CHAPTER NINE
African Worldviews Africa
The continent of Africa is both the origin and recipient of a number of cultural influences. Some Westerners tend to think of it as new, only lately discovered, as if Africa had not as long a history as any other great continent. Indeed, it may have the longest, for perhaps humankind has its origin in East Africa, in the Olduvai Gorge and elsewhere. The main problem in fitting the puzzle of African history together is the absence of sufficient written records. Though oral tradition is often good, it does not take us back reliably more than a century or two. Let us begin with the human geography. Across the north are the countries of the Maghreb and the Islamic world as far as Egypt, a world built upon the ruins and elements of a preceding classical and then Christian world. Once this was the granary of Europe; now it is somewhat arid, but does produce grapes and fruits, and that newest source of wealth, oil. To the south is the next band, a set of increasingly desert-like areas, from the Sahara eastward to the Sudan (which is refreshed by the Nile) and southward to Lake Chad, survivor of what was once the center of a well-watered region. The Sahara once abounded with game. It was fertile, too, in religious symbolism. For the ancient hunters of 8000 B.C.E. and onward began to shape their ritual rock paintings, reminiscent of those of prehistoric France. To the east lie mountainous and cryptic Ethiopia, so often the focus of men's later hopes of an African destiny, and the dry regions along the torrid Red Sea. The next band ranges from the tropical parts of the west down toward the less rainy but still promising lands of East Africa below Somalia, rich in game and backed by the sultry forests of the Congo and Central Africa. Next there is the rather arid, but sporadically mountainous region of South Africa, productive of grapes, grain, gold, and diamonds in different areas, the latest area of conquest by the blacks and about the earliest by the whites. Offshore to the east lies Madagascar, the westernmost achievement of the Polynesians, who settled there after long voyages from the Pacific and the fringes of the Indian Ocean. The early center of gravity for black Africans was to the northwest, in the second band. From there it seems they spread in varying ways into Central and finally South Africa. From Chad they spread outward, under pressure from the drying ecology of the Sahara, no longer so productive of the food of animals to hunt. To this day there are African peoples who subsist primarily on hunting, but with the impact of recent independence such economies, like that of the Kalahari bushmen, have been increasingly open to a cash economy and other changes. There is now scarcely a people in the world which has not been affected deeply by cultural contact. Perhaps the two most important ways of life in Africa have been the settled agriculture of tropical West Africa, stretching south into Zaire, and the pastoral existence of the peoples of the east, such as the Masai and the Dinka. Largely, however, it is a matter of emphasis, a people majors in food-growing and minors in domestic animals, or majors in cattle and goats and minors in crops. Black Africa is a rich mosaic of cultures and people, from the Pygmies of the rain forest to the kingdoms of Benin and West Africa and the partly nomadic Somalis of the east. The vast variety of racial and cultural types has been augmented by incursions and influences, the spread of Egyptian values south along the Nile in antiquity, the powerful spread of Islam along the northern band and subsequently by trade routes across the Sahara into West Africa and by sea along the east coast to Zanzibar and beyond, and then the European and Christian incursions, mainly from the sea. Africa came under Western rule in the late nineteenth century, the period of the Ashanti and Zulu wars, the building of railroads north from the Cape in the style of Cecil Rhodes' dream, the dispute between the Afrikaaners and the more arrogant British, the occupation of Madagascar by the French, and so on. This new order was imposed on Africa and generated a new way of dividing it, not so much by the geographical bands described earlier, but more by the traditions of colonial administration. Thus the modern states of Africa are with few exceptions based upon the rather arbitrary and sometimes careless frontiers of colonial division evolved from the nineteenth-century experience. In addition, some areas became increasingly white, notably Zimbabwe and South Africa, expanding the white population to dominate the blacks and importing a number of Indians and other peoples to run some services. It should be remembered, however, that the indigenous black populations were always the majority. Thus the nineteenth century determined the present shape of Africa. Resources for Stuy From a worldview perspective Africa is a mixture of indigenous sub-Saharan cults, Christianity, and Islam, the main focus of this chapter to be taken up shortly. The traditional religions are innumerable and varied. Even Islam has undergone some transformations in Africa, for instance in Somalia. Christianity came in pluralistically, for the style and intentions of missions varied. In addition a host of new religious movements, mostly bearing some kind of Christian imprint. This frontier between white and older black values is alive with creative and extravagant new movements. It represents one of the most significant new developments in world culture and echoes similar responses along cultural frontiers -- one thinks of the T'ai P'iong Rebellion in China, the Ghost Dance and Peyotism of American Indians, the Cao Dai Sect in Vietnam. One other factor in fairly recent history is the effect of the slave trade that reached deep into Africa, as far as the Nile and involved great dislocations of tribal life. It also profited from and to some extent stimulated warfare, so that the European powers looked beyond the fires and miseries of interethnic warfare to greater conquest. The slave trade exported suffering, but also African values to the new world, to Brazil, the Caribbean, and above all America. If the African enslaved persons became rather Christianized, they nevertheless represented a new dimension in African consciousness and contributed to the reassertion of African values on the continent itself, with some moves toward liberation and new forms of Christianity coming from the New World to the black world. Because black African religion is such an incredible mosaic, it is not easy to describe historically. It is many stories. One method is to look at certain concrete situations, having analyzed some of the major action representations in traditional African religion.The High God and Other Spirits
