The material on this page relates as much to the section of Ama entitled America, as to that entitled Africa. See  African religion and Candomblé. MH

Please click on the bulleted headings below to toggle the full text.

• Opoku, Kofi Asare, West African Traditional Religion FEP 1978
  • 28    The name of God is often incorporated in West African names . . . The Yoruba have..   Olukoya, the Lord champions the cause of the suffering.
    
    32    To the ancient Akan of Ghana, the Onyamedua tree (Alstonia boonei) served as a symbol of their dependence on God.  The tree either grew in palaces, shrines and houses, or a stump of it with a forked branch was placed at entrances to these places.  A pot containing rainwater (Nyankonsu, God's water) was placed on the tree or stump, and periodically the water was used to bless the inmates of the house. . .
    
    72    The Akan of Ghana believe in an evil spirit called Sasabonsam . . . Sasabonsam is a monster of frightening appearance: it has the head of an animal with long black hair, a flaming mouth and a long tongue which sticks out most of the time: it has hoofs and a long tail which ends in the head of a snake and which coils around the trees on which it sits.
    
    73    Like Sasabonsam, the Mmoatia live in the forest. They are believed to be very short in stature, standing not more than one foot high, and have curved noses and yellowish skins, while their feet point in the opposite direction.  The Mmoatia communicate with each other through a whistle language and their favourite food is bananas. . .  The Mmoatia are credited with a phenomenal knowledge of medicines which they impart to herbalists or medicine men. . .
    
    94    The traditional Akan thought on man is that he is made up of okra, sunsum, notoro and mogya . . .  the okra, or soul . . . is the undying part of man, the part which is given directly by the Creator before man is born into the world. . . . the sunsum (is) an intangible element which accounts for the character (suban), disposition and intelligence of a person . . . the ntoro is transmitted from a father to his children . . . the mogya or blood . . . is given by a mother to her child, which establishes a physiological bond between them and forms the basis of the abusua or clan. . . .
    
    111    the Akan . . . perform a ritual to name a new-born child. . .  two containers are provided, one filled with water and the other with palm wine . . . The principal officiant pours libation and then asks the father or his representative for the name to be given to the child.  He then puts the child on his lap, calls out its name, and dips his right forefinger into the water to wet the tongue of the child three times and says " . . .  wuse nsua, nsu!" meaning, literally, if you say it is water, let it be water you are tasting. . .  In other words, the child is being told that he should be truthful.

   

• Sarpong, Rev. Dr. Peter, Catholic Archbishop of Kumasi, The Sacred Stools of the Akan, Ghana Publishing Corporation, 1971

  • 11    Sacrificing to the Spirit of the Tree.  It is necessary for the craftsman to appease the spirit of the tree before he fells the tree.  He usually sacrifices eggs, fowls, and sheep; and before making the sacrifice he may say, "Sese tree, here is a chicken for you.  I am going to fell you and make a stool out of you; receive an offering and eat.  Please, let not the tool cut me.  Do not let me suffer afterwards; and let me have a good price for the stool."
    
    Nor does the sacrifice end here.  It is expected that the spirit who has been deprived of his home will return now and again into the material in which it lived before the tree was cut down. The stool can also be inhabited by an external spirit.  It is therefore important that similar sacrifices should be made to the completed stool or drum. . .
    
    The same idea that the carved object becomes the shrine of the dislodged spirit of the tree and other spirits explains the custom of putting an empty stool on its side or against the wall.  The reason for this is to prevent any wandering spirit from sitting on it, and so leaving an evil influence in it.
    
    The Akan stool-carver therefore lives continuously in a religious atmosphere.

   

• Sarpong, Rev. Dr. Peter, Catholic Archbishop of Kumasi, Some Notes on West African Traditional Religion (Advanced Level) Duplicated, foolscap, 103 pp. Dec. 1990.

  • Bishop Sarpong doesn't do himself justice when he writes, "I present the notes to the students just as a very poor guide rather than as a comprehensive treatment of this vast and rich topic. . . " This is an excellent introduction for the non-specialist lay person.  Many, but not all, of the examples are from the Akan. But how to get hold of a copy . . ?

