Encyclopedia of African Religion

230 Efik Supreme Deity, Mother God, and the ancestors find its strength and value in the fact that every act is one of beseechin ...

Further Readings Dagogo, M. J. F. (2006, March 5). Legendary Legacies of Dappa-Biriye.The Tide Rivers State Newspaper, pp. 3–4. ...

232 Egungun Costume representing an ancestral Egungun spirit in the Republic of Benin. Egungun figures are common to the religio ...

The Egungun aids in upholding the moral stan- dards of the society by bringing the ideas of the past generations to the contempo ...

down from the first clan ancestor. Celebration of the ancestors with the powerful dances of the awesome masks is therefore a cel ...

“ghost.” All ancestors are ghosts or spirits of those who once lived. Ancestors founded their villages and established a settled ...

This song depicts an old woman who accuses Ekpo of being responsible for her social condition. Ancestors are believed to control ...

looks at the role of elders in the Yoruba tradition and more generally. Yoruba Tradition In the Yoruba tradition, the distinctio ...

collective spirit to guide and direct the permanent ascension of the community and to channel its vital life force (spirit). The ...

the living, the eleda of the parents, grandparents, and great grandparents must always be protected by rituals. The only way tha ...

make sure they “bring about the good condition Olodumare has ordained for every human being.” Here the status of “chosenness” re ...

some notion of multiple gods who direct the cre- ation. It is inescapable in that the Ennead is the work of Atum. All other ener ...

valor in creating positive environments for the living. The Epa masks show a man and a woman, normally a great soldier and a gre ...

traditions, the religious phenomenon as such is generally composed of a practical dimension, a theoretical dimension, and a soci ...

gained by using natural faculties or abilities. This cognitive mode comprises “Intuition” conceived of as the work of human hear ...

Which explains why there is much wisdom in the world, but few persons have more than a little of it, and some persons have none ...

myth, he has been linked to the chameleon through the elusive, unpredictable, and fateful/ fatal power both seem to have. As his ...

counterpart of the physical head) and Orunmila, oracle god of divination, both of whom are also worshiped as gods. For instance, ...

in the richly textured acceptance of the vital and active ancestral realm. This entry looks at the beginnings of the concept in ...

Further Readings Asante, M. K. (2000).The Egyptian Philosophers. Chicago: AA Images. Redford, D. B. (Ed.). (2001).The Oxford Enc ...