Encyclopedia of African Religion

550 Pyramids some cases, human) sacrifices through the entire community before being disposed of, the shaving of all human hair, ...

in what is now Sudan. The pyramids are among the most fascinating and monumental structures ever built. The pyramids, as symbols ...

as a lack of inscriptions and funerary features or offering rooms typical of tombs. The pyramids also have many empty rooms; no ...

Pythons 553 A plaque showing the gateway to the palace of the Oba of Benin.Two soldiers with shields flanked by two pages stand ...

pythons are primary divinities. Indeed, in the Republic of Benin, theVodunpantheon is gener- ally classified into three main gro ...

QUEENS Queens are rulersor leaderswhohavebe en cho - se n, sel ec ted,appointed, or bo rn intotheirroles. Queens appearin Africa ...

556 Queens common good. Calamities, riots, wars, pesti- lence, disease, and bad fortune may descend on a community where the que ...

RA In Maatianor ancient Eg yptia n theology , Ra(Re) is theCreatorandha s manyna mes,manifesta- tions, andforms according to the ...

558 Ra Shu (air) and Tefnut (moisture), the first divine powers. Afterward, they brought into being Nut (Heaven) and Geb (Earth) ...

Further Readings Allen, J. P. (1988).Genesis in Egypt:The Philosophy of Ancient Egyptian Creation Accounts. New Haven, CT: Yale ...

to be understood as a phenomenon restricted to human beings only because, in reality, it encom- passes land and animal fertility ...

periods of drought. As an ancient ritual, the rain dance harks back to the time when humans believed that the lack of rain was c ...

which nothing can be known for certain. He speaks in words such as these: Munyankali, you who come from your large house in the ...

ceremony takes place in the royal compound in the village of Khetlahkone. The Rain Queen, indeed, is believed to have the mystic ...

therefore no surprise that the color red has had a spe- cial, sacred, and spiritual significance for people of African ancestry ...

family and friends into a shroud. The complete body of the doll is covered in red cloth, while the eyes and mouth were painted i ...

Western idea of being when speaking of African existence. It is more exact to refer to force inas- much as Africans believe that ...

the number and extent of its rays. The sun is pre- sent in its rays; it heats and brightens through its rays, yet the rays of th ...

acknowledgment of the African spirit of resistance to oppression. It is therefore imperative to make a careful distinction betwe ...

than 2 years, from July 1905 to August 1907. Although Kinjikitile was captured and hanged by the Germans, his brother picked up ...