African Worlds

The collection African Worlds: Studies in the Cosmological Ideas and Social Values ​​of African peoples, edited by Daryll Forde in 1954, consists of nine studies on cosmological ideas and social values ​​of African peoples and is one of the milestones of modern African studies .

Each of the studies describes the view of the world as it is expressed in their creation myths , traditions of origin and religious beliefs. The studies are devoted to such diverse systems as the complex metaphysical system of the Dogon of French West Africa, the magical cults of the Abuluyia from Kenya, the religious practices of the Lele of Kasai in which the forest plays a predominant role, the secret societies of the Mende and the Ancestor cult of the Ashanti.

The authors show how closely ideas of the divine order of the universe are connected with the organization of society and the everyday life of people, so that enthroning a king or boss, brewing beer, building a granary, organizing a hunt all have symbolic significance and are accompanied by appropriate rituals. The richness of metaphor and symbolism displayed in these myths, and the subtlety of metaphysical ideas, became a revelation to many who did not study so-called primitive societies.

Contents overview

• Daryll Forde : Introduction
• Mary Douglas : The Lele of Kasai
• Gunter Wagner : The Abaluyia of Kavirondo ( Kenya )
• JD Krige and EJ Krige : The Lovedu of the Transvaal
• Marcel Griaule and Germaine Dieterlen : The Dogon of the French Sudan
• Kenneth Little : The Mende in Sierra Leone
• Godfrey Lienhardt : The Shilluk of the Upper Nile
• JJ Maquet : The Kingdom of Rwanda
• KA Busia : The Ashanti of the Golden Coast
• Paul Mercier : The Fon of Dahomey

Bibliographical information

In the Classics in African Anthropology series , the work was reprinted in 1999 ( ISBN 3-8258-3086-1 ), with an introduction by Professor Wendy James from the Institute of Cultural and Social Anthropology at Oxford.