Encyclopedia of African Religion

irrational practice detrimental to its adherents.
Under the influence of Christianity and Western
Enlightenment and modern scientific worldview,
divination got a sinister signification as a harmful
superstitious ignorance. Diviners were perceived
as charismatic charlatans exploiting a credulous
and anxiety-ridden people.
Many Westerners regarded divination sessions
as instances of arbitrary and idiosyncratic behav-
ior by ignorant “witch-doctors.” Yet divination is
found in every age and every country. It has sur-
vived all forms of attack and thrives today not
only in remote villages, but also in major urban
centers in Africa, Europe, and the Americas. It is,
in part, divination that has made Yoruba religion,
Santeria, and other forms of African religion pop-
ular in the West. Everywhere in Africa, divination

plays a pivotal role as a trusted means of decision

making and a basic source of vital knowledge.

Divination systems stand as the means and the

premise of knowing which underpin and validate

all else. Divination even plays a major role in the

enactment and validation of African legal systems.

It is also used to legitimize some political regimes

or even political actors. Its fundamental value

stems from its holistic epistemology, its ability to

combine both the natural and supranatural cogni-

tive modes, and its power to heal both mind and

body, and both the individual and the community.

While in the West, Cartesian dualism led to the

opposition between intuition and the analytical

mode of knowing, African divination systems

involve a combination of “logical-analytical” and

“intuitive-synthetical” modes of thinking.

Divination Systems 207

Ghana, Bolgatanga, Kassena diviner performs ritual. Before a Kassena hunt begins, the village diviner must be consulted. Using his

traditional instruments of divination, a sacred forked stick that he drops repeatedly onto a stone divination board, he communicates

with the ancestor and nature spirits on behalf of the hunter.

Source: Carol Beckwith/Angela Fisher/Getty Images.