Deities of my heritage?

I'm sorry I've been away for a while, I've been doubting and finding and discovering on my own for a few months. But anyways, a while ago, I came across a book that suggested finding gods//deities of your own ethnic heritage. At the time, I was like, “heck, no,” because then I was ashamed of being black, and I thought it was abnormal in the pagan world and not in line with the spiritual path I was pursuing. Now, of cousrse, I feel a bit better about that whole situation, and I was wondering if anyone knew of any deities that my ancestors might have worshiped. Of course, being a descendent of slaves, it's not as easy to know what country or tribe my ancestors came from as it is when your relatives immigrated... so I'm kind of at a loss for what to search for, since I'm not sure to search for Yoruba or Bantu or what. Not that I'm not satisfied with the Celtic and anorse pantheons, I just thought it might beneficial to my spiritual growth and my confidence. Could anyone help me in finding a spiritual path/pantheon of deities that reflect my heritage so I can reconnect with my roots?

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I am so heartbroken to hear you felt shame for your race and you choice to be pagan. That should never be an issue on this path. (hug).

There is a group on another site who might be able to assist you as well. I will mail the link to you

I too am sorry to hear you were ashamed of your race. I've never found my race (white) to be an issue with any Gods I've worked with. I've worked with Japanese, Greek, Sumerian, African, and Canaanite Gods and none of them have minded my different heritage. Gods seem to be wiser than humans about it.

I hope you can find the Gods you seek. There's a whole section of the blog devoted to Voodoo, and I would personally suggest Anansi as someone to look into. Best of luck.

I think it is very sad that a 13 year old girl should be ashamed of being black. As for ancestors being slaves, not all slaves were black.Over the centuries there have been many slaves of many ethnic groups; Egyptian,Greek,Roman,Chinese, and every nationality in between.If everybody could trace their ancestry back far enough, we are probably all descended from slaves!
So, be of good cheer. Smile and be proud. And know that some of the most beautiful women in the world are black!
Tracing your ancestral religious beliefs; well that's a much bigger problem.

This thread has been moved to Spiritual Creatures from Wicca.

Never be ashamed of who you are,the colour of your skin does not matter,we are all the same,we are all human

I must agree with Brysing,not all slaves were African,some were also Indian like my ancestors who were brought to South Africa from India as slaves

There are numerous Traditional African beliefs,it depends on which part your anecestors where from

Look into the egyptian pantheons. You can also look into African mythology, mesopotamian deities, assyrian deities and babylonian deities. You can also look into haitian/Louisiana deities (Loa). The Orixas of the candomble faith are very popular in Brazil and has a strong root to slavery which has roots to Yoruba, Fon and Bantu. Hope that helps

You may want to plan to invest in a DNA test to trace your ancestry one day. I've heard that 23andMe or FTDNA are very good.