the collective sense of responsibility, the familial
ties, and the intertwining/interconnectedness of the
community’s life, shame carries with it the idea
that someone has broken or violated the collective
social values that have come down from many gen-
erations. Guilt is much more an individual and
personal feeling, whereas shame is a much more
collective feeling. There is no concept of guilt in
traditional African religion. However, the idea of
shame carries with it the intense pressure on a per-
son to do right as a way to protect the society.
Shame causes the person to feel responsibility
rather than regret, and therefore he or she must
do everything humanly possible to change the
reality. Shame in Africa involves public humilia-
tion if the act that created the violation was
offensive to the public in a major way. All are
endangered and in peril if the person is not dis-
covered and made to admit the violation; there-
fore it behooves the community to determine who
is the cause of the violation; Once this is deter-
mined, in most African societies, the religious
leaders seek to control the damage to the commu-
nity by identifying the culprit and making sacri-
fices to appease the violated ancestors.
In some instances, the person who is responsi-
ble for the shame may be banished from society so
as to get rid of the offending character. However,
the idea of shame as a part of socialization means
that it is a mainstay of stability in African com-
munities that depend on the traditional values
handed down by ancestors. Those who have vio-
lated the taboos of the society may feel worthless
and outside of redemption and therefore may have
to be banned from the community for life.
When a society employs shame to regulate the
social and ethical activities of people, it usually relies
more on the shared opinions and judgments of the
people. Certainly any form of relational control in a
communally articulated society, as most traditional
African societies are, is important in the social struc-
ture. Shame is therefore a major force in the stabil-
ity of the traditional African society.
Molefi Kete AsanteSee alsoPunishment; Taboo
Further Readings
Broucek, F. (1991).Shame and the Self. New York:
Guilford.
Gilbert, P. (2002).Body Shame:Conceptualisation,
Research and Treatment. London: Brunner-Routledge.SHANGO
A major deity of the indigenous religion of the
Yoruba of southwestern Nigeria, Shango (some-
times written Chango) also appears in the religion
of the Bini of southeastern Nigeria, where he is
referred to as Esango, as well as in the religion of
the Fon of the Benin Republic, where he is called
Sogbo and Ebioso. Like all of the Yoruba deities
(calledorisha), Shango is both a deified ancestor
and a natural force, both aspects being associated
with a cult, a priesthood, and an elaborate mater-
ial culture that witnesses and supports his worship.
The ancestral Shango was the fourth king of
the town of Oyo. Oral history describes him as a
powerful king who had a voice like thunder and
shot fire out of his mouth when he spoke. When
a subordinate chief challenged his rule, many
townspeople, impressed by the chief’s feats of
magic, deserted him, and Shango, defeated in the
eyes of the majority of his subjects, left Oyo and
committed suicide. His faithful followers, how-
ever, claimed that he did not really hang himself:
Instead, he ascended to the heavens on a chain.
They claimed that his disappearance was not
death, but the occasion of his transformation into
an orisha. After his death, he was deified and
took on some of the attributes of a preexisting
deity, Jakuta, whose name continues to be associ-
ated with him in Cuba. Jakuta represented the
wrath of God, the scourging and cauterizing of
evil by fierce justice. His followers began to sac-
rifice to him, continued the ceremonies he had
performed while on Earth, and passed on his
worship to succeeding generations. Shango’s fol-
lowers eventually succeeded in securing a place
for their cult in the religious and political system
of the town, and the Shango cult became integral
to the installation of Oyo’s kings. Shango’s cult
spread widely when Oyo became the central
town of an expansive empire dominating most
of the other Yoruba kingdoms, as well as the
Bini and the Fon, both of whom incorporated
Shango worship into their religions and contin-
ued his cult even after they ceased being under
Oyo’s control.612 Shango