SEE ALSO Affliction, article on African Cults of Affliction;
Bemba Religion; Central Bantu Religions; Interlacustrine
Bantu Religions; Khoi and San Religion; Kongo Religion;
Luba Religion; Mbona; Ndembu Religion; Nyakyusa Reli-
gion; Shona Religion; Swazi Religion; Tswana Religion;
Witchcraft, article on African Witchcraft; Zulu Religion.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
To supplement the relatively few works cited in the text, the works
listed herein range over all parts of the enormous area of
southern Africa. Many of the books cited here were written
by missionaries, who provided most of the early published
evidence of the traditions of peoples in the area.
Beattie, John, and John Middleton, eds. Spirit Mediumship and
Society in Africa. London, 1969. Firsthand accounts by
trained observers of spirit mediums in thirteen African socie-
ties, with a comparative introduction.
Berglund, Axel-Ivar. Zulu Thought-Patterns and Symbolism. Lon-
don, 1976. By far the best study of the symbolism of an
Nguni people (on the southeast coast), written by a mission-
ary who grew up speaking Zulu as a second language.
Bernardi, Bernardo. The Mugwe: A Failing Prophet. London,
- A competent account of a hereditary priest in Meru,
Kenya, written by a Consolata priest who was a missionary
in the area.
Callaway, Henry. The Religious System of the Amazulu (1870). Re-
print, Cape Town, 1970. Contains valuable statements of
belief by Zulu. Includes Zulu texts and English translations,
with notes, by the Reverend Canon Callaway, a Zulu-
speaking missionary who sought to understand traditional
ideas.
Colson, Elizabeth. The Plateau Tonga of Northern Rhodesia. Man-
chester, 1962. One volume of a longterm study by an an-
thropologist; gives an account of ancestral spirits and rain
shrines.
Crawford, James R. Witchcraft and Sorcery in Rhodesia. London,
- Based on records of court cases.
Douglas, Mary. The Lele of the Kasai. London, 1963. A brilliant
essay on Lele symbolism, first published in African Worlds,
edited by Daryll Forde (London, 1954).
Douglas, Mary. Natural Symbols. New York, 1970. Discusses the
relationship between symbols and inner experience.
Douglas, Mary, ed. Witchcraft Confessions and Accusations. New
York, 1970. Sets witch beliefs in comparative perspective.
Fortes, Meyer, and Germaine Dieterlen. African Systems of
Thought. London, 1965.
Gluckman, Max. Rituals of Rebellion in Southeast Africa. Manches-
ter, 1954.
Hammond-Tooke, W. David. Boundaries and Belief: The Struc-
ture of a Sotho World View. Johannesburg, 1981.
Harris, Grace Gredys. Casting Out Anger: Religion among the Taita
of Kenya. Cambridge, 1978. A discussion of rejection of
anger, through spraying out water or beer, as the central reli-
gious act among the Taita.
Junod, Henri A. The Life of a South African Tribe. 2d ed., rev. &
enl. 2 vols. London, 1927. A classic by a missionary; first
published as Les Ba-Ronga (1898; reprint, New Hyde Park,
N.Y., 1962).
Kenyatta, Jomo. Facing Mount Kenya (1938; New York, 1962).
A valuable firsthand account of Kikuyu ritual and belief.
Mbiti, John S. African Religions and Philosophy. New York, 1969.
Mbiti, John S. Concepts of God in Africa. London, 1970. Useful
on the concept of time in East Africa. Makes clear that ances-
tors are not worshiped; offerings to them are family celebra-
tions with the “living dead.”
McAllister, P. A. “Work, Homestead and the Shades: The Ritual
Interpretation of Labour Migration among the Gcaleka.” In
Black Villagers in an Industrial Society, edited by Philip
Mayer, pp. 205–253. Cape Town, 1980. Evidence on a very
conservative section of Xhosa on the southeast coast.
Middleton, John, and E. H. Winter, eds. Witchcraft and Sorcery
in East Africa. London, 1963. Essays based on firsthand ob-
servation.
Ngubane, Harriet. Body and Mind in Zulu Medicine. London,- Particularly illuminating on the ancestors and illness,
pollution, color symbolism in medicine, and possession by
evil spirits. An important work by an observer whose mother
tongue is Zulu.
Ranger, T. O., and Isaria N. Kimambo, eds. The Historical Study
of African Religion. Berkeley, Calif., 1972.
Richards, Audrey I. “A Modern Movement of Witch-finders.” Af-
rica 8 (October 1935): 448–461. Describes the bamucapi
movement of 1934.
Richards, Audrey I. Chisungu: A Girl’s Initiation Ceremony among
the Bemba of Northern Rhodesia. London, 1956. The most
vivid account yet written on girls’ initiation; interprets sym-
bols and explains methods of inculcating certain lessons.
Roscoe, John. The Baganda. London, 1911. Written by a mission-
ary who worked closely with James G. Frazer. Includes an ac-
count of founding heroes and rituals at their shrines.
Setiloane, Gabriel M. The Image of God among the Sotho-Tswana.
Rotterdam, 1976.
Smith, Edwin W., and Andrew Murray Dale. The Ila-Speaking
Peoples of Northern Rhodesia (1920). 2 vols. Reprint, New
Hyde Park, N.Y., 1968. Smith was a missionary, Dale a mag-
istrate, and both were very competent linguists. They lived
among the Ila of the Zambezi from 1902 and 1904, respec-
tively, until 1914. The sections on religion are chiefly the
work of Smith, who later served as president of the Royal An-
thropological Institute, London. The book is a classic of early
African ethnography.
Smith, Edwin W., ed. African Ideas of God. London, 1950. A sym-
posium with twelve contributors and an introductory essay
by Smith. Five contributors refer to southern Africa.
Swantz, Marja-Liisa. Ritual and Symbol in Transitional Zaramo So-
ciety, with Special Reference to Women. Uppsala, 1970. An ac-
count of the ritual and symbolism of the Zaramo of the Tan-
zanian coast. “Every occasion of prayer,” Swantz argues, “is
a restatement of the position of the family in relation to their
elders and to their present leadership and authority.”
Taylor, John V. The Primal Vision: Christian Presence amid African
Religion. Philadelphia, 1963. A penetrating study based on
Taylor’s experience in Uganda and elsewhere in Africa.
Turner, Victor. The Forest of Symbols. Ithaca, N.Y., 1967. This
volume was followed by Turner’s The Drums of Affliction
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