Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Juju or ju-ju (French: joujou, lit. 'plaything') [1] [2] is a spiritual belief system incorporating objects, such as amulets, and spells used in religious practice in West Africa [3] by the people of Nigeria, Benin, Togo, Ghana, and Cameroon. [4]
The Latin term religiō, the origin of the modern lexeme religion (via Old French/Middle Latin [2]), is of ultimately obscure etymology. It is recorded beginning in the 1st century BC, i.e. in Classical Latin at the end of the Roman Republic , notably by Cicero , in the sense of "scrupulous or strict observance of the traditional cultus ".
Buddhism is a tiny religion in Africa with around 250,000 practicing adherents, [44] and up to nearly 400,000 [45] if combined with Taoism and Chinese Folk Religion as a common traditional religion of mostly new Chinese migrants (significant minority in Mauritius, Réunion, and South Africa).
The terms atheist (lack of belief in gods) and agnostic (belief in the unknowability of the existence of gods), though specifically contrary to theistic (e.g., Christian, Jewish, and Muslim) religious teachings, do not by definition mean the opposite of religious. The true opposite of religious is the word irreligious.
Traditional African religions also have elements of totemism, shamanism and veneration of relics. [21] Traditional Vodun dancer enchanting gods and spirits, in Ganvie, Benin. Traditional African religion, like most other ancient traditions around the world, were based on oral traditions. These traditions are not religious principles, but a ...
The religion embraced many aspects of nature which are found in other traditional African religions. The key spiritual figures in the religion were the Nummo/Nommo twins. According to Ogotemmêli's description of them, the Nummo, whom he also referred to as "Water", had green skin covered in green hair, and were formed like humans from the ...
Maroon, which can have a more general sense of being abandoned without resources, entered English around the 1590s, from the French adjective marron, [2] meaning 'feral' or 'fugitive'. Despite the same spelling, the meaning of 'reddish brown' for maroon did not appear until the late 1700s, perhaps influenced by the idea of maroon peoples. [3] [4]
The English word creole derives from the French créole, which in turn came from Portuguese crioulo, a diminutive of cria meaning a person raised in one's house.Cria is derived from criar, meaning "to raise or bring up", itself derived from the Latin creare, meaning "to make, bring forth, produce, beget"; which is also the source of the English word "create".