Encyclopedia of African Religion

living in decision making and judgments about the future. Therefore, the way to maintain stability and harmony in society is to ...

nations, Moshoeshoe I opened his kingdom to people who had been displaced by the great chaos of warfare. The king used the strat ...

FurtherReadings Harper, P. (1969). Dance in Nigeria.Ethnomusicology, 13 (2), 280–295. Nodal, R. (1983). The Social Evolution of ...

diviners, following certain rituals, and taking spe- cial herbs, a person could become any animal or person he or she wished to ...

Bats have also been long associated with lore, mysticism, and religion. In the Ivory Coast, bats were seen as the spirits of the ...

Further Readings Klieman, K. A. (2003).The Pygmies Were Our Compass:Bantu and Batwa in the History of West Central Africa,Early ...

Population migration resulting from slave raids in the 18th and 19th centuries brought migrants into the area of the CAR. The CA ...

vengeful spirits of children who died in infancy. Common throughout West Africa is the use of a string of beads around the waist ...

might have a relationship with the Islamic con- ception of khalifar, which is understood as human responsibility for stewardship ...

intelligence, all science. Another example is “Lesa shiwatutaula mibanga, God breaks down hard trees like ‘mibanga’ (by lightnin ...

120 Bes The god Bes, usually shown as a dwarf, a domestic god, protector of women in childbirth, also associated with music and ...

Long History The god Bes occurred so early in the human imag- ination that it reaches back to the earliest of human settlements ...

using his considerable power and energy, to span the lifetime of his subjects, Bes remained a popu- lar deity down through the P ...

Bourriau, J. D. (1988).Pharaohs and Mortals. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Kemp, B. (1989).Ancient Egypt:Anatomy of ...

Mythically, chickens are present at creation or accompany the first humans. Among the Yoruba, a five-toed chicken accompanies Ob ...

pregnancy. It is also a common practice for an African woman to return to her own family until the birth of the child. Many Afri ...

BLESSING Blessing refers to the act of calling on the divine to bestow protection, prosperity, health, peace, and, generally spe ...

Further Readings Forde, D. (Ed.). (1954).African Worlds. Studies in the Cosmological Ideas and Social Values of African Peoples. ...

Further Readings Asante, M. K., & Nwadiora, E. (2007).Spear Masters: Introduction to African Religion. Lanham, MD: Universit ...

Boats as sacred vessels go to the heart of the invention of this mode of travel and transport. It is the use of the boat for the ...