Traditional Religious Beliefs of Tropical Africa Peoples in the Collections of Kazan University Ethnographic Museum

Abstract

The interest regarding to African cultural values has intensified in all countries of the African continent in the second half of the twentieth -early twenty-first century. The aim of the article is to analyze the traditional religious beliefs of Tropical Africa peoples. The interdisciplinary approach that allows us to consider social realities in the context of historical and cultural changes has become the leading one to the study of this problem. The article shows the role of religion in African society. They considered the system of traditional beliefs and cults, the main forms of religious beliefs, as well as the diversity of religious attributes and its use on the basis of materials from the museum collection of the Ethnographic Museum of the University. The materials of the article can be useful for ethnologists, anthropologists, museum staff and everyone who is interested in this topic.

Cults, Crosses, and Crescents: Religion and Healing from Colonial Violence in Tanzania

“…Despite the critiques leveled against the use of the term, this study finds cult useful to explain the Majimaji situation and how local religion, Christianity, and Islam are intertwined in matters of violence and the remedying of the German colonialism in Tanzania. African belief systems permeate a person's entire life, such as sacred moments, rituals, morals, customs, and social institutions (Titova et al 2017). The Majimaji War was organized around pre-existing beliefs in water cults by a ritualist, healer, and religious leader Kinjekitile Ngwale.…”