   

• Swithenbank, Michael, Ashanti Fetish Houses, Ghana Universities Press, 1969
  • 10    The hierarchy of Ashanti deities has at its apex, Nyame, the supreme god, omniscient and omnipresent.  His 'sons' are generally represented as being various natural features, such as rivers and lakes, his favourite son being the River Tano. The earth is represented by the goddess Asaase.  Below these are the many lesser gods, or abosom, which are of great immediate importance as they are directly accessible to human beings, in a way in which the principal gods are not. Nyame is too remote to be petitioned directly in the normal course of events; although many Ashanti compounds contain an altar in the form of a forked branch in which is set a pot or basin, where offerings are placed, and most prayers commence with an invocation to the supreme being.  The abosom are important therefore, in that they act as intermediaries between Nyame and mankind.
    
    11  The Ashanti use the term obosomfo to describe any priest, while the term okomfo is reserved for those priests who are at times possessed.  If when possessed the okomfo speaks in some strange tongue, as well he may, another priest must act as interpreter, while yet another may have the duty of restraining the okomfo if his actions appear to be coming too uncontrollable.

• Thompson, Robert Farris.  Face of the Gods: Art and Altars of Africa and the African Americas.  The Museum for African Art, New York 1993
  • 114     . . . powerful Mande ideas of altars and worship did come to the coast of Ghana and Senegambia and traveled from there across the seas.
    
    115    The forest settings of such shrines represents "mystery" - "that which is impenetrable, that which cannot be entered except with the greatest of difficulty."  If the forest is the image of initiatory knowledge, then the clearing within it is "the end of the quest for that knowledge."  This rendering of the forest as a veil, to be pierced only by initiation, dates from the time, surely, of the earliest hunters and gatherers.

• Tufuo, J. W. and C. E. Donkor, Ashantis of Ghana: People with a Soul, Anowuo Educational Publications, 1989.
  • 86    The Ashanti believes finally in the Odomankoma, the Everlasting Creator of all, and Onyankopon, the Unchangeable One on whom he leans.  But as kings have linguists, so he believes the Mighty One has linguists in the lesser gods which serve him.. . . He believes that he must serve his god not for his own benefit only but for the benefit of those dead and those yet unborn.

• Gleason J., Orisha, the Gods of Yorubaland, New York, 1973.
  • Because I greatly admire Judith Gleason's novel Agotime, Her Legend, I did a search on "Judith Gleason" at the Amazon site and this is what it turned up, in addition to the above. MH

    This Africa, 1965

    Santeria, Bronx, 1975

    Leaf and Bone : African Praise-Poems, Judith Gleason (Editor), published 1980 and 1994

    A recitation of Ifa, oracle of the Yoruba

    Oya : In Praise of an African Goddess, 1992

    There is a review of only the last of these, which reads as follows:
    olooya@aol.com from USA , June 21, 1998
    Very good and interesting reading. Hepan Heyi !!
    This is the best book written on the matter of the goddess Oya. I am an Oya priestess and I have not only found this book to be very illustrative, it contains prayers, patakis, and a totally different version of the "Oya" then the one the western world has attempted to illustrate.
    The author is very well informed and the context is well written.
    However, I would have given it a higher rating should the author not have gone into the lengthy discussion of Oya's role in the winds and atmosphere. Although the author's information on the matter is quite good and informative, I would have liked to have seen more context on the works, principals and patakis of Oya than a lengthy discussion on her role in the winds and atmosphere.
    Nonetheless, I would recommend this book to any Oya priest/ess or follower, student, or practitioner of the Yoruba religion.

