incorporated into this was the worship of various inanimate
objects, what is called today fetishism. Ancestors were visual represented as statues or masks,
and
the people offered prayers and sacrifices to them. Then polytheistic state religions developed
and
took over many aspects of the old tribal beliefs. From the ghosts of ancestors deities were
developed. Gods were linked by close relations and dominated by leaders; akin to a sort of
hereditary aristocracy. In some areas kings and queens were elevated into deities, who then in
turn
declared their ancestors gods too.
Goddesses of creation, fertility and agriculture existed, and many were self begotten or self-
born without any assistance from male gods. Goddesses also created the moon, sun, stars, etc.
Another name for these early creation goddesses was mother killers, indicative that they not
only
were givers of life, but takers of life too. Some of these deities possessed both gender
characteristics. These goddesses were also part of a trinity or triad.
The Ibo in Nigeria constructed temples to honor their earth mother, Ala. For these people
Ala was the most beloved goddess of all the deities. We find that the worship of Ala goes back
as

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far as 3000 b.c.e. There were also some structures where she was worship with a figure of Ala
with a child on her knee. This motif of mother and child was widespread in African art.
Priestesses presided over the activities relating to worship of the deities in various holy
places. These priestesses oversaw the dances, rituals, and processions in honor of the goddess
and
the fetish, where an object was worshiped that represented a deity. Some of these totems or
fetishes
were made of bone, feathers, horns, animal claws, stones, and living or stuffed animals. An
equestrian figure of a woman was apparently designed to bring good luck to hunters. There is
also
evidence of secret societies of women regarding their religious practices. Compared to women
all
over the world, African women were most instrumental in preserving their religious traditions.