Rather, the symbols which recur here are those of heat and coolness. McAllister, P. A. A determination to use circumcision rites to bolster civil authority was made explicit in October 1981 when the Ciskei, later an "independent state" on the border of the Republic of South Africa, passed legislation empowering a chief to compel a young man to be circumcised, on the ground that "it is well known that circumcision causes irresponsible youths to behave in a responsible manner." Whatever the material used, the intention of the offering is the same: The shades are called to feast, and what is offered is a communion meal for living and dead kinsmen. Rituals, then, channel emotion and teach the mourner, the adolescent, or the parent what it is proper to feel. The World Book Encyclopediahas estimated that in 2002 Christians formed 40% of the continent's population, with Muslims forming 45%. Five contributors refer to southern Africa. Dominican Sister Tshifhiwa Munzhedzi will succeed Precious Blood Sister Hermenegild Makoro as secretary-general. All the kinship rituals, but especially funerals, are an affirmation of kinship and the unity of the extended family, and the efficacy of the ritual depends upon the presence, in love and charity, of a network of kin. Maturity rituals are everywhere concerned with inculcating respect for authority: respect for seniors, shades, chiefs, and respect of a wife for her husband. Right order is expressed in traditional custom, and in their essence, rituals—whether positive action or negative avoidance—express the sacredness both of physiological processes, that is, menstruation, coition, parturition, and death, and of the approved relationships of men and women, old and young, leaders and followers. But again, as with God, contact with the shades is seen to be somehow contaminating. Unless they concern a royal family, the rituals of kinship have no political overtones. Communication with the shades is fostered by cleansing and purging, observance of taboos (including sexual abstinence), fasting, isolation in the bush, offerings to the shades, and dancing to clapping or drums. Ithaca, N.Y., 1967. View detailed information on Southern Africa including data on religious adherents, religious freedoms, demographics, And other social measures. Wilson, Monica. Uppsala, 1970. Even sloth appears, in the belief that certain evil people have raised others from the dead to work their fields for them. But they are concerned about the welfare of their children and are held to be the source of blessing. Callaway, Henry. 205–253. Zimbabwe diasporans eligible for land allocation back home. What is certain is that in some areas changes in practice have occurred since the eighteenth century, rites spreading or being abandoned; but there is also eyewitness evidence from survivors of wrecks on the southeastern coast of Africa which suggests minimal change in circumcision rites among Xhosa and Thembu peoples over three centuries. Throughout southern Africa communal rituals have to do with rain, especially the dramatic "break of the rains," so eagerly awaited after the dry season. Apartheid was abolished in 1994 when South Africa became a multiracial state. Heat is associated with pollution, which in turn is closely associated with anger and sexual activity; coolness is associated with rain, tranquility, and purification. ." The most vivid account yet written on girls' initiation; interprets symbols and explains methods of inculcating certain lessons. London, 1956. There is always a gap between the values expressed and everyday practice, but ideals and ideas of ultimate reality are embodied in ritual action. Cambridge, 1971. Most mediums deal with the domestic problems and health of clients who come to consult them. Rituals for diviners who have been called (as opposed to herbalists who learn certain medicines) and rituals of affliction are much less widespread than those for birth, maturity, and death, or those for a chiefdom or region. Religion and the Transformation of Society. White goats may yet be seen grazing on the outskirts of the African quarters of Cape Town, or one may see them being led along a country road or wandering about on some modern farm where African laborers are employed. "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.". Oxford, 1969. Hammond-Tooke, W. David. To at least some Nyakyusa Christians, such prophecies were evidence of the reality—"the truth"—of ancient institutions, the prescience of past prophets. 8 Regular List Price: US$ 129.95 Order from Amazon. 2 vols. Little attention has been paid to its fundamental religious aspect, which is discussed here. A couple of examples include Zoroastrianism and Rastafarianism. Injury is thought to come from those with whom one has quarreled: a co-wife, mother-in-law, half sibling, fellow employee, rival claimant for inheritance, affine claiming marriage cattle, litigant in court against whom judgment has been given, or fellow priest. The witch familiars (and witchcraft generally) personify the evil recognized as existing in all humans, specifically, anger, hatred, jealousy, envy, lust, greed. What is described here is but a fragment of current religious practice in southern Africa: The symbolic systems and institutions discussed here indeed still exist widely but are not the sole beliefs or practice of whole populations. The Baganda. The Future of World Religions: Population Growth Projections, 2010-2050 Tolerance and Tension: Islam and Christianity in Sub-Saharan Africa Spirit and Power: A 10-Country Survey of Pentecostals As black Africans and people of mixed race converted to the religion, church members debated the question of … Thanksgiving rituals also occur, particularly after escape from danger in war or hunting, or on the return home of a migrant laborer or a person released from imprisonment; and there are rituals invoking blessing for an important new tool such as a plough, but these are less general than the rituals of life