Rhythms of the
Afro-Atlantic World
Rituals and Remembrances
edited by
mamadou diouf and
ifeoma kiddoe nwankwo
BOOK PDF
http://library.oapen.org/bitstream/id/75c751f5-dad3-49ec-8983-713153154fa2/1004160.pdf
Contents
introduction 1
Mamadou Diouf and Ifeoma Kiddoe Nwankwo
part one: religion
The Economic Vitamins of Cuba: Sacred and Other Dance Performance
yvonne daniel 19
Performing Pentecostalism: Music, Identity, and the Interplay of
Jamaican and African American Styles
melvin l. butler 41
“The Women Have on All Their Clothes”: Reading the Texts of Holy Hip-Hop
deborah smith pollard 55
part two: dance
Rhythmic Remembrances
yvonne daniel 79
Citizenship and Dance in Urban Brazil: Grupo Corpo, a Case Study
lucía m. suárez 95
Muscle/Memories: How Germaine Acogny and Diane McIntyre
Put Their Feet Down
susan leigh foster 121
“To Carry the Dance of the People Beyond”: Jean Léon Destiné,
Lavinia Williams, and Danse Folklorique Haïtienne
millery polyné 136
part three: contemporary music
Motherland Hip-Hop: Connective Marginality and African American
Youth Culture in Senegal and Kenya
halifu osumare 161
New York Bomba: Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, and a Bridge Called Haiti
raquel z. rivera 178
Talking Drums: Soca and Go-Go Music as Grassroots Identity Movements
deidre r. gantt 200
Warriors of the Word: Rapso in Trinidad’s Festival Culture
patricia van leeuwaarde moonsammy 214
Timba Brava: Maroon Music in Cuba
umi vaughan 234
Salsa Memory: Revisiting Grupo Folklórico y Experimental Nuevayorquino
juan flores and rené lópez 256
Epilogue: Performing Memories—The Atlantic Theater of Cultural
Production and Exchange
carroll smith-rosenberg 269
contributors 275
index
Friday, May 15, 2020
Spiritual Journeys: A Study of Ifá /Òrìṣà
Practitioners in the United States Initiated in
Nigeria
Tony Van Der Meer
Antioch University - PhD Program in Leadership and Change
https://aura.antioch.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1345&context=etds
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to understand the culture of one of the newest branches of traditional Yorùbá Ifá/Òrìṣà practice in the United States from practitioners born in the United States that were initiated in Nigeria, West Africa. The epistemology of the Ifá/Òrìṣà belief system in the United States has been based on the history and influence of Regla de Ocha or Santeria that developed out of Cuban innovation and practice. This is an ethnographic and auto-ethnographic study that pulls from participant observation, field notes, interviews, and photos as data.The central question of this dissertation is what are the challenges and opportunities for this branch of practitioners in the United States who were initiated in the Ifá/Òrìṣà practice in Nigeria?
Some of the main findings indicate that the opportunities include: opening doors intellectually and spiritually about African philosophical thought and ethics were that: it instills a sense of spiritual discipline; it lays the foundation, giving confidence that one can achieve what they set their minds to; and, it offers spiritual technologies and systems that are liberating and relevant in the Unites States in terms of identity, direction, and purpose.
Some of the challenges included: a rugged Nigerian experience, and cultural change; a transformative experience from the initiation rituals; understanding and learning the Yorὺbá language; and, the contradiction of Africa being the idea of utopia. The challenges in the United States also included: understanding and learning the Yorὺbá language; understanding the different systems of practice in the Ifá/Òrìṣà belief
system; the role of women as Ifá priests; ecological concerns in disposing ritual sacrifices;
accessibility to traditional (African) ritual items; issues of acceptance, inclusion, and exclusion on the basis of race, gender, and sexual identities from other systems of Ifá/Òrìṣà practice; and, developing new communities of practice base on the experiences of this newest branch of practitioners.
Tony Van Der Meer
Antioch University - PhD Program in Leadership and Change
https://aura.antioch.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1345&context=etds
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to understand the culture of one of the newest branches of traditional Yorùbá Ifá/Òrìṣà practice in the United States from practitioners born in the United States that were initiated in Nigeria, West Africa. The epistemology of the Ifá/Òrìṣà belief system in the United States has been based on the history and influence of Regla de Ocha or Santeria that developed out of Cuban innovation and practice. This is an ethnographic and auto-ethnographic study that pulls from participant observation, field notes, interviews, and photos as data.The central question of this dissertation is what are the challenges and opportunities for this branch of practitioners in the United States who were initiated in the Ifá/Òrìṣà practice in Nigeria?
Some of the main findings indicate that the opportunities include: opening doors intellectually and spiritually about African philosophical thought and ethics were that: it instills a sense of spiritual discipline; it lays the foundation, giving confidence that one can achieve what they set their minds to; and, it offers spiritual technologies and systems that are liberating and relevant in the Unites States in terms of identity, direction, and purpose.
Some of the challenges included: a rugged Nigerian experience, and cultural change; a transformative experience from the initiation rituals; understanding and learning the Yorὺbá language; and, the contradiction of Africa being the idea of utopia. The challenges in the United States also included: understanding and learning the Yorὺbá language; understanding the different systems of practice in the Ifá/Òrìṣà belief
system; the role of women as Ifá priests; ecological concerns in disposing ritual sacrifices;
accessibility to traditional (African) ritual items; issues of acceptance, inclusion, and exclusion on the basis of race, gender, and sexual identities from other systems of Ifá/Òrìṣà practice; and, developing new communities of practice base on the experiences of this newest branch of practitioners.
A Brochure for Teachers on Spiritual Shouter Religion in Trinidad and Tobago
http://www.n2consulting.com/brochure.htm
Senator, Archbishop Barbara Gray-Burke
http://www.n2consulting.com/brochure.htm
Senator, Archbishop Barbara Gray-Burke
The Spiritual Shouter Baptist Faith and its observances were banned in this country for a period of 34 years from 1917 to 1951. The colonial government of the day passed a piece of legislation, The Shouters Prohibition Ordinance, on November 16, 1917.
The then Attorney General noted in his comments that: "Apparently the Shouters have had a somewhat stormy history from all I have been able to learn regarding them. They seem, if they did not arise there, to have flourished exceedingly in St. Vincent, and to have made themselves such an unmitigated nuisance that they had to be legislated out of existence. They then came to Trinidad and continued complaints have been received by the Government some time past as to their practices."
The legislative Council of St. Vincent had already passed such a prohibitive ordinance in 1912, and that of Trinidad some years later was closely modeled after it. The Ordinance prohibited a person from holding flowers or a lighted candle in their hands at a public meeting; ringing a bell or wearing a white headtie and any form of shaking of the body.
During the prohibition, the Shouter Baptists fled into the forests and hills to hold their services. Even here they were not protected. Sister Reyes Hypolite describes how the police came to their service in Sans Souci.
"When the police came, they said 'not a man move !' The police came in ordinary clothes and only two in uniform on the road, and she called out the window: 'Sister Lopez, police !' and one of them not in uniform arrest her and give her three charges: giving a house to keep a Shouters meeting, attending a Shouters meeting and disturbing the police on duty. They took 26 of us, they had to make two trips, carry us to Toco the Saturday night. They charge us and send us back and tell us to come up on Tuesday to attend court. They charged us with first offence, Ten shillings or 7 days in jail; the mother of the house $21 dollars for three offences and $14 for the second offence or 14 days in jail. Some of us pay and some did not and they went to jail. So, when they arrest me, I was living there, I went for my child because I can't leave the child alone, they rough me up and tell me 'get in the van !' One of the child aunt was there and she say 'go on, I will see about the child' and they take us up."