The High God is a common theme in the primary myth of small societies of relatively simple technologies. It is a common theme that the High God withdraws from contact with men, either because they have offended him or simply because their daily concerns are too unimportant. There is a Mende myth that the first man and woman used to ask God frequently for things, which he generously provided. But when they began to pester him he moved to heaven to get away. Before he left, however, he made an agreement, leaving them a fowl as a sign of the pact; they on their part were to refrain from having an evil disposition toward each other. If, however, they did do evil, they were to call God and he would come and reclaim the fowl. In brief, God was available for the expiation of evil. In East Africa a common name for the supreme being is Mulungu, a word of unknown origin but indicating the almighty and ever present creator. The thunder is said to be his voice and the lightning his power. He rewards the good and punishes the evil. The Luguru of East Africa claim that the earth was made by the High God Mulungu, but he is not normally concerned with human affairs. He is given no prayers or sacrifices. Prayers and sacrifices are made to the mitsimu, or ancestral spirits. Mitsimu are the spirits of our grandfathers who died, of our grandmothers. Some people say these are mitsimu. They bring sickness to a person for his faults. Also, as I say, when your maternal uncle ...departs and bequeaths you his name there must be a supernatural event, then they say the name is seeking a person, his maternal uncle's name, then they say that's mitsimu. Or suppose you waant to go to Dar es Salaam, and you ask permission from your maternal uncle and he says "You can't go!" and you say "I'm going!" and then he says, "All right, you'll see for yourself!" Then where you are going there is sure to turn out some danger. From the mitsimu. (James L. Brain, "Ancestors as Elders in Africa -- Further Thoughts," Africa, XLIII, no. 2 (April 1973), 130. In this matrilineal society, the chief authority figure is the maternal uncle. Thus the authority of the ancestral spirits is aligned with the maternal uncle. But they are more than just glorified uncles. The mitsimu are powers with the numinous enchantment of the divine haloing them. They are part of a great, invisible world. The appearance of omens, such as a solitary unusual animal, is said to be a warning from them. Places of awe and dread, like cemeteries, a deep lake, an underground river, or a mountain, are thought to owe something of their unusual feel to the presence of mitsimu. These spirits are not mediators between the passive HIgh God and men, but independent powers, working according to the lights of their own path in the cosmos. The Luguru universe is pluralistiac. Although Mulungu may have created all souls in the remote beginning and so there is an ultimate principle of unity the powers now work all on their own. The Basongye inhabit the central part of the country of Zaire, formerly the Belgian Congo. In this steamy, hot region rain forest covers much of the center of the country. French is still the official language, but many of the tribes prefer to keep their own languages. Merriam has studied over an extended period of time the Basongye people. (Alan P. Merriam, An African World: The Basongye Village of Lupua Ngye (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1974). The tribe suffered severely from the slave trade and survivors had difficulty preserving the community and its agricultural base. Merriam described the people of Lupupa and the extent of their knowledge. They knew, for example, a few constellations, the sun and the moon, and the earth. Everything is in the hands of their god, Efile Mukulu. The earth is a dish resting on water below and covered by water in the sky. The Congo is in the center, and at the edges are the United States, Portugal, and Belgium. Efile Mukulu has assigned the masculine sun to dry things up. This is good for some purposes but perhaps bad for older people. The moon, usually female, has been assigned by Efile Mukulu to provide light at night and be a mother of all. The moon symbolizes water, which along with the sun, is necessary for fertility. On the first day of the new moon, the village protector and fertility figure is brought out and made the center of dances. It is the time to promote fertility in crops and in women. Stars are friendly and they advise the moon. Shooting-stars predict the birth of babies. Inanimate objects and animals do not have spirits. A person can physically abuse animals, whether dogs used in hunting or wild creatures without fear. Plates and spoons have essences that can accompany human spirits to Efile Mukulu. The gods have spent only a little time on earth and for the most part are unconcerned. The opposite of the good god, Efile Mukulu, is the evil god, Kafilefile. He has departed, leaving behind his evil influence. Efile Mukulu rarely extends his kindness, but in special circumstances he intervenes. More important are five kinds of phenomena. Sorcers are feared and sometimes fought. They use enormous, witless humanoids to carry out their evil designs. Witches and buchi are persons of evil intent. Ancestral spirits are among the living; most are benevolent, but under some