believe that persons devoted to inverting the
process of healing (sorcerers) can also induce dis-
ease. Africans consistently distinguish between
those practitioners of traditional healing and
those inverters of the right order of things.
Various African ethnic groups have developed,
over time, a catalogue of ethnobotanical methods
(instructions, recipes) to combat disease. There is
a strong presence of indigenous African beliefs
and practices regarding disease within the trans-
plantation of African culture to the Americas. For
example, the orisha Babaluaiye (Obaluaiye,
Omulu) continues to be propitiated as the God
that transforms disease. Another result of this
African trait has been the spiritual systems of
Santeria, Vodun, Umbanda, and Candomble—
each with a class of traditional healers that trace
their philosophical origins to the continent of
Africa in the treatment of disease.Katherine Olukemi BankoleSeealsoSacrificeFurther Readings
Brothwell, D. R., & Sandison, A. T. (Eds.). (1967).
Diseases in Antiquity:A Survey of the Diseases,
Injuries and Surgery of Early Populations.
Springfield, IL: Charles C Thomas.
Janzen, J. M. (1991). “Doing Ngoma”: A Dominant
Trope in African Religion and Healing.Journal of
Religion in Africa, 21 , 290–308.
Jedrej, M. C. (1976). Medicine, Fetish and Secret Society
in West African Cultures.Africa, 46 (3), 247–257.
Makinde, M. A. (1988).African Philosophy,Culture,
and Traditional Medicine. Athens: Center for
International Studies, Ohio University.
Ransford, O. (1983). “Bid the Sickness Cease”:Disease
in the History of Black Africa.London: J. Murray.
Walker, J. (1990). The Place of Magic in the Practice of
Medicine in Ancient Egypt.Bulletin of the Australian
Centre for Egyptology, 1 , 85–95.DIVINATIONSYSTEMS
Although regarded by some people as unscientific,
illogical, irrational, and therefore a superstitious
and false cognitive process, divination remains areliable source of knowledge for millions of people
in almost all the religions known to humankind. In
all nations and cultures, from prehistoric time to
our digital age, people of all types of education
and religious convictions seek the wisdom of
divination by consulting, at night or in broad day-
light, people known as diviners, clairvoyants,
shamans, psychics, mediums, or prophets. Despite
a long-standing war waged by Christianity and
Islam against “idolatry” and divination, today
some Christians and Muslims still consult tradi-
tional diviners in Africa and elsewhere.
Far from being a meaningless hocus-pocus
wrapped in illusory paraphernalia, divination
plays a pivotal role in African spirituality and its
underlying epistemology. Throughout the ages,
people encounter in life questions and existential
problems for which ordinary knowledge and
ordinary prayers remain insufficient. In such a
context, many turn to an extraordinary way of
knowing available among diviners. This entry
provides an overview of the role of divination in
African society, describes the process, looks at
divination among the Yoruba, and briefly dis-
cusses the underlying ethics.Social Role
The notion of divination refers to the art or practice
that seeks to foresee or foretell the future or dis-
cover the hidden causes of illness and other forms of
affliction. It is also a potent means of insight in the
decision-making process and a way of knowing the
will of the Gods in people’s lives by the aid of super-
natural powers or a sophisticated interpretation of
omens. As such, it pertains to the realm of prophecy,
wisdom, and healing technique. In Africa, divina-
tion sessions are instances of consulting the Gods or
the ancestors. These are not metaphysical constructs,
but real living beings that interact with the living. As
a means of communication with the village of the
ancestors, divination reinforces the belief in the real-
ity of the world of the spirits and the ancestors.
Indeed, in African worldview, “the Dead are not
dead.”
Divination (lubuko in Luba religion) and
ancestral veneration are the two fundamental
pillars of African religious beliefs. The practice is
as old as humanity. During the colonial era, divi-
nation was regarded with extreme suspicion as an206 Divination Systems