crises. Questions? Taylor, John V. The Primal Vision: Christian Presence amid African Religion. Kenyatta, Jomo. Within the “Cite this article” tool, pick a style to see how all available information looks when formatted according to that style. Casting Out Anger: Religion among the Taita of Kenya. Manchester, 1954. Encyclopedia.com. The beer poured out may be made of sorghum, millet, bananas, bamboo, or even maize or cassava, which reached the coasts of Africa only in the sixteenth century and parts of the interior only in the nineteenth century. Witchcraft Confessions and Accusations. Protestantism is the primary belief system in South Africa with 36% of the total population. Importantly, there is significant and sustained syncretism with African Traditional Religionamong most of the self-professed Christians in South Africa. Girls' initiation, on the other hand, is most often an individual celebration at the first menstruation, and wider links with contemporaries or political authority are not treated as important. Ritual Published on May 23, 2020. Encyclopedia of Religion. Zion Christian Faith. Other major religious groups are Hindus, Muslims and Jews. An important work by an observer whose mother tongue is Zulu. To many Africans the shades are constantly about the homestead, evident in a tiny spiral of dust blowing across the yard or through the banana grove, or in the rustling of banana leaves; thought to be sheltering near the byre or in the shade of a tree, or sipping beer left overnight at the back of the great house. Reaction to Conquest. When an offering is made, an officiant, usually the senior man of the lineage, or occasionally a dead father's sister or a grandmother of the homestead, addresses the shades, calling them by name, explaining why the offering has been made—that is, what is troubling the homestead—and requesting help. Swantz, Marja-Liisa. Had not the prophecy been fulfilled? Encyclopedia of Religion. Encyclopedia.com. But everywhere the hearth and house, especially the doorway of the house, are sacred also, for among some peoples explicitly, and probably for all implicitly, the house represents the mother, the hearth stands for the marriage, and the doorway is the passage through which children are born. Everywhere the death rituals persist through time and are adapted to the new economy. London, 1911. Major Religions In South Africa. The form of witch belief varies with the social structure, as does the relationship of victim and accused, for the points of friction in a society vary with the form of residence and economic cooperation (i.e., who lives and works together), the occasions of competition, and the location of authority. Southern Africa Religion News Monitoring Service. The boys' group may become a unit in the army, and in areas where the political structure is based on age, its members may graduate together as elders holding legal and administrative office, and finally, as old men, share ritual functions. Mbiti, John S. Concepts of God in Africa. The ritual creates a fraternity or sorority of those who have undergone the ordeal: Those who have not undergone it are outsiders, but all who have endured are free to participate in the admonition of their juniors. Rituals of Rebellion in Southeast Africa. Of the total national population of 44.8 million, 35.8 millio… Although funerals have been adapted to the new economy, they include certain traditional rites, notably a washing and purification rite after the burial and a lifting of mourning after about a year. The triple heritage is used to address Christianity, Islam and indigenous religions. Indigenous African religions are by nature plural, varied, and usually informed by one’s ethnic identity, where one’s family came from in Africa. It estimates populations and percentages of adherents of 100 religious denominations including second level subdivision within Christianity and Islam. Particularly illuminating on the ancestors and illness, pollution, color symbolism in medicine, and possession by evil spirits. In the south funeral parlors with facilities for keeping a corpse exist even in some country districts, and funerals are delayed until close kin, scattered at work centers, can gather. This phenomenon has appeared recently among the Zulu, as Harriet Ngubane (1977) has shown, and, according to John Beattie (1969), it exists among the Nyoro of Uganda as well. Often there are taboo words and riddles with a set answer, knowledge of which are taken as proof of initiation. Unusual fecundity, such as twin birth, is also of God and fearful, hence twins and their parents are isolated from the normal village community and, because of their divine connection, they function as "herds" to drive off storms. American Journal of Sociology 56 (January 1951): 307–313. Whether a man has been buried in a Johannesburg township or a remote village, as of 1982 family status still depended on lavish expenditure just as it did among the Nyakyusa in 1935, when a hundred cattle might be slaughtered on the death of a rich chief. 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. In the Swazi kingdom today—as formerly in other Nguni kingdoms and chiefdoms on the southeastern coast of Africa—all the men of the country, and many women also, gather at the time of the summer solstice to celebrate the first fruits and strengthen their king, while regiments dance and demonstrate their loyalty. Long before these movements arose, the Xhosa of the eastern Cape frontier had repeatedly been urged to purify themselves and reject witchcraft. Once, when this writer was at school in London, a fellow student (later a head of state in Africa) started in his seat when this writer was so rash as to discuss lightning on a day when the Lord was muttering overhead. Prayer or direct offerings to God himself rarely occur in traditional practice, but awe of God is constantly manifested, as fear of contamination, as a distancing of humanity from God, and avoidance of such emblems of sacred power as the thunderbolt, the tree struck by lightning, and the python in the grove. Religious Characteristics of States Dataset Project: Demographics. London, 1936. Cambridge, 1978. African Ideas of God. They lived among the Ila of the Zambezi from 1902 and 1904, respectively, until 1914. Rituals of Kinship among the Nyakyusa. Among the Nguni peoples of the southeast coast a commemoration dinner may replace the rite of "bringing home" the shade and implies an awareness of the continuing existence of the dead which is much greater than that experienced by many contemporary Europeans and Americans. London, 1963. African Systems of Thought. The Forest of Symbols. Many guests bring a contribution of money, but even so the family may be crippled financially. 