A woman relates how Elton Griffith having just come from Grenada "...where he didn't have anything to do with the Baptists, was walking in Prince St. and somebody was keeping a meeting, a gentleman, and he met the police arresting the man, and kicking down the bell, the lota and tyra and he stand and watch. Then he question the policeman who tells him that it's against the law. He said from that day, he took up that as his own and to work to free the Shouter Baptists."
The stated reasons for the Ordinance were that the Shouters made too much noise with their loud singing and bell ringing. There were complaints that they disturbed the peace. The expressive and emotional behavior of the worshippers which included dancing, shaking, falling to the ground was unseemly by more traditional elements in colonial Trinidad society.
The police had been persecuting Shouter Baptists for years prior to the Ordinance and had even lost a case to them in the courts. Thus the Ordinance was enacted because the colonial government of the time deferred to the complaints of property owners, taxpayers and the police. In addition, the established churches also thought that such practices were heathen and anti-Christian and they were increasingly alarmed at the number of worshippers leaving the established churches to join the Shouter Baptists. Underlying all of these reasons however was the idea that many of these practices derived from an uncivilized and barbaric African past. A cultivated Christian society therefore had no room for what were considered to be barbaric rituals. The shame associated with slavery and the so-called uncivilized African heritage of much of the population of Trinidad led many people at the time to try to ban the religion.
In General, the colonial ruling class of the time went to great lengths to suppress the culture and traditional religions of the non-white majority. For example, an even earlier Ordinance in 1869 cited any 'African' form of religion as Obeah or black magic, and practitioners were subject to imprisonment and flogging. Playing drums or any other musical instrument between the night hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. was made illegal and even bongo and drum dances could not be held without official permission. Although this Ordinance was withdrawn, the "music bill" of 1883 prohibited drum-playing of any kind.
That the dominant elite of the day were in favor of the banning is evidenced by an article in the Port-of-Spain Gazette on Oct 10, 1917. It stated that: "An ordinance has been introduced into the Legislative Council looking into the elimination of the pseudo-religious body known locally as "Shouters". This is a body that has mistaken noise for enthusiasm, and shouting for religion. It no doubt began in a conscientious way with a desire to worship God, but it has long since degenerated into a burlesque upon religion and a general nuisance to every community where it has squatted down and deceived the feeble-minded..."
Despite the banning Ordinance and the subsequent persecution of its adherents, the Shouter Baptist movement survived and flourished. Although their houses of worship were broken into, their public meetings crushed and their adherents jailed by the police, there forms of persecution and oppression merely strengthened the beliefs and faith of its members.
Throughout the many years of their prohibition, calypsonians sang about them. Although some of them actually recorded Shouter Baptist hymns and folk songs, some ridiculed and mocked the faith as did the Growling Tiger in a calypso called 'That is the Shouter' or 'Is This Religion'.
"We have the Roman Catholic, Anglican and Salvation
But what is a Shouter band ?
It if is a religion, do tell me please
I am tired with the nonsense, give me ease
But the Shouters is a husband, children and wife,
And they living miserable a corrupted life
If is that they call civilisation
It's a disgrace to my native life."
Throughout the twenties and thirties, the Shouters fought many court battles and tried to counter the general contempt with which the public held them. It was not until the arrival of Honorable Uriah Tubal Butler on the political scene that attitudes towards the Shouter Baptists began slowly to change.
Honorable Butler was himself a deeply religious man and closely tied to the Spiritual Baptist religion. His public meetings resembled those of a Baptist Gathering, using candle light, opening each meeting with a prayer or inviting a Baptist leader to do so. Butler's close ties with the religion began giving it some legitimacy. By the 1940s the Baptists entered the political arena primarily to fight for the repeal of the Ordinance banning their faith. Grenadian born Deacon Elton George Griffith led the fight (footnote 2).
Griffith, who was then a member of the Pentecostal Assembly, was motivated by several visions, in one of which he heard a voice saying "Elton Griffith, I am sending you to set my people free". Griffith was led to leave Grenada and migrate to Trinidad, where he shortly joined the Baptists.
((Footnote 1 - These stories are related in the video "Spirit Water Deep", shown on Trinidad and Tobago Television in March 1998.))
((Footnote 2 - Cited in Gordon Rohlehr, Calypso and Society in pre-Independence Trinidad 1990. p 157))
3. The Repeal of the Ordinance
By the 1940s the campaign to repeal the Ordinance against the practice of the Shouter Spiritual Baptism gained momentum. In the first place, the many independent Baptist churches organised themselves into the West Indian Evangelical Spiritual Faith led by Deacon Griffith and presented a petition to the Legislative Council in 1940 asking for the repeal of the Ordinance. In part, this remarkable petition read:
"We as African descendants crave indulgence of the Honorable Legislative Councillors to use their good office by assisting us to modify or repeal the 'Shouters Ordinance'. We consider that this form of religion or sect, is our ancestral heritage. Owing to this Prohibition Act of Shouters Chapter 4 no. 19 has affected thirty thousand (30,000) members of our faith."
A few years later, The Honorable Albert Gomes, a then member of the Legislative Council, appealed to the Council to appoint a Select Committee to inquire into the repeal of the Ordinance of 1917.
A committee was formed but it took several years to release its findings, which were to recommend the repeal of the Ordinance against the Shouters. Deacon Griffith and his followers in the meantime led and actively lobbied the members of the Legislative Council, which had undergone many changes and now had members who were more representative of the population at large.
Several of its members had close and intensive relationships with the Shouter Baptist Church. These included Honorable Albert Gomes, Honorable Uriah Butler, Honorable Raymond Quevedo (the calypsonian, Attila the Hun), the Honorable Sinanan brothers and the Honorable Audrey Jeffers. Albert Gomes' constituency contained many Baptists whose votes he courted, and because he was such a prominent supporter of the cause, he was appointed to head the Select Committee. The debate in the Legislative Council was led by Albert Gomes and supported by several prominent members of Council, and the bill to repeal the Ordinance was passed on March 30th, 1951. A jubilant Archbishop Elton George Griffith was carried out of the Legislative Council chamber on the supporters to Woodford Square, where he led a Thanksgiving celebration.
The struggles of the Spiritual Shouter Baptists to achieve their victory has been aptly described as a struggle of indigenous people against foreign rulers" (footnote 3).
((Footnote 3 - Honorable Senator Martin Daly S.C., Senate debate, cited in Sunday Express, March 29)).
Rituals, Beliefs and Practices
The Spiritual Shouter Baptists believe that their religion derives from the biblical John the Baptist and their name comes from the practice of immersing believers in water as a means of baptising of initiating them into their faith.
Mourning, bell ringing, visits from the Holy Spirit and a distinctive form of shouting as a means of expression, baptism, proving and mourning, the phenomenon of the possession by the Holy Spirit, the physician manifestation of possession in the shaking, dancing, speaking in tongues, and bringing back of spiritual gifts are also practices of the religion.
The religion has a complex series of ranked positions. These can be as many as twenty-two named ranks, although the smaller churches recognise fewer of these. The commonly found ranks are those of Leaders, Mother, Shepherd, Pointer, Nurse, Prover, Captain and Teacher. The duties that are privileges of these positions vary somewhat, but the first two indicate the highest-ranking male and female members. These positions of the faith are made known to an individual during the process of 'mourning', the most important of the Spiritual Shouter Baptist rituals.
These descriptions are drawn from J. Houk, "Spirits, Blood, and Drums", Temple University Press 1995; S. Glazier, "New World African Ritual: Genuine and Spurious" in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Dec. 1996.
