Two Studies of Ifa Divination

Africa ◽  
1966 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 406-431 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Morton-Williams ◽  
William Bascom ◽  
E. M. McClelland
Keyword(s):  
Good Fortune ◽  
The One ◽  
Opening Paragraph

Opening ParagraphTo the Yoruba, divination is of great concern, as the means by which they discover and hope to influence the changes in their relationships with the gods and ancestors and other spirits in their complex cosmos, and so to gain their aid in their pursuit of health and good fortune. They employ a number of divinatory techniques. The one that yields the fullest information is the system of geomancy known as Ifa, for which there are three procedures of varying complexity, the two most complex being used by professional diviners (babalawo). The Ifa oracle is animated by a deity named Orunmila, but also often called Ifa.

Early Bantu Ethnography from a Philological Point of View

Africa ◽  
1930 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. J. v. Warmelo
Keyword(s):  
Point Of View ◽  
The Other ◽  
Bantu Languages ◽  
Clear Cut ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Compact Body ◽  
The One ◽  
Opening Paragraph

Opening ParagraphFew of the secrets that Africa still holds from us to-day have, I think, such an absorbing interest as the problem of Bantu in its relation to the neighbouring families and types of speech. Taking the continent of Africa as a whole, we find on the one hand the huge, yet marvellously homogeneous and compact body of the Bantu languages, clear-cut in structure, simple and transparent in phonology, and, at the back of much apparent diversity, exceptionally uniform in vocabulary. On the other hand there are in Africa numerous other languages of various type, which differ so much amongst each other that they have not yet been brought under any but the very broadest of classifications. The essential points of these are as follows.

X. A Letter from W. E. Rouse Boughton, Esq. F.R.S. to the Rev. Stephen Weston, B. D. respecting some Egyptian Antiquities

Archaeologia ◽  
1817 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
pp. 59-72
Author(s):  
W.E. Rouse Boughton
Keyword(s):  
Great Britain ◽  
Salt Water ◽  
Upper Egypt ◽  
Good Fortune ◽  
Birth Place ◽  
The One ◽  
Sacred History

During my travels in Upper Egypt, in the course of the year 1811, I had the good fortune to meet with a mummy, in a catacomb near Thebes, which appeared never to have been opened before, containing some writing upon papyrus in a state of perfect preservation; and as these writings are but rarely found in mummies, I felt great anxiety to bring the one which fell into my hands safe to Great Britain. For this purpose I had a tin box made for holding it, in order to prevent it from being crushed amongst my packages. I myself proceeded by land to Constantinople; but having sent my baggage by sea, it was unluckily soaked by salt water, and the tin case corroded, so as greatly to injure the manuscript. I have, however, collected some of the fragments, and made accurate copies of them (Pl. I. II.), which I have now the honour of presenting to the Society of Antiquaries; conceiving that they may afford additional specimens of the antient Egyptian character, of which I believe there are not many in Great Britain, and may possibly contribute to the assistance of scientific men, in various parts of Europe, who are giving their attention to that interesting country, established by all profane and sacred history to have been the birth-place of science and wisdom.

An Anthropological No-Man's-Land

Africa ◽  
1930 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. H. Ruxton
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
No Man's Land ◽  
The One ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
Indirect Rule

Opening ParagraphThe number of Africa published in January 1929 contains two articles which are of real help to the colonial administrator. The first article, by the Rev. Father Dubois, S.J., compares the supposedly opposite dogmas of assimilation and adaptation, or, in administrative language, of direct and indirect rule. Therein the author conclusively shows that these formulae are not dogmas, the one unorthodox and the other orthodox; that the education of a race cannot be accomplished by means of a formula, but that it is a matter of time, tact and love. In fact the methods of assimilation and adaptation are both required, as also the one in conjunction with the other.

A Religious Festival in Northern Nigeria

Africa ◽  
1930 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 323-346 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. K. Meek
Keyword(s):  
Major Part ◽  
Northern Nigeria ◽  
Good Fortune ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
Religious Festival

Opening ParagraphThis article is an attempt to give some account of the magicoreligious ideas of the Bachama tribe. It is based on notes made during a ten-days' visit to the tribe in the spring of 1927. During this visit I had the good fortune to witness the annual festival at Fare, the description of which occupies the major part of the following remarks. I am indebted to Dr. Bronnum of the Danish Mission at Numan for a number of suggestions.

Secondary Industries for Tropical Africa

Africa ◽  
1943 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 170-176 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theresa Cahan
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Good Effect ◽  
Scale Production ◽  
Tropical Africa ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Large Scale Production ◽  
Initial Stage ◽  
The One ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
Laborious Method

Opening ParagraphThere is a tendency in some quarters to regard secondary industries as a panacea for all the economic ills of tropical Africa. It would be well at this initial stage to sound a note of warning. In the past, the industrialization of agricultural countries has had two results: one good, one bad. On the one hand, the establishment in a country of labour-saving machinery and large-scale production in place of the old laborious method of making things by hand has led to a rise in the general standard of living within the country in terms of real incomes. On the other hand, the drift of workers to the towns and the herding together of large numbers of people in factories resulted in the sum of social evils associated with the ‘dark satanic mills’: overcrowding, sweated labour, destitution, unemployment, and many more. The problem for tropical Africa to-day is to combine the maximum of the first and good effect with a minimum of the second evil.