circumstances can do harm to humans. The human being is made up of body, spirit, shadow, and perhaps, a conscience. The essential part is the spirit, which is incarnated up to three times as a human and perhaps a fourth time as a lion or leopard. Each incarnation is determined by Efile Mukulu. Happy ancestors can cause a human spirit to return to its family as a child. The human spirit, kikudu, can return as a child of either sex, carrying on family resemblances. The spirit informs the body thrugh dreams and guides it in its responses to most circumstances. The body has no will of its own. Since the spirit knows Efile Mukulu, it always knows more than the body. The body knows only what is already known by the spirit. Consciousness extends beyond the short span of a spirit in a body, and a spirit can travel abroad from a sleeping body. Because ancestors can help or harm, they receive or reject a spirit which has been separated from a body by death or by magic. They are remembered with gifts and sacrifices. The ancestors form part of Efile Mukulu, who is part of all things. Sacrifices of first fruits please both Efile Mukulu and the ancestors. Lupupans use small figurines, mankishi, on average about a foot tall, to bring about desired results. A couple desiring a child obtains a figure carved according to the sex of the child they want. The figure is then named for the child. Such figures can also be used for a successful hunt or fishing expedition, personal magic, and protection against witches and house fires. Though individuals can influence their lives, for the msot part fate determines all outcomes. Humans, not gods, cause death. This entails the beliefs in witches, sorcerers, and magic. Magic is involved in every aspect of life. It is Basongye technology, a body of procedures sthat can be counted on to produce desired results. Merriam classified four different types. One type of magic can be used to protect crops; another, to produce rain; another, to cause death by lightning; and another, to destroy an enemy's crops. Witches are created by Efile Mukulu, but they do the work of Kafilefile. Because they can fly, they leave their houses at night, leaving their legs behind. Their intent is to harm humans. When one is visited by a witch who intends harm, the person sees a special light, witch's fire, and is left paralyzed. Sorcerers can be good and bad. THe god perform acts of healing; the bad work magic. A person becomes a sorcerer only by giving up a family member to be sacrificed. Any kind of magic or powers costs human lives. Sorcerers are able to see evil in others, foretell future events, prevent childhood illnesses in the village, and even protect warriors against revent from the spirits of those whom they have killed in battle. Most important, sorcerers can locate and identify the source of a person's death. Since death is not natural but caused by human design, the sorcerer is the chief homicide detective. Witchcraft in Africa In his discussion of African witchcraft, Maxwell Gay Marwick wrote that most African societies believe that there are witches and sorcerers who use supernatural means illicitly to destroy the interests, and sometimes the lives, of their fellows. (Maxwell Gay Marwick, "African Witchcraft," in The Encyclopedia of Religion, ed. Mircea Eliade (New York: The Macmilla Company, 1987), 4:528-29. Witches and sorcerers have powers that come from their aberrant personalities; they perform antisocial magic. In their work, they employ the assistance of animals or humanoids as servants or messengers. Although some African witches are males, most are females. They meet around fires to promote their interests and eat the revived body of someone they have destroyed by praeternatural powers. Subsaharan Africans use various means to protect themselves from the dangers of witches. Individuals may wear amulets, take medicines, or rub medicines into incisions in their skin. In some areas, a diviner can "smell out" a witch. If the tribe accuses someone of witchcraft, the person is sometimes forced to drink poison. If the poison is vomited, the person is innocent; if it is retained, the person is guilty and dies. An alternative disposal for witches is burning. In places where the colonial occupiers prohibited punishment for witchcraft, members of tribes often formed antiwitchcraft societies to deal with the problem. Among peoples of Zaire, witches and witchcraft cannot be easily expunged. In a study of the Ba Kongo of Lower Zaire, Wyatt MacGaffey described beliefs about ghosts and twins. Ghosts are witches that have been refused admission into the village of their ancestors. These souls are condemned to anonymous wanderings in trackless grasslands between forests and cultivated valleys. (Wyatt MacGaffey, Religion and Society in Central Africa: The Ba Konga of Lower Zaire (Chicago: University of CHicago Press, 1986), p. 73. Twins are treated with care, for they, along with albinos and persons of abnormal birth, can use their supernatural powers to afflict persons who incur their displeasure. From the northern Kalahari through the Congo to Tanzania the name Leza is used for the High God, perhaps from the root meaning "to cherish," since he is the one who watches over people, providing for those in need and correcting the wayward. The exalted nature of God is part of the explanation for the need to have contact with lesser, more immediate spirits. It is also connected with the idea of the "fall", for in many of the myths man offends the High God and by consequence the gulf between God and man is deepened. Among the Chagga, for example, it is related that in the beginning God used to visit the first couple every morning and evening, and would look after their welfare. He provided them with yams, bananas, and potatoes. But he forbade them to eat a certain special sort of yam. A stranger came to visit the first man and tricked him into eating the forbidden food. Straightway sickness broke out in the family. But God promised the first man that when he got old he would shed his body and be