African Traditional Religion and Democratic Governance

Given the integral nature of African Traditional Religions to the abounding cultures across the continent in its generality, they remain relevant in many societies despite the demonization and denigration during the European Christian missionary and colonization eras. While this dynamic is unanimous in diverse forms among most, if not all, African ethnic groups or nations, this chapter, for context sake, uses the people of Ghana, a West African nation, as a case study. In Ghana, the time-honored belief in the Supreme Being through intermediaries such as gods, goddesses, nature spirits, other spirits, and the ancestors, like most of the foreign religions, is embedded in the Constitution. Consequently, the recognition and inclusiveness traditional religions continue in the current democratic dispensation at national functions, and their political expediency is not lost on officials and would-be officials. Their inextricability from the indigenous political system with the king or chief also being considered a priest has made, and will continue to make, democratic governance officials solicit and seek approval from them. Besides the overwhelmingly positive influence, the potential for the traditional religions being applied for adverse outcomes also impacts activists of democratic governance in more ways than one.