Subcategories

Syncretic (Afro-Caribbean)

7 of 186 entries in Religions. Click any to see everything it connects to.

Citation Formats

General Reference

Divinity Atlas. "Syncretic (Afro-Caribbean)." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://dev-divinity.interactiveatlas.org/subcategories/religion/syncretic-afro-caribbean.

APA Style

Divinity Atlas. (n.d.). Syncretic (Afro-Caribbean). Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://dev-divinity.interactiveatlas.org/subcategories/religion/syncretic-afro-caribbean

BibTeX

@misc{divinityatlas-syncretic-afro-caribbean,
  author = {Divinity Atlas},
  title = {Syncretic (Afro-Caribbean)},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://dev-divinity.interactiveatlas.org/subcategories/religion/syncretic-afro-caribbean},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

Religions formed in the Americas when West and Central African traditions carried across the Atlantic by enslaved people met Catholicism and Indigenous practice. African deities were identified with Catholic saints, partly as theology and partly as concealment under regimes that outlawed the older religion. They remain living traditions with initiatory priesthoods, and their pantheons appear throughout the Atlas.

Facts

Overview

What Defines This Grouping

Religions formed in the Americas when West and Central African traditions carried across the Atlantic by enslaved people met Catholicism and, in places, Indigenous and Spiritist practice. African deities were identified with Catholic saints, in part as theology and in part as concealment under regimes that outlawed the older religion. 2

Peoples and Traditions Covered

Formed from distinct African sources in distinct colonial societies: Yoruba for Lucumi and Candomble, Fon and Ewe for Vodou, Bakongo for Palo Monte. The traditions are related but not interchangeable, and each has its own initiation, liturgy and ritual language. 3

Status

Status Today

Living: initiatory religions with active priesthoods, houses and congregations in the Caribbean, Brazil, the United States and Europe, described here in the present tense. 5

Standing as a Comparative Category

Contested: syncretic is a term applied from outside, and it has been criticised for implying that these are mixtures rather than religions in their own right, with their own African theological grammar and their own history of deliberate choice. 5

Learn More

Afro-Caribbean syncretic religions

This group holds the syncretic religions of the African diaspora in the Caribbean and the Americas: living traditions forged under slavery by combining West and Central African religions with Catholicism and, in some cases, indigenous and Spiritist elements.

The browser will find traditions such as Haitian Vodou, Cuban Santeria (Lucumi), Palo Monte and their relatives. The atlas presents these as coherent religions in their own right, describing their spirits, ritual and history, and correcting the sensationalised images popular culture has attached to them.

Cross-Tradition Connections

Belongs to Tradition

Haitian Vodou

Afro-Caribbean syncretic religions: Haitian Vodou, whose lwa are grouped into nanchon such as the cool Rada and the hot Petwo, named in the group article.

Source The Faces of the Gods: Vodou and Roman Catholicism in HaitiLeslie G. Desmangles

Palo Monte

Afro-Caribbean syncretic religions: Palo Monte, the Bakongo-descended tradition centred on the nganga, named in the group article.

Source Society of the Dead: Quita Manaquita and Palo Praise in CubaTodd Ramon Ochoa

Santería (Lucumí)

Afro-Caribbean syncretic religions: Santeria, whose orishas each carry both an African and a Catholic face, named in the group article.

Source Santeria Enthroned: Art, Ritual, and Innovation in an Afro-Cuban ReligionDavid H. Brown

Sources

1. Divinity Atlas Directory Taxonomy, First Edition Category Tree

2. The Faces of the Gods: Vodou and Roman Catholicism in Haiti

Leslie G. Desmangles, University of North Carolina Press, 1992View the Source

3. Flash of the Spirit: African and Afro-American Art and Philosophy