How man makes God in West Africa: Yoruba attitudes towards the Orisa

Africa ◽  
1981 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 724-745 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karin Barber
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Social Relationships ◽  
West African ◽  
Traditional Religion ◽  
Religious Thought ◽  
Concrete Case ◽  
African Religions ◽  
Critical Tradition ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
Similar Notion

Opening ParagraphThe idea that gods are made by men, not men by gods, is a sociological truism. It belongs very obviously to a detached and critical tradition of thought incompatible with faith in those gods. But Yoruba traditional religion contains built into it a very similar notion, and here, far from indicating scepticism or decline of belief, it seems to be a central impulse to devotion. The òrìṣà (‘gods’) are, according to Yoruba traditional thought, maintained and kept in existence by the attention of humans. Without the collaboration of their devotees, the òrìṣà would be betrayed, exposed and reduced to nothing. This notion seems to have been intrinsic to the religion since the earliest times. How can such an awareness be part of a devotee's ‘belief’? Rather than speculate abstractly, as Rodney Needham does (Needham 1972), about whether people of other cultures can be said to ‘believe’ at all, it seems more interesting to take a concrete case like the Yorba one where there is an unexpected–even apparently paradoxical–configuration of ideas, and to ask how these ideas are constituted. Only by looking at them as part of a particular kind of society, with particular kinds of social relationships, can one see why such a configuration is so persuasive. The notion that men make gods is by no means unique to Yoruba thought. It is present to some degree in a number of traditional West African religions, and in some, such as the Kalahari one, it can be seen in an even more explicit form than in the Yoruba one. A comparison may help to show how it is the constitution of social relationships which makes such a notion not just acceptable but central to the religious thought of the society.

Patterns of Authority in West Africa

Africa ◽  
1951 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 261-278 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paula Brown
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Political System ◽  
West African ◽  
The Other ◽  
Political Structure ◽  
Political Relations ◽  
Comparative Review ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
Size And Structure

Opening ParagraphThe development of large centralized states in West Africa has long been recognized. The complexity of organization of the few well-known kingdoms, but not their differences in size and structure, is constantly emphasized in the literature. The number and variety of West African groups which have not developed states have, on the other hand, frequently been underestimated. In a comparative review by Professors Fortes and Evans-Pritchard two types of political system, centralized and segmentary, have been described for Africa as a whole, with examples of each in West Africa. A survey of West African societies suggests, however, that finer distinctions are possible and that not all these societies can be placed in one or other of these two categories. In particular, this classification omits consideration of ‘stateless’ societies in which associations, rather than a segmentary lineage system, regulate political relations; and it fails to distinguish different types of authority and political structure in states.

Social Administration of the Kru. A Preliminary Survey

Africa ◽  
1937 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Scudder Mekeel
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
West African ◽  
Preliminary Survey ◽  
The South ◽  
North West ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
Archaeological Work ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
Physical Type

Opening ParagraphThe Kru, a West African Negro group, inhabit the central and southern part of Liberia. They are surrounded by the Basa peoples to the north-west, by the Grebo to the south-east and by the Putu to the north-east. The informant, Thomas Tarbour (Sieh Tagbweh), from whom the following material was derived, was a native of Grand Cess (Siglipo), a large coast town near the border of the Grebo country. The Kru, along with other related groups in that part of West Africa, have a tradition of having migrated from far to the north-east. The physical type is that of the short, stocky Bush negro. No archaeological work has been done in the region, and such ethnological material as has been collected is a mere beginning.

The Social Organization of Credit in a West African Cattle Market

Africa ◽  
1965 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 8-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abner Cohen
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Social Organization ◽  
West African ◽  
The Other ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
African Cattle ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The Social ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
Cattle Market

Opening ParagraphCredit is a vital economic institution without which trade becomes very limited. In the industrial Western societies, where it is highly developed, it operates through formal, standardized arrangements and procedures by which the solvency of the debtor is closely assessed, securities against possible default are provided, and the conditions of the agreement are documented and endorsed by the parties concerned. Ultimately, these arrangements and procedures are upheld by legislated rules and sanctions administered by central, bureaucratized, fairly impartial, efficient, and effective courts and police. In West Africa, on the other hand, where long-distance trade has been fostered by varying ecological circumstances, such organization has not yet evolved, particularly for long-distance trade. Nevertheless extensive systems of credit have been developed.

