The book deals with the Anufo in North Ghana, especially with their religious world, the spirits and their altars, oracles and divination, Nyeme, the power of fate, and with the nature of divinity. Thus the author develops a theme which Meyer Fortes has already investigated in his work with the Tallensi: the relationship between fate and person, and the role of religion as a way of solving certain problems. Among the Nalori Anufo, fate (Nyeme) cannot be understood apart from society or personality structure. For this very reason social and personal structures are of great importance. If a problem defies solution by ordinary means, an appeal is made to the High God to take the fate of the individual in hand. This process enables them to expand their social norms on the new foundation which the innovating action of the individual has laid.
Jon P. Kirby: God, Shrines, and Problem-solving among the Anufo of Northern Ghana. 368 pp., 1986. ISBN 3-88345-385-4. € 43,50