to be understood as a phenomenon restricted to
human beings only because, in reality, it encom-
passes land and animal fertility as well. All over
Africa, one finds a pervasive association of the sky
with male reproductive powers and of the Earth
with female reproductive powers. Rain, in the
African religious context, may then be thought of as
cosmic sperm, with the sky fertilizing the Earth
thanks to rain.
In Africa, rain is sacred and greatly desired
because it is an indispensable blessing to the many
communities who rely on agriculture and cattle
rearing for their subsistence. Rain clouds are
greeted with joy. Rain is thought of as God’s gift to
human beings to ensure their welfare. The Chewa
(a people in southern and central Africa) creation
story illustrates this quite clearly because it links the
beginning of human life on Earth (as a result of
God’s act of creation) with the advent of the first
rain. According to the Chewa story, indeed, as the
first woman and man fell from the sky to the bar-
ren ground, torrential rains, accompanied with
thunder and lightning, covered the land, thus form-
ing in certain places rivers and lakes, and turning
the arid soil into humid clay, which, in turn,
allowed plant and animal life to be and prosper.
Africans have long celebrated the start of rain
together, and they have collectively engaged in
many rituals to propitiate the falling of rain.
Indeed, most Africans believe that, through
appropriate rites, one can make rain come. The
San people, for example, would bury round stones
and would have children born during a rainstorm
walk alone in the forest. This was believed to
enable the coming of rain. Furthermore, there are,
throughout Africa, rain specialists, known as
rainmakers, who are among the most important
members of their communities. Rainmakers, it is
commonly said, derive their ability to control rain
from God. Again, given the importance of rain, it
is easy to understand the prestige enjoyed by rain-
makers. Rainmakers will preside over the sacri-
fices, offerings, and prayers that may be made by
the community, thus acting as intermediaries
between the world of the living and the world of
the spirits. When there is no appointed rainmaker,
an elder or the king may play the same role.
The Manyika people of Zimbabwe provide an
interesting example of this, with rain ceremonies
that are held in November every year under the
authority of the Manyika king. The latter is seen
as an incarnation of the ancestors and the symbol
of sexual potency and fatherhood. He initiates the
rain ceremonies, which are centered on the brew-
ing of beer made with finger millet by post-
menopausal women. The process takes 7 days. On
the seventh day, the beer is carried to the moun-
tains and offered to the ancestors by a small group
of men and women of royal blood.
The best-known example of a monarch involved
in rainmaking, however, comes from the Lovedu
people of South Africa. On the 22nd day of
October, the Lovedu people conduct a ceremony to
ensure that rain falls in abundance and that the
community is spared the dreadful experience of
droughts. The people approach their queen with
gifts, dances, and songs, and they organize this
elaborate ceremony, known as the Rainmaking
Ceremony, to appeal to her benevolence. The cere-
mony takes place in the royal compound. The Rain
Queen, indeed, is believed to have the mystical
power to control rain. Through her spiritual con-
trol of rain, the queen is therefore assumed to have
control over the welfare of her society. The Rain
Queen of the Lovedu people is therefore much
respected and feared. As a Rain Goddess, she is
seen as the embodiment of the divine and cosmic
order on which harmony and balance rest because,
without rain, there can be no life.Ama MazamaSeealsoWaterFurther Readings
Jacobson-Widding, A. (1990). The Fertility of Incest. In
A. Jacobson-Widding & W. van Beek (Eds.),Creative
Communion: African Folk Models of Fertility and the
Regeneration of Life(pp. 47–73). Acta Universitatis
Upsaliensis (Upsala Studies in Cultural Anthropology,
15). Stockholm, Sweden: Almqvist & Wiskell
International.
Mbiti, J. (1990).African Religions and Philosophy.
London: Heinemann.RAIN DANCE
The rain dance is a functional action form used to
appeal to the ancestral spirits or deities during560 Rain Dance