Earthly Origins. The West African finds it quite natural to approach the gods and believes that the gods will listen and help because, with few exceptions (such as the Yoruba and Igbo sky gods Olorun and Amadioha), they are believed to have once been humans (or at least in familiar and close contact with humans) and to have at one point inhabited the earth. Yet, the gods are of a different ontological and hierarchical order from humans, so the need to worship them is far greater than, for example, the necessity to pay homage to the known ancestors of the clan.

Akan Religion. The Akan speak the Twi language and trace back their history in West Africa some nine hundred years. They are believed to have origins in the Middle East—as the Akkadian people of Babylon. The name...