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xxii Introduction finding converts in Africa were, and still are, the Pentecostal churches. The Pente- costal churches’ focus on the spiritual working of God fits neatly into the tradition African cosmology. The Roho Churches of Kenya are representative of this trend. Islam Islam was founded as a religious tradition in 610 CE. It came to Africa a few dec- ades later. It spread initially where the people were Christians in North Africa. It eventually spread across the Sahara Desert into sub-Saharan Africa. Like Christi- anity, Islam came with proselytizing travelers. With the case of Islam, they were usually traders and were not supported by any foreign nations. The result was after the initial conversion process, the newly converted Africans were left to interpret Islam however they wanted. Sufism, the more spiritual expression of Islam, facilitated the spread of the reli- gion across the continent. The indigenous Africans’ understanding of the spirit world and how it operates fits better into the parameters of Sufism than the more legalistic expressions of Islam. The Sufi turuq (plural of tariqa, a school or order of Sufism) proliferated throughout the continent with some indigenous turuq founded such as the Layenne Tariqa and the Mouride Tariqa of Senegal. Judaism Judaism’s experiences in Africa are different. One could technically consider Juda- ism as a traditional African belief system. Moses gave the Children of Israel their laws while leaving Egypt. Yahweh spoke to Moses in the Sinai Desert. I have heard no one else make this claim, but if we are just looking at geography, it could be made. There were Jews who migrated to the African continent from ancient times. Alexandria in Egypt had a significant Jewish community, as did Cairo. Jews settled all across North Africa with a significant community of them in each of the north- ern African countries up until colonization. There is the matter of communities in Africa who practice Judaism or elements of Judaism. The Beta Israel has been recognized by the state of Israel as a Jewish group. The Abayudaya in Uganda are a group of mostly Baganda practitioners of Judaism whose foreparent converted to Judaism at the end of the 19th century. Still others such as the Lemba, who were “discovered” by scholar Tudor Parfitt, raise the eyebrow of scholars when the similarities of their religious traditions to ancient Judaism are examined. Others made claims of ancient Israeli origins only after contact with Western Christianity such as the Igbo and Zulu. In the African Diaspora, many groups claim descent from the ancient Hebrews. These groups, called collectively Hebrew-Israelites, have extreme variations in their beliefs and practices. Some have gone full-scale conversion to Judaism. Others retain belief in Christ but practice Jewish dietary laws. Some such as the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem have created their own expression of Judaism based on the Torah. The proliferation of Judaism on the continent and in the Diaspora are just another view of the diversity of African peoples and their religious expressions.