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Simbi
A Simbi (also Cymbee, Sim'bi, pl. Bisimbi) is a Central African water and nature spirit in traditional Kongo religion, as well as in African diaspora spiritual traditions, such as Hoodoo in the southern United States and Palo in Cuba. Simbi have been historically identified as water people, or mermaids, pottery, snakes, gourds, and fire. Due to the forced removal of Bantu peoples from Africa to the Americas, the veneration of simbi exists today in countries, such as the United States, Brazil, Cuba, and Haiti. Etymology While there is little written historical record of the word ''simbi'', there is consensus that it originated within Bantu-speaking and Kongo-speaking communities and almost certainly began as a means for them to understand the spiritual nature of the world around them. Some believe the word ''simbi'' derives from ''simba'', a Kikongo word that means "to hold, keep, preserve. The similar phrase, ''isimba ia nsi'', which translates to "a distinguished person ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hoodoo (spirituality)
Hoodoo is a set of spiritual observances, traditions, and beliefs—including magical and other ritual practices—developed by enslaved African Americans in the Southern United States from various traditional African spiritualities and elements of indigenous American botanical knowledge. Practitioners of Hoodoo are called rootworkers, conjure doctors, conjure men or conjure women, and root doctors. Regional synonyms for Hoodoo include roots, rootwork and conjure. As an autonomous spiritual system, it has often been syncretized with beliefs from religions such as Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, and Spiritualism. While there are a few academics who believe that Hoodoo is an autonomous religion, those who practice the tradition maintain that it is a set of spiritual traditions that are practiced in conjunction with a religion or spiritual belief system, such as a traditional African spirituality and Abrahamic religion. Many Hoodoo traditions draw from the beliefs of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
African-American Folktales
African-American folktales refer to the storytelling and oral history practices of Slavery in the United States, enslaved African Americans from the 1700s through the 1900s. Common themes in African-American folktales include tricksters, life lessons, heartwarming tales, and slavery. African Americans created folktales that spoke about the hardships of slavery, telling stories of folk spirits who could outwit their slaveholders and defeat their enemies. These folk stories gave hope to enslaved people that folk spirits would liberate them from slavery. Folktales have been misused to perpetuate negative stereotypes about the African American community, from minstrel shows to academic journals. One of these figures is John the Conqueror, High John de Conqueror. He often symbolized empowerment for newly freed slaves, saying that if they needed him, his spirit was said to reside in a local root. Other common figures in African American folktales include Anansi, Br'er Rabbit, and Uncle ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kongo Religion
Kongo religion (Kongo language, Kikongo: Bukongo or Bakongo) encompasses the traditional beliefs of the Kongo people, Bakongo people. Due to the highly centralized position of the Kingdom of Kongo, its leaders were able to influence much of the traditional religious practices across the Congo Basin. As a result, many other ethnic groups and kingdoms in Central Africa, West-Central Africa, like the Chokwe people, Chokwe and Ambundu, Mbundu, adopted elements of Bakongo spirituality. The spirituality is based on a complex Animism, animistic system and a Pantheon (religion), pantheon of spirits. The principle Creator God of the world is Nzambi a Mpungu, Nzambi Mpungu, the sovereign master, and his female counterpart, Nzambici. While Nzambi Mpungu, who gave birth to the universe and the spirits who inhabit it, is vital to the spirituality, Veneration of the dead, ancestor veneration is the core principle. The Bakongo cosmos is split between two worlds: the top half representing the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kalûnga Line
The Kalûnga Line in Kongo religion is a watery boundary separating the land of the living (''Ku Nseke'') and the spiritual realm of deceased ancestors (''Ku Mpemba''). Kalûnga is the Kikongo word "threshold between worlds." It is the point between the physical world (''Ku Nseke'') and the spiritual world (''Ku Mpemba''). It represents liminality, or a place literally "neither here nor there." Originally, Kalûnga was seen as a fiery life-force that begot the universe and a symbol for the spiritual nature the sun and change. The line is regarded as an integral element within the Kôngo cosmogram. Etymology The word ''Kalûnga'' is a Kikongo word that means "threshold between worlds." It is derived from the proto-Bantu term *-''lung''-, meaning "to put in order, to put straight." In the Congo region, Kalûnga is considered to be the ''nzadi o nzere'', or Congo River. This idea was also translocated to the Americas via Africans in the Atlantic slave trade and used in referenc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Nature Deities
In religion, a nature deity is a deity in charge of forces of nature, such as water, biological processes, or weather. These deities can also govern natural features such as mountains, trees, or volcanoes. Accepted in animism, pantheism, panentheism, polytheism, deism, totemism, shamanism, Taoism, Hinduism, and paganism, the nature deity can embody a number of archetypes including mother goddess, Mother Nature, or lord of the animals. African Akan mythology * Asase Yaa, Mother of the Dead and the goddess of the harsh earth and truth * Asase Afua, the goddess of the lush earth, fertility, love, procreation and farming * Bia, personification of the Bia River and god of the wilderness and wild animals * Tano, personification of the Tano River and god of the river and thunder Bantu mythology * Jengu, Sawabantu and Duala water spirits * Nyambe, Bantu Supreme deity and god of the sun * Nzambi, Bakongo Sky Father and god of the sun * Nzambici, Bakongo Sky Mother an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jengu
