Beschreibung
The texts of this book are a collection of legends,
stories, incantations and prayers, secretly guarded by the oracle-priests,
the babalawo. These texts are treating with wisdom all events
and problems which occur in the daily life of the Yoruba. The
babalawo ask the oracle for solution of problems, treatment of sickness,
repairing of misfortune or advice for the future. The stories
give the answer of the gods to the questioner. The babalawo uses a special
system of convex and concave signs which is explained in this book to
interpret the stories.
The book offers more than seventy-one stories and hundred-twenty
incantations which are used by the priests. The
texts present a large knowledge about the mentality of the Yoruba and
reflect the magnific ethical
background of an old and great African religious tradition – before its
partial destruction by the confrontation between the African und
European civilisations.
About the author:
Dr. Christoph Staewen, born in 1926, a German medical doctor, is specialist
of psychiatry, neurology and psychotherapy. In 1963 he began to study
in Western Nigeria, amongst the people of Yoruba, the conditions of
uprooting of these Africans caused by the increasing confrontation with
the technical civilisation of the „White Man“, and provoking more and
more reactions of anxiety and deformations of behaviour. In Nigeria he
received texts of the famous, secret Ifa-oracle. Later he worked for
more than six years as all-round-doctor for Africans in Niger,
Congo-Brazzaville and Tschad, where he continued his research
on African psychology.