The Religious Ideas Of The Negroes, I.E. The West Africans In The
District From The Gambia To The Cameroon
Region, say roughly to the
Rio del Rey (for the Bakwiri appear to have more of the Bantu form
of
Idea than the negro, although physically they seem nearer the
latter), differ very considerably from the religious ideas of the
Bantu South-West Coast tribes. The Bantu is vague on religious
subjects; he gives one accustomed to the Negro the impression that
he once had the same set of ideas, but has forgotten half of them,
and those that he possesses have not got that hold on him that the
corresponding or super-imposed Christian ideas have over the true
Negro; although he is quite as keen on the subject of witchcraft,
and his witchcraft differs far less from the witchcraft of the Negro
than his religious ideas do.
The god, in the sense we use the word, is in essence the same in all
of the Bantu tribes I have met with on the Coast: a non-interfering
and therefore a negligible quantity. He varies his name: Anzambi,
Anyambi, Nyambi, Nzambi, Anzam, Nyam, Ukuku, Suku, and Nzam, but a
better investigation shows that Nzam of the Fans is practically
identical with Suku south of the Congo in the Bihe country, and so
on.
They regard their god as the creator of man, plants, animals, and
the earth, and they hold that having made them, he takes no further
interest in the affair.
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