The mourning ritual involves a period of three to seven of more days where the initiates are placed upon an earthen ground where they lie, sit or kneel, their eyes are covered and they are given minimal food and water. Members of the church, usually the Pointer, officiate at the mourning while the Nurse takes care of the physical needs of the initiate
During the mourning, the initiate 'travels' spiritually to different places, receives spiritual instruction through visions and dreams and is told what position in the hierarchy he or she is to occupy. When the Leader decides that the time is up, usually during a Sunday service, the persons are brought back into the church, and share their experiences with the congregation. From the perspective of the belief system, 'mourning' involves symbolic death and resurrection in that those mourners shed their impure beings. In psycho-biological terms, the rite of 'mourning' actually involves a period of intense physical sensory deprivation as the initiate is deprived of light and movement and receives minimal sustenance.
Some scholars allege that the ritual can be traced to the rites of some African tribal groups when they initiate their new members. They argue that traits such as fasting, not eating salt, a new name and the colour symbolism of the bands covering the eyes of the initiates suggest African derivation. Others claim that it originates in the Book of Daniel, which states that Daniel mourned for three weeks. In either event, the ritual is the central rite of the Shouter Baptist Faith in Trinidad and in all areas of the Caribbean and the Southern United States where this religion is practiced.
Services are typically held on Sundays and are opened by the Leader or Mother of the church by the ringing of the brass bell. Candles are also lit, and water and aromatic oils, as well as sometimes peas, rice and flour are dropped at the four corners of the altar. A liturgy is then recited followed by hymn singing accompanied by ritual handshaking and the touching of everyone gathered. The Leader delivers a sermon, followed by more singing and praying. Throughout the service, worshippers clap hands, tap their feet, and shout out praises to the Lord. Visits by the Holy Spirit upon worshippers may happen anytime during the service. A person will begin to sway, hold his or her head, shout, speak in tongues, shake and eventually fall to the ground in a state of trance.
Other rituals of the faith include baptism wherein a church leader who is then recognised as a spiritual father or mother to the initiate, immerses a person in water at least three times. In fact, membership in the Baptist faith involves the creation of a new 'family' bound together by common membership. Initiates become the 'children' of the leaders who have baptised them, but also brothers and sisters to the persons baptised with them. Other practices include a feast called 'Thanksgiving' held annually or at special occasions. This rite is normally undertaken for the children of the community and involves the distribution of special foods. Prayer, the singing of hymns and sermonizing accompany it.
The Religion Today
Despite its despised position of earlier years,Spiritual Baptism today has been given an important new status by the granting of an annual holiday. The United National Congress had promised in its campaign to grant a holiday to the Shouter Baptists, which the prior government had been reluctant to do. Upon assuming office in 1995, the new government under the leadership of Prime Minister Basddeo Panday granted the holiday to be held on March 30, the date of the repeal of the Prohibitive Ordinance against the Shouters. In addition to their newly legitimated status, the Shouter Baptists along with two Orisa groups were also granted 25 acres of land in Maloney to be shared among them. Plans to use the land include the building of a Shouter Baptist Primary School and the construction of a Spiritual Park; several other ideas are being examined.
Both religions today are vibrant manifestations of the deep religiosity characteristic of Trinidad and Tobagonian society. They are especially attractive to younger members who are interested in relating to their African heritage. Even Shouter Baptism, although largely Christian in its main focus on Jesus Christ as the Savior and its deep belief in the living reality of the Holy Trinity, nevertheless contains elements clearly derived from an earlier origin in Africa. Both contain elements of the African Yoruba religion, but Orisa has maintained more of these than have the Shouter Baptist. The most important of these is the belief in Spirit possession in which the Orisa or African deities take over or possess the body of the worshipper.
Similarly, Spiritual Shouter Baptists believe in a form of trance brought about by the entry of the Holy Spirit into the body of the adherent. In trance or possession, worshippers act according to the wishes of the spirit who has entered their bodies. In addition, Spiritual Shouter Baptists believe in an overt emotional form of worship, which is also thought to be African in origin.
Despite some similarities in ritual and observance, the relationship between the two religions of Shouter Baptists and Orisa is ambiguous. There is some overlap between Spiritual Shouter Baptist and the Orisa worship in Trinidad. Some members practice both religions, and some Baptist leaders also hold Orisa ceremonies. Other members, however, vehemently deny that there is any relation between the two. Both religions are, however, very active in Trinidad and Tobago today.
Although it is difficult to ascertain their membership, estimates of the Spiritual Shouter Baptist faith range anywhere from about 11,000 to more than 100,000. The numerical strength of the group is complicated by the patterns of religious behavior in this country.
Persons may say they 'belong' to as many as four or five different religions, because they attend several churches and services. One common expression describing this form of religious behavior is that 'The more roads to Heaven one takes, the better'.
We the Spiritual Shouter Baptists are different from all other Baptists. Firstly, we plant flags into the earth symbolising different passages of the Bible, for example: the second book of Moses second Chapter of Exodus second Verse to the fourth Verse reads as follows: "When she could no longer hide him, she took for him An Ark of Bulrushes, and daubing it with slime and with pitch and putting the child therein; and she laid it on the flags by the river brink."
We use coloured uniforms, according to our gifts in the spirit, teachers, provers, surveyors, etcetera. The other groups do not use colours, except maybe one or two members of their faith. Very high-ranking Mothers will use the colours blue or brown; whereas all our faithful use colours.
The other groups wear white dresses and veils predominately. Spiritual Shouter Baptists use a red gown, plaid gown, or rainbow colours, just to name a few and we use wrapped headgear.
The Spiritual Shouter Baptist Elders have a private room in their churches or sometimes a separate room, which we enter into to do solemn fasting, singing or praying. Elders of the faith read the Bible and preach the gospel to pilgrims. There we go off into the spiritual realm within the cosmic. By this time our bodies are here and we transcend into spiritual travel. Out of this exercise come our spiritual gifts and the beholding of our spiritual face. There we are set apart from the things of the world.
There are churches with drums, which they beat during the services. Our drums send and receive messaged. We also chant hymns. The churches are built with centre poles bearing a wheel on which candles are placed. While the services are in progress we spin the wheel. These are calabashes in our rituals, bearing flowers together with a lit candle. The other groups, if they do carry a calabash, will keep it in their fasting room.
We have women as Ministers of Religion, officiating in our churches; in the other groups women cannot become Bishops, furthermore they can never be elevated to Archbishop. Women are debarred from holding certain offices 'in the clergy'.
Spiritual Shouter Baptists are a unique set of people.
The other groups I am speaking about are The London Baptists, Hockett Baptists, West Indian Sacred Order Spiritual Baptists and the Umbrella Group by the name National Congress of Spiritual Baptists of Trinidad and Tobago.
In Jesus' Almighty Name they are all different to the Spiritual Shouter faith of Trinidad and Tobago.
THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF AFRO-LATIN AMERICA
AND THE CARIBBEAN: Diasporic Dimensions
Kevin A. Yelvington
https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/pdf/10.1146/annurev.anthro.30.1.227
Department of Anthropology, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida 33620-8100;
e-mail: yelvingt@chuma1.cas.usf.edu
Key Words African diaspora, blackness, history of anthropology, “race,”
ethnicity, nationalism, creolization
■ Abstract
The contributions of a number of First and Third World scholars to
the development of the anthropology of the African diaspora in Latin America and
the Caribbean have been elided from the core of the discipline as practiced in North
America and Europe. As such, the anthropology of the African diaspora in the
Americas can be traced to the paradigmatic debate on the origins of New World black
cultures between Euro-American anthropologist Melville J. Herskovits and African
American sociologist E. Franklin Frazier. The former argued for the existence of
African cultural continuities, the latter for New World culture creations in the context of
discrimination and deprivation characteristic of the experiences of peoples of African
descent, in light of slavery, colonialism, and postcolonial contexts. As a result, subsequent positions have been defined by oppositions in every subdisciplinary specialization and area of interest. Creolization models try to obviate this bifurcation, and newer
dialogical theoretical perspectives build upon such models by attempting to combine
revisionist historiography with social/cultural constructionist approaches to identity,
especially around the concept of blackness understood in the context of cultural identity
politics
AND THE CARIBBEAN: Diasporic Dimensions
Kevin A. Yelvington
https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/pdf/10.1146/annurev.anthro.30.1.227
Department of Anthropology, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida 33620-8100;
e-mail: yelvingt@chuma1.cas.usf.edu
Key Words African diaspora, blackness, history of anthropology, “race,”
ethnicity, nationalism, creolization
■ Abstract
The contributions of a number of First and Third World scholars to
the development of the anthropology of the African diaspora in Latin America and
the Caribbean have been elided from the core of the discipline as practiced in North
America and Europe. As such, the anthropology of the African diaspora in the
Americas can be traced to the paradigmatic debate on the origins of New World black
cultures between Euro-American anthropologist Melville J. Herskovits and African
American sociologist E. Franklin Frazier. The former argued for the existence of
African cultural continuities, the latter for New World culture creations in the context of
discrimination and deprivation characteristic of the experiences of peoples of African
descent, in light of slavery, colonialism, and postcolonial contexts. As a result, subsequent positions have been defined by oppositions in every subdisciplinary specialization and area of interest. Creolization models try to obviate this bifurcation, and newer
dialogical theoretical perspectives build upon such models by attempting to combine
revisionist historiography with social/cultural constructionist approaches to identity,
especially around the concept of blackness understood in the context of cultural identity
politics
Thursday, May 14, 2020
Herbs & Plants. Cyathula prostrata. A wild plant with vast medicinal applications.
Friday, 1 May 2020
Category: Culture May 2020
permalink
Tagged under:Africa
The plant is often harvested from the wild for local use, especially for medicinal purposes but also as a food and source of soap.
The use of wild medicinal plants in traditional medicine is still a very common practice in many parts of the world. Cyathula prostrata (L.), Blume, which belongs to plant family Amaranthaceae is one of the wild plants with vast medicinal applications throughout its distribution range in Africa. It is an annual to perennial branched herb/shrub reaching an approximate length of about 1m, erect or ascending, rooting at the nodes, with an obtusely quadrangular stem, thickened above the nodes and young foliage, often coloured red.
Leaves are opposite, simple, rhomboid-obovate to rhomboid-oblong, with base contracted or narrowed, rounded, apex triangular, acute to obtuse, entire, ciliate; the margin or blade is often tinged red and the petiole short. Inflorescence presents an erect, elongated raceme, the terminal and highest leaf-axils, straight or sinuous, rachis densely pubescent; bisexual flowers in small clusters grow in the lower part of the raceme. The fruit is an ellipsoid utricle, thin-walled, glabrous, one-seeded, surrounded by stiff perianth. The seed is ovoid or ellipsoidal and shiny brown. Cyathula prostrata is a weed of cultivated land, waste places, as well as forest margins. It is widely distributed and can be found in tropical Africa and America, and in Asia as well as in Australia. In many communities, the leaves are cooked and eaten as a vegetable.
The Cyathula prostrata plant is often harvested from the wild for local use, especially for medicinal purposes but also as a food and source of soap. It has many medicinal uses. The leaves are typically used for treatment and management against rheumatic fever, dysentery, wounds and eye trouble. The sap is traditionally used as an ear drop to treat otitis and is also applied to skin sores and burns. The leaves, mashed with water are used as a remedy for treatment of cholera disease. A decoction of the leaves is applied to snakebites. The juice from macerated leaves is applied to cuts and bruises as an antiseptic and the macerated leaves themselves are applied to wounds to stop bleeding. The decoction of the leaves is used to ease irritations of the throat.
The stem and leaves decoction is administered as a mild laxative. The juice extracted from the stem is used as an abortifacient. A stem decoction is taken as a diuretic and to increase menstrual discharge. Similar to the stem use, the roots are also used as an abortifacient. A decoction of the roots is used as a remedy for dysentery, colds and cough, and dropsy.
The root is used as a plaster to treat caterpillar itch, around the neck for a cough and on the belly for intestinal worms or shingles. And although its use in traditional medicine is not much reported compared to other parts of the plant, the flowers are known to have an expectorant activity. The decoction prepared from the whole plant is also administered for articular rheumatism.
Furthermore, the decoction of the aerial parts of the plant is drunk as a treatment for cough and an infusion of the whole plant is taken as a remedy for fever and dysentery. A decoction made from the whole plant is used as a wash for relieving headache. Similar to the use of the leaves, the sap obtained from the whole plant is administered as ear drops to treat otitis and headache. The plant is pulped and applied as a poultice on sores, burns, and fractures, where it acts as a haemostatic and healing agent. The ash of the burnt plant, mixed with water, is rubbed on the body as a remedy for scabies and other skin ailments.
Richard Komakech
Bolivia. Rainmaking Ritual.
Friday, 1 May 2020 8:00
Category: Culture May 2020
permalink
Tagged under:Latin America
Quechuas perform a special ritual to ask for rain to the God of life. According to the narration of the old people of the K’isi k’isi community, in the department of Ouro in the south of the country, the custom of performing the ritual to ask for rain dates back
to ancient times.
That is why every year, the Quechua people climb to the peak of Andamarka and perform the ch’alla to ask for rain and avoid drought. The sacred peak of Andamarka is an hour’s walk from the community of K’isi k’isi.The ritual is organized by the jilanqo, that is, the person who serves as community authority on a rotating basis. This person is in charge of carrying out all the activities of the community; in case he failed to fulfill his duties and in case any bad event occurred to animals, crops and people, he would be considered the one responsible for that.
So the jilanqo seven days ahead of the day of the performance of the rainmaking ritual makes sure that the chicha preparation has started and two days before the ritual he orders the hunt of twelve guinea pigs.
On Friday afternoon, the son-in-law of the jilanqo (the community authority) gets some chicha and along with his parents he performs
the ch’allar ritual.
On Saturday morning, the authority of the community, along with the yatiri (the master of the rite) and the whole community climb to the peak of Andamarca. Some people carry chicha and food. When they reach the peak of Andamarca, the jilanqo along with his two sons-in-law, sets up two stone tables that represent the principle of pairs, that is, the male and female principles. Both tables are oriented towards the sunrise. Then the yatiri begins to prepare the ritual offering with aromatic herbs, dried llama, and invokes the awatiris (provider spirits). The yatiri asks the spirits to provide the community with abundance of sheep, cows, llamas and all those products that are essential for their sustenance. After doing so, the yatiri sacrifices a white lamb; he removes the heart from the animal and puts it in a clean container which is placed on a flat stone.
After the skin is removed from the lamb, the young people of the community offer the belly and guts of the animal to the sacred places. The lamb meat is cooked on embers without salt and all attendants eat it. The yatiri eats the head of the lamb. The son-in-law of the community authority, collects all the bones of the sacrificed animal and ties them with a red thread and gives them to the yatiri. At this point the yatiri makes the offering of six guinea pigs at the chullpas (funerary towers). The yatiri also makes other offerings at other sacred places using the bones of the lamb and the six guinea pigs left.
