Rituals of Sub-Saharan Africa

Spiritual beliefs have always been an interest of mine, as mentioned in my previous post, so I thought it would be interesting to discuss the beliefs of Sub-Saharan Africans.
Africans, like many other civilizations, have a way to deal with “tough times” and understand the meaning of life. This process or belief is known as divination for Sub-Saharan Africans. The origin of this belief originated from China during the twelfth century BCE. Divination has many different forms, but all forms of practice have the same central idea, the search for the meaning of life and understanding suffering and death.
Much like many forms of religion, divination is practiced on a regular basis. For many Sub-Saharan Africans, divination is a daily aspect of their lives. Diviners or friction oracle are the religious leaders who individuals may bring questions and concerns to.
The difference in the form of divination comes to play when looking at what or who is involved in worship. For instance, the Azande of southern Sudan confront benge to address questions of adultery or sorcery and confronting iwa to determine if witchcraft has been used against them. Among the Luba people, the friction device known as kakishi (a small, carved wooden object held by the individual and diviner) is used. The movements of the object provide answers to the individual’s questions. Also, in the Luba culture, a form of divination involving the sacred gourd is used. In this instance, the diviner would mix a variety of natural and manufactured objects together and interpret the configuration formed by the objects. Animals are also used in divination. In a few cultures, mice and spiders are observed, and the random movements will answer the individual’s questions.
Visit http://www.metmuseum.org/explore/oracle/essayPemberton.html to read more about the divination previously mentioned and other forms of divination. The website also contains links that display interesting artifacts and objects that are used in divination.