Rain

Rain, as a form of water, is intimately and ultimately associated with notions of fertility in African religion. Fertility, the process that enables the transmission and regeneration of life, is of the utmost importance to African people. Fertility is not [Page 559]to be understood as a phenomenon restricted to human beings only because, in reality, it encompasses land and animal fertility as well. All over Africa, one finds a pervasive association of the sky with male reproductive powers and of the Earth with female reproductive powers. Rain, in the African religious context, may then be thought of as cosmic sperm, with the sky fertilizing the Earth thanks to rain.

In Africa, rain is sacred and gready desired because it is an indispensable blessing to the many ...