the Gyemprem Shrine in the Akyem region of
Ghana believes that invocations can be traced to
the earliest African ancestors who confronted
extraordinary situations. In these trying situations,
the people often invoked the names of the divini-
ties for support through the ordeal or difficulty.
One could begin such an invocation by
announcing the name of the most relevant deity. It
is rare in Africa that the name of the Supreme Being
is invoked; usually one invokes the names of the
ancestors or lesser spirits than the Almighty
Creator. This is not to say that it does not ever exist
because we know that among some people the
names of the creator deities are used in invocation.
The ancient Egyptians raised up the names of
Amen-Ra, Ptah, Amen, Atum, and Ra. But they
also invoked the names of Heru, Ausar, Auset, and
Set. It was not unlike the Egyptians to glory in
their ability to call on their divinities in the times
of great distress. Ramses II did so when he was in
the great battle of Kadesh with the Hittites. He
was able to call on “Montu, his father.” During
periods when pestilence, famine, or war strike a
region, the people are inclined to use invocation
more often than at other times. This is not to say
that Africans did not act out of a sense of ordinary
piety toward the deities because that would be mis-
leading, but rather to say that like Ramses II many
African societies accept calling on the major divini-
ties at a time of threatening calamity.
An invocation may be a prayer, but a prayer
may not necessarily be an invocation in the
African sense. One could express a prayer in a
simple form as praise to a divinity, but in the case
of an invocation, one is by doing the act of invok-
ing to ask for assistance. Thus, to invoke is to seek
aid and support by calling out to the divine.
Among the Akan, priests and priestesses use
the name ofNyame, particularly in the form of
Oboadee, Odomankoma, Ananse Kokuroko,
orNyankopon, meaning Creator, Infinite, The
Great Designer, and Eternal One, respectively.
This is an example where the Supreme Being is
appealed to for assistance as in ancient Egypt.
Yet in most of Africa, religion expresses its invo-
cation through appealing to the nsamanfo
(ancestors in Akan). These are the intermedi-
aries that can hear the appeals and be able to do
something about them more immediately than
the distant Supreme Deity.
It is also possible that a people may designate a
certain spiritual place such as Kariba Lake, Lake
Bosomtwe, or Kilimanjaro as a sacred region; they
may also locate a house, valley, tree, or river bank
as a special place for invocations. The act of invo-
cation, however, may occur anywhere and at any
time, but it is always reserved for asking the
divinities for assistance.Molefi Kete AsanteFurther Readings
Birnbaum, L. C. (2005).Dark Mother:African Origins
and Godmothers. Paris: Menaibuc.
Johnson, J. W., Hale, T., & Belcher, S. (Eds.). (1997).
Oral Epics From Africa:Vibrant Voices From a Vast
Continent. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Mbiti, J. (1969).African Religions and Philosophy.
London: Heinemann.
Ogonna, A. (2000).The Book of Dawn and Invocations:
The Search for Philosophic Truth by an African
Initiate. London: Karnak House.IWA
Iwa is a key moral category in the Ifa tradition
and means character or moral behavior. Among
the most preeminent scholars of Ifa, it is believed
that the term iwa means the essence of being.
Wanda Abimbola, considered the major authority
of Ifa, always claimed that iwa characterized a
person’s ethical life. Within this conception,
humans may have either good character (ìwà,
dàra,rere) or bad character (ìwà bururu). In addi-
tion,iwapele(gentle character) is embraced as the
finest kind of good character. In the Ifa tradition,
iwapele is the greatest virtue a person can possess.
The essence of worship is to cultivateìwàpele. The
reason for this is thatìwà lèsìn means religious
devotion. In other words, character is the essence
of religious worship.
The position of good character as the major
moral value in Ifa tradition can be seen in several
passages in theOdu Ifa, the sacred text of the Ifa
tradition. In Odu 31:3, the text says, “Character
is all that is required. There is no destiny that
needs to be called unfortunate (bad) in Ifè City.346 Iwa