Àshe, Traditional Religion and Healing in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Diaspora: A Classified International Bibliography

Subjects:

• Multicultural Studies » Black Studies

Reviews:

• . . . In this bibliography, Gray has focused on two major themes: traditional religion, whose roots cannot be traced to Islam, Christianity, or contemporary religious movements found in Africa today, and traditional medicine and healing rooted in African and black New World cultures. . . There are three indexes: ethnic group, subject, and author. The author has also supplied a list of mail-order services and bookstores. Librarians will wish to add this bibliography to existing works in the field . . . It is a fine and useful work.
  —College and Research Libraries
• Gray, a culture historian and author of Blacks in Classical Music, spent four years compiling this bibliography. Some of the 5,953 entries are listed in more than one of the classified sections, which are arranged by such topics as traditional religion, mythology, philosophy, traditional medicine and witchcraft, and geography (regions and countries within Africa and the diaspora). Many of the geographic sections are subdivided by ethnic groups, dieties, and other topics including divination, sacred music, and zombies. Each classified section is subdivided by type of material: books, dissertations, theses, articles in books, journals and newspapers, unpublished papers, and media. More newspaper and popular magazine articles and more films and videos are listed for regions outside Africa; English translations of European-language books are listed for Africa only. Most of the materials cited are written in English, French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish. There are a few titles in Yoruba, but other African languages are excluded.
  —Choice

Table of Contents:

• Foreword by Robert Farris Thompson
• Introduction
• African Traditional Religion
• General and Background Material
• African Traditional Religion--General Works
• Regional Studies
• West Africa
• Central Africa
• Southern Africa
• East Africa
• African Traditions in the Diaspora
• General and Background Material
• Religion in the Diaspora
• Regional Studies
• Mexico
• Latin America
• Central America
• South America
• The Caribbean
• United States
• Appendix I: Reference Works
• Appendix II: Archives and Research Centers
• Ethnic Index
• Subject Index
• Author Index