brother,

IMO, the mental liberation of Black people will never happen practicing a “No Religion”. The African mind has been robbed of African characteristic be it in religious beliefs, social structures, sense of ethic and esthetic, morals etc. So, today to overthrow the authority which alien traditions exercise over Black people this demands that the mind, spirit, body and society of Blacks dressed up with African personality, kind like a medical knowledge, which is IMO, better appropriate to our needs and fit our thoughts.

A “No Religion” will not dismantle the White supremacist beliefs because it is not an interlocutor of the exclusive African personality! Euro-Americans, Europeans, Arabs, Jews, Chinese, Indian, Japanese, all people (except Blacks) understand the importance of honoring their OWN traditions and their ancestors because it is the fountain of their physical selfhood.

Now, in your instance if Orisha practitioners use the power of the spirits to do ill to themselves and to others in their daily lives that does not mean it is inherent of traditional African religions unlike the shameless frauds and psycho-fanaticism of the Christian evangelical and Islamic Jihadist traditions. In truth, popular traditional African religions express philosophy and the metaphysical essence of the African existence. It is up to us human beings to express the greatness of this indigenous spirituality in the world in what we think, say and do..

Bantu Kelani.