Animals

Ritual and Sacrifice

Animals played a role in daily living, economics, and a multitude of other ways in African life. Within this hierarchy of life and balance of order, animals were created with purpose, by God, and [Page 55]as needed by humans. Animals are used for fundamental survival, as well as for spiritual and religious purposes. Animals are used in stock-keeping rituals where people basically slaughter animals for food. There are rituals associated with this process because they usually bless the animal to remove any ill intentions and promote clean consumption.

Animals are also used in many regions of Africa for cultural purposes. For instance, animal skins are used to wrap corpses while hides and tusk are used to make musical instruments. Additionally, animal's blood is used as food without the need to kill it. For instance, in Uganda, Sudan, Tanzania, Nigeria, and Namibia, rituals accompany the preservation of the animal and the people because the animals are allowed to live.

It is a widely held belief that the killing of an animal may spare individual as well as collective lives. In that context, animals are thus slaughtered in an effort to safeguard the community. It is also a consistent understanding that the life of the animal is passed onto the people to which they are closely connected, to strengthen and protect them. In this respect, both wild and domesticated animals are sacrificed. The most typical of domesticated animals used in this process are sheep, goat, cattle, dogs, and fowl. Wild animals are used in rain-making ceremonies, as well as to chase away epidemics and public danger and to purify the environment.

Animals are also used in traditional medicine and ritual ceremonies as homage to God and as a way of soliciting his or her help while connecting to the realm of spirits. Animal's blood is used in libations or as an offering to the ancestors, as well as to fortify the soil and make it more fertile. For medicine men, the reliance on animals is critical to the prevention and treatment of disease.

Myths and Totems

In conjunction with breeding, domestication, hunting, and labor, animals are symbolized in myths that have shaped African people's reality and further defined their relationship with the universe. In many African cultures, animals are particularly featured in cosmogony myths because they exemplify the ability to convey sacred power and messages. In myths, animals are also known as totems and play a key role in identity construction of individuals, clans, and ethnic groups. With the origins of humankind in Africa, this same mode of expression is attested in many other cultures, as revealed in daily communication, such as with oral and literary traditions.

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