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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Action as the Way of Transcendence: The Religious Significance of the Bwami Cult of the Lega
Author:Zuesse, Evan M.
Year:1978
Periodical:Journal of Religion in Africa
Volume:9
Issue:1
Pages:62-72
Language:English
Geographic term:Congo (Democratic Republic of)
Subjects:Lega
African religions
secret societies
Religion and Witchcraft
Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/1581084
Abstract:The Bwami (the major cultic group among the Lega) have preserved their integrity without any central government or political unity. They accomplished this through the teaching of proverbs. The article describes the role of proverbs in initiations, their symbolic nature, the integration of the proverbs into the way of seeing the world and acting in it. It is easy to see that these proverbs, which are put to music and sung, danced out in little dramas, carved into beautiful forms in wood, and discussed at length and repeatedly by initiates wherever they gather, raise every action and experience of everyday life into the realm of the emotionally aesthetic and spiritually symbolic. Notes.
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