Nyoro Kinship

Africa ◽  
1957 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 317-340 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. H. M. Beattie
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Actual Behaviour ◽  
Preliminary Account ◽  
The One ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
Broad Outline

Opening ParagraphIn this article and in a succeeding one I give a preliminary account of Nyoro kinship and affinal terms, together with some description of the expected and actual behaviour associated with the categories they denote. I hope at a later date to publish a very much fuller account, but it may in the meantime be useful to put on record a broad outline of the Nyoro system, so far undescribed except for the few pages devoted to it in Roscoe's work. In the present article I discuss Nyoro categories of kin; in the one which follows I shall consider affinal relationships and Nyoro notions about them.

scholarly journals A Sacrificial Calendar from Cos

1888 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 323-337 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. L. Hicks
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Very Old ◽  
Good Fortune ◽  
The One

In the Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique for 1881 (vol. v. pp. 216 foll.) MM. Am. Hauvette-Besnault and Marcel Dubois published a number of inscriptions from Cos, among which are two fragments of a curious sacrificial calendar. These fragments they describe as existing in the house of M. Dim. Platanistis. One of the marbles is broken at the top and the left side, and is apparently inscribed on one surface only. Fifteen lines of the inscription can be fairly well deciphered. I will call this document HBD 1. The other marble was inscribed on both sides; but only the endings of some nineteen lines on the one side, and the beginnings of as many lines on the other, now remain: I shall call this document HBD 2a, b.Mr. W. R. Paton, who has repeatedly visited Cos, has not only sent me corrections of some of the readings in HBD 1, but he has also had the good fortune to discover two other large portions of the same interesting calendar. Of these he has very kindly sent me copies, with a view to the publication of the inscription in this Journal. I propose to cite Mr. Paton's fragments as P1 and P2.The marble P1 is on the floor in front of the altar of a very old church, and has been much worn by the feet of worshippers; so that in some places all trace of letters has disappeared

The Bases of Nationalism among the Bakongo

Africa ◽  
1961 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 344-354 ◽  
Author(s):  
René Lemarchand
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Cultural Background ◽  
The Other ◽  
Active Resistance ◽  
Resistance Movements ◽  
The One ◽  
Opening Paragraph

Opening ParagraphNationalist assertions among the Bakongo have been at the forefront of the active resistance movements which ultimately led the Belgian Government to grant the Congo its independence. These reactions to the Belgian presence, which can be traced back to the early twenties, expressed themselves in highly diversified forms and with varying degrees of intensity. From the early days of the Belgian rule, however, a duality of tendencies has been apparent in the Mukongo cultural heritage. The acceptance of certain Western innovations, on the one hand, combined with a manifest attachment to their cultural background, on the other, accounts for the presence of modernist and traditional strands discernible in present-day attitudes towards authority.

Sexual Life, Marriage, and Childhood among the Efik

Africa ◽  
1960 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald C. Simmons
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Life ◽  
Bath Water ◽  
Marriage Customs ◽  
The One ◽  
Opening Paragraph

Opening ParagraphThis paper describes the infancy, childhood, adolescence, and marriage customs of the Efik of Creek Town, Calabar Province, Nigeria.In former times, when polygyny was widespread, the husband was expected to have coition with his wives unless he was ill or the wives were either menstruating or nursing a child. Although he might have coition with any wife during the day, he was expected to sleep in strict rotation with the wives at night in order to prevent quarrelling and jealousy. If he possessed only three wives, a weekly rotation called urua mbri ebe, ‘weekly mat of the husband’, was expected, while a man with two wives performed ɔfiɔŋ mbri ebe, ‘monthly mat of the husband’. If he possessed several wives the husband followed usen mbri ebe, ‘daily mat of the husband’. The one with whom he slept prepared his food and bath water, and washed his clothes. Efik nicknamed wives iban ufip, ‘jealous women’, because of their frequent quarrels and feuds.

scholarly journals Witchcraft

Africa ◽  
1935 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 417-422 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. E. Evans-Pritchard
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Social Behaviour ◽  
African Society ◽  
Evil Eye ◽  
The Social ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The One ◽  
Opening Paragraph

Opening ParagraphThere are few, if any, African societies which do not believe in witchcraft of one type or another. These types can be classified and their areas of distribution marked out. Thus we have the ‘evil eye’ type, the likundu type, and the kindoki type, and doubtless other variations could be distinguished. But though some notion which we can describe as a belief in witchcraft is found in maybe every African society it is far from playing a uniform part in each. In many communities, including the one from which the information used in this paper was gathered, witchcraft is a function of a wide range of social behaviour, while in others it has little ideological importance. In this paper my conclusions about the social relations of the witchcraft concept are drawn from twenty months experience of the Azande nation of the Nile-Uelle divide, where witchcraft is a ubiquitous notion. Whether what is true of this people is true of many other African communities I cannot say.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document