Then he distributes the piqa (small offering made with the blood of the slaughtered animal and with white flour and other ingredients) to each family so that they can make offerings to the uywiris and other spirits. When the ritual ceremony ends, people descend from the peak of Andamarca while dancing and playing their pinkillus (wooden flutes, typical Andean instruments that are played during the rainy season).
Once people are all back at the village the jilanqo invites everyone to share the kanka (ritual meal which was prepared at the peak of Andamarca). After the meal, the ch’allar ritual is performed invoking all protector spirits, and asking for their blessing and an abundance of animals and generous harvests. Making offerings at sacred places and to the Pachamama has great importance to us the Quechua people, since we believe that the God of life manifests himself through sacred places and his blessing gives life to all creation. Human beings are those who are aware of all this and are grateful for life and at the same time they know they must watch over the other beings of the universe. This is the reason why the rainmaking ritual must be performed by the members of the community of K’isi k’isi. All of them do this happily because they know that by doing so harmony is restored with the cosmos, with God and with the community.
Living in harmony with nature and people is what gives meaning to the cultural and spiritual existence of the Quechuas.
Jhonny Mancilla Pérez
Friday, 1 May 2020 8:00
Category: Culture May 2020
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Tagged under:Latin America
Quechuas perform a special ritual to ask for rain to the God of life. According to the narration of the old people of the K’isi k’isi community, in the department of Ouro in the south of the country, the custom of performing the ritual to ask for rain dates back
to ancient times.
That is why every year, the Quechua people climb to the peak of Andamarka and perform the ch’alla to ask for rain and avoid drought. The sacred peak of Andamarka is an hour’s walk from the community of K’isi k’isi.The ritual is organized by the jilanqo, that is, the person who serves as community authority on a rotating basis. This person is in charge of carrying out all the activities of the community; in case he failed to fulfill his duties and in case any bad event occurred to animals, crops and people, he would be considered the one responsible for that.
So the jilanqo seven days ahead of the day of the performance of the rainmaking ritual makes sure that the chicha preparation has started and two days before the ritual he orders the hunt of twelve guinea pigs.
On Friday afternoon, the son-in-law of the jilanqo (the community authority) gets some chicha and along with his parents he performs
the ch’allar ritual.
On Saturday morning, the authority of the community, along with the yatiri (the master of the rite) and the whole community climb to the peak of Andamarca. Some people carry chicha and food. When they reach the peak of Andamarca, the jilanqo along with his two sons-in-law, sets up two stone tables that represent the principle of pairs, that is, the male and female principles. Both tables are oriented towards the sunrise. Then the yatiri begins to prepare the ritual offering with aromatic herbs, dried llama, and invokes the awatiris (provider spirits). The yatiri asks the spirits to provide the community with abundance of sheep, cows, llamas and all those products that are essential for their sustenance. After doing so, the yatiri sacrifices a white lamb; he removes the heart from the animal and puts it in a clean container which is placed on a flat stone.
After the skin is removed from the lamb, the young people of the community offer the belly and guts of the animal to the sacred places. The lamb meat is cooked on embers without salt and all attendants eat it. The yatiri eats the head of the lamb. The son-in-law of the community authority, collects all the bones of the sacrificed animal and ties them with a red thread and gives them to the yatiri. At this point the yatiri makes the offering of six guinea pigs at the chullpas (funerary towers). The yatiri also makes other offerings at other sacred places using the bones of the lamb and the six guinea pigs left.
Then he distributes the piqa (small offering made with the blood of the slaughtered animal and with white flour and other ingredients) to each family so that they can make offerings to the uywiris and other spirits. When the ritual ceremony ends, people descend from the peak of Andamarca while dancing and playing their pinkillus (wooden flutes, typical Andean instruments that are played during the rainy season).
Once people are all back at the village the jilanqo invites everyone to share the kanka (ritual meal which was prepared at the peak of Andamarca). After the meal, the ch’allar ritual is performed invoking all protector spirits, and asking for their blessing and an abundance of animals and generous harvests. Making offerings at sacred places and to the Pachamama has great importance to us the Quechua people, since we believe that the God of life manifests himself through sacred places and his blessing gives life to all creation. Human beings are those who are aware of all this and are grateful for life and at the same time they know they must watch over the other beings of the universe. This is the reason why the rainmaking ritual must be performed by the members of the community of K’isi k’isi. All of them do this happily because they know that by doing so harmony is restored with the cosmos, with God and with the community.
Living in harmony with nature and people is what gives meaning to the cultural and spiritual existence of the Quechuas.
Jhonny Mancilla Pérez
Zimbabwe. In search of the lost city.
Friday, 1 May 2020 8:00
Category: Culture May 2020
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Tagged under:Africa
Grand Zimbabwe is one of Africa’s largest and most complex archaeological sites. Its origins and decline are mysterious,
and we visited it.
The origins of Grand Zimbabwe – Dzimba-Dzemabwe in the Shona language: The Stone City – date back to 800 AD. That’s when, in the last great Bantu migration, Black African populations descended from what is present-day Zambia to the areas beyond the Zambezi River, settling in the plains at the foot of the eastern highlands, which is now south-eastern Zimbabwe. Previously, only the San ethnic populations (the Bushmen) inhabited the area.A small group of Bantu chose to settle in the ideal conditions along the banks of the Mutirikwe River. And their choice would prove to be accurate.
The water course was navigable. And it was a tributary of the Save river, for hundreds and hundreds of kilometers, served as the only river route that crossed the great Chimanimani mountain range – a natural barrier between the inland and the Indian Ocean coastline. It was along this water highway that Arab merchants based in Sofala reached the hinterland, encountering the Bantu peoples of Grand Zimbabwe and establishing a profitable trade network.
Towards the end of the ninth century, nearly twenty thousand people lived in the city, and hundreds of villages and communities revolved around what became an important centre for trade.
A Granite Heart
Grand Zimbabwe was built using square and locally hewn granite blocks from the surrounding hills and from the Matabeleland. These were cut and laid dry on top of each other. The oldest nucleus is now known as the Acropolis, located on the granite hill overlooking the esplanade. That’s where the the sovereign resided. Centuries later the large enclosure (now known as The Great Enclosure, or ‘Imba Huru’), the most famous complex in the city, was erected.
It consists of an elliptical enclosure of cyclopean walls, in the interior of which stands the famous Conical Tower, built in a shape resembling a truncated cone; it may have been a a symbol of fertility, reminiscent of a phallic form . Or it could have functioned as a granary. Visitors to the site can still notice decorative motifs on the upper parts of the walls, produced using the laying of the blocks and believed to represent the City’s social organization, the power of the sovereign, and an invocation for fertility.The older wives of the sovereign lived in Imba Huru, where religious ceremonies were also officiated.
The priests studied astronomy, as the stelae located within the enclosure, depicting various astral constellations, show.
Moreover, the very shape of the walls, their dimensions and their relations with the Pi, the constant used to calculate the area of a circle symbolized by Greek letter Pi, betray the priests possessed deep mathematical insights. Perhaps, the Arabs, who made regular visits to the settlement, transmitted this knowledge. Beyond the southern gate there is a third complex, known as “The Valley” and it consists of a series of stone houses, probably inhabited by dignitaries and priests.
A Mysterious End
The civilization thrived for more than five hundred years. Then, around 1500, it mysteriously disappeared within less than half a century. Nobody knows exactly why the inhabitants abandoned the site. A prolonged period of drought and famine, an epidemic, or an economic crisis linked to a decline of the gold trade could have been responsible, forcing the inhabitants to move away. Moreover, archaeologists suggest migrations from the north overwhelmed both the Grand Zimbabwe (and the empire it controlled) on several occasions. Today, only the ruins of the majestic civilization that once thrived in the region are visible. They are located just a few kilometers from Masvingo, down the valley, where the ‘Great Enclosure’ and its conical tower stand against the ‘Acropolis’.
