Editing Afterlife (section)

===Traditional African religions===
[[Traditional African religion]]s are diverse in their beliefs in an afterlife. [[Hunter-gatherer]] societies such as the [[Hadza people|Hadza]] have no particular belief in an afterlife, and the death of an individual is a straightforward end to their existence.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Bond|first1=George C.|editor1-last=Obayashi|editor1-first=Hiroshi|title=Death and Afterlife: Perspectives of World Religions|date=1992|publisher=Greenwood Press|location=New York|isbn=978-0-313-27906-5|pages=3–18|chapter=Living with Spirits: Death and Afterlife in African Religions|quote=The entire process of death and burial is simple, without elaborate rituals and beliefs in an afterlife. The social and spiritual existence of the person ends with the burial of the corpse.}}</ref> [[Veneration of the dead|Ancestor cults]] are found throughout [[Sub-Saharan Africa]], including cultures like the [[Yombe people|Yombe]],<ref>{{cite book|last1=Bond|first1=George C.|editor1-last=Obayashi|editor1-first=Hiroshi|title=Death and Afterlife: Perspectives of World Religions|date=1992|publisher=Greenwood Press|location=New York|isbn=978-0-313-27906-5|pages=3–18|chapter=Living with Spirits: Death and Afterlife in African Religions|quote=The belief in the ancestors remains a strong and active spiritual and moral force in the daily lives of the Yombe; the ancestors are thought to intervene in the affairs of the living.... The afterlife is this world.}}</ref> [[List of Mandé peoples of Africa|Beng]],<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Gottlieb|first1=Alma|last2=Graham|first2=Philip|last3=Gottlieb-Graham|first3=Nathaniel|s2cid=154032549|title=Infants, Ancestors, and the Afterlife: Fieldwork's Family Values in Rural West Africa|journal=Anthropology and Humanism|date=1998|volume=23|issue=2|page=121|doi=10.1525/ahu.1998.23.2.121|quote=But Kokora Kouassi, an old friend and respected Master of the Earth in the village of Asagbé, came to our compound early one morning to describe the dream he had just had: he had been visited by the revered and ancient founder of his matriclan, Denju, who confided that Nathaniel was his reincarnation and so should be given his name. The following morning a small ritual was held, and Nathaniel was officially announced to the world not only as Denju but as N'zri Denju—Grandfather Denju—an honorific that came to be used even by Nathaniel's closest playing companions.|url=https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/a12b/7183cff1ee6eba57710ad30325152762e481.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200218175427/https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/a12b/7183cff1ee6eba57710ad30325152762e481.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=2020-02-18}}</ref> [[Yoruba people|Yoruba]] and [[Ewe people|Ewe]], "[T]he belief that the dead come back into life and are reborn into their families is given concrete expression in the personal names that are given to children....What is reincarnated are some of the dominant characteristics of the ancestor and not his soul. For each soul remains distinct and each birth represents a new soul."<ref name="Opoku">{{cite book|last1=Opoku|first1=Kofi Asare|editor1-last=Badham|editor1-first=Paul|editor2-last=Badham|editor2-first=Linda|title=Death and Immortality in the Religions of the World|date=1987|publisher=Paragon House|location=New York|isbn=978-0-913757-54-3|pages=9–23|chapter=Death and Immortality in the African Religious Heritage|ol=25695134M}}</ref> The Yoruba, [[Dogon people|Dogon]] and LoDagoa have eschatological ideas similar to Abrahamic religions, "but in most African societies, there is a marked absence of such clear-cut notions of heaven and hell, although there are notions of God judging the soul after death."<ref name="Opoku" /> In some societies like the [[Mende people|Mende]], multiple beliefs coexist. The Mende believe that people die twice: once during the process of joining the [[Mende people#Secret societies|secret society]], and again during biological death after which they become ancestors. However, some Mende also believe that after people are created by God they live ten consecutive lives, each in progressively descending worlds.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Bond|first1=George C.|editor1-last=Obayashi|editor1-first=Hiroshi|title=Death and Afterlife: Perspectives of World Religions|date=1992|publisher=Greenwood Press|location=New York|isbn=978-0-313-27906-5|pages=3–18|chapter=Living with Spirits: Death and Afterlife in African Religions|quote=The process of being born, dying, and moving to a lower level of earth continues through ten lives.}}</ref> One cross-cultural theme is that the ancestors are part of the world of the living, interacting with it regularly.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Bond|first1=George C.|editor1-last=Obayashi|editor1-first=Hiroshi|title=Death and Afterlife: Perspectives of World Religions|date=1992|publisher=Greenwood Press|location=New York|isbn=978-0-313-27906-5|pages=3–18|chapter=Living with Spirits: Death and Afterlife in African Religions|quote=The ancestors are of people, whereas God is external to creation. They are of this world and close to the living. The Yombe believe that the afterlife of the ancestors lies in this world and that they are a spiritual and moral force within it.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Bond|first1=George C.|editor1-last=Obayashi|editor1-first=Hiroshi|title=Death and Afterlife: Perspectives of World Religions|date=1992|publisher=Greenwood Press|location=New York|isbn=978-0-313-27906-5|pages=3–18|chapter=Living with Spirits: Death and Afterlife in African Religions|quote=Death represents a transition from corporeal to incorporeal life in the religious heritage of Africa and the incorporeal life is taken to be as real as the corporeal.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Ephirim-Donkor|first1=Anthony|title=African Religion Defined a Systematic Study of Ancestor Worship among the Akan.|date=2012|publisher=University Press of America|location=Lanham|isbn=978-0-7618-6058-7|page=26|edition=2nd |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ndxOAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA26}}</ref>