Adjustment to West African realities: the Lebanese in Senegal

Africa ◽  
1990 ◽  
Vol 60 (4) ◽  
pp. 538-549 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saïd Boumedouha
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Economic Activity ◽  
West African ◽  
Colonial Period ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Great Demand ◽  
Trading Activities ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
Mixed Reaction

Opening ParagraphThe century-old Lebanese presence in West Africa has been the subject of mixed reaction from the host societies. While many Africans, including political leaders, have defended this presence in the belief that it has been very beneficial for their countries, others have strongly criticised it, arguing that the Lebanese have blocked the way to Africans in trade, repatriated their capital and used many kinds of malpractices in their trading activities. In Senegal, which is the subject of this article, French small and medium traders opposed the presence of the Lebanese during the colonial period because the latter became their main competitors. The groundnut trade was the country's main economic activity and there was a great demand for this product in Europe. The major European companies were keen to increase exports and, in this, they relied on the Lebanese who, in the first decades of this century, acted as middlemen.

The Significance of Descent in Tale Social Structure

Africa ◽  
1944 ◽  
Vol 14 (7) ◽  
pp. 362-385 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Fortes
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Social Structure ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Analytical Data ◽  
West African ◽  
Social Anthropology ◽  
Field Worker ◽  
Northern Territories ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
Coherent Picture

Opening ParagraphThe Tallensi of the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast furnish data of special interest for the study of comparative social structure among the peoples of West Africa. Large as the ethnographic literature on West Africa is, it is singularly lacking in analytical data concerning social structure. Some of the most useful collections of ethnographic information on West African peoples thus lack the foundation without which a coherent picture of a society is impossible. Tables of kinship terms, enumerations of kinship usages, catalogues of marriage and inheritance customs, and such-like information are no more than the raw materials for the construction of a systematic representation of social structure. And very often the raw materials are not sufficient. There are plenty of bricks but no mortar. The reasons for such lacunae are obvibys. A sympathetic amateur ethnographer can bring together material of inestimable value; but without a good theoretical grounding in modern social anthropology the field worker will not look for, and even if he stumbles across it, will not recognise the kind of material necessary for an understanding of social structure. He must; first of all, have the concept of a total social structure clearly in his mind; and he must look for the connexions, which are very often implicit, by which ostensibly discrete processes and institutions are related to one another in a meaningful pattern.

A Comparison of African Kingdoms

Africa ◽  
1962 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 324-335 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Vansina
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
East Africa ◽  
Preliminary Analysis ◽  
West African ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Few Data ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
Central South

Opening ParagraphIt has long been recognized that there is a distinctive category of African political systems, which is characterized by centralized authority. The preliminary analysis and classification of African kingdoms proposed in this article are based on comparison of most of the States in Central, South, and East Africa. Only a few data on West African kingdoms have been incorporated, but we feel that the classification will prove generally valid for West Africa as well.

The Coin of the African Realm

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Herbst
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
West Africa ◽  
West African ◽  
Regional Economies ◽  
African Countries ◽  
New Strategies

This chapter examines the politics of the currency in West Africa from the beginning of the twentieth century. A public series of debates over the nature of the currency occurred in West Africa during both the colonial and independence periods. Since 1983, West African countries have been pioneers in Africa in developing new strategies to combat overvaluation of the currency and reduce the control of government over the currency supply. The chapter charts the evolution of West African currencies as boundaries and explores their relationship to state consolidation. It shows that leaders in African capitals managed to make the units they ruled increasingly distinct from the international and regional economies, but the greater salience of the currency did not end up promoting state consolidation. Rather, winning the ability to determine the value of the currency led to a series of disastrous decisions that severely weakened the states themselves.

scholarly journals Hybrid insolation forcing of Pliocene monsoon dynamics in West Africa

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rony R. Kuechler ◽  
Lydie M. Dupont ◽  
Enno Schefuß
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Climate Changes ◽  
West African Monsoon ◽  
West African ◽  
Latitudinal Gradients ◽  
Glacial Cycle ◽  
Time Intervals ◽  
Continental Hydrology ◽  
Insolation Forcing ◽  
The Last Glacial

Abstract. The Pliocene is regarded as a potential analogue for future climate with conditions generally warmer-than-today and higher-than-preindustrial atmospheric CO2 levels. Here we present the first orbitally resolved records of continental hydrology and vegetation changes from West Africa for two Pliocene time intervals (5.0–4.6 Ma, 3.6–3.0 Ma), which we compare with records from the last glacial cycle (Kuechler et al., 2013). Our results indicate that changes in local insolation alone are insufficient to explain the full degree of hydrologic variations. Generally two modes of interacting insolation forcings are observed: during eccentricity maxima, when precession was strong, the West African monsoon was driven by summer insolation; during eccentricity minima, when precession-driven variations in local insolation were minimal, obliquity-driven changes in the summer latitudinal insolation gradient became dominant. This hybrid monsoonal forcing concept explains orbitally controlled tropical climate changes, incorporating the forcing mechanism of latitudinal gradients for the Pliocene, which probably increased in importance during subsequent Northern Hemisphere glaciations.

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