What is Pa divination in Nigeria? Who or what is Mami Water? Does a single African spirituality exist across all indigenous cultures, even after their... contact with Western religions such as Christianity? In this illustrated book, a perfect introduction to the fascinating world of African religion, spirituality, and cosmology, writers from Margaret R. Miles and Kathleen O’Brien Wicker to Ogbu Kalu and Abdulkader I. Tayob lead us into discussions of the diversity of African spiritual traditions and the forms and patterns that link them. Special topics include Dagbamba, Haitian Vodun, shrines, divination, candomble, and Sufism and the role of Islam.

African spirituality among the Akan people of Ghana can be defined as a developmental quest to achieve ancestorhood in heaven (Samanadzie) after first... attaining eldership and wisdom in the corporeal world (Wiadzie). The African life, then, is a cycle. A human originates in the Samanadzie as a spiritual personality (?saman) after being joined by a spirit (Sunsum). At birth, a newborn is endowed with a soul (?kra), becoming a living being (?kratsiasifo). During adulthood, a person embarks on an ethical existence (?bra b?), the successful application of which leads a community to confer an eldership title (Nana) on an adult. Upon death, a Nana is again transformed into an ?saman and judged at the Samanadzie. If found worthy, the ?saman joins the eternally esteemed company of the Ancestors (Nananom Nsamanfo), with the most powerful of them all—kings and queen mothers—transformed into deities.

In a vast and all-embracing study of Africa, from the origins of mankind to the AIDS epidemic, John Iliffe refocuses its history on the peopling of an... environmentally hostile continent. Africans have been pioneers struggling against disease and nature, and their social, economic and political institutions have been designed to ensure their survival. In the context of medical progress and other twentieth-century innovations, however, the same institutions have bred the most rapid population growth the world has ever seen. The history of the continent is thus a single story binding living Africans to their earliest human ancestors. John Iliffe was Professor of African History at the University of Cambridge and is a Fellow of St. John's College. He is the author of several books on Africa, including A modern history of Tanganyika and The African poor: A history, which was awarded the Herskovits Prize of the African Studies Association of the United States. Both books were published by Cambridge University Press.

The latest work from Harold Scheub, one of the world's leading scholars of African folktales, is the broadest collection yet assembled with tales from... the entire continent of Africa, north to south. It brings together mythic, fantastic, and coming-of-age tales, some transcribed more than a hundred years ago, others dating to modern-day Africa. Scheub includes the work of storytellers from major African language groups, as well as many storytellers whose work is not often heard outside of Africa. This anthology offers a classroom-ready collection that should appeal to any scholar of African literature and culture. Realizing that these tales are part of a dying art, Scheub writes for the inner ear in everyone, bringing an oral tradition to life in written form.

This is an authoritative survey of textile arts—unique and collectible rugs, tapestries, garments, and more—from all parts of Africa. Five sections... detail the textile history and traditions of west, north, east, central, and southern Africa, examining materials, dyes, decorations, patterns, and techniques.African Textiles is an authoritative survey of textile arts--unique and collectible rugs, tapestries, garments, and much more--from across the continent. John Gillow has traveled extensively throughout Africa, uncovering the dazzling range of traditional, handcrafted, indigenous textiles from each region.Five sections detail the textile history and traditions of West, North, East, Central, and Southern Africa, examining materials, dyes, decorations, patterns, and techniques. From the stripweave cloth of the Ashanti to Ethiopian embroidery, from Berber rugs to Madagascan silk, the breadth of coverage in African Textiles is peerless. Gloriously illustrated with more than 500 color photographs and drawings, this is an essential sourcebook for anyone interested in textile design and the traditional arts of Africa.John Gillow has written many books on textiles including, with Nicholas Barnard, Indian Textiles. 572 color, 12 b&w illustrations

Students learn about the customs and practices of African Tradition Religion. Includes photos and illustrations, fact file, bibliography, further... reading, web sites, glossary, and index.

Beads, bones, rags, straw, leather, pottery, fur, feathers and blood—these are the raw materials of vodun artworks. The power of these images lies not... only in their aesthetic, and counter-aesthetic, appeal but also in their psychological and emotional effect. As objects of fury and force, these works are intended to protect and empower people and cultures that have long been oppressed.In this first major study of its kind, Suzanne Preston Blier examines the artworks of the contemporary vodun cultures of southern Benin and Togo in West Africa as well as the related voudou traditions of Haiti, New Orleans, and historic Salem, Massachusetts. Blier employs a variety of theoretically sophisticated psychological, anthropological, and art historical approaches to explore the contrasts inherent in the vodun arts—commoners versus royalty, popular versus elite, "low" art versus "high." She examines the relation between art and the slave trade, the psychological dynamics of artistic expression, the significance of the body in sculptural expression, and indigenous perceptions of the psyche.Throughout, Blier pushes African art history to a new height of cultural awareness that recognizes the complexity of traditional African societies as it acknowledges the role of social power in shaping aesthetics and meaning generally. This book will be of critical importance not only to those concerned with African, African American, and Caribbean art, but also to anthropologists, African diaspora scholars, students of comparative religion and comparative psychology, and anyone fascinated by the traditions of voudou and vodun."An extraordinary tour de force."—Choice"Extraordinarily detailed....Blier's examination of the entire, often mysterious history of vodun is...in a word, definitive."—Booklist"A serious study that concentrates on the hidden power of objects and the meaning behind that potency is long overdue. Welcome Susan Blier's African Vodun....Certainly a must for...those concerned with the psychology of art."—Janet L. Stanley, Art Documentation"[Blier] is usually sensitive to the need to resist imposing Western artistic values and academic methodologies inappropriately upon such art. But she offers the reader a gift even more precious; she offers rare insights into how various art forms—sculpture and home architecture in particular—yield meanings for the African users of such art.—Norman Weinstein, Boston Book Review

