Religion in African Short Stories

When viewing all of the stories as a whole almost none of them share anything in common. In fact each story- despite some being from the same region in Africa- feel almost as if they are from a completely different place.Many stories- though not as much in the group of those set in North Africa- paint over religious themes. Some make it seemingly obvious while others may include a brief mention of it or none at all. The story "Papa Snake and I" is rather secular in nature, in the sense that it has little to not association with any religion whatsoever. These stories tend to be much more lighthearted in both tone and nature. They don't gloss over serious or pressing matters, in the case of "Papa Snake and I" the plot revolves around a snake that has been killing many chickens in the middle of the night. The same applies to a story much as "The Bridegroom". The plot itself associated with religion and isn't a heavy (more serious) topic than most of those that have a strong religious presence however despite that it still does have some heavy topics for the reader to think about. We see the protagonist of this story struggle to come to terms with the fact that he will soon have a family and how it will change his entire life, hardly a lighthearted topic however this is not the full story but instead only a snippet of it. The story itself is lighthearted in nature filled with vivid description of musical instruments and the starry night sky. When viewing the story such as "The False Prophet" because it so strongly based on religious themes it includes much more serious themes such as the folly of man. I've noticed that religious stories overall tend to be more dark and serious as a whole. An interesting and noticeable observation.