1. Beattie, John, and John Middleton, eds. Throughout southern Africa God has been remote, approached only by exceptional priests or by the "elders." New York, 1970. Southern Africa Religion General News Topics; Specialized News Sections on Southern Africa Religion General. Taboos surrounding the hearth, the fire, and the whole reproductive process may be seen as an expression of the holiness of normal fertility and procreation, processes which are thought to be controlled by the shades. Setiloane describes the vitality of such rites in Sotho-Tswana families of professing Christians. London, 1965. The invisible is embodied in tangible symbols which are bent to human purposes. PAGES: 450 African Studies No. Discusses the relationship between symbols and inner experience. Why maturity rituals have survived among some peoples but not others, or for one sex but not the other, in fast-changing societies can only be demonstrated by analyzing historical events in particular areas. Founding heroes typically are associated with a bed of reeds, from which the first man is said to have sprung; with a river source along the watershed between the Zambezi and Kongo rivers; with a pool in one of the rushing rivers of the south; with a hole in the ground (from which men and cattle emerged) on the dry edge of the Kalahari Desert; or with a grove of trees. Sister Munzhedzi assumed duties as Sister Makoro's deputy in July and will assume … All Rights Reserved. They are not contained within the frame of kinship or locality and seem to have proliferated with trade and travel, but of that process not much is yet known. Abrahamic religions are widespread throughout Africa. A valuable firsthand account of Kikuyu ritual and belief. It was also esti… Compare Southern Africa to … Berkeley, Calif., 1972. Philadelphia, 1963. Firsthand accounts are meager, but there is evidence that an awareness of the numinous exists. Wilson, Monica. London, 1950. Prayer and praise are here barely distinguishable. 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 Religion; Shona Religion; Swazi Religion; Tswana Religion; Witchcraft, article on African Witchcraft; Zulu Religion. Religion is an important social and economic aspect in South Sudan. Citations in the Oxford English Dictionary from the fourteenth century on reveal two distinct trends of common usage for the words rite (ritua…, Turner, Victor The priests who brought the goods were sacred people: Among the Nyakyusa these priests traveled in safety, announcing their status by drumbeat. Such creatures are as real in imagination as was the pitchfork-wielding Devil to the medieval European, and like him they walk the earth seeking those whom they may devour. If an ox has been slaughtered or much beer brewed, friends and neighbors will be asked to gather with the kinsmen, but they do not share in the sacred portions set aside for kin, who first eat and drink in a place set slightly apart from the main gathering. Rituals of maturity for boys often (but not invariably) involve circumcision: Those for girls may or may not involve clitoridectomy or some lesser operation. This happened at a time when opposition by school boys and students to Ciskeian political authority was intense. Circumcision is most often celebrated for a group, and those who have endured this rite together share a bond for life. The major faiths practiced in South Africa are Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, traditional African religions and Judaism. Cults or guilds are formed of those who have suffered a particular travail and been cured by a particular ritual. Zulu Thought-Patterns and Symbolism. Other rituals may be connected with the growth of chiefdoms. Set Up FREE Account Submit Release. Facing Mount Kenya (1938; New York, 1962). In South Africa, a national synod and nine regional synods oversee the operation of the Dutch Reformed congregations. . TEARS have always played important roles as symbols and signs in religious life around the world, yet they have only recently begun to attract…, Ndembu 2. Evidence on a very conservative section of Xhosa on the southeast coast. A brilliant essay on Lele symbolism, first published in African Worlds, edited by Daryll Forde (London, 1954). The mother had then confessed, complying with the instructions of the midwives and giving her account precisely in terms of current beliefs; she was now being cleansed, and the baby was nursing all right. In 1856 Nongqause, a sixteen-year-old medium, reported to the noted diviner Mhlakaza, her father's brother, that the shades had told her they would come to the rescue of their Xhosa descendants in their long war with whites over land on the eastern frontier, on condition that the living purify themselves and kill all their cattle. This is the area in which Bantu languages are spoken, and there is a link, though no absolute coincidence, between language family and religious symbolism. . The ancestors of a ruling lineage, where one exists, commonly claim descent from the founding hero; or the hero may be thought of as a benefactor or prophet who left no descendants but who is celebrated in some grove or cave by a lineage or priests. 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