   

• Allen F Roberts,  Jeremy Joseph Pool, Randall Pouwels, Maggie Canvin, John Edward Philips and Misbahudeen Ahmed-Rufai  on Amulets

  • Cross-posting from H-Africa
    (forwarded by David Robinson)
    Date:    Tue, 2 Nov 1999 18:22:56 +0000
    From:    Mel Page <africa@ACCESS.ETSU.EDU>
    Sujet:  Deux reponses qui vous renvoient a des ouvrages clefs sur la
    question 'amulettes et islam en Afrique de l'ouest'
    Subject: Amulets and Islam: Replies [2]
    [1]
    Date:   Fri, 29 Oct 1999
    From:   Allen F Roberts, UCLA                 <allenr@ucla.edu>
    
    Readers interested in the use of talismans ("gree-grees") by west African Muslims should consult the writings of Rene Bravmann (_Islam and Tribal Art in West Africa_, Cambridge UP,1974; _African Islam_, Smithsonian IPr 1983), Fred Lamp (_Art of the Baga_, Prestel, 1996), Labelle Prussin (_Hatumere: Islamic Design in West Africa_, California UP 1986), and Rosalind Hackett (_Art and Religion in Africa_, Cassell 1996).
    Such devices will also be among the topics of a forthcoming book and exhibition by Mary Nooter Roberts and Allen F.Roberts, tentatively entitled "'Passport to Paradise': Senegalese Sufi Arts on the Move" (UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History, 2002).
    
    To understand the use of amulets by west African Muslims (and others), one must consider the broader context of the significance of holy text by practitioners of west African Sufism. As is true of Sufis and many other mystics the world over, letters, text, and the act of writing are endowed with and convey sacred energy, called baraka. Bearing talismans is only one of many ways that west African Muslims use holy writing to protect themselves and further their affairs; others include wearing clothing upon which Scripture has been written directly, or drinking or washing with prayer water in which writings from Qu'ranic boards or papers have been dissolved. The purpose of these practices is both immediate (to solve problems) and profound (to efface oneself into the Word of Allah). Although there are many ways in which African religions interdigitate with or complement such activities, there are as many in which African Muslims are participating in practices and perspectives shared with Sufis throughout the world.
    
    Cross-posting from H-Africa 
    Date:    Wed, 27 Oct 1999
    From:    Mel Page <africa@ACCESS.ETSU.EDU>
    Subject: Amulets and Islam: Replies [5]
    [1] Date:   Sun, 24 Oct 1999
    From:   Jeremy Joseph Pool, Emory University               <jpool@emory.edu>
    
    I'm not sure about the origins of the practice described, though, in and of itself it doesn't necessarily involve a melding of animism and Islam as such. Amulets based in the Qu'aran aren't so very different from rosary beads and such.
    
    I don't know where the "certain chieftain" was drawn from, but Ivor Wilks' classic _Asante in the Nineteenth Century_ discusses the use of at least parallel amulets as a trade good within the Asante empire from the predominantly Moslem north of what is now Ghana into Burkina Faso.  In Asante these amulets seem primarily to have been used as war medicines, attached to the outside of battle dress in order to turn away projectiles (enough of them in concentration could be physically effective at this). To my knowledge, in the Asante case this never resulted in any widespread conversion in the empire's center, though Moslems were present as scribes and resident aliens, as well as subject populations.
    
    The use of these amulets may be more about the incorporation of Islam into what seems like a common West African view of other folk's gods, in which they serve as other potential sources of power/protection.  Rather than the monotheistic lens of competing exclusive truths, amulets based in someone else's God could be viewed as a differently localized source of spiritual power, which might be borrowed or appropriated without any apparent contradiction.
    
    [2]Date:   Mon, 25 Oct 1999
    From:   Randall Pouwels, University of Central Arkansas               <Randyp@mail.uca.edu>
    
    David Owusu-Ansah has written some of the best work on this. He has, as I understand, a book on the subject (based on research in Ghana), though I don't know the name or the publisher. He also has a chapter in our new _History of Islam in Africa_ (Ohio U. Press, in press), entitled "Prayers, Amulets, and Healing."
    [3]Date:   Mon, 25 Oct 1999
    
    From:   Maggie Canvin, University of Reading, England               <sociolingo@yahoo.com>
    
    David Maranz of the Societe Internationale de Linguistique c/o BP 2075, Dakar, Senegal, wrote his thesis on the interface between Islam and traditional religion which is now published as 'Peace is Everything: The World View of Muslims and Traditionalists in the Senegambia.' by SIL, 7500 W. Camp Wisdom Road, Dallas, Texas 75236-5699. Phone: (972)708-7400. Ask or write the bookstore. David may be able to help with more references/ideas. You can quote me as your contact if you wish.
    