A jengu (pl. miengu, also called bisima) is a water spirit in the traditional beliefs of the Sawabantu groups of Cameroon, like the Duala, Bakweri, Malimba, Subu, Bakoko, Oroko people. Among the Bakweri, the term used is liengu (plural: maengu). Miengu are similar to bisimbi (singular: simbi) in the Bakongo spirituality and Mami Wata, who is present in many West and Central African cultures. Described as mermaid-like spirits, they live in rivers and the sea, bringing good fortune to those who worship them. They can also cure disease and act as intermediaries between worshippers and the world of spirits. For this reason, a jengu cult has long enjoyed popularity among the Duala peoples. Among the Bakweri, this cult is also an important part of a young girl's rite of passage into womanhood. The water spirit Appearance The description of miengu varies by ethnic group, but they are typically said to be beautiful, mermaid-like beings with long hair and beautiful gap- ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Santee Canal
The Santee Canal was one of the earliest canals built in the United States. It was built to provide a direct water route between Charleston and Columbia, the new state capital of South Carolina. It was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. History In 1786, the South Carolina General Assembly chartered a company to construct and maintain an inland canal linking the Cooper River near Charleston, with the Santee River. The Santee River connects to the Congaree River and the City of Columbia. Construction started in 1793, directed by Engineer Col. John Christian Senf. It opened in 1800. It was long. It had two double locks and eight single locks. Its width was at the water's surface and at the bottom. Its depth was . Due to sparse traffic, poor construction, and droughts, the canal was not a financial success. The construction of railroads sealed its fate. It lost its state charter in 1853. It was not used after 1865. Much of it was covered eventually ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edmund Ruffin
Edmund Ruffin III (January 5, 1794 – June 17, 1865) was an American planter, politician, scientist, and activist best known as an early advocate for secession of the Southern slave states from the United States. He served in the Virginia Senate from 1823 to 1827. In the three decades before the American Civil War he published polemics in support of states' rights and the protection of chattel slavery, earning notoriety as one of the so-called Fire-Eaters. Ruffin was present at the Battle of Fort Sumter in April 1861 and fired one cannon shot at the fort. This gave rise to the legend that Ruffin fired the first shot of the Civil War. Ruffin did enlist as a Confederate soldier despite his advanced age. When the war ended in defeat in 1865, he died of suicide rather than accept what he called "Yankee rule." Ruffin is also known for his pioneering work in methods to preserve and improve soil productivity. He recommended crop rotation and amendments to restore soils exhausted from to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mermaid
In folklore, a mermaid is an aquatic creature with the head and upper body of a female human and the tail of a fish. Mermaids appear in the folklore of many cultures worldwide, including Europe, Latin America, Asia, and Africa. Mermaids are sometimes associated with perilous events such as storms, shipwrecks, and drownings (cf. ). In other folk traditions (or sometimes within the same traditions), they can be benevolent or beneficent, bestowing boons or falling in love with humans. The male equivalent of the mermaid is the merman, also a familiar figure in folklore and heraldry. Although traditions about and reported sightings of mermen are less common than those of mermaids, they are in folklore generally assumed to co-exist with their female counterparts. The male and the female collectively are sometimes referred to as merfolk or merpeople. The Western concept of mermaids as beautiful, seductive singers may have been influenced by the sirens of Greek mythology, which w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Angola
Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the west-Central Africa, central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking world, Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) country in both total area and List of countries and dependencies by population, population and is the List of African countries by area, seventh-largest country in Africa. It is bordered by Namibia to the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Zambia to the east, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. Angola has an Enclave and exclave, exclave province, the province of Cabinda Province, Cabinda, that borders the Republic of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The capital and most populous city is Luanda. Angola has been inhabited since the Paleolithic, Paleolithic Age. After the Bantu expansion reached the region, states were formed by the 13th century and organised into confederations. The Kingdom of Kongo ascended to achieve hegemony among the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gullah
The Gullah () are a subgroup of the African Americans, African American ethnic group, who predominantly live in the South Carolina Lowcountry, Lowcountry region of the U.S. states of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida within the coastal plain and the Sea Islands. Gullah language, Their language and culture have preserved a significant influence of Africanisms as a result of their historical geographic isolation and the community's relation to its shared history and identity. Historically, the Gullah region extended from the Cape Fear (headland), Cape Fear area on North Carolina's coast south to the vicinity of Jacksonville, Florida, Jacksonville on Florida's coast. The Gullah people and their language are also called Geechee, which may be derived from the name of the Ogeechee River near Savannah, Georgia. ''Gullah'' is a term that was originally used to designate the Creole language, creole dialect of English spoken by Gullah and Geechee people. Over time, it ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Congo Basin
The Congo Basin () is the sedimentary basin of the Congo River. The Congo Basin is located in Central Africa, in a region known as west equatorial Africa. The Congo Basin region is sometimes known simply as the Congo. It contains some of the largest tropical rainforests in the world and is an important source of water used in agriculture and energy generation. The rainforest in the Congo Basin is the largest rainforest in Africa and second only to the Amazon rainforest in size, with 300 million hectares compared to the 800 million hectares in the Amazon. Because of its size and diversity the basin's forest is important for mitigating climate change in its role as a carbon sink. However, deforestation and degradation of the ecology by the impacts of climate change may increase stress on the forest ecosystem, in turn making the hydrology of the basin more variable. A 2012 study found that the variability in precipitation caused by climate change will negatively affect economic a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