Stone Symbols
Without realizing it, as you walk through the alleys and the steps you shift from the granite construction of the Hill to an area of masonry buildings, where terraces, steps, squares and ramparts merge. Here the natural and the artificial coexist in perfect harmony. That which existed before the City (the granite area) was not demolished, or cut, but the city itself was integrated with it. It is a metaphor for African culture, in which the old is a heritage to be preserved and not a burden to be discarded.
In Grand Zimbabwe, in the small museum at the foot of the Acropolis, visitors can observe seven of the eight so-called ‘Zimbabwe birds’ or ‘Zimbabwe hawks’, a series of stele carved in soapstone representing the howling eagle or the juggling hawk. Both are thought to link the world of the living with that of the ancestors. These were probably placed on the top of the Acropolis walls. Each of these commemorates a new ruler, and the image of the last hawk recurs in national iconography from the period when thr country was known as Rhodesia to the present. They appear on flags, banknotes, coats of arms and friezes. And the ruling political Party, Zanu-Pf, has adopted the conical tower, on whose sides two tall trees have grown, as a symbol.
Contested Origins
Adam Render, a German hunter, was the first European to discover the ruins of Grand Zimbabwe. He told his friend Karl Mauch, an explorer and geographer, and they visited the site together. They took credit for the discovery attributing the site’s origins to King Solomon. For a long time, it was believed that Phoenician populations, who managed to reach southern Africa, built Grand Zimbabwe.
Cecil John Rhodes was the first to understand the political significance of the ruins: attruibuting the erection of the City to black African populations would have falsified the notion that Africans were culturally inferior to whites. Thus, the Phoenician origin of the site would remain in vogue until 1905, when the archaeologist David Randall Maclver established, after careful study, that there were no signs of European or Near Eastern influence to be observed at Grand Zimbabwe.
However, the authenticity of the existence of a purely African medieval archaeological site was censored until the late 1970s. When Rhodesian archaeologist Peter Garlake definitively established Grand Zimbabwe’s African origins, he was forced into exile.
Weeks would fail to provide enough time to talk about the mysterious Lost City, whose thousands of corners and millenary walls seem to whisper history while the massive granite boulders appear to guard its secrets. In 1986, UNESCO included the archaeological site of Grand Zimbabwe in its list of World Heritage Sites. (S.T.)
Friday, 1 May 2020 8:00
Category: Culture May 2020
permalink
Tagged under:Africa
Grand Zimbabwe is one of Africa’s largest and most complex archaeological sites. Its origins and decline are mysterious,
and we visited it.
The origins of Grand Zimbabwe – Dzimba-Dzemabwe in the Shona language: The Stone City – date back to 800 AD. That’s when, in the last great Bantu migration, Black African populations descended from what is present-day Zambia to the areas beyond the Zambezi River, settling in the plains at the foot of the eastern highlands, which is now south-eastern Zimbabwe. Previously, only the San ethnic populations (the Bushmen) inhabited the area.A small group of Bantu chose to settle in the ideal conditions along the banks of the Mutirikwe River. And their choice would prove to be accurate.
The water course was navigable. And it was a tributary of the Save river, for hundreds and hundreds of kilometers, served as the only river route that crossed the great Chimanimani mountain range – a natural barrier between the inland and the Indian Ocean coastline. It was along this water highway that Arab merchants based in Sofala reached the hinterland, encountering the Bantu peoples of Grand Zimbabwe and establishing a profitable trade network.
Towards the end of the ninth century, nearly twenty thousand people lived in the city, and hundreds of villages and communities revolved around what became an important centre for trade.
A Granite Heart
Grand Zimbabwe was built using square and locally hewn granite blocks from the surrounding hills and from the Matabeleland. These were cut and laid dry on top of each other. The oldest nucleus is now known as the Acropolis, located on the granite hill overlooking the esplanade. That’s where the the sovereign resided. Centuries later the large enclosure (now known as The Great Enclosure, or ‘Imba Huru’), the most famous complex in the city, was erected.
It consists of an elliptical enclosure of cyclopean walls, in the interior of which stands the famous Conical Tower, built in a shape resembling a truncated cone; it may have been a a symbol of fertility, reminiscent of a phallic form . Or it could have functioned as a granary. Visitors to the site can still notice decorative motifs on the upper parts of the walls, produced using the laying of the blocks and believed to represent the City’s social organization, the power of the sovereign, and an invocation for fertility.The older wives of the sovereign lived in Imba Huru, where religious ceremonies were also officiated.
The priests studied astronomy, as the stelae located within the enclosure, depicting various astral constellations, show.
Moreover, the very shape of the walls, their dimensions and their relations with the Pi, the constant used to calculate the area of a circle symbolized by Greek letter Pi, betray the priests possessed deep mathematical insights. Perhaps, the Arabs, who made regular visits to the settlement, transmitted this knowledge. Beyond the southern gate there is a third complex, known as “The Valley” and it consists of a series of stone houses, probably inhabited by dignitaries and priests.
A Mysterious End
The civilization thrived for more than five hundred years. Then, around 1500, it mysteriously disappeared within less than half a century. Nobody knows exactly why the inhabitants abandoned the site. A prolonged period of drought and famine, an epidemic, or an economic crisis linked to a decline of the gold trade could have been responsible, forcing the inhabitants to move away. Moreover, archaeologists suggest migrations from the north overwhelmed both the Grand Zimbabwe (and the empire it controlled) on several occasions. Today, only the ruins of the majestic civilization that once thrived in the region are visible. They are located just a few kilometers from Masvingo, down the valley, where the ‘Great Enclosure’ and its conical tower stand against the ‘Acropolis’.
Stone Symbols
Without realizing it, as you walk through the alleys and the steps you shift from the granite construction of the Hill to an area of masonry buildings, where terraces, steps, squares and ramparts merge. Here the natural and the artificial coexist in perfect harmony. That which existed before the City (the granite area) was not demolished, or cut, but the city itself was integrated with it. It is a metaphor for African culture, in which the old is a heritage to be preserved and not a burden to be discarded.
In Grand Zimbabwe, in the small museum at the foot of the Acropolis, visitors can observe seven of the eight so-called ‘Zimbabwe birds’ or ‘Zimbabwe hawks’, a series of stele carved in soapstone representing the howling eagle or the juggling hawk. Both are thought to link the world of the living with that of the ancestors. These were probably placed on the top of the Acropolis walls. Each of these commemorates a new ruler, and the image of the last hawk recurs in national iconography from the period when thr country was known as Rhodesia to the present. They appear on flags, banknotes, coats of arms and friezes. And the ruling political Party, Zanu-Pf, has adopted the conical tower, on whose sides two tall trees have grown, as a symbol.
Contested Origins
Adam Render, a German hunter, was the first European to discover the ruins of Grand Zimbabwe. He told his friend Karl Mauch, an explorer and geographer, and they visited the site together. They took credit for the discovery attributing the site’s origins to King Solomon. For a long time, it was believed that Phoenician populations, who managed to reach southern Africa, built Grand Zimbabwe.
Cecil John Rhodes was the first to understand the political significance of the ruins: attruibuting the erection of the City to black African populations would have falsified the notion that Africans were culturally inferior to whites. Thus, the Phoenician origin of the site would remain in vogue until 1905, when the archaeologist David Randall Maclver established, after careful study, that there were no signs of European or Near Eastern influence to be observed at Grand Zimbabwe.
