Before the Europeans came to Africa the indigenous people had their own superstitions and gods.  Then the missionaries came and told them about the white guy with his head in a light bulb wandering around the Middle East 2000 years ago doing magic tricks.  And they fell for it!   Very clever men invented the gods and religions and managed to exploit a huge point of weakness in the human psyche.

"When the Missionaries arrived, the Africans had the land and the Missionaries had the Bible. They taught how to pray with our eyes closed. When we opened them, they had the land and we had the Bible." - Jomo Kenyatta (1st President of Kenya)

Exactly!