Anyone is familiar with Shamanism, Animism

[Djembe]

I have lived in West Africa for a long time and while many of them are Muslim, their indigenous religion is very interesting. It is more of relating to nature and spirits rather unlike Abrahamic religions.

[Barış]

I'm somewhat familiar with Tuvan Shamanism, but I don't know much about African Shamanism though. Could you be more specific?
As far as I know Muslims don't believe in Transmigration. Don't Muslims believe that when a person dies that they either go to Paradise or Hell?
Do African Muslims think animals, trees, mountains and lakes etc have souls?
Also do they honor the spirits of their Ancestors?

[Djembe]

I'm somewhat familiar with Tuvan Shamanism, but I don't know much about African Shamanism though. Could you be more specific?
As far as I know Muslims don't believe in Transmigration. Don't Muslims believe that when a person dies that they either go to Paradise or Hell?
Do African Muslims think animals, trees, mountains and lakes etc have souls?
Also do they honor the spirits of their Ancestors?

I have read about shamanism from Tuva long time ago.

West Africans, while they are/they claim they are Muslim or Christian, they are strongly tied to their indigenous religions. They still keep their pre-colonization beliefs and rituals. It is like Turkish while they are Muslim, they believe in "nazar", 'evil eye' concept. Mostly bigger cities and towns are more Muslim/Christian but when you go remote areas, it is clear they are more of traditional African. Because of the language barriers, where most Africans living in remote areas can't speak English or French or when they speak you can't really have a intellectual conversation as their French/English are very limited. So, it is very difficult to learn about animism. Also, there are not many publications either.


I am not sure if you watch the movie called 'Avatar' but in addition to nature related things like animals, African believes there are ancestral souls. These souls exist/active and they are kind of between humans and supreme being(s).

I spent lots of time in Senegal, Mali, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ghana. And there are many tribes and they have very different spiritual traditions. These religions are very ancient. I am talking about pre-Judaism. From Australian Aboriginals to Siberian Shamans, to Native American traditions I see a lots of similarities. Like you said most of the common denominator is that nature and ancestors have souls and we are influenced under these souls.

I have a half African daughter and her relatives (Mixed of Serer/Fulani/Wolof) still believe strong traditional African spirituality. Being non-religious myself, I have great interests in these religions as a cultural experience. So, I am not animist but I like to observe and experience their spiritual experience.