However, the authenticity of the existence of a purely African medieval archaeological site was censored until the late 1970s. When Rhodesian archaeologist Peter Garlake definitively established Grand Zimbabwe’s African origins, he was forced into exile.
Weeks would fail to provide enough time to talk about the mysterious Lost City, whose thousands of corners and millenary walls seem to whisper history while the massive granite boulders appear to guard its secrets. In 1986, UNESCO included the archaeological site of Grand Zimbabwe in its list of World Heritage Sites. (S.T.)
African Military spending up 17% over the last decade.
PERMANENT ARMS ECONOMY
Friday, 1 May 2020
PERMANENT ARMS ECONOMY
Friday, 1 May 2020
Category: News May 2020
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Tagged under:Africa
Over the last ten years, African military spending grew by 17%, rising to $41.2 billion in 2019, according to new research from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), which reports that last year the world recorded the largest annual growth in military spending since 2010, rising 3.6% from 2018 to $1.917 trillion.
At an estimated $41.2 billion, military expenditure in Africa accounted for 2.1% of the global total in 2019. The marginal growth in spending in 2019 was the first increase in African military expenditure for five years. Despite the annual decreases in 2015–18, increases in other years meant that total African military spending grew by 17% over the decade 2010–19, SIPRI said.
Military spending by countries in North Africa is estimated to have totalled $23.5 billion in 2019, representing 57% of the total for Africa. Amid long-standing tensions between Algeria and Morocco, domestic insurgencies and continuing civil war in Libya, military spending in the sub region was 4.6% higher than in 2018 and 67% higher than in 2010.
Algeria’s military expenditure of $10.3 billion in 2019 was the highest in North Africa (and Africa as a whole) and accounted for 44% of the sub regional total. Algeria’s military spending has risen almost continuously since 2000, and particularly in the period 2004–16, when expenditure grew for 13 consecutive years and reached an all-time high in 2016. At 6.0% of its GDP, Algeria’s military burden was the highest in Africa in 2019.Military spending in sub-Saharan Africa fell by 2.2% in 2019 to reach $17.7 billion, which was 15% lower than in 2010.
At $3.5 billion, South Africa’s military spending was the highest in sub-Saharan Africa in 2019. Its spending fell by 1.5% in 2019 — the fourth consecutive year of decrease. Nigeria was the second largest spender in the sub region in 2019: it allocated $1.9 billion to its military, down by 8.2% compared with 2018.
In recent years spending on the military by sub-Saharan African states has been volatile, SIPRI said. Of the 19 countries that increased military spending in 2019, eight decreased spending in 2018. Similarly, 13 of the 23 countries that lowered spending in 2019 had raised spending in 2018. This means that, overall, the trend in changes by 21 of the 42 countries in the sub region for which relevant data is available reversed in 2019.SIPRI said that armed conflict is a major driver for the volatile nature of military spending in sub-Saharan Africa.
For example, in the Sahel and Lake Chad region, where there are several ongoing armed conflicts, military spending increased in 2019 in Burkina Faso (22%), Cameroon (1.4%) and Mali (3.6%) but fell in Chad (–5.1%), Niger (–20%) and Nigeria (–8.2%). Among the Central African countries that were involved in armed conflict, military spending rose in 2019 in the Central African Republic (8.7%), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (16%) and Uganda (52%) but fell in Burundi (–4.5%). In the Horn of Africa, military spending decreased in 2019 in Ethiopia (–1.6%) and Kenya (–1.7%); however, their spending in 2019 remained well above that in 2010: Ethiopia’s was 12% higher while Kenya’s was 25% higher.
Global trends
SIPRI said the five largest spenders in 2019, which accounted for 62% of expenditure, were the United States, China, India, Russia and Saudi Arabia. This is the first time that two Asian states have featured among the top three military spenders.
Global military spending in 2019 represented 2.2% of the global gross domestic product (GDP), which equates to approximately $249 per person. “Global military expenditure was 7.2% higher in 2019 than it was in 2010, showing a trend that military spending growth has accelerated in recent years,” said Dr Nan Tian, SIPRI Researcher. “This is the highest level of spending since the 2008 global financial crisis and probably represents a peak in expenditure.”
Military spending by the United States grew by 5.3% to a total of $732 billion in 2019 and accounted for 38% of global military spending. The increase in US spending in 2019 alone was equivalent to the entirety of Germany’s military expenditure for that year.
“The recent growth in US military spending is largely based on a perceived return to competition between the great powers,” said Pieter D. Wezeman, Senior Researcher at SIPRI.
In 2019 China and India were, respectively, the second- and third-largest military spenders in the world. China’s military expenditure reached $261 billion in 2019, a 5.1% increase compared with 2018, while India’s grew by 6.8% to $71.1 billion. “India’s tensions and rivalry with both Pakistan and China are among the major drivers for its increased military spending,” said Siemon T. Wezeman, SIPRI Senior Researcher.In addition to China and India, Japan ($47.6 billion) and South Korea ($43.9 billion) were the largest military spenders in Asia and Oceania. Military expenditure in the region has risen every year since at least 1989. (D.N.)
permalink
Tagged under:Africa
Over the last ten years, African military spending grew by 17%, rising to $41.2 billion in 2019, according to new research from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), which reports that last year the world recorded the largest annual growth in military spending since 2010, rising 3.6% from 2018 to $1.917 trillion.
At an estimated $41.2 billion, military expenditure in Africa accounted for 2.1% of the global total in 2019. The marginal growth in spending in 2019 was the first increase in African military expenditure for five years. Despite the annual decreases in 2015–18, increases in other years meant that total African military spending grew by 17% over the decade 2010–19, SIPRI said.
Military spending by countries in North Africa is estimated to have totalled $23.5 billion in 2019, representing 57% of the total for Africa. Amid long-standing tensions between Algeria and Morocco, domestic insurgencies and continuing civil war in Libya, military spending in the sub region was 4.6% higher than in 2018 and 67% higher than in 2010.
Algeria’s military expenditure of $10.3 billion in 2019 was the highest in North Africa (and Africa as a whole) and accounted for 44% of the sub regional total. Algeria’s military spending has risen almost continuously since 2000, and particularly in the period 2004–16, when expenditure grew for 13 consecutive years and reached an all-time high in 2016. At 6.0% of its GDP, Algeria’s military burden was the highest in Africa in 2019.Military spending in sub-Saharan Africa fell by 2.2% in 2019 to reach $17.7 billion, which was 15% lower than in 2010.
At $3.5 billion, South Africa’s military spending was the highest in sub-Saharan Africa in 2019. Its spending fell by 1.5% in 2019 — the fourth consecutive year of decrease. Nigeria was the second largest spender in the sub region in 2019: it allocated $1.9 billion to its military, down by 8.2% compared with 2018.
In recent years spending on the military by sub-Saharan African states has been volatile, SIPRI said. Of the 19 countries that increased military spending in 2019, eight decreased spending in 2018. Similarly, 13 of the 23 countries that lowered spending in 2019 had raised spending in 2018. This means that, overall, the trend in changes by 21 of the 42 countries in the sub region for which relevant data is available reversed in 2019.SIPRI said that armed conflict is a major driver for the volatile nature of military spending in sub-Saharan Africa.
