Hostname: page-component-76dd75c94c-x59qb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-30T09:32:30.541Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Ancestor Worship in Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2011

James Thayer Addison
James Thayer Addison
Affiliation:
Episcopal Theological School, Cambridge
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Evidence for the existence of ancestor worship among the uncivilized peoples of Africa is varied and abundant. Outside the limited range of Mohammedan and Christian influence, there are few tribes whose religion has been reported with any care that do not appear to practice ancestor worship in some form. Without any attempt to provide a complete volume of testimony, and with the purpose only to indicate the wide range and diversity of these practices, we shall review geographically a portion of the facts available, passing across the map somewhat irregularly from northwest to southeast.

Type
Research Article
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 17 , Issue 2 , April 1924 , pp. 155 - 171
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1924

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 The authorities quoted for the facts which follow include government officials, missionaries, anthropologists, and travellers. Though their testimony is of unequal value, most of them are first-hand observers, and the majority of their works are of fairly recent date. The spelling of tribal names will not satisfy everyone; but there is no method of spelling these names which does satisfy everyone.

2 André Arcin, La Guinée Française, Paris, 1907, pp. 395 f.Google Scholar

3 Ellis, G. W., Negro Culture in West Africa, New York, 1914, pp. 86 f.Google Scholar

4 Jaime, G., De Koulikoro à Tombouctou, Paris, 1894, p. 328.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5 Frazer, J G., Folk-lore in the Old Testament, vol. III, London, 1918, p. 17.Google Scholar

6 Tauxier, L., Le Noir du Yatenga, Paris, 1917, p. 378.Google Scholar

7 Marc, Lucien, Le Pays Mossi, Paris, 1909, pp. 155 f.Google Scholar

8 Tauxier, L., Le Noir de Bondoukou, Paris, 1921, p. 355.Google Scholar

9 Ibid., pp. 172 f.

10 Toy, C. H., Introduction to the History of Religions, Boston, 1913, p. 154.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

11 Ellis, A. B., The Eẇe-speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast, London, 1890, pp. lll f.Google Scholar

12 Keane, A. H., Man, Past and Present, Cambridge, 1899, p. 58.Google Scholar

13 A. B. Ellis, op. cit., pp. 110 f.

14 Ellis, A. B., The Yoruba-speaking Peoples, London, 1894, p. 137Google Scholar; Dennett, H. E., At the Back of the Black Man's Mind, London, 1906, pp. 245 f., quoting James Johnson's Yoruba Heathenism.Google Scholar

15 Campbell, R., A Pilgrimage to my Motherland, London, 1861, pp. 63 f.; see also Toy, op. cit., p. 154.Google Scholar

16 Ellis, Yoruba-speaking Peoples, pp. 24 f., 109; Cruickshank, B., Eighteen Years on the Gold Coast of Africa, London, 1853, vol. II, p. 135.Google Scholar

17 Ellis, Yoruba-speaking Peoples, pp. 24 f., 102–105.

18 Desplagnes, Louis, Le Plateau Central Nigérien, Paris, 1907, pp. 261 f.Google Scholar

19 Thomas, N. W., Anthropological Report on the Edo-speaking Peoples of Nigeria, Pt. I, London, 1910, pp. 24, 37 f., 78.Google Scholar

20 Thomas, N. W., Anthropological Report on the Ibo-speaking Peoples of Nigeria, Pt. I, London, 1913, pp. 34 f.Google Scholar

21 Talbot, P. A., In the Shadow of the Bush, London, 1912, pp. 13Google Scholar, 232 f. For notes on ancestor worship along the Lower Niger, see also Leonard, A. G., The Lower Niger and its Tribes, London, 1906, pp. 67, 89, 434.Google Scholar

22 Zintgraff, E., Nord-Kamerun, Berlin, 1895, p. 221Google Scholar; Seidel, A., Deutsch-Kamerun, Berlin, 1906, pp. 205 f.Google Scholar

23 F., and Thorbecke, M. P., Im Hochland von Mittel-Kamerun, Pt. III, Hamburg, 1919, pp. 83 f.Google Scholar

24 Cureau, A. L., Savage Man in Central Africa (translated), London, 1915, pp. 282 f.Google Scholar

25 Wilson, J. L., Western Africa, New York, 1856, pp. 388, 392 ff.Google Scholar; Barret, P., L'Afrique Occidentale, vol. II, Paris, 1888, pp. 193 f.Google Scholar

