question of obligation in African religion.
Obligation among the Swazi people means that
each year an animal must be dedicated to a spe-
cific royal ancestor and may only be eaten by the
direct descendants of that ancestor.
Reverence DisplaysAlthough it is true that ancestors are revered, it is
also true that not all ancestors are revered in the
same way. A congregation, that is, a kinship
group, so to speak, does not provide ritual service
or respect to every ancestor in all situations. One
might say that the ancestors who are accorded
respect in one situation may primarily be those
who are exclusive to the honoring group. This
helps them to distinguish between collateral
groups, perhaps of the same ethnic group.
However, some ancestors are more than family.
They are national, that is, all families in the ethnic
group are derived from them, and national cere-
monies are held to commemorate those ancestors
who may be the Yorubaegungunor the Asante
nananom nsamanfo.
The complexity of the practice of ancestor rev-
erence varies among ethnic groups. However,
among most groups, the interconnections
between religion and property, marriage, birth,
death, and titles to membership and leadership
of the corporate group are clearly tied to
geneonymy. This word means commemoration of
the ancestors by name. Everyone who calls the
name of the ancestors must use the accepted
geneonymic sequence because that is the only
way the group establishes itself as a congregation.
Another reason thatgeneonymyis important is
the establishment of ancestral focus. Every mem-
ber of the congregation knows exactly to whom
he or she belongs. One calls the name of the
ancestor publicly so that the ancestor’s name is
spoken again in the community of the living.
Africans do not do this simply for the purpose of
hearing the name, but also to instruct the young
people of the community on the value of com-
memoration. Therefore, it is the highest form of
obligation for the children of the ancestor.
Ancestor reverence or worship should not be
confused with cults of the dead. For Africans,
death in itself has no divine qualities. African
people believe something far more significant than
simply the worship of the dead. In the popular
traditional African religion, there is the idea that
those who have lived in the community actually
affect the lives of the living after death.Universal Practice
Thus, the deification of the ancestral spirit is
essential to the religion, but death must occur for
the process of deification to take place. Ancestor
reverence, therefore, is not the same as practices
dealing with ghosts and spirits and Hob-Goblins.
Some Western societies have believed in ghosts
and shade cults, but do not have ancestor
reverence.
There is widespread practice of ancestor rever-
ence on the continent of Africa, and the practices
vary in different regions of the continent. Among
the Ga of Ghana and the Nuer of the Sudan, two
of the several groups that do not have an elabo-
rate system of ancestor reverence, there is still a
strong belief in the veneration of ancestors on spe-
cial occasions. The Ga have ritualized libations in
the name of the honored dead during naming
ceremonies, marriages, and the Homowo Festival.
Their practice, and that of the Nuer, may be some-
what like the practice of the Jews and Catholics;
both groups name ancestors on special occasions.
The Catholics have masses in the names of the
ancestor saints, and the Jews name ancestors on
the Day of Atonement and their New Year Day.
In Africa, the Ibo of Nigeria believe that the
ancestors profoundly influence all actions in soci-
ety. Although they do not have kings of their
towns (instead they have a group of elders who
govern the community), they are nevertheless
quite elaborate in their veneration of the ances-
tors. This has far-reaching significance in socio-
logical terms. Among the Ibo people, sacrifice has
to be offered regularly, and a person does not eat
or drink without giving a portion to the ancestors.The Spirits of the Dead
The spirits of the dead are the ancestors, and the
forces of nature often represent their activities;
they may be the powers behind the storms, rain,
rivers, seas, lakes, hills, and rocks. They are not48 Ancestors