rejuvenated, like a snake shedding its skin. But he had to do it in secret. Unhappily, when the time came, the man's granddaughter was coming back from fetching water and saw him when he was only halfway through the process. So he died, and this was how death came into the world. The affairs of every day life drive humans toward lesser spirits and forces. Among the Nupe in Nigeria, for example, there are various forces implicit in phenomena and ritual actions. Thus one solution is to look upon the lesser spiritual beings as forces rather than as gods. But by contrast it is not unusal to think of the forces as highly personal and sometimes they are figured as fragments or projections of the higher reality. Sometimes the multiplicity of gods and spirits is the product of a certain hospitality to outside influences, where new gods or spirits have been given a place in the pantheon and the life of ritual or worship. Many of the rites concern fertility in one way or another, including the making of rain. But more intimately African cults often concentrate dramatically on rites of passage, since, for example, the initiation ceremonies in many tribes are important for the continuation and prosperity of the community. Cult of Ancestors In Africa ancestors are not seen as gods and are, strictly speaking, not worshipped. It is more appropriate to think of the relationship between man and his ancestors in terms of communion. The African, within the framework of his traditional faith, is often more concerned with communication than worship. Still, the numinous character of the ancestors imparts a certain reverence and the act of pouring libations (for example) to them adds a dimension of feeling to the symbol system. This feeling for ancesters is expressed in John Taylor's poem, The Primal Vision: Those who are dead are never gone: They are there in the thickening shadow. The dead are not under the earth: They are in the tree that rustles, They are in the wood that groans, They are in the water that runs, They are in the water that sleeps, They are in the hut, they are in the crowd: The dead are not dead. Those who are dead are never gone, They are in the breast of the woman, They are in the child who is wailing, And in the firebrand that flames, The dead are not under the earth: They are in the fire that is dying, They are in the grasses that weep, They are in the whimpering rocks, They are in the forest, they are in the house. The dead are not dead. The ancestors represent a kind of continuity between past, present, and future. They concern the future because they have to do with the ongoing life of the ethnic group. Their prestige in the past arises from the fact that age traditionally generates respect, and they are necessarily older than the old. The ancestors belong to the wider population of spirits, in mountains and copses and caves and rivers and lakes. African religions tend to place humans emphatically in a communion of living together with the natural world around all. Often natural features are the dwelling place also of God when he descends to earth. Mount Kenya, for example, is a kind of "Olympus" for the Gikuyu. Funeral rites are rites of passage from one human state to another. Most frequently corpses are buried, often within the tribal compound near the dead person's hut. When a village moves the dead may be taken to the new site. Initiation rites play an important role in many religions. Common in East Africa is the practice of circumcision for boys, clitoridectomy for girls. The significance of this is that the children are thereby prepared for a new adult sexuality, which is important not merely for the pleasure and company of later marriage, but also and more significantly for the cementing of family and other social alliances and as a symbol of fertility beyond human reproduction. The whole matter has generated controversy, because missionaries were strongly critical, especially of female initiation. They failed to see the wider meaning surrounding the ritual. Consequently, some of the new breakaway Christian movements in Africa have provided justification for the older traditions. In particular, African polygamy is regarded as vital in the incoming religions, so it is no surprise that here Islam has had a more forceful message than Christianity.Gikuyu Religion
Jomo Kenyatta in his classic Facing Mount Kenya provides a very good picture of the religion and culture of these people, sometimes called Kikuyu in English. The Gikuyu live in the region by Mount Kenya. Religion centers on belief in Ngai, the Supreme Being, and on communion with ancestors. It occurs within a hierarchical social framework, heierarchical largely by a system of age groups. Thus strong bonds are formed between young people of the same age, while superior age is a mark of increased authority. The people are divided vertically into family groups and clans, horizontally into age-groups. The initiation and other rituals cement the age-groups together. Everyone surviving into old age will, if he does not exclude himself by evil actions, play a part in decision making. The ancestors are included. In some rituals it is the elders, women, and children who participate rather than the actively procreating husbands. Several myths explain the system. Some concern the primordial man, Gikuyu, ancestor of the present people, who was assigned land by God in his aspect as Divider of the Universe. God built a mysterious high mountain, Mount Kere-nyaga, which was to be his resting place whenever he came to inspect men's deeds. He took Gikuyu up the numinous mountain and showed the land of the Gikuyu spread out before them. At the center was a clump of sacred fig trees. This was to be the sacred center of the people's rites. God finally promised that whenever Gikuyu had need he should sacrifice, facing Mount Kenya, and the Lord would come to his aid. Gikuyu made his way to the sacred spot where he found a beautiful woman, Moombi, whom he married. They had nine daughters, but not a son, until nine young men appeared miraculously