26 Roy, A. Le, The Religion of the Primitives (translated), New York, 1922, p. 105.Google Scholar

27 Van Overbergh, C., Les Bangala, Brussels, 1907, p. 253.Google Scholar

28 Hartland, E. S., Ritual and Belief, London, 1914, p. 148Google Scholar; Weeks, J. H., Among Congo Cannibals, London, 1913, pp. 261, 268.Google Scholar

29 Van Overbergh, C., Les Mayombe, Brussels, 1907, p. 289.Google Scholar

30 Delhaise, , Les Warega, Brussels, 1909, p. 207.Google Scholar

31 Claridge, G. C., Wild Bush Tribes of Tropical Africa, London, 1922, pp. 279, 284.Google Scholar

32 Frazer, J. G., Golden Bough, 3d ed., Pt. IV, vol. II, London, 1911–1915, pp. 190 f.Google Scholar

33 Roscoe, J., The Northern Bantu, Cambridge, 1915, p. 132.Google Scholar

34 Roscoe, J., The Banyankole, Cambridge, 1923, p. 25.Google Scholar

35 Johnston, H., The Uganda Protectorate, vol. II, London, 1902, p. 587.Google Scholar

36 J. Roscoe, The Northern Bantu, p. 94.

37 Roscoe, J., The Bakitara or Banyoro, Cambridge, 1923, p. 41.Google Scholar

38 Driberg, J. H., The Lango, London, 1923, p. 231.Google Scholar

39 Roscoe, Northern Bantu, p. 245.

40 Ibid., p. 273.

41 Frazer, Folk-lore in the Old Testament, vol. III, p. 263.

42 Roscoe, Northern Bantu, p. 180.

43 Ibid., p. 291; K. H. Dundas in Journal of Royal Anthropological Institute, vol. XLIII, p. 45.

44 Johnston, Uganda Protectorate, vol, II, p. 752.

45 Roscoe, J., The Baganda, London, 1911, pp. 273–288.Google Scholar

46 Beech, M. W. H., The Suk, Oxford, 1911, p. 20.Google Scholar

47 W. S., and Routledge, K., With a Prehistoric People, London, 1910, p. 227; Frazer, Golden Bough, Pt. IV, vol. I, pp. 82 f.Google Scholar

48 Ibid.

49 Hobley, C. W., Ethnology of A-Kamba, Cambridge, 1910, pp. 85 f.; Frazer, Golden Bough, Pt. V, vol. II, p. 113; Pt. I, vol. II, p. 317.Google Scholar

50 Hobley, C. W., Bantu Beliefs and Magic, London, 1922, pp. 22, 27 ff.; Hobley, Journal of Royal Anthropological Institute, vol. XLI, p. 432Google Scholar

51 A. H. Keane, op. cit., pp. 95 f.

52 Le Roy, op. cit, p. 203.

53 Hartland, op. cit., p. 264.

54 Czekanowski, J., in Wissenschaftliche Ergebnisse der Deutschen Zentral-Afrika-Expedition 1907–1908, vol. VI, Leipzig, 1917, p. 298Google Scholar; Meyer, H., Die Barundi, Leipzig, 1916, pp. 135 f.Google Scholar

55 Swann, A. J., Fighting the Slave-Hunters in Central Africa, London, 1910, p. 208.Google Scholar

56 Volkens, G., Der Kilimandscharo, Berlin, 1897, p. 254.Google Scholar

57 Frazer, Folk-lore in the Old Testament, vol. II, pp. 16 f.; cf. P. E. Meyer, in Anthropos, vol. XII–XIII, pp. 190 f.

58 Hinde, S. L., The Last of the Masai, London, 1901, pp. 101 f.Google Scholar

59 Baumann, O., Durch Massailand zur Nilquelle, Berlin, 1894, pp. 187, 193.Google Scholar

59a Baumann, O., Durch Massailand zur Nilquelle, Berlin, 1894, pp. 187, 193.Google Scholar

60 Baumann, O., Usambara, Berlin, 1891, pp. 141 f.Google Scholar

61 Dempwolff, O., Die Sandawe, Hamburg, 1916, pp. 141 f.Google Scholar

62 Frazer, Golden Bough, Pt. IV, vol. II, pp. 188 f.

63 Weule, K., Native Life in East Africa (translated), London, 1909, pp. 324 ff.Google Scholar

64 Fülleborn, F., Das Deutsche Njassa- und Ruwuma-Gebiet, Berlin, 1906, pp. 151Google Scholar, 216, 498; cf. Johnson, W. P., Nyasa, the Great Water, Oxford, 1922, p. 118.Google Scholar

