Worldview and divinity No single body of religious beliefs and
practices can be identified as African. It is possible, however,
to identify similarities in worldviews and ritual processes
across geographic and ethnic boundaries. Generally speaking,
African religions hold that there is one creator God, the maker
of a dynamic universe. Myths of various African peoples relate
that, after setting the world in motion, the Supreme Being
withdrew, and he remains remote from the concerns of human life.
According to a myth of the Dinka of South Sudan, God withdrew
from the world after the first woman lifted her pestle to pound
millet and struck the sky. The story, which is found in many
traditions across the continent, explains that, although this
withdrawal introduced toil, sickness, and death, it freed humans
from the constraints of God's immediate control. Despite the
general belief in a Supreme Being, cults to the high God are
notably absent from many African religions; prayers of petition
or sacrificial offerings