March 13, 2010

Congo basket divination

Fetish Market

SOURCE : Congo basket divination
One of the best known types of divination practiced by Chokwe, Lunda, Lwena/Luvale, Luchazi and others, includes the use of a basket containing numerous symbolic objects, called tupele… Such a divination basket is called ngombo ya kusekula or ya chisuka, and the tupele comprise both natural items, such as rocks, shells, [...]

DAILY NATION - OBBO: An African president wages the strangest of wars

Pinkman

SOURCE : DAILY NATION - OBBO: An African president wages the strangest of wars
It is the witchcraft season in Africa. Over the weekend, there was a report on CNN about some frightening chaps in Burundi who had been arrested for the murder of their fellow citizens with albinism.
They, like others in the Democratic Republic of Congo [...]

Congo Culture: Fetisheurs and night flying sorcery

Race

Congo Culture: Fetisheurs – Wanderlust and Lipstick
In the Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic, you find the word “ndoki” attached to a river in the north and to two national parks – Nouable-Ndoki and Dzanga-Ndoki. In the Lingala language “ndoki” means sorcerer.
The stories of witchcraft I enjoy best are about the imaginative magic [...]

Nkuyu as Witch Ghosts in Bantu Myth and Legend

Cave troll as corporate bully

SOURCE : Myths and Legends of the Bantu: Chapter XVI: Doctors, Prophets, and Witches
The Mayombe, in French Congo, have a belief in some gruesome beings which recall the above descriptions: they are small in stature, have legs cut off at the knee, high shoulders, and one remarkably long finger-nail; their skin is jet-black, and their [...]

Religion in the Congo according to the Catholic Encylopedia

Crianças ... uma vida fora dos livros de histórias

SOURCE : CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Congo
The irreligion and ignorance of the Congolese have often been exaggerated and misrepresented. They are not so debased as many pretend. They recognize a supreme God, Creator of all things, but they seem very largely to ignore His immediate Providence and His interventions in the affairs of this world. They believe [...]

Cryptozoology : giant killer apes of the Congo

i wish i had shot this

SOURCE : From myth to reality – meet the chimps who eat lions | Mail Online
The giant lion-eating ape of the Congo, known ‘officially’ as the Bili or Bondo Mystery Ape, is one of those creatures that for decades has sat on the knife-edge that divides myth and scientific respectability. Sceptics say giant, lion-eating primates [...]

African lycanthropy myths : Were-jackals of the Congo

Death Gaze

SOURCE : The Werewolf Page Myths – Were-Jackals of the Congo
In the 1930’s perched hidden in a tree an English physician witnessed a very special ceremony. It started with the beating of drums, then the nyanga (witch doctor), covered in the skin of a jackal, jumped into the center of the crowd and began to [...]

Cryptozoology of the Congo: Mokele-mbembe

Prehistoric beast

SOURCE : TrueAuthority.com – Cryptozoology – Mokele-mbembe
In 1913, a German explorer reported stories of, what the natives called, “Mokele-mbembe,” which he had heard while in the Congo. Hearing the reports, a few scientists noticed that the descriptions of the creatures made them sound much like sauropod dinosaurs. Sauropods were the giants of the dinosaurs world, [...]

Mayombe

(Kongo) – I’ve read various definitions for this word, including “governor” and “mystery”; Mayombe is also a region in the Congo (e.g., the Mayombe rainforest).
According to my padrino, mayombe means “talking” or “singing”; thus, Palo Mayombe is the art communicating with and commanding the spirits of nature and the dead.
Palo Mayombe is one of the [...]

Yemaya – Yerbas

yemaya (la virgen de regla) / yemaya, congo equal – baluande, balunga, kalunga, madre agua
yerba / plants – nfita, matiti, vititi
yerbas / herbs – musanga