ABSTRACT
Religion is a belief system which embodies duties, rituals, submissions, and various practices and performances. Societies in West Africa are strongly religious with a high concentration of religious activities. Religion has always been a significant feature of West African civilization, determining people's attitudes and decision-making processes. Religion is a means of explaining the unknown, conceptualizing and controlling the universe, hoping for recompense and reward, and enhancing social construction for better and peaceful coexistence. It is one of the first explanations of the good-versus-evil dichotomy, as well as the threshold of everything moral and acceptable in the world. Religious belief helps suspend human troubles and substitute them with hope and certainty of a better time or destination. In understanding the essence of religion and its sociological relevance, there have been conceptual grasps through theorization by different scholars. This chapter will examine three of these theories (wishful-thinking, symbolism, and intellectualism), and the three major religions in West Africa (traditional, Christianity, and Islam), including contemporary religious practices and secularism.
