Expert: Jonathon D. Colman - 3/30/2004

Question
Dear Sir,
 To the best of your knowledge, are there any cultural groups or tribes in Africa that do not have gods?

Answer
Hello, Reg,
Sorry for my slow response to your question... it's an interesting one, and I took some time to share it with a few other Returned Peace Corps Volunteers from Burkina Faso.

We don't know it for a fact, but we all seemed to share similar understandings of Animist beliefs based on our experiences with the villgers whom we encountered.  They seem to ascribe events, occurences, and other phenomena to objects, thereby animating them with power, vision, feeling, etc.

So we guessed that the Animists whom we met didn't believe in the "standard" pantheons of Gods/mythologies, but in personal or local Gods/Items instead.  So instead of objective beliefs, theirs seemed to be highly subjective to their village's or family's experiences, as well as their own personal encounters.

Hope that makes sense!  For more information about worldwide cultural beliefs about dieties and their exploits, you might want to check out a good book that I'm reading right now: _The Hero with a Thousand Faces_ by Joseph Campbell.  Interesting stuff!

Thanks again for your question, Reg, and best wishes!
--jdc