It's an awful story. It's an awful story. Why do you want to bring this up now?--Chief Awusa of AtorkorFor centuries, the story of the Atlantic slave... trade has been filtered through the eyes and records of white Europeans. In this watershed book, historian Anne C. Bailey focuses on memories of the trade from the African perspective. African chiefs and other elders in an area of southeastern Ghana-once famously called "the Old Slave Coast"-share stories that reveal that Africans were traders as well as victims of the trade. Bailey argues that, like victims of trauma, many African societies now experience a fragmented view of their past that partially explains the blanket of silence and shame around the slave trade. Capturing scores of oral histories that were handed down through generations, Bailey finds that, although Africans were not equal partners with Europeans, even their partial involvement in the slave trade had devastating consequences on their history and identity. In this unprecedented and revelatory book, Bailey explores the delicate and fragmented nature of historical memory.

Over the last century, the social and economic roles played by African women have evolved dramatically. Long confined to home and field, overlooked by... their menfolk and missionaries alike, African women worked, thought, dreamed, and struggled. They migrated to the cities, invented new jobs, and activated the so-called informal economy to become Africa’s economic and social focal point. As a result, despite their lack of education and relatively low status, women are now Africa’s best hope for the future.This sweeping and innovative book is the first to reconstruct the full history of women in sub-Saharan Africa. Tracing the lot of African women from the eve of the colonial period to the present, Catherine Coquery-Vidrovitch explores the stages and forms of women’s collective roles as well as their individual emancipation through revolts, urban migrations, economic impacts, social claims, political strength, and creativity. Comparing case studies drawn from throughout the region, she sheds light on issues ranging from gender to economy, politics, society, and culture. Utilizing an impressive array of sources, she highlights broad general patterns without overlooking crucial local variations. With its breadth of coverage and clear analysis of complex questions, this book is destined to become a standard text for scholars and students alike.

A key mechanism of apartheid in South Africa was the set of restrictions placed on the movements of Africans; in particular, African women were subject... to lives of daily surveillance and highly regulated housing, employment and mobility. Here Lee explores the lives and testimonies of three generations of African women in Cape Town during the apartheid (1948-94) and post-apartheid periods. Through life histories and a wealth of evidence, Lee considers how African women differently experienced apartheid, offering an intimate account of their attempts to locate "home" in the urban setting. The various strategies of settlement African women crafted over five decades provide a compelling portrait of adaptation, resilience and change. Drawing together perspectives from anthropology, history, human geography and development studies, African Women and Apartheid will be valuable to anyone with interests in South African culture and society, gender, urbanization, the African family, oral history and memory.

This book explores the ways in which women in Africa utilize Information and Communication Technologies to facilitate their empowerment; whether... through the mobile village phone business, through internet use, or through new career and ICT employment opportunities. Based on the outcome of an extensive research project, this timely books features chapters based on original primary field research undertaken by academics and activists who have investigated situations within their own communities and countries. The discussion includes such issues as the notion of ICTs for empowerment and as agents of change, ICTs in the fight against gender-based violence, and how ICTs could be used to re-conceptualize public and private spaces.

Christian Churches and the Global AIDS Crisis More than twenty years into the global AIDS pandemic, the efforts of Christian congregations and... denominations have been less than minimal. This book is aimed to awaken Christian compassion in the coming years to this fathomless tragedy. The worst health crisis in the world in 700 years, global HIV/AIDS epidemic is overwhelming in scale: 40 million people are infected worldwide (75% of them in Africa); 7000 people die daily; each day 1600 persons are infected. Some 26 million people have already died. ''At this unprecedented kairos moment in human history,'' says Messer, ''God is calling the church to a new mission and ministry.'' Drawing on his own involvement in global AIDS education in Asia, Latin America, and Africa, Messer uses stories, basic factual information, and theological insights to motivate lay and clerical Christians to assume leadership and form partnerships with Christians around the world in this struggle. Just as individuals must change their behavior to prevent and eliminate AIDS, so must congregations and church leaders. Compassion, not condemnation, is desperately needed, says Messer. But financial resources for education and prevention programs are also urgently required from churches. Messer shows how churches can partner with ecumenical organizations, relief agencies, volunteer mission programs, healthcare programs, and other agencies to engage global AIDS directly and effectively.