We are a big fan of spiritual books here on Joelbooks. This time we checked a very special section of books: African spirituality.

African spirituality is holistic with origins in the religious, cultural, and historical heritage of the country. Many experts tend to comprehend it to originate from the country's soil and developed via contact with people from other nations. African spirituality gives Africans a way of comprehending their life and events happening along with a sense of perspective towards the same.

The best way to explore African spirituality is either exploring the country by meeting different ethnic groups or reading some of the most indigenous books by scholars and experienced authors. Here are the top 8 best books on African spirituality.

What Are The Best African Spirituality Books?

Jambalaya, by Luisah Teish (2021)

Jambalaya, updated after 30 years since its first publication. Originally published in 1985, Jambalaya has become a seminal work among Women’s Spirituality Educators, practitioners of traditional Africana religions, and cultural creatives.

This compelling mix of memoir, spiritual teachings, and practices from Afro-American traditions like Ifa or Orisha and New Orleans Voudou, serves as an insightful introduction to nature-based spirituality and rituals.

Jambalaya offers a reconnection to the natural and spiritual world, drawing on the ancient wisdom of African ancestors, whose enduring voices guide and merge with our own in a blend of mysticism and wisdom.

The Melanin Empath, by Jade Asikiwe

Do you feel that you do not belong to this world but something beyond it that can be felt or seen? Do you sense both negative and positive energies while entering an area? Are deep emotions of others and yourself bound to you frequently? To know why you have these feelings, Jade Asikiwe has released this book.

The author explains that you are not going crazy or bizarre due to such feelings nor you need some psychological therapy. What is happening to you is due to the unique gift that most of us cannot comprehend or do not want.

So, get ready to plunge into the realm of sanctity and explore the coexisting possibilities while on a journey of enlightened insights to self-discovery. Dig the secrets of unexplained sensations and extraordinary perceptions and become the natural healer you are meant to be. Through this book, you come to know who you are and how you see the cosmos. This helps you in developing yourself as a better human.

African Spirituality, by Jacob K. Olupona (2001)

This illustrated book provides an insightful introduction to the diverse world of African religion, spirituality, and cosmology. It features contributions from scholars like Margaret R. Miles, Kathleen O’Brien Wicker, Ogbu Kalu, and Abdulkader I. Tayob, who explore various African spiritual traditions and the connections among them.

The book covers specific topics such as Pa divination in Nigeria, the concept of Mami Water, and the impact of Western religions like Christianity on African spirituality. It discovers different traditions, including Dagbamba, Haitian Vodun, the significance of shrines and divination, candomble, and the interplay of Sufism and Islam in African religious practices.

New Age Bible of Mother Africa (Book 2), by T Lindsey-Billingsley

This book is an explosive revelation about the untold theory of human evolution whilst validating a strong position on extraterrestrial intervention using scientific facts. This is not surprising, as Lindsey-Billingsley is a spiritual philosopher and sci-fi author passionate about ancient supernatural stuff and astronauts.

In this book, she assesses the bond between humans, primates, rare human blood origins, and extraterrestrial initiators. She focuses on different relative topics, ranging right from prehistoric alien ancestors and lost cities to the obscurities of the pyramids. Justified assessments and solid research back up the truth of secret history tales, human origins, and mysterious ancient knowledge.

It seems that the author has unveiled the crypts of truth, well-preserved by age-old stealthy societies along with the controversial and lost riddles of the human species.

Seven African Powers: The Orishas, by Monique Joiner Siedlak

This is a worth-reading book if you want to know about the Orishas, the African Spirits with deep roots of service and respect in modern Voodoo and Santeria traditions. They are also revered in other Caribbean cultures. At present, several West Africans including the Yorubans still seek the help of Orishas for solving both small and big issues.

The author, Monique Joiner Siedlak, interestingly reveals about the seven Orishas in simple terms due to which a naïve person can easily comprehend them. You will know about the unique temperaments and specific actions each Orisha has.

The book also reveals a lot about the Yoruba religious tradition along with the bonus of prayers, spells, and its capability of solving almost any difficulty in life.

The author is a writer and witch who intends to awaken people to their best abilities via storytelling featuring new age spirituality, modern paganism, and mysticism.

Spirituality Before Religion: Spirituality is Unseen Science, Science is Seen Spirituality, by Kaba Hiawatha Kamene

Consider this book to know the truth about the cosmos from the point of view of your ancestors. Professor Kaba Kamene brilliantly reveals a timeline of how our forefathers examined the universe as a whole and what role we have to play in it.

The purpose of this book is to reveal that the original idea of humanity about spirituality was rooted in the humans and was devised, born, cherished, sustained, and refined in the Africa’s Great Lakes Region.