under the prototypal sacred fig tree after a sacrifice. The account explains the nine traditional clans of the Gikuyu and also points to a matriarchal system. The myth goes on to describe how the system was overthrown when the women became tyrannical and the men rebelled. The ritual dimension of Gikuyu religion is partly determined by natural rhythms, as with the rites performed at seed time and harvest, and partly by recurrent needs. Gikuyu society is highly conscious of the divine and spiritual hierarchy. Thus if a man falls sick, first ordinary treatment is tried, including traditional tribal medicine. Then it may be necessary to consult the ancestors. Even if they are not displeased, the sick person may not recover, in which case the elder of the family may institute a sacrifice to Ngai, supported invisibly by the family members. This reflects on the one hand the social cohesiveness of Gikuyu ritual and on the other the prevalent feeling in Africa that the High God should not be unduly burdened. It is difficult for such an integrated religion to persist fully in a more pluralstic age, when some Gikuyu have been converted to Christianity (which eliminates polygamy, sacrifices, female circumcision, etc.) while others have simply become "detribalized." These tensions became obvious during the Mau Mau rebellion of the 1950s, though the elevation of Jomo Kenyatta to the presidency of Kenya was a cause of restoring something of the morale of the tribal culture. The following is a quote from Kenyatta's book describing a rainmaking ritual. When they finish feasting, the heap of the small pieces of meat and all the bones are collected together and put on the fire, together with some leaves and twigs of sweet-scented wood. While these are burning and the smoke is going up towards the sky, the elders rise and begin to chant a prayer round the fire. They stand up with their hands held aloft and their heads lifted towards Kere-Ngaya (Mount Kenya) in the north. In a few minutes thy turn right towards Kea-Ngaya (another sacred mountain) in the east, and then towards Kea-Mbiroro in the south, and Kea-Nyandarwa in the west, finishing towards the north where they started. They do this seven times and then on the eighth the procession is formed homeward. On leaving they take with them a small quantity of the contents of the lamb's stomach, to be used in a planting ceremony. This completes the procedure in the ceremony for the sacrifice of the rain.Yoruba Religion
The Yoruba of Nigeria are unusual among African societies, because they have a long tradition of urbanization. Their towns are like city-states, each presided over by an oba, or chief of royal lineage, who personifies and presides over the town and is held to be sacred. Within the structure of society, familes are grouped according to lineage and may have their own special duties and rules. The complexity of society and Yoruba culture in general makes it fairly tolerant religiously; traditionally there was no dogmatism until Islam and Christianity arrived. The Supreme Being is known as Olodumare or Olorum, who is High God and creator. But as often elsewhere in Africa the more immediate deities or orisa attract close interest. These numerous (401 is a number often quoted) deities regulate the people's lives. Theoretically they can be considered agents of the one High God, and to some degree such a systematization has occurred over the years to bring unity to Yoruba theology. In practice the various orisa are treated as individuals: so there is a separate deity of lightning. The relative complexity of Yoruba religion owes something to its use of a priesthood, important for the installation of the oba and various other rituals. Religion is pervasive and daily prayer is common. It would be instructive to study each Yoruba deity, a focus on one who stands apart from and underlies all, Ile, the earth is helpful. She is one of the primordial beings, for in the creation myth we are not told that the orisa coming from heaven created the earth, but that they used a five-toed chicken to spread the bag of soil they had brought so that they could establish the dry land, which is Ile. At birth humans rest on her; at death, they are placed in her womb, and at every meal the ancestors who dwell in her are honored by small libations. Once long ago Ile and a heavenly being were hunting. They hunted all day, but all they took was one rodent, and they quarreled over the prey. When Ile's companion took it with him to heaven, Ile denied her blessings of increase to everything. Green things failed, living things ceased to multiply. All things divine and natural begged the heavenly being to give in. He did so, and Earth relented. Closely connected with the Earth is the Ogboni cult, a "secret society". It has its secrets, but earlier, it was public. Older men and women who had attained a reputation for integrity were members. It restrained the king and supreme council from committing arbitrary acts and acted as mediators in arbitrating fights. Ogboni art differs from most Yoruba art. It has been called iconic (in the sense of the icons of the Russian Orthodox Church), hieratic, and monumental -- as opposed to vibrating with movement. Its members have followed the orisa and their ways all through life. Another element in unifying the loose-knit Yoruba pantheon is the concept of Ifa. This highly elaborate method of divinaiton involves the manipulation of numbers and is in its own way specialized. Those who are trained in Ifa are virtually in universal demand, for the Yoruba have a strong sense of fate and the decrees of God, so that the small leeway they may have involves an urgent insight into the future. So Oronnula, who is the god of divination, has a high place in the pantheon. The trickster spirit Esu is important to the diviners, because he introduces a quirkish element into the regularities of divine fate. The specialist is called a ababalawo ("father of the mysteries") who also has knowledge of traditional medicines. In conjunction with these the relevant deity is