Abstract
What if veneration and meditation were not about silence, but rhythm? What if spiritual insight came not from retreat, but from dance, chant, and ancestral dialogue? This paper asks to rethink the foundations of religious experience through the vibrant lens of Indigenous African spiritualities. From Bantu Ngoma healing circles to Yoruba Ifá divination, Dogon astral contemplation to Akan libation rituals, African traditions offer living technologies of reflection that are communal, embodied, and justice-oriented. These practices don’t just soothe the soul. They recalibrate relationships, restore ecological balance, and activate ethical imagination. Drawing on ethnographic, cosmological, and ritual sources, this study explores how African meditation systems challenge dominant models of spirituality. It highlights how trance, breathwork, storytelling, and nature-based rituals cultivate emotional resilience, moral clarity, and cosmic belonging. In a world grappling with disconnection and despair, African Indigenous spiritualities offer a radical reorientation: healing is rhythmic, wisdom is relational, and the sacred is always near.
Presenters
Dorcas DennisAssistant Professor, Philosophy and Religion, University of North Carolina, Wilmington, North Carolina, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
2026 Special Focus—Indigenous Spiritualities in Global Perspective
KEYWORDS
Indigenous, African spiritualities, Astral contemplation, Justice-oriented, Bantu-Ngoma, Healing circles, Yoruba-Ifa
