This week’s episode focuses on African Divination, a topic I first looked into as part of a project about the cultures and customs of Cameroon, my country of birth. You can read a little bit of that work here. My initial research focused mainly on divination in the Cameroonian context. But Cameroon, as some of you may know, is sometimes called “Africa in Miniature”. This refers to the fact that the country of over two hundred different ethnic groups, spread across a national territory which extends from the arid Sudano-Sahelian climate in the north, to Equatorial forests in the south and east, and reaches the Atlantic coast in the west, has a dazzlingly rich and complex culture, making it a microcosm of the whole continent. This diversity is strikingly evident in different kinds of divination practiced by the people, which closely reflects the diversity on the continent. This makes sense. African peoples, ever adaptable and pragmatic, quickly adopt beliefs and practices from each other and abroad, especially when it concerns ways to ensure wellbeing and provide insight about the unknown.
This episode is very didactic. I use the 5Ws and 1H (What, Who, When, Why, Where and How) approach to examine different kinds of divination found across the African continent. The episode first aired on the Mythological Africans YouTube Channel and you will find links to the referenced books and papers in the comment section over there.
If you would like to know more, however, stop by The College of Psychic Studies on Thursday November 30th for my talk “The Crab Walks, The Gods Talk: Divination in African Societies.” We will revisit the topic of different types of divination practices among African people using folktales. As a primer, you can read “Black Bird Medicine”, an original short story from my book “The Runaway Princess and Other Stories.”
I hope you enjoy the episode!
Divination in Africa