In discovering Candomblé, the Afro-Brazilian religion born from slavery, I began to reflect on Africa’s current spirituality. Afro-Brazilians teach us a crucial lesson: when Africans face dehumanizing and unbearable conditions, they must resist, and this resistance includes spiritual resistance.

But what spirituality do we, modern Africans, choose to ease our suffering? Observing the Afro-Brazilians, I realize that spirituality must evolve with the times. Yet, it seems Africans today cling to outdated spiritualities—whether Islam, Christianity, or traditional religions—without updating them to meet current needs.

Historically, African spirituality was adaptable. For instance, Cheikh Amadou Bamba, who founded Mouridism during the colonial era, preached resistance. His spiritual resilience led to his deportation and death in prison. Similarly, Kimbanguism in Congo offered spiritual resistance. These leaders adapted spirituality to their era. Today, however, Africans are torn between Mecca, Rome, and revival churches, where the only “spirituality” is the pursuit of wealth.

Indeed, material success has become the new spirituality for impoverished Africans, who await blessings of wealth. Even African ancestral practices, now monetized, are increasingly misused for this purpose, eroding millennia-old heritage.

Afro-Brazilians who practice Candomblé take a therapeutic approach. Spirituality should heal us from the maladies of modern capitalist society, just as slavery plagued them. Faced with oppression, they understood the need to resist and reinvent spirituality, drawing from their African roots.

In Africa, meanwhile, our elders lament powerlessly or cynically waste time on social media, unable to impact a world that slips from their grasp, while clinging to an Allah who seems to hear only the Saudis’ prayers. The name of Jesus, frequently shouted through neighborhood sound systems, seems now to banish only African ancestors, demonized as spirits, pushing Africans further into a spiritual void.

Afro-Brazilians, despite the horrors of slavery, managed not only to preserve their spiritual traditions but also to grow and reinvent them, while Africans today struggle to spiritually connect in meaningful ways.