warn their clients who seek personal information
and spiritual knowledge. The divination ritual can
bring knowledge of a person’s past and current con-
ditions so that beliefs, actions, and behaviors can be
adhered to or planned to improve or enhance future
circumstances.
African descendants of the old ancient religions
have deified, spiritualized, and infused cowrie
shells with power of myths and a belief system to
be used as tools in the center of spiritual divina-
tion oracle readings.
Ibo ChangaSeealsoAmulet
Further Readings
Andrews, C. A. R. (1998).Amulets of Ancient Egypt.
Austin: University of Texas Press.
Bascom, W. (1993).Sixteen Cowries:Yoruba Divination
From Africa to the New World. Bloomington: Indiana
University Press.
Fisher, A. (1984).Africa Adorned. New York: Harry N.
Abrams.
Galembo, P. (1993).Divine Inspiration:Benin to Bahia.
New York: Athelia Henrietta Press.
Thompson, R. F. (1984).Flash of the Spirit–African &
Afro-American Art & Philosophy. New York:
Random House.
CREATION
African people have highly constructed myths
and legends that explain how the universe or cos-
mos was created. Found in ancient texts, and
more often in the formal oral traditions, these
stories are referred to ascreation narratives, and
they clarify that which is considered mysterious
or unknown to man. Although ancient African
creation stories vary among the continent’s
people, they are as old as the continent of Africa.
African creation narratives reinforce the people’s
cultural and spiritual histories. This entry looks
at some commonalities among African creation
narratives, examines some regional expressions,
and briefly discusses what these myths have to
say about people.
Commonalities
For hundreds of thousands of years, Africans
have transferred knowledge about creation (the
origins of the sky, man, plants, animals, and the
Earth). Creation has two main components
within the African context. The first has to do
with the spiritual/religious and mythological
aspects of how Africans interpret the origin of the
world. The second is related to the scientific data
surrounding the connection between the creation
of the world and the genesis of mankind. In addi-
tion, African creation narratives involve internal
and external group explanations. They center on
the origins of specific ethnic groups and nations
or attempt to explain the existence of the whole
of humanity. Africans have played a major role in
the global understanding of the concept of cre-
ation. In the academic study of African creation,
there are distinctions made between spiritual/
religion interpretations and mythology. However,
what was once characterized as myth is a central
component of the spiritual/religion aspect. African
creation systems are composed of cultural com-
ponents that are central to the foundation of the
nation and the state.
In general, Africans believe that the universe
was brought into existence by the action of a
single God, or a set of Gods, on behalf of the
Supreme Being. African creation systems are
predicated on a pre- or self-existing entity bring-
ing something into existence out of nothing.
Often there was nothing in existence before
creation—except the flow of cosmic-spiritual
energy emanating from God. This energy flow is
the essence of the Supreme Being and is infused in
all things on creation.
The idea of creation within the African context is
important to understanding the relationship that
human beings are having with God and with one
another. Thus, the creation events are told through
broad (epic) narratives. The primary concepts
aiding traditional African Creation epics are (a) the
existence of one God, the Supreme Being; (b) inter-
mediate divinities who serve God, the ancestors, and
man; (c) ancestral spirits who interact with man and
divinities; and (d) natural/elemental spirits.
African ethnic, cultural, and spiritual diver-
sity indicates that creation narratives may be
different, but similarities can be distinguished in184 Creation