For example, in the Sahel and Lake Chad region, where there are several ongoing armed conflicts, military spending increased in 2019 in Burkina Faso (22%), Cameroon (1.4%) and Mali (3.6%) but fell in Chad (–5.1%), Niger (–20%) and Nigeria (–8.2%). Among the Central African countries that were involved in armed conflict, military spending rose in 2019 in the Central African Republic (8.7%), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (16%) and Uganda (52%) but fell in Burundi (–4.5%). In the Horn of Africa, military spending decreased in 2019 in Ethiopia (–1.6%) and Kenya (–1.7%); however, their spending in 2019 remained well above that in 2010: Ethiopia’s was 12% higher while Kenya’s was 25% higher.
Global trends
SIPRI said the five largest spenders in 2019, which accounted for 62% of expenditure, were the United States, China, India, Russia and Saudi Arabia. This is the first time that two Asian states have featured among the top three military spenders.
Global military spending in 2019 represented 2.2% of the global gross domestic product (GDP), which equates to approximately $249 per person. “Global military expenditure was 7.2% higher in 2019 than it was in 2010, showing a trend that military spending growth has accelerated in recent years,” said Dr Nan Tian, SIPRI Researcher. “This is the highest level of spending since the 2008 global financial crisis and probably represents a peak in expenditure.”
Military spending by the United States grew by 5.3% to a total of $732 billion in 2019 and accounted for 38% of global military spending. The increase in US spending in 2019 alone was equivalent to the entirety of Germany’s military expenditure for that year.
“The recent growth in US military spending is largely based on a perceived return to competition between the great powers,” said Pieter D. Wezeman, Senior Researcher at SIPRI.
In 2019 China and India were, respectively, the second- and third-largest military spenders in the world. China’s military expenditure reached $261 billion in 2019, a 5.1% increase compared with 2018, while India’s grew by 6.8% to $71.1 billion. “India’s tensions and rivalry with both Pakistan and China are among the major drivers for its increased military spending,” said Siemon T. Wezeman, SIPRI Senior Researcher.In addition to China and India, Japan ($47.6 billion) and South Korea ($43.9 billion) were the largest military spenders in Asia and Oceania. Military expenditure in the region has risen every year since at least 1989. (D.N.)
Unknown to most people, and often considered a mere folkloric tradition, the Shango ritual plays an important role in the lives of many inhabitants of the islands of Trinidad and Togabo.
The Shango is a religious ritual which is still practiced today in the islands of Trinidad and Tobago where the majority of the population is black. The two Caribbean islands’ inhabitants are the descendants of those African slaves who were taken to the New World in the seventeenth century and who were renamed Lukumi by the white people after the words oluku mi, ‘my friend’, which they often used when they greeted each other. This expression also marked their group identity as ethnic Yoruba, who more than any other ethnicity has remained faithful to the ancestral tradition of the people of the ancient kingdom of Dabomey, which covered an area including the modern Benin, Togo and south-western Nigeria. These slaves brought a complex mixture of rites and beliefs into the New World.
This spiritual amalgamation combined the several religious elements belonging to the Yoruba, with Catholic, Hindu, Protestant and Jewish Kabalistic traditions, and it became one of the most complex and flourishing forms of religious syncretism of the African-American tradition. This is shown also in the Shango of Trinidad, whose first nucleus derives from the Yoruba cult, beliefs and religious practices, which were combined with Catholic rituals first and with many elements of Hindu tradition later.
The white people’s refusal of the Lukumi’s ancestral traditions led the slaves of Trinidad and Tobago to disguise their traditional practices in the eyes of the Europeans. They, therefore, adopted Christian rituals and formulas, which, however, in reality were addressed to their African gods, in order to avoid persecution and prohibitions. With this clever system of homologies, the Shango ritual therefore is a relevant example of faithfulness to the African tradition through processes of authentic cultural fossilization.
Possession
In the amazing expressive diversity of the Shango cult, possession is the only institutionalized element which is present and which is performed in the same manner in the rituals throughout the two Caribbean islands. Achieving trance is the essential element that constantly recurs in any Shango religious ceremony.
The achievement of a trance state is stimulated by musical rhythm. The deities or gods worshipped in Lukumí religion are called orishas. The orishas serve as mediators between humankind and the Supreme Being. These deities can represent all the virtuous qualities of the divine, yet the orishas are also human-like in their characters and mannerisms. They are celestial, yet they are worldly too. The African religious tradition of Trinidad, though mainly characterized by Yoruba elements, also includes multiple elements of other ethnic groups such as the Fon (Benin) or the Ewe (Togo) . The rituals often take place in the peristyles (porticoed courtyards) of Port of Spain, the capital of Trinidad and Tobago.
Both rada (good spirits of African tradition) cults, which have been surveyed and which originate respectively from a soothsayer of Ouidah and a priest from Dahomey, perform the same rituals, and worship the same deities which are hierarchically positioned in family groupings (fanni) in the pantheon. These deities remind one so much of the voodoun gods of Abomey.Dada Segbo is the Creator God in the rada cults of Trinidad, the equivalent of Nana Buluku, and Ogun and Legba and many others belonging to the Sakpatan family, such as Sobo (god of thunder), Agbe (ague) and Naete, the sea deities, are his descendants. The voodoo (rada) ceremonies and the sacrifices for the individual gods (first of all the offerings to Legba), are a precise repetition of the traditional rituals that can still be found even today in Benin, in Togo and part of southwestern Nigeria.
Orisha
Nowadays, the inhabitants of Trinidad worship the major gods of the Yoruba pantheon. In the Orisha and Shango deity lists, gods can be identified and one can notice how their original names have been locally changed. So, Ajajà o Mama Loatlè, the mother of all nations, in the Shango of Trinidad, changes into Baba-byu-aye and Yemaja in the Lukumi pantheon. Olurum, known in Cuba under the name of Olafi or Obatala, splits into the male and female principles Batala and Lyamba.
The ecclesiastical system is also run by a strongly hierarchized clergy according to the powers received during the initiation phase (the only means by which one can access to the Shango cults). According to the Yoruba model, the candidate, who wanders into the forest for a specified period of time, will receive at the end the power: a sort of Christian grace symbolically sanctioned by a liturgical object, sacred to the gods, where each colour is linked, according to the African rules, to the nature and the will of the individual orishas.
All the local Shango clergy takes part in the Shango ritual of Trinidad, which is based on Protestant hymns and African dances around a central pole. All these elements are essential to the achievement of the hypnotic condition.
The ecclesiastical system is also run by a strongly hierarchized clergy according to the powers received during the initiation phase (the only means by which one can access to the Shango cults). According to the Yoruba model, the candidate, who wanders into the forest for a specified period of time, will receive at the end the power: a sort of Christian grace symbolically sanctioned by a liturgical object, sacred to the gods, where each colour is linked, according to the African rules, to the nature and the will of the individual orishas.
All the local Shango clergy takes part in the Shango ritual of Trinidad, which is based on Protestant hymns and African dances around a central pole. All these elements are essential to the achievement of the hypnotic condition.
This tradition evokes the most vivid aspects of a major revivalist religion on the island, that of the shouters, which was prohibited in the early last century and which has continued to be clandestinely performed until today, providing an even clearer picture of African-Protestant syncretism. As for the places of worship, the temple includes Christian elements (such as the altar with the Bible, the cross, the candles, the pulpit of the preacher) and African elements (the central pole, the poteau-mitan, which had already been used in the voodoo cults of Haiti, and that is also found in some candomblé rituals in Bahia, Brazil). Like the deities, the Shango clergy is also hierarchically organized, according to the powers received during the initiation, and it is constituted by preachers (who interpret the Bible), teachers (who interpret the dreams of the faithful), leaders (who baptize), doctors (who have the gift of healing the sick), soothsayers and prophets (who predict the future), and nurses (corresponding to the ‘ekedey’ priestesses of the Yoruba sects). A well organized system. (M.R.)
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