invoked. As elsewhere in Africa a conflict arises between modern "Western" medicine and traditional cures, which include the viewpoint that spiritual forces as well as material factors produce health. Of celestial spirits, higher than those on earth, perhaps the most important after Olodumare is Obatala, who performs the creation so that it continues, like Plato's Demiurge. Ogun, god of iron, also enjoys great importance. He is associated with the weapons of war. He is the Yoruba Ares or Mars. Where two pieces of iron are joined and his name called, Ogun is there. Today the blacksmith enjoys special status. He lives on the edge of society, and while he works he must refrain from sexual contact, for he is carrying out a religious rite. Below some of these powerful gods are spirits of streams, lakes woods, mountains, etc. Thus there is a loose and shifting hierarchy of gods and spiritual forces who are invoked in prayers and various rituals. These spirits may, however, come into more intimate contact with men through medicines. Sometimes a priest will have a medium associated with him in his particular shrine. Usually the medium is female. In Dahomey and among the Yoruba a girl's training lasts three years and is very rigorous. Though she will ideally have displayed aptitude in having been spontaneously possessed, the severe training will transform her whole personality. The 'convent' where the initates live contains a shrine to the relevant deity, and frequent devotional and ecstatic exercises, e.g., through dances, help to mold the spirituality of the young people. Eventually the great day of the coming-out ritual arrives, and relatives and friends gather to witness the final result of the process of death, resurrection and rebirth which the training effects. Then the initiates are ready to act as intermediaries betwen the spirits and men, and through their trances they seem to perceive and be gripped by the supernatural powers that govern the destiny of humans.Ganda Worldview
The Ganda enjoy a rich indigenous tradition of history and literature, both oral and written. The Ganda are a patrilineal people living on the eaastern shore of Lake Victoria. The Ganda narrate the myth of Kintu (ki, "thing" and ntu, "being"). The myth relates the story of Kintu. Kintu came with a cow into our land and there met Nnambi, who was from the sky. Nnambi wished to marry him, so her father Ggulu (the Sky) got Kintu's cow stolen and brought it to his abode. Kintu followed, Ggulu tested him, and Kintu proved himself. So he was granted his wife and they were given millet, bananas, cows, chickens, and goats. The father warned them to get away before her brother Walumbe (Death) came back. After they had gone some way, Nnambi, though she knew the consequences, insisted on going back for the millet they had forgotten. Walumbe therefore accompanied his sister on her return. When Nnambi and Kintu had children, Walumbe wanted one of them as a servant. The couple refused. They had more children, and again Walumbed asked. He was refused, so he began to ill the chcildren. Kintu went to Ggulu to complain about this, and Ggulu sent another son to kidnap the killer, but Walumbe escaped. In the several versions of the myth what is common is the fact that Kintu had to accept death as the fate of the human being as something that accompanies marriage and procreation. It is important to "relate the story to its context in the literature.... It is a typical Ganda story-with-a-moral, a kind of cross between a myth, a 'just so' story, and an Aesop's fable." (Noel Q. King, African Cosmos: An Introduction to Religion in Africa (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publisching Co., 1986), p. 35) It narrates the genesis of Ganda civilization and how the price involves death. Another myth involves Kibuuka, the Ganda warrior deity: A huge, mighty warrior from the Ssese Islands, Kibuuka came ashore with one leap to help the Ganda against the Nyoro. From a cloud he rained missles on the enemy and every day they were routed. ONe day the Ganda captured much booty, including a beautiful Nyoro maiaden, who was given to Kibuuka. In bed at night he told her his secret. Within a day her kinsmen ignored all else on the battlefield to project spears and arrows into the cloud that was hovering over the battlefield. Kibuuka fell mortally wounded into a great tree. His scrotum, testes, phallus, and other relics were preserved in a shirne through which his spirit could be called upon to give strength and advice during the wars against the Nyoro. Because the people live on the shore of the great lake, Mukasa, the god of the lake, is a Ganda Neptune.. Among some he is considered the preeminent deiity; others consider Muwanga to be greatest. Muwanga is the leader of the Balubaule. The Ganda also possessed a cult of kingship related with the Kabaka and the royal women. This "can rank for its metaphysical completeness and its hold on the mind of the people with the cult of the traditional Japanese emperor." (Ibid., p. 37) The cult of the Kabaka was at one time a centerpiece of Ganda religion. The tradition related kingship to early Nilotic tribes who migrated along the Nile and the lakes and to heroes called the Bachwezi who after performing their heroic acts disappeared into the earth. The Kabakaship was ended by the government of Dr. Milton Obote in 1966.Zulu Zionism