It reaches profoundly into ideas investigated by brilliant scholars and fuses them into an all-inclusive study of the old African thought of Tep Heseb, the Egyptian methodology of precise knowing. This concise and unambiguous philosophy directed early humans into the heavens on our planet while making one.

The book further covers a lot of points from scholars such as turning one’s own concept of God no longer makes one a free man, chains are on the mind, embracing the God of someone else leaves no hope for freedom, and that man came with the presence of divine fire.

All these efforts are for developing the God within man. The book also covers the laws of cosmic spirituality.

Connecting with Your Ancestors, by Monique Joiner Siedlak

This is another African spirituality book from the same author who wrote Seven African Powers: The Orishas. Connecting with ancestors has always been an integral part of the African spiritual realm. There are a couple of reasons why someone would wish to learn about how to interact with the ancestors. However, many people believe this to be either an impossible or a tough task.

Well, this book explains that it is neither impossible to do so nor it is a tough task to take up. There are people who feel their presence and wish to talk with them instinctively. For most of them, healing is the main motivation for communicating with the ancestral spirits.

Keeping this in mind, the book provides insights into the traditions of ancestral communication, connecting spiritually with ancestors, and creating a dedicated altar for prayers and offerings.

The book finally informs us to be patient for receiving a response from ancestors. One just needs to boost the awareness to detect signs of response from ancestors.

Orishas, Goddesses, and Voodoo Queens: The Divine Feminine in the African Religious Traditions, by Lilith Dorsey

Do you wish to learn about the divine feminine powers revered in West African spiritual traditions? If yes, then this book from Lilith Dorsey is an inspirational start for you. It explores the goddesses of the West African spirituality along with their role in forming Santeria, New Orleans Voodoo, Haitian Vodoun, and Yoruba (Ifa).

Across the country and beyond in the slave trade diaspora, many venerated the divine feminine in the forms of goddesses such as Nana Buluku, warrior Oya, and water spirits like Mami Wata, Oshun, and Yemaya. Their power as spirit beings is deeply rooted in the West.

The book reveals the ways to celebrate these goddesses including the Voodoo Queens and Orishas and develop their traits so that you can empower yourself with their strengths. You also get an insight into the magical spells, sacred offerings, rituals, concoctions, astrological correlations to escort you on your revolutionary journey.

From Red Earth: A Rwandan Story of Healing and Forgiveness, by Denise Uwimana-Reinhardt

One of the major goals of spirituality is healing, which not necessarily should come from the deities and magic spells. The wounds that ethnic conflicts or wars give heal completely through the power of forgiveness. This is exactly what this book reveals, which is authored by Denise Uwimana, a victim who survived a massive massacre in Rwanda.

Her story reveals the human genocide that occurred for almost 100 days in Rwanda where the Hutu ethnic neighbors killed a million Tutsi people. As the killers with bloody machetes looted the author’s home, the author became the mother of her third son.

Luckily, the unexpected assistance of Hutu Good Samaritans saved the life of the author along with her newly born baby. However, her other family members including her husband could not be saved. Instead of succumbing to the loss, she took up a long, tough path to personal healing.

Not only that, she dedicated her full life to rebuilding the nation by inspiring other genocide widows to heal, come together, share their tales, and restore their lives. The book covers all these tales that narrate the complex and incomplete work of recovery and truth-telling. These survivors are now educating the world on how to heal from such losses and scars.

Finding Soul on the Path of Orisa: A West African Spiritual Tradition, by Tobe Melora Correal

There are many books on Orishas, Ifa, and Lucumi, which emphasize their unique characteristics along with rituals and colors. However, this one from Tobe Melora Correal is a bit different; it focuses more on the essence of African spirituality.

In the realm of African spirituality, no custom is as extensively cuddled and practiced as the Orisa, the West African faith. Awakened due to the spiritual journey, the author as a nun in the Yoruba-Lukumi division of Orisa escorts the readers along this sacred path.

The book gives a fresh collection of these old pearls of wisdom and focuses more on self-introspection than the external expressions of Orisa's rituals. Correal exposes the myths or misconceptions regarding them, pulling us into an Earth-centered spirituality giving a handy and compassionate path for worshipping God.

You get an introduction to the religion of Yoruba, which is the science of allowing God to arise in you such that each breath becomes a prayer. The entire book seems to be in the form of a conversation with you. As the chapters get revealed, queries and answers unfold to give a subtle level of comprehension of God's plan for our lives.

Final Question

Which African spirituality book fascinates you the most? Let's dig deeper in the mythical and meaningful insight of the wisdom of Africa.

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