    [4]Date:   Tue, 26 Oct 1999
    From:   John Edward Philips               <philips@gol.com>
    
    The following paragraphs (references deleted) may be relevant to the question about amulets and Islam in West Africa. They are from my dissertation "Ribats in the Sokoto Caliphate" (UCLA, 1992, B. Obichere, supervisor). I considered them potentially controversial, but have never gotten much feedback on them.
    
    Although Islam is the only traditional belief system in  west Africa that relies on written records for its  transmission, the importance of this permanent verbal record  ties it in with another important west African tradition,  one that also helped lead to the assumption of power by scholars.  West African societies are verbally oriented.  A  high value is placed on verbal skill and the rate of multilingualism is very high.  Not only are intricate forms of verbal play found in every west African language, but as one colonial manual described the situation "the natives can acquire a native language in about one-fiftieth of the time that it takes the most expert European linguist to do so."   Names are an important statement about a person or thing, a source of power over them.  The magic of literacy consists in its capturing the power of words, fixing the words materially so that they could be carried around to give power to their possessor.  Thus Qur'anic amulets, which contain the word of God (the most powerful magic) are avidly sought by Muslim and non-Muslim alike.  Even those west Africans who don't pray, and who are therefore not considered Muslim, believe in the power of the magic possessed by literate Muslim scholars.
    
    A similar pattern often takes place among Christians. An   acquaintance of mine in Ghana importuned me incessantly for a "zip Bible."  He was most insistent that the Bible I sent him must have a leather cover and be closed with a zipper. Friends of mine in his village later confirmed what I had suspected. He was not reading the bible, but was using it as a charm.
    
    The parallel with the Kano charm Dirki, a Qur'an sewn in a leather case, should be obvious.
    
    [5]
    Date:   Tue, 26 Oct 1999
    From:   Misbahudeen Ahmed-Rufai               <misbafumi@hotmail.com>
    
    I agree with Hunwick that the issue of amulets is a blend of tradtional African beliefs with Islam. I would not call it animist though. In Asanteman, the warriors garment is draped with amulets prepared by Muslim clerics. The Asantehene's war garb is also in similar fashion. Various chapters of the Qur'an, believed to serve protective purposes are inscribed in these amulets.
    
    In 1983, I had an experience in Ibadan where I picked up an amulet in my sister's house. She had been given the amulet by a fetish priest who convinced her of its protective powers. I convinced her not to depend on it. On cutting up the amulet, which was wrapped in a goat skin, I discovered, not verses of the Qur'an, but rather a strange mix of ground bones of some animal mixed with dried blood.  We burnt the whole thing. What this means is that there are some opinions of the Muslim world that theologically condemn amulets as shirk because of the tendency to rely on its efficacy instead of direct protection from God. It also shows the chances of misleading people into believing they have verses of the Qur'an on them while in actual fact, the amulet may contain something else.  Amulet practices are very common among the marabout.

   

• Greg Spencer on Akan and Yoruba reactions to Islam and Christianity

  • H-AFRICA@H-NET.MSU.EDU
    Date: 12 Mar 1999
    From: Greg Spencer
          <g.j.spencer@bham.ac.uk>
    
    I suspect the most useful secondary studies on African perceptions of European culture and technology would be from within studies of religious encounter.  Alas, the most useful I can lay my hands on are all marked 'forthcoming'!
    
    Sticking with material in the public realm, I would strongly recommend the pages on Islam and Christianity in McCaskie, T. C. _State and Society in Pre-colonial Asante_ (i.e. pp. 135-142), where one does at least get to see the particular internal dynamics that shaped Asante reception of this quite specific manifestation of European culture.
    
    Compare John Peel, on 'Akan resistance to the adoption of world religions, compared with Yoruba openness to them'' in his 'History culture and the Comparative Method' in L. Holy (Ed.) _Comparative Anthropology_ (Oxford: 1987).  Finally, one rather older source for Asante perceptions of European culture is: T. C. McCaskie 'Innovational Eclecticism: The Asante Empire and Europe in the Nineteenth Century', CSSH 14, 1 (1972).