The phenomenon of independent African churches and new religious movements combining traditional and Western motifs remains very important in Africa, both for recent history and future developments. A prime example comes from South Africa and involves the prophetic career of Isaiah Shembe and its consequences. Shembe lived from 1870 to 1935 (and is believed to have been resurrected), and because he was a Zulu he felt strongly the crisis into which his proud nation had fallen. When he was a child, Zululand had been effectively conquered by the British, after an intial British defeat at Isandhlwana. By 1887 the Zulu kingdom, fashioned above all by the great Shaka (if you have not seen the TV docudrama, you must!), was annexed, and though there was a traumatic rebellion in 1906, the Zulus had to accept ultimate defeat. It was little consolation that in 1913 the Native Lands Act institutionalized what was to become apartheid. The Zulu lands shrank to 4,000 square miles. It is not surprising that a resilient people should think of surviving by going in different religious directions. One was full Christianization. Another was a variant, a religion whose authority was somehow based on the Book that the missionaries considered important, yet at the same time a religious movement that could recreate certain Zulu motifs. When the hour is ready, the individual arrives, and so the career of Isaiah Shembe and the church he founded becomes paradigmatic. His narrative expresses the outbreak of prophetism in Africa in modern times and to some extent the preference for an Old Testament ideology. Between polygamy and persecution there falls the shadow, in both cultures. Isaiah Shembe had a prosperous upbringing in Zululand. As a young man he had four wives, a sign of substance. Christian ideas were penetrating into the region and these may have had some effect upon his visions. At any rate, a message was brought to him by lightning when he was praying in the cattle-kraal, and in a second vision the idea that he must cease wickedness was reinforced. In a third episode he got the message that he should give up his wives. However, it was in the fourth incident that he accepted his prophetic mission. He was scorched by lightning in a storm. He became a wandering prophet and faith-healer and came under the influence of American Baptists and pentacostalists (from Zion City, Illinois). Eventually he formed his own church, the ama-Nazaretha or Nazarites, for he thought that references to the Nazarites in the Old Testament applied also to him and his followers. So it was that a new infusion of ancient ideas combined with the problems of a Zulu society and spirituality that otherwise might have been overwhelmed by a rather rigid missionary Christianity. As in a number of other movements, there was something of a reaction against the New Testament. Christ was not necessarily rejected, but was reinterpreted, and both before and after Shembe's death his followers saw him as something of a restoration of the Messiah. Sacrifices, polygamy, oppression, prophetism, these were experiences common to the Old Testament and African peoples as perceived at the time. Isaiah Shembe modeled his religion upon ancient lines, though at the same time he was not unconscious of the Zulu customs. So he set up his own High Place, not far from Durban, called Ekuphakameni. He also had a vision which suggested that he should go to the Nhalangakazi mountain, also in Natal, which would serve as the sacred mountain of the Nazarites. Great festivals are held annually now in both places. His powers of preaching and healing brought great influence among the Zulu people. At the same time he was a Messiah for the Zulu people. They looked to a black Christ, and though doctrinally the claim to the divinity of Shembe was not made, yet there was a strong doctrine of the Spirit in which it could be thought that Shembe somehow displaced Jesus as a vehicle of divine power and inspiration. In one or two Nazarite hymns Jesus was omitted from the trinity. A symbiosis was achieved between ancient and Zulu values. For some Zulus pork was taboo; so with the Old Testament and use was made of it by Zionist prophets in Africa. Baptism corresponded to older ideas of purification by water in which the initiate is saved in a minature cosmic battle between evil forces, such as crocodiles in the river, and the purifying and conquering effect of the hero who is the prototype of the ritual baptizer. So in many ways a new movment like that of the charismatic Isaiah Shembe was a means of latching elements of the incoming and dominant tradition onto older values of a partly shattered African mosaic. After his death, Shembe was credited with a sort of resurrection. After all, he was seen vividly in visions and dreams.Basongye Religion
The Basongye inhabit the central part of the country of Zaire, formerly the Belgian Congo. In this steamy, hot region rain forest covers much of the center of the country. French is still the official language, but many of the tribes prefer to keep their own languages. Merriam has studied over an extended period of time the Basongye people. (Alan P. Merriam, An African World: The Basongye Village of Lupua Ngye (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1974). The tribe suffered severely from the slave trade and survivors had difficulty preserving the community and its agricultural base. Merriam described the people of Lupupa and the extent of their knowledge. They knew, for example, a few constellations, the sun and the moon, and the earth. Everything is in the hands of their god, Efile Mukulu. The earth is a dish resting on water below and covered by water in the sky. The Congo is in the center, and at the edges are the United States, Portugal, and Belgium. Efile Mukulu has assigned the masculine sun to dry things up. This is good for some purposes but perhaps bad for older people. The moon, usually female, has been assigned by Efile Mukulu to provide light at night and be a mother of all. The moon symbolizes water, which along with the sun, is necessary for fertility. On the first day of the new moon, the village protector and fertility figure is brought out and made the center of dances. It is the time to promote fertility in crops and in women. Stars are friendly and they advise the moon. Shooting-stars predict the birth of babies. Inanimate objects and animals do not have spirits. A person can physically abuse animals, whether dogs used in hunting or wild creatures without fear. Plates and spoons have essences that can accompany human spirits to Efile Mukulu. The gods have spent only a little time on earth and for the most part are unconcerned. The opposite of the good god, Efile Mukulu, is the evil