Country guides covering superstitions, folk beliefs, omens and traditions across Africa.
DR Congo Superstitions
Here, Congo refers to the Republic of the Congo, or Congo-Brazzaville, rather than the neighboring Democratic...
Republic of the Congo Superstitions
In the Republic of the Congo, folk belief is not represented by a single national tradition:...
🇦🇴 Angolan Superstitions
Angola’s best-documented folk-belief traditions differ sharply between the Ovimbundu-speaking central highlands, Lunda Cokwe communities in the...
🇧🇯 Beninese Superstitions
Benin’s locally rooted folk beliefs do not form one uniform system: Fon, Aja, Ogu, Gun, Yoruba-Nago,...
🇧🇼 Botswanan Superstitions
Botswana’s recorded folk-belief traditions vary sharply by community and landscape: University of Botswana research documents Bayei...
🇨🇮 Ivorian Superstitions
Côte d’Ivoire’s folk beliefs vary sharply between Baule and Agni communities in the east and centre,...
🇨🇲 Cameroonian Superstitions
Cameroon has more than 200 local languages, and a belief recorded in Bafut, Oku, Somié, Foumban,...
🇨🇻 Cape Verdean Superstitions
Cape Verdean folk belief is strongly shaped by island life. Official teaching material on Cabo Verdean...
🇩🇯 Djiboutian Superstitions
Djibouti’s first national inventory of intangible cultural heritage was organized around Afar, Arab, and Somali communities,...
🇩🇿 Algerian Superstitions
Algerian folk belief is strongly regional: records from Kabylie, Oran, Algiers, the M’Zab, Ouargla, Chenoua, the...
🇪🇬 Egyptian Superstitions
Egyptian folk belief is not one uniform system: Cairo, the Nile Delta, Upper Egypt, Nubia, desert...
🇪🇷 Eritrean Superstitions
Eritrea’s recorded folk beliefs do not form one national superstition system: Tigrinya, Tigre, Saho, Rashaida, Nara,...
🇪🇹 Ethiopian Superstitions
Ethiopia’s folk beliefs do not form one national code. Amhara, Oromo, Harari, Gedeo, Shekacho, Kaffa, and...
🇬🇭 Ghanaian Superstitions
Ghana’s National Folklore Board treats folklore as a living body of oral expression, customary knowledge, symbols,...
🇬🇳 Guinean Superstitions
Guinea’s coastal rice-growing communities, Fouta Djallon highlands, Upper Guinean savanna, and forested southeast sustain different bodies...
🇰🇪 Kenyan Superstitions
Kenya’s recorded living heritage includes Mijikenda Kaya forest traditions on the Indian Ocean coast, Isukha and...
🇰🇲 Comorian Superstitions
Comorian folk belief is unusually well documented for a small island country: Mahamoud M'Saidie's 2014 book...
🇱🇸 Basotho Superstitions
Basotho folklore in Lesotho preserves many warnings as short Sesotho taboo expressions, where an avoided action...
🇱🇾 Libyan Superstitions
Libyan folk belief varies sharply by place: fieldwork in Oulad Ali at al-Riyayna records rain omens,...
🇲🇦 Moroccan Superstitions
Moroccan folk belief is unusually well documented at the regional level: older records distinguish Fez and...
🇲🇬 Malagasy Superstitions
Malagasy is the westernmost member of the Austronesian language family, yet Madagascar’s dialect regions preserve sharply...
🇲🇱 Malian Superstitions
Mali’s folk beliefs differ sharply between the Bamana farming regions, the Dogon communities of the Bandiagara...
🇲🇷 Mauritanian Superstitions
Mauritania’s best-documented beliefs concerning protection, divination, spirits, and unseen harm come especially from Hassaniya-speaking Saharan communities,...
🇲🇼 Malawian Superstitions
Malawi’s documented living heritage includes Chewa masked traditions, Tumbuka healing dances, Lhomwe sacrificial dance, and ceremonial...
🇲🇿 Mozambican Superstitions
Mozambique's recognized living heritage includes Chopi timbila traditions in Inhambane, Chewa Gule Wamkulu shared with Malawi...
🇳🇦 Namibian Superstitions
Namibia’s recorded folk beliefs are sharply regional: an Aandonga luck charm from the north, an Ovahimba...
🇳🇬 Nigerian Superstitions
Nigeria’s folk beliefs travel through hundreds of languages and through locally distinct Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa, Edo,...
🇸🇨 Seychellois Superstitions
Seychellois supernatural folklore has an unusually well-documented vocabulary of grigri, malfezans, nanm, and dondosya, alongside folktale...
🇸🇩 Sudanese Superstitions
Sudan’s folklore record stretches across Nile communities, the Red Sea coast, Darfur, Kordofan, the Nuba Mountains,...
🇸🇳 Senegalese Superstitions
Senegal’s folk beliefs differ sharply between the Lebou communities of the Cap-Vert Peninsula, Serer areas of...
🇸🇴 Somali Superstitions
Somali oral culture carries law, weather knowledge, family memory, and cautionary tales through poetry, proverbs, ritual...
🇸🇹 São Toméan Superstitions
On São Tomé island, Forro vocabulary distinguishes several kinds of supernatural sight: uê blúco for the...
🇸🇿 Swazi Superstitions
Swazi, or emaSwati, folk belief is documented on both sides of the Eswatini–South Africa border, so...
🇹🇩 Chadian Superstitions
Chad’s folk beliefs do not form a single national system: the Guéra highlands, the Logone plains,...
🇹🇬 Togolese Superstitions
In northeastern Togo, the UNESCO-listed Koutammakou landscape links Batammariba mud tower-houses, sacred groves, springs, rocks, initiation...
🇹🇳 Tunisian Superstitions
Tunisia’s folk-belief record is highly local: ethnographers have documented different protective customs in Tunis, Sousse, Nefzaoua,...
🇹🇿 Tanzanian Superstitions
Tanzania’s more than 120 ethnic communities preserve different ways of interpreting dreams, animals, weather, pregnancy, birth,...
🇺🇬 Ugandan Superstitions
Uganda’s UNESCO living-heritage listings identify traditions tied to particular communities, including Empaako in western Uganda, Bigwala...
🇿🇦 South African Superstitions
South Africa’s 12 official languages reflect a country in which folklore moves through many linguistic, regional,...
🇿🇲 Zambian Superstitions
Zambia’s folk beliefs are not one uniform system: Bemba, Chewa, Tonga, Lenje, Lozi, Luvale, Chokwe, Luchazi,...
🇿🇼 Zimbabwean Superstitions
Zimbabwean folk belief is expressed through several cultural vocabularies, including Shona zviera, Ndebele amazilo, ancestral customs,...
41 articles in Africa