• Mamaissii Dansi Hounon defends African Traditional Religions

  • H-NET List for African History and Culture [H-AFRICA@H-NET.MSU.EDU]
    Date:   Fri, 05 Nov 1999
    From:   Mamaissii Dansi Hounon               <journyhom@aol.com>
    "Wonders of the African World": Reply
    
    As an initiated and practicing Mami Wata and Vodoun priestess, with direct ancestral roots in this particular branch of African religion, I too found Gates' treatment of West African Vodoun to be both condescending, and stereotypical of how most in the world have been socialized to view African Traditional Religions and cosmology.
    
    What is more tragic, is that someone of Gates' professional stature, going to Africa, and publicly undermining the traditional spiritual treatment by the "fetish" priest ( i.e.,"I think he might have malaria" . . . as oppose to a "spirit" foundation for the client's illness), and his atrocious treatment of West African Vodoun, (as superstitious "magic" focused primarily on debauchery),  has made our job, and attempt at gaining respect and visibility even more difficult.
    
    Thousands (if not millions) of Africans brought to the "New World" as slaves were threatened, beaten, maimed, tortured, murdered and legally prohibited from practicing  their African religions, (i.e., honoring their gods and ancestors) in an orchestrated attempt to disconnect and "de-africanize" them from the vital source of their profound connection to their homeland.
    
    The religious persecution of Africans is the most underreported crime in the annals of slave, colonial and modern history.  It is spuriously unquestioned, and even acceptable dogma for some to proclaim  that perhaps our ancestors' "conversion" to Christianity was, though forced,  a lamentable necessity, and is even viewed as something "good" that evolved from slavery.
    
    Additionally, today, African Traditional Religions are still one of the only major, ancient spiritual traditions that are fair game for horrific malignant, "superstitious study" and debasement by many a "researcher" and popular Western culture.
    
    "Fortunately,"  they have Gates to thanks for validating that even he found them "interestingly trivial,"  and unworthy of serious examination, respect and dignity.

   

• Chronology on the History of Slavery, Compiled by Eddie Becker 1999, see on line at http://innercity.org/holt/slavechron.html
  • 
    1758
    Many Africans had little trouble adopting Christianity because it preached many of the same beliefs that were central to African religions--supreme being, creation myths, priest-healers, moral and ethical systems. Christianity's "life after death" was also attractive because it offered the promise that they would someday regain contact with their ancestors. A Baptist missionary to the Yoruba of Nigeria in 1853 observed that they had words for monotheistic god, sin, guilt, sacrifice, intercession, repentance, faith, pardon, adoption; and they believed in heaven and hell. Muslim slaves had even more points of identification with Christianity, since they were used to a religion based on a written text, some of which was the same as that of Christianity (Old Testament). An American minister reported in 1842 that Muslim Africans called God Allah, and Jesus Mohammed. According to them, "the religion is the same, but different countries have different names." ("Plantation Agriculture in Southeast USA by Jim Jones West Chester University of Pennsylvania, Cause in African History to 1875 taught Fall 1997 The Decision To Become A Planter. See also John W. Blassingame, The Slave Community: Plantation Life in the Antebellum South, New York: Oxford University Press, 1979)

   

• Religions Return to Cuba  

  •  

  • From: "G. Ugo Nwokeji" <gnwokeji@sp.uconn.edu> Subject: Religions Return to Cuba: An Exhibition of Afro-Cuban Photography Date: Sat, 25 Jan 2003 18:39:38 -0500  

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  • Seminal exhibition on Afrocuban Religions in contemporary Cuban photography and video art to be shown at Havana's National Museum of Photography

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  • In mid-February, a seminal photography exhibition on the Afrocuban Religions is to be opened in Havana. Though they have been banned from public life for decades, the religions of African origin have played an important role in shaping Cuban culture and national identity. Even Fidel Castro himself is said to be involved in these cults. La Fototeca de Cuba, Havana's National Museum of Photography, is proud to present "el otro lado del alma: Afrocuban Religions in Contemporary Photography". The show will bring together over 80 works by thirteen contemporary Cuban photographers and video artists whose work reflects the Afrocuban religions, opening to the public on February 11, 2003. The project has been initiated and organized by the Austrian curator Moritz Neumueller and event manager Claudia Hundius from Argentina, in association with Fototeca’s Director Lourdes Socarrás and Chief Curator Nelson R. de Arellano.  

