Religion in Africa : experience & expression

This book stems from a conference entitled 'Religion in Africa: the variety of religious experience in sub-Saharan Africa', held in Provo, Utah, 22-25 October 1986. The first section of the book (Religion and its translatability) focuses on the effects of translation and translatability on religion and politics (L. Sanneh, A. Nanji), efforts to translate Christian concepts into African cultures and back (J.P. Kirby, M. Schoffeleers, D.L. Thomson) and Yoruba cosmology (Wándé Abímb'.olá). The second section (Comparisons over time and space) contains papers on the Edo spirit possession cult (P.G. Ben-Amos), African religion and art in Brazil (M. Smith Omari), the Bantu ritual of affliction (J.M. Janzen), prehistoric evidence of traditional African religion (P. de Maret), sorcery (W.E.A. van Beek) and myth and epic in Central Africa (L. de Heusch). The third section (Instrumentality of religion) contains papers on syncretism in Kimbanguism in Zaïre (W. MacGaffey), the Jamaa movement in Zaïre (J. Fabian), the American Methodist Episcopal Church in Zimbabwe (T.O. Ranger), charismatic social change and the Rastafari movement of Jamaica (A. Legesse), a ritual embodying female power among the Gola of Liberia (W.L. d'Azevedo), secret societies among the Bafodea Limba of Sierra Leone (S. Ottenberg), music of the Kpelle of Liberia (R.M. Stone) and men's oratory and women's song-dance among the Hêmbá of Zaïre (P.A.R. Blakely and T.D. Blakely)