Adevu and Chiwara rituals in West Africa compared to hunting rituals and rock art in South Africa

Abstract

In May 2013 in Accra, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed by Vice Chancellors of the University of Ghana (Professor Ernest Aryeetey) and the South African University of the Witwatersrand (Professor Loyiso Nongxa). Almost immediately, ethnographers and archaeologists from both countries met to discuss matters that related to anthropology in Ghana and South Africa. Of particular interest were accounts of hunting rituals, stimulated by discussion of research reported by Frobenius (1931) and Thackeray (1986,2005,2013). Here we report the results of our initial research, associated with the principle of 'sympathetic magic'