An introduction to the natural hazards of West and Central Africa

Abstract A description is provided for Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. elaeidis. Information is included on the disease caused by the organism, its transmission, geographical distribution, and hosts. HOSTS: Elaeis guineensis (Oil palm). May also infect E. oleifera, E. madagascariensis and E. melanococca. DISEASE: Vascular wilt. GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION: West and central Africa: Cameroon, Congo, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Zaire. Possibly Colombia. TRANSMISSION: Contaminated soil or plant material. Potentially by means of seed (52, 4182).

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Spirits and Healing in West and Central Africa: A New Synthesis

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History ◽

10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.013.825 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Wyatt MacGaffey

Keyword(s):

Social Life ◽

Central Africa ◽

Well Being ◽

Social Regulation ◽

Effect Change ◽

African Religion ◽

Cognitive Framework ◽

Living Dead ◽

History Of ◽

West And Central Africa

Though seemingly innocent, descriptive, and even commendatory, both “spirits” and “healing” are problematic terms in the history of African studies. Rather than identifying well-bounded domains of African life, both of them have evolved from the history of European attitudes toward Africa. “Spirits” often give rise to problems of well-being that “healing” is called upon to solve. Despite this close connection, spirits have been the primary subject matter of religious studies, whereas healing is among the concerns of anthropology. The study of African religion has thus come to be divided between two disciplines embodying the distinction between “belief” and “knowledge,” the irrational and the rational, developed in Europe during the Enlightenment. Anthropology itself has long divided social life into the separate domains of religion, politics, and economics, assigning the study of each to a different discipline with its own preoccupations and specialized vocabulary. This ethnocentric template misrepresented African societies whose institutions were unlike those of Europe. In the forest zones of West and Central Africa a particular set of beliefs and practices regulated the use of power for personal and collective well-being. Power, or the ability to effect change for good or ill, was and is still thought to be derived from forces called “spirits,” which are in fact as much material as spiritual. Following special procedures, gifted persons obtain power from an otherworld that is simultaneously the earth itself and the land of “the living dead,” who are buried in it. The uses of such power to kill or to cure, for collective or private benefit, define a contrast set of four roles—called for convenience chief, priest, witch, and magician—whose functions are simultaneously moral, political, economic, and therapeutic. This system is open to novel revelations within a stable cognitive framework, and adapts to new conditions. Different ideologies and practices of social regulation are found in other parts of Africa.

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