Common in Africa is the sacred analogy
between the woman’s womb and a clay pot.
Women are often depicted as potters, re-creating
life through their molding of clay, the stuff of life.
Thus, the clay pot metaphorically establishes the
African woman as mother and creator. Among the
Bemba people of Central Africa, for example,
a critical moment of female initiation involves the
making of a clay pot. In other parts of Africa,
women guard jealously and proudly their clay pots
as symbols of their womanhood and motherhood.
Given that women are most valued and appre-
ciated as child-bearers, some precautionary mea-
sures are taken to protect them as such. Thus, in
some African societies, women must avoid places,
such as the forest, which could be dangerous to
them. Also, some foods, which are believed to
have an adverse effect on fertility, must be avoided
by women. Among the Kasai of Central Africa,
for example, women must not eat chicken meat or
eggs. Food taboos are also observed during preg-
nancy. Thus, and to cite one example among
many, a pregnant Lele woman (from Central
Africa) will avoid eating fish because the latter is
believed to interfere negatively with the outcome
of the pregnancy. So great is the African concern
for fertility that there is, in the end, hardly any
area of the existence that is not informed by this
constant preoccupation with the thriving and per-
petuation of life.
Ama MazamaSee alsoAncestors; Blessing; Children; Family;
Procreation
Further Readings
Armor, R. (1992).Gods and Myths of Ancient Egypt.
Cairo, Egypt: The American University in Cairo Press.
Jacobson-Widding, A., & van Beek, W. (Eds.). (1990).
Creative Communion. African Folk Models of
Fertility and the Regeneration of Life(Acta
Universitatis Upsaliensis. Upsala Studies in Cultural
Anthropology, 15). Stockholm, Sweden: Almqvist &
Wiskell International.
Mbiti, J. (1990).African Religions and Philosophy.
London: Heinemann.
FETISH
The wordfetishcomes from the Portuguese sub-
stantivefeitiçio, which comes from the Latin noun
facticius, meaning an artificial or manufactured
object. However, the sense in Portuguese was not
so much artificial as artful, and in 15th-century
Portugal, the term was applied to religious objects
such as relics and rosaries of saints. Consequently,
Portuguese explorers of West Africa extended the
term feitiçio to functionally similar indigenous
“charms and idols.”
In the early 17th century, the word entered the
English language from Portuguese; at the same
time, the Portuguese word fetissero became in
English fetisher or medicine person. In the mean-
time, the French had borrowed the Portuguese
term, which becamefétiche. It is this French form
that gave rise to the current English spellingfetish
and the less common spellingfetich, defined as an
object regarded as having magical or spiritual
powers and worshiped.
The meaning of the wordfetishhas extended in
modern times to something regarded with great,
sometimes excessive, admiration and reverence. It
is this connotation that the English phrase “Make
a fetish of something or someone” carries today.
One would say of people who admire their cars so
much that they always clean and/or wash them
that they “make a fetish of their cars.” Likewise,
people who love or revere their work so much and
spend too much time doing it are said to “make a
fetish of their work.” This entry looks at the role
of fetishes in Africa, renewed respect for the religions
that employ them, and a discussion of whether the
term applies to gods as well as objects.Fetishes in Africa
Regardless of whether it is deemed excessive, the
wordreverence(i.e., “great respect and admira-
tion mixed with love”) has a positive connotation.
Hence, out of a concept that was originally pejo-
rative came a laudable idea. It is this positive con-
notation that the term Fetish (spelled with an
uppercase “F”) carries today in French-speaking
African countries such as Benin Republic and
Togo Republic.Fetish 265