The Azande are a people who live in southwestern Sudan, immediately north of the Congo and east of the Central African Republic. The Azande traditions are ancient; they see themselves as having originated in several clans that stretch back into history. Like many African people, they have a history of migration and, within the past 200 years, a history of fighting for their independence from outside, mainly European legal and social, encroachments.

Despite these intrusions, the religious principles that constitute their Azande heritage have remained relatively intact. Although Europeans instituted customs and traditions from Europe into the social life of the people during the colonial period, there remains among the Azande a strong commitment to their belief in the traditional conception of one creator deity who ...