Ancestral Practice & Pan-African Spirituality

A circle for women returning to or staying with West African and other ancestral spiritual traditions. Ifa, Orisha worship in Yoruba and Lukumi forms, Akan religion, Kemetic practice, Vodun and Haitian Vodou, Candomble, Santeria, the long thread of African spiritual practice that survived the Atlantic crossing and lives now in many forms across the diaspora. Also Igbo traditional religion, Zulu ancestral practice, the Kongo cosmologies, and the spiritual traditions of East and Southern Africa that have parallel histories.

Membership includes women in many stages of relationship to these traditions. Women who were raised inside an ancestral tradition and have remained inside it. Women who were raised Christian or Muslim and have returned to ancestral practice in adulthood. Women who hold both Christianity or Islam alongside ancestral practice, in the long syncretic tradition that has characterized African spirituality in the diaspora for centuries. Women who are exploring and have not yet decided what their practice is. Iyas, babalawos, oluwos, mambos, houngans, priests and priestesses across traditions who hold formal initiations.

What we share with respect and care. The introduction-to-tradition work for women who are coming to ancestral practice in adulthood. The teachers and elders we have studied with and the standards we hold for whom to learn from. The slow apprenticeship work that these traditions require. The decision about whether to be initiated, and the long preparation period before any such decision should be made.

The traditions themselves, in their specificity. We do not flatten them. Yoruba religion is its own world. Akan religion is its own world. Kemetic practice is its own world. We acknowledge the differences and we do not pretend an Ifa initiation is the same as a Lukumi initiation is the same as a Vodun initiation. We learn from each other across traditions without conflating them.

Daily practice. Ancestor veneration. The bobo or the egungun shrine. The offerings and the prayers. The morning and evening practices that ground a member's day. The work of building practice into a life that is also full of work, parenting, and obligation.

Reading and study. The texts and oral traditions we have access to. The scholars we have learned from. The careful distinction between respectful academic study and the practice of the tradition itself, which has its own teachers and its own initiatory requirements.

The family-of-origin conversation. The parents and grandparents who raised us Christian or Muslim and what they think of our return to ancestral practice. The relatives who are quietly supportive. The relatives who are openly opposed. The work of holding both an ancestral practice and family relationships that may not yet understand it.

The work-life integration. How we explain our practice (or do not) to colleagues. The interaction with workplace policies on religious accommodations when the religion is ancestral and not on the standard list. The discretion we maintain in some professional contexts and the openness we maintain in others.

Raising children in or near ancestral practice. The decision about what to teach our children and at what age. The participation in rituals. The age-appropriate introductions to ancestors. The conversations with school and with extended family.

Diaspora-to-continent connection. The work of returning to specific regions where members have ancestral ties — Nigeria, Benin, Ghana, Senegal, Mali, the DRC, Angola, Sierra Leone, and others — and engaging with practitioners there. The way the practice in the diaspora has developed parallel to the practice on the continent and the conversations between the two.

Ethical practice. The clear-eyed conversation about the commercialization of African spiritual practice in the diaspora, the social-media practitioners whose credentials are unclear, the extractive teachers who charge for what should be passed down freely or at minimal cost, and the standards we hold for legitimate transmission of teaching.

The intersection with Christianity and Islam. Many members hold both. The long syncretic tradition. The decisions about church or mosque attendance alongside ancestral practice. The way our grandmothers and great-grandmothers held both, and what we have inherited from them in terms of comfort with multiplicity.

Cadence: a weekly thread that is slower and more contemplative than the other networks. A monthly long-form thread on a single topic. A quarterly virtual circle. Smaller subgroups for specific traditions where appropriate, held tightly and with respect for the boundaries of what is and is not shared in mixed company.

Rules. Respectful conversation only. No tourism. No appropriation-style engagement from members who are not actually in or sincerely approaching the tradition. We do not perform ritual in the network space; we discuss it. Initiatory information that is restricted to initiates stays inside the appropriate channels and is not posted publicly.

We hold this circle gently. The traditions we are talking about have survived the Middle Passage, plantation slavery, colonial religious suppression, and contemporary marginalization. They deserve our care in how we discuss them and our commitment to passing them forward with integrity. That is the work.