  •  

  • Contacts: Moritz Neumueller,  Vienna. Tel. +43 676 75 11 949,  Email:  <mneumueller@ekno.com>

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  • Nelson R. de Arellano,  Havana. Tel +53 7 8622530,  Email: <fototeca@cubarte.cult.cu>

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  • Exhibition title: El otro lado del alma. Afrocuban Religions in Contemporary Photography.  

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  • Exhibition dates:  February 12th, 2003 – March 6th, 2003

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  • Exhibition venue:  La Fototeca de Cuba (National Museum of Photography)  Havana, Cuba

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  • Opening: Tuesday, February 11th, 2003, 5 p.m.

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  • Press review: Monday, February 10th, 2003, 5 p.m.

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  • Web site: <www.afrocuban.org>

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  • "Our view of Cuban photography is still based on the iconic portraits of Che Guevara and the great achievements of Epic Photography. Today, Cuban photography and video art strongly interacts with the international movements.  Yet, these contemporary artists also reflect Cuba's African heritage in their work. El otro lado del alma marks the first photography exhibition dedicated to the influence of the Afrocuban Religions", says the curator of the exhibition, Moritz Neumueller from Austria.  

  •  

  • The Afrocuban Religions stem from West African cults brought to the New World by slaves imported to the Caribbean to work the sugar plantations. The Africans carried with them various cultural traditions, generally based on a communication process with ancestors or deities, the use of animal sacrifice and the practice of sacred drumming and dance. Despite the slaveholders’ intentions to convert the slaves to Catholicism, they were able to preserve the essence of their religions by fusing certain aspects with elements from the surrounding Spanish Catholic culture. These religions have even survived decades of banishment under the influence of Soviet Marxism. Since the religious liberation of 1991, the Afrocuban Religions have played an even stronger role in shaping Cuban culture and national identity.  Contemporary Cuban photographers engage with the religious subject matter from a range of perspectives. One end of that spectrum is defined by documentary photography, such as the work of Jorge Luis Álvarez Pupo, Raúl Cañibano, Elio Delgado, Humberto Mayol, and Ramón Pacheco. The other is marked by a conceptual approach to the African heritage (Pedro Abascal, Ricardo Elías) and the definition of transcultural (Liudmila y Nelson).  

  •  

  • Marta María Pérez Bravo and René Peña inscribe the symbols of a genuinely Afrocuban language into their self-portraits, while Kattia García investigates about female role models in contemporary Cuban society, by depicting women in their daily practices. Sandra Ramos who is known for her multiples and prints has produced large digital photographs and a video on the pilgrimage to San Lazero.  

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  • This selection tries to highlight the individual artists' profound interpretation of the collective spiritual memory of a nation that has been called LLatin-African" by its supreme leader, Fidel Castro.

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  • The curator of the show concludes that "the fantastic iconography of the Afrocuban religions and their relation to the richly facetted Cuban photographic tradition invite a careful look at these contemporary artists in order to uncover new insights into el otro lado del alma, the other side of the Cuban soul".  

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  • Educational Media A great effort has been made to furnish the exhibition with educational media, which will be especially helpful for the touring in Europe and the Americas.  An original, twenty-minute documentary on the artists’ approaches to Afrocuban spirituality has been produced exclusively for this show. Six of the most important cults are presented by ethnologists, artists, historians, journalists and by those who practice them in their daily lives. The narrative thread of the film is provided by African myths which have been brought to the New World by the slaves and passed on from one generation to the other. Thus, the visitor shall be able to experience the renaissance of the religions in Cuba in a both personal and authentic manner.  

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  • Additionally, computer terminals in the galleries will enable the visitor of the exhibition to navigate further information in a multimedia presentation.  This interactive and multilingual (Spanish, English, German) CD-ROM contains all exhibited works and artists, naturally complimented with short descriptions, CVs, and an extensive textual archive.  

