African Traditions

A collection, not a pantheon

This page used to gather Yoruba orisha, Akan figures, and beings from several other African peoples under one heading. That grouping implied a shared religion that never existed, so the two best-documented traditions now have their own entries, and this page keeps only what remains: creatures and spirits from peoples whose traditions this site has not yet covered in depth. Nothing here implies a common origin, date, or cosmology.

Yoruba traditions

The orisha of the Yoruba of southwestern Nigeria and neighbouring Benin, with the creation at Ile-Ife, Ifa divination, and the diaspora religions that grew from them, are now on the Yoruba Tradition page.

Akan storytelling

Nyame, Asase Yaa, the river abosom, and Kwaku Ananse the spider, known largely through R. S. Rattray's recordings of Asante tellers in the 1920s, are now on the Akan Tradition page.

What stays here

The beings still listed on this page come from separate peoples and should be read that way: the tikoloshe from Zulu and Xhosa belief in South Africa, the popobawa from late-20th-century reports on Zanzibar and Pemba, the ninki-nanka from Mandinka and neighbouring traditions of the Gambia and Senegal, the adze from Ewe belief in Ghana and Togo, and the eloko from the Mongo of the Congo basin. Mami Wata is the exception: a water spirit venerated across West and Central Africa and the diaspora, whose modern image owes much to 19th- and 20th-century trade and print culture. Each entry names the people it belongs to, and none should be read as Yoruba or Akan.