Key Moments in Life: Religion |
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Throughout the world the intermediary between God and humankind is the ritual specialist, priest, minister, rabbi, pastor, or shaman. Whatever he or she is called, his responsibilities are the same: he serves as an essential link in the chain of communication between the spirit world and the natural world. When people have a problem, when disasters befall them, when they need answers to unanswerable problems, they deal with the gods with the help of the ritual specialist who may use any of hundreds of techniques to open lines of communication between man and God. Such techniques may include prayer, sacrifices, offerings and divination. These people are special because they possess a unique language, knowledge, symbolism, skill, technology of their own. Such people are central to society. They are intimately familiar with the all relationships in the group, and are able to make their diagnosis based on this intimate knowledge. They know the source of conflicts, stress, and anger and their prescriptions often go directly to the source of the affliction. |
Lobi Diviner |
photo by Christopher Roy |
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Traditional healers are concerned with disease, sickness, and misfortune. In African societies these are brought about by ill-will on the part of one person against another, and are effected through the use of supernatural power, or witchcraft. The function of the healer is to identify the cause, identify the person who is the source of the malevolent power, and recommend a cure. In contemporary Africa such traditional healers are consulted to cure very modern diseases such as AIDS because the modern hospitals staffed with western-trained physicians have neither the facilities nor the drugs to deal with the disease. Large figures such as this one from the Yaka in Zaire were given healing powers by adding packets that contained powerful supernatural medicine that were suspended around the neck and waist. These can be removed after a cure has been effected, as is the case here. |
Healing Figure, biteki |
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We are beset by uncertainty at every moment in life, and under such circumstances we seek a means of ensuring success and stability in an uncertain world. For humans everywhere that stability is provided by religion: by faith that there is an order to the world, that some force greater than us has created us and has a plan for us and that we are a part of a larger spiritual force that has purpose and meaning. Religion helps people to understand the particular circumstances of their own lives and the purpose of human life in general. Nevertheless, people are occasionally surprised by misfortune and other unexpected events. At those times, religion helps people to understand and cope with life's challenges. The staff made by an artist of the Yoruba people in Nigeria represents Eshu, the God of the Crossroads, the Messenger of the Gods, who trips us up when life is going smoothly, and who must be honored to avoid the pitfalls that lead all humans into disastrous errors. |
Dance Wand for Eshu |
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For most Africans the world is given life by spirits that inhabit the fields they farm, the clouds that bring rainfall, the rivers from which they gather fish, and especially the wilderness where they hunt wild animals and which they must disturb to clear new land for farming or for the construction of villages. Among the Lobi each of these spirits has a unique personality and particular skills or talents that it can bring to bear to protect its owner and his family. They are anthropomorphized just as the ancient Greeks gave their gods human personalities and forms. The gesture of the figure is a key to understanding its meaning: figures like these are called "ordinary persons", and have broad generalized protective powers. Figures with one arm raised are called "dangerous persons" for they are about to strike out violently against any threat, their skills or talents are more specialized, more powerful, and more deangerous |
Spirit Figure |
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Given the existence of spirits that can influence the lives of Africans, the problem arises of how to contact these invisible beings, how to communicate with them and control their power. In many cases the answer is art, for through art the invisible is made visible, and the spirits of the wilderness can be brought into the community. Once they are received, food and drink can be offered, songs of praise can be sung and the performance of masks can give identity and personality to the otherwise abstract, intangible spirits of nature. People seek to control the power these spirits hold over their lives. The method used to control this supernatural power is magic. Power can be expressed through art, and art is an effective tool of magic. This power figure, called nkisi from the Kongo people in Zaire embodies spiritual force which has been placed in a container on its abdomen. It wears metaphors or symbols of power including a leopard's fang necklace and a feathered crown. |
Magical Figure, nkisi |
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