65 Frazer, Golden Bough, Pt. V, vol. II, p. 112.

66 Gouldsbury, C. and Sheane, H., The Great Plateau of Northern Rhodesia, London, 1911, pp. 82 ff.Google Scholar

67 Fraser, D., Winning a Primitive People, New York, 1914, p. 160.Google Scholar

68 Frazer, Folk-lore in the Old Testament, vol. III, p. 263.

69 D. Fraser, op. cit., pp. 126 f.; Frazer, Golden Bough, pt. V, vol. II, p. 112; Jack, J. W., Daybreak in Livingstonia, New York, 1900, p. 260.Google Scholar

70 Macdonald, Duff, Africana, vol. I, London, 1882, p. 59.Google Scholar

71 Ibid., vol. I, p. 68.

72 Ibid., vol. I, pp. 64 f.

73 Maugham, R. C. F., Portuguese East Africa, London, 1906, pp. 280 f.Google Scholar

74 Smith, E. W. and Dale, A. M., The Ila-speaking Peoples of Northern Rhodesia, vol. II, London, 1920, pp. 124, 165–174.Google Scholar

75 Mackintosh, C. W., Coillard of the Zambesi, London, 1907, pp. 339Google Scholar, 431; Coillard, F., Sur le Haut-Zambèze, Paris, 1898, pp. 190, 196.Google Scholar

76 Frazer, Golden Bough, Pt. V, vol. II, p. 111.

77 Ibid., Pt. I, vol. I, p. 352.

78 Ibid., Pt. IV, vol. II, p. 188.

79 Ibid., Pt. V, vol. II, p. 110.

80 Frazer, Golden Bough, Pt. IV, vol. II, p. 186.

81 Ibid., Pt. I, vol. II, pp. 221 f.

82 Fritsch, G., Die Eingeborenen Süd-Afrika's, Breslau, 1872, p. 354.Google Scholar

83 Mackenzie, J., Day-Dawn in Dark Places, London, 1884, p. 217.Google Scholar

84 Hartland, Ritual and Belief, p. 175.

85 Lévy-Bruhl, L., La Mentalité primitive, Paris, 1922, p. 82 and note.Google Scholar

86 Junod, H. A., Les Baronga, Neuchâtel, 1898, pp. 381 ff.Google Scholar

87 H. A. Junod, ‘Bantu Heathen Prayers,’ in International Review of Missions, vol. XI, no. 44, pp. 561–565; cf. Junod, H. A., The Life of a South African Tribe, vol. II, Neuchâtel, 1913, pp. 293, 344, 348 ff., 386.Google Scholar

88 Frazer, Golden Bough, Pt. IV, vol. II, p. 181.

89 Farrer, J. A., Zululand and the Zulus, London, 1879, p. 134.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

90 Ibid., pp. 127–136; Shooter, J., The Kafirs of Natal and the Zulu Country, London, 1857, pp. 161 ff.Google Scholar; Grout, L., Zulu-Land, Philadelphia, 1864, pp. 137, 144.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

91 Casalis, E., Les Bassoutos, Paris, 1859, pp. 257–264CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Widdicombe, J., Fourteen Years in Basutoland, London, 1891, p. 60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

92 de Quatrefages, A., The Pygmies (translated), New York, 1895, pp. 228 f.Google Scholar

93 Kidd, D., The Essential Kafir, London, 1904, pp. 84–92.Google Scholar

94 Holden, W. C., The Past and Future of the Kaffir Races, London, 1866, p. 298.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

95 Arbousset, T. and Dumas, F., Relation d'un voyage d'exploration, etc., Paris, 1842, pp. 77, 469.Google Scholar

96 Frazer, Golden Bough, Pt. IV, vol. II, p. 176.

97 McC, G.. Theal, The Yellow and Dark-skinned People of Africa South of the Zambesi, London, 1910, p. 183.Google Scholar

98 Johnston, H. H., Liberia, vol. II, London, 1906, p. 1062Google Scholar; cf. Lévy-Bruhl, op. cit., p. 81 and note; Smith, E. W., The Religion of Lower Races, New York, 1923, pp. 33–48.Google Scholar

99 Collection des ouvrages anciens concernant Madagascar, vol. II, Paris, 1904, pp. 228, 233, 245.Google Scholar

100 Little, H. W., Madagascar, its History and People, Edinburgh, 1884, pp. 83 ff.Google Scholar

101 Leblond, M. A., La Grande Ile de Madagascar, Paris, 1907, pp. 227 f.Google Scholar

102 Rusillon, H., Un Culte dynastique avec évocation des morts, Paris, 1912, pp. 43–60Google Scholar; Sibree, J. Jr, The Great African Island, London, 1880, pp. 226 f., 303.Google Scholar