This book is by turns detailed, incoherent, and frustratingly
colonialist. Nevertheless, it is written by an intelligent and sympathetic
European observer who spent many years studying West African folklore, culture,
and religion at the turn of the 19th century. It is useful because it goes into
much greater detail than any other book from this period about Bantu and Yoruba
spiritual practices and philosophy. The problem is that it presents some very
half-baked theories as to the significance of this data, which should be treated
with great caution.
By reading this book critically we can glimpse a now lost system of nature worship, sacred kingship, and shamanism from before the colonial era, and get a hint of a very complex (and lost) philosophy of esoteric corespondences which rival the better documented systems (e.g. the Upanishads, the I Ching and the Qabalah). - editor.
Preface
Chapter 1 LUANGO AND THE
BAVILI
Chapter 2 ELECTION OF
A KING IN THE KONGO
Chapter 3
CORONATION OF A KING IN THE KONGO
Chapter 4 COURTS OF MALUANGO AND
MAMBOMA
Chapter 5 LAW
Chapter 6 MEASURES, SIGNS, AND
SYMBOLS
Chapter 7 BAVILI
PSYCHOLOGY
Chapter 8
NDONGOISM
Chapter 9
NKICI-ISM
Chapter 10 BAVILI
PHILOSOPHY
Chapter 11 BIBILA,
THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE GROVES
Chapter 12 SACRED LANDS AND
RIVERS
Chapter 13 SACRED
TREES
Chapter 14 THE
OMENS
Chapter 15 SACRED
ANIMALS
Chapter 16 NZAMBI
(GOD), THE WORD NKICI, AND THE BAKICI BACI
Chapter 17 THE BINI
Chapter 18 BENIN DISTRICTS
Chapter 19 BINI CUSTOMS
Chapter 20 MORE CUSTOMS
Chapter 21 TRACES OF NKICI-ISM
AMONG THE BINI
Chapter 22 THE
PHILOSOPHY AT THE BACK OF THE BLACK MAN'S MIND IN TABLE FORM
Chapter 23 CONCLUSION
Appendix