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  • Publications  A multilingual, 40 page printed catalog, including texts by Natalia Bolívar (one of Cuba's most important anthropologists) and an essay by the Cuban art critic Eugenio Valdés Figueroa, will be published for the touring.

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  • Press kit A press kit can be inquired directly from the exhibition team. Please do not hesitate to send an email to <mneumueller@ekno.com>. Furthermore, we invite you to consult our Web page at <www.afrocuban.org>.  

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  • Facts and figures:

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  • El otro lado del alma (the other side of the souls) consists of 80 works, primarily b/w photography (gelatine silver prints) in the measurements 30 x 40 cm (12 x 14 inches) and 40 x 50 cm (14 x 16 inches). Furthermore, there will be digital prints in great dimensions, video art and an installation work.  

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  • Moritz Neumueller, PhD is an independent curator and documentary film maker.  After his studies of Art History and Economy, Neumueller (b. 1972 in Linz, Austria) has gained practical experience at MoMA’s Department of Photography in New York and with various independent projects.  

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  • Event manager Claudia Hundius (b. 1974 in Buenos Aires, Argentina) studied Hotel Management in Leysin, Switzerland. She has held management positions in the service industry in Latin America, Europe and the US.  

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  • The project was initiated in October of 2001. The costs will be covered by the touring fees and sponsorships. This initiative is supported by the Austrian Embassy in Cuba, the Austro-Cuban Society and the Cuban Institute for Friendship among the Peoples (ICAP). Media partners for the documentary are the Austrian Broadcasting Company (ORF), as well as the production companies Satel and WNTV.  

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  • La Fototeca de Cuba is the National Museum of Photography, located on the “Plaza Vieja”, in Havana’s historical center. The museum was founded in 1986 and is now directed by Lourdes Socarrás. It contains a collection of more than 66,000 works, the National Photography Archive and a laboratory, which can be used by all Cuban photographers free of charge. Chief curator Nelson R. de Arellano is responsible for the museum’s artistic direction. The Fototeca’s Web Site (in Spanish language only) is located at:  www.cnap.cult.cu/instituciones/fototeca.html

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  • El otro lado del alma will tour through Europe, Latin America and the US until the beginning of 2006. Exact schedules available upon request.  Friday, January 17th, 2003

OTHER REFERENCES

The list which follows has been extracted, in part, from a bibliography compiled by Chidi Denis Isizoh.

Acheampong S.O., "Reconstructing the structure of Akan traditional religion," Mission 2 (1995), 79-93.

Adegbite A., "The drum and its role in Yoruba religion," Journal of Religion in Africa 18 (1988), 15-26.

----, "The Cultic use of Water among the Yoruba," Orita 18 (1986), 28-39.

Annyereh L., "Marriage among the Konkomba," The Northern Review 8 (1989), 13-17.

Asante, Emmanuel. TOWARD AN AFRICAN CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD The Kingship of Onyame http://www.mellenpress.com/html/asantowa.html

----, "Yoruba sacrificial practice," Journal of Religion in Africa 5 (1973), 81-93.

----, Yoruba Beliefs and Sacrificial Rites, London, 1979.

----, & Dopamu P.A., West African Traditional Religion, Ibadan, 1979.

Babalola E.O., "The reality of African traditional religion: A Yoruba case study," The Nigerian Journal of Theology 6 (1991), 50-63.

Becken H., "Sounds of the double-headed drums," Mission Studies 12 (1995), 226-246.

Biobaku S., "The use and interpretation of Yoruba Myths," Odu 1 (1955).

Brookman-Amissah J., "The vocation of traditional priests in Akan society," Cahiers des Religions Africaines, 1989, 87-99.

Danqua J.B., Akan Doctrine of God, London, 1968.

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LINKS

LIBATION IN THE OLD TESTAMENT AND AKAN LIFE AND THOUGHT: A CRITIQUE by K. K. AMOS ANTI 
http://cehd.ewu.edu/faculty/ntodd/GhanaUDLP/KKAnti/LibationChapt1.html

http://cehd.ewu.edu/faculty/ntodd/GhanaUDLP/KKAnti/LibationChapt3.html

Ghana Traditional Religion (Library of Congress)

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+gh0061)