Encyclopedia of African Religion

andalloverWestAfrica.EveryyearOshundevotees and other people of the Yoruba religious tradition cometotheOshunrivertopayhomage,ma ...

potomitan, which is therefore seen as a magical axis. Given this, the potomitan plays a critical role during Vodu ceremonies. In ...

they live in different parts of Namibia and some haveadoptedpracticesthataredifferentbecauseof the area in which they live. This ...

power to maintain the consistency of the spiritual relationships among all entities. The Sacred Fire (Okuruuo) Each oruzo has it ...

OVAMBO The Ovambo people live in northern Namibia. They are part of the larger Bantu-speaking people of southern Africa and have ...

and egungun). Oya is actually the opposite of death; she is symbolic of the air that humans breathe, and she can perpetuate life ...

the thunder and the bolt that reaches Earth; she is the aspect of thunder that electrifies the sky. ShestoleShango’ssecrettomake ...

PALO Th e religionknown as Palo by prac titioners in Cub a, the UnitedStates, and partsof the Caribbeanis es sentiallythe tradit ...

518 Palo The essence of human existence is the concept of Kala (the presence of light in the physical world, character, leadersh ...

The Palo system in Cuba continues to empha- size the relationship between the living and the Dead. In practice, the lines in the ...

flashy sequins or beads are known aspacquets- congo. Thesimbior Kôngo spirits of the Dead are believed to guide the making of pa ...

area, but in the end, the king’s authority was curbed by the will of the majority. In a way, the Pedi represent one of the most ...

and generative. Africans have even articulated this with “it takes a village to raise a child” as if to imply that the meaning o ...

In Akan conceptions, each person is unique because each soul is unique. Ontologically, then, the individual person must be self- ...

biological or otherwise. This means that without persons and therefore interpersonal relationships and communication there will ...

autonomy. The notion of relational character (in respect of persons) is not logically incompatible with the notion of personal a ...

The individual’s sense of responsibility for him- or herself is, in fact, expressed explicitly in the maxim, “It is by individua ...

Don PetwoorDon Pedro. The latter is believed to have lived in the region of Petit-Goave in the late 18th century and to have dis ...

the same presence, of the Peul in the nature of burial markings and place names along the way. Most contemporary scholars place ...

was quite in keeping with Egyptian thinking about the world. There are almost no areas of Africa where birds do not exist, altho ...