Religion and Traditional Beliefs
The Yalunka are 99% Muslim. Although they follow most of the religious teachings of Islam and observe its rituals and ceremonies, some of their pre-Islamic beliefs still persist. For instance, they make sacrifices to ancestors to gain power referred to as Barinkiina. They also employ charms for personal power and have family-owned objects of power known as Suxurena which require sacrifices. They also continue to believe in Nyinanna, or "nature spirits," and sacrifices are regularly made to them. Some of the Nyinanna are said to be good spirits, helping with rice production and fertility in women; others are believed to be evil, living in the bush and stealing children from their parents. The more powerful spirits are called Yinnana.
The Yalunka also believe that witches, referred to as "night people" or Kweramuxuna, have the power to change into animals and cause harm to the villagers by eating their souls at night. Some put curses on victims' houses to ruin their crops. Special rituals are performed by diviners or sorcerers to keep the witches and evil Nyinanna away from farms and households.
Their devotion to Islam and fear of persecution have prevented all but a few Yalunka from converting to Christianity.
Read more about this topic: Yalunka People
Famous quotes containing the words religion and, religion, traditional and/or beliefs:
“Whereas Freud was for the most part concerned with the morbid effects of unconscious repression, Jung was more interested in the manifestations of unconscious expression, first in the dream and eventually in all the more orderly products of religion and art and morals.”
—Lewis Mumford (1895–1990)
“I am no lover of pompous title, but only desire that my name may be recorded in a line or two, which shall briefly express my name, my virginity, the years of my reign, the reformation of religion under it, and my preservation of peace.”
—Elizabeth I (1533–1603)
“The greatest impediments to changes in our traditional roles seem to lie not in the visible world of conscious intent, but in the murky realm of the unconscious mind.”
—Augustus Y. Napier (20th century)
“A man who has humility will have acquired in the last reaches of his beliefs the saving doubt of his own certainty.”
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974)