god, Kafilefile. He has departed, leaving behind his evil influence. Efile Mukulu rarely extends his kindness, but in special circumstances he intervenes. More important are five kinds of phenomena. Sorcerers are feared and sometimes fought. They use enormous, witless humanoids to carry out their evil designs. Witches and buchi are persons of evil intent. Ancestral spirits are among the living; most are benevolent, but under some circumstances can do harm to humans. The human being is made up of body, spirit, shadow, and perhaps, a conscience. The essential part is the spirit, which is incarnated up to three times as a human and perhaps a fourth time as a lion or leopard. Each incarnation is determined by Efile Mukulu. Happy ancestors can cause a human spirit to return to its family as a child. The human spirit, kikudu, can return as a child of either sex, carrying on family resemblances. The spirit informs the body through dreams and guides it in its responses to most circumstances. The body has no will of its own. Since the spirit knows Efile Mukulu, it always knows more than the body. The body knows only what is already known by the spirit. Consciousness extends beyond the short span of a spirit in a body, and a spirit can travel abroad from a sleeping body. Because ancestors can help or harm, they receive or reject a spirit which has been separated from a body by death or by magic. They are remembered with gifts and sacrifices. The ancestors form part of Efile Mukulu, who is part of all things. Sacrifices of first fruits please both Efile Mukulu and the ancestors. Lupupans use small figurines, mankishi, on average about a foot tall, to bring about desired results. A couple desiring a child obtains a figure carved according to the sex of the child they want. THe figure is then named for the child. Such figures can also be used for a successful hunt or fishing expedition, personal magic, and protection against witches and house fires. Though individuals can influence their lives, for the msot part fate determines all outcomes. Humans, not gods, cause death. This entails the beliefs in witches, sorcerers, and magic. Magic is involved in every aspect of life. It is Basogye technology, a body of procedures that can be counted on to produce desired results. Merriam classified four different types. One type of magic can be used to protect crops; another, to produce rain; another, to cause death by lightning; and another, to destroy an enemy's crops. Witches are created by Efile Mukulu, but the do the work of Kafilefile. Because they can fly, they leave their houses at night, leaving their legs behind. Their intent is to harm humans. When one is visited by a witch who intends harm, the person sees a special light, witch's fire, and is left paralyzed. Sorcerers can be good and bad. The good perform acts of healing; the bad work magic. A person becomes a sorcerer only by giving up a family member to be sacrificed. Any kind of magic or powers costs human lives. Sorcerers are able to see evil in others, foretell future events, prevent childhood illnesses in the village, and even protect warriors against revenge from the spirits of those whom they have killed in battle. Most important, sorcerers can locate and identify the source of a person's death. Since death is not natural but caused by human design, the sorcerer is the chief homicide detective. In his discussion of African witchcraft, Maxwell Gay Marwick wrote that most African societies believe that there are witches and sorcerers who use supernatural means illicitly to destory the interests, and sometimes the lives, of their fellows. (Maxwell Gay Marwick, "African Witchcraft," in The Encyclopedia of Religion, ed. Mircea Eliade (New York: The Macmilla Company, 1987), 4:528-29. Witches and sorcerers have powers that come from their aberrant personalities; they perform antisocial magic. In their work, they employ the assistance of animals or humanoids as servants or messengers. Although some African witches are males, most are females. They meet around fires to promote their interests and eat the revived body of someone they have destroyed by praeternatural powers. Subsaharan Africans use various means to protect themselves from the dangers of witches. Individuals may wear amulets, take medicines, or rub medicines into incisions in their skin. In some areas, a diviner can "smell out" a witch. If the tribe accuses someone of witchcraft, the person is sometimes forced to drink poison. If the poison is vomited, the person is innocent; if it is retained, the person is guilty and dies. An alternative disposal for witches is burning. In places where the colonial occupiers prohibited punishment for witchcraft, members of tribes often formed antiwitchcraft societies to deal with the problem. Among peoples of Zaire, witches and witchcraft cannot be easily expunged. In a study of the Ba Kongo of Lower Zaire, Wyatt MacGaffey described beliefs about ghosts and twins. Ghosts are witches that have been refused admiswsion into the village of their ancestors. These souls are condemned to anonymous wanderings in trackless grasslands between forests and cultivated valleys. (Wyatt MacGaffey, Religion and Society in Central Africa: The Ba Konga of Lower Zaire (Chicago: University of CHicago Press, 1986), p. 73. Twins are treated with care, for they, along with albinos and persons of abnormal birth, can use their supernatural powers to afflict persons who incur their displeasure. African religion has been compared to a pyramid, the top of which is the supreme being, the sides are nature deities and ancestors, and at the lowest level are magical beliefs and practices. The magic may be of many kinds and may be considered as personal or social, good or evil. Magical objects are made by specialists, medicine-men or magicians, and they are thought to possess both material and spiritual powers. They protect the wearer in amulets, necklaces, bracelets and girdls. Others are used to protect houses, crops, and property. Social magic protects the village or summons rain for the crops.