Why was human sacrifice so common, savage and intense in African culture?

Same as in benin

Human Sacrifice and the Supernatural in African History
by Lawrence E.Y. Mbogoni

Since time immemorial, human beings the world over have sought answers to the vexing questions of their origins, sickness, death and after death; the meaning of natural phenomena such as earthquakes, eclipses of the sun and moon, birth of twins etc. and how to protect themselves from such mysterious events. They invented God and gods and the occult sciences (witch craft, divination and soothsaying) in order to seek the protection of supernatural powers while individuals used them to gain power to dominate others and to accumulate wealth. Human sacrifice was one way in which they sought to expiate the gods for what they believed were punishments for their transgressions. One example, the Ghana Asante Kingdom's very origins are associated with human sacrifice. On the eve of war against Denkyira, individuals volunteered themselves to be sacrificed in order to guarantee victory. Later, human sacrifice in Asante was mainly politically motivated as kings and religious leaders offered human sacrifice in remembrance of their ancestral spirits and to seek their protection against their enemies.

The Asante Kingdom is one of several examples included in this study of human sacrifice and ritual killing on the African continent. Case studies include practices in Sierra Leone, Tanzania (Mainland), Zanzibar, Uganda and Swaziland. Advertisements relating to the occult was a common feature of Drum magazine, the popular South African magazine in Southern, Eastern and Central Africa in late years of colonial and early years of postcolonial periods, indicating a wide belief in these practices among the people in these countries?

No different than any other religious killing
Or ritual killings

>No different than any other religious killing
Virtually non-existant on every other continent today and isn't integral part of any cultural like in Africa

Ah yes it is it's called honor killings

>Benin wasn't the only african society
Indeed it wasn't the only one

Attached: Human Sacrifice 1.jpg (558x452, 44K)

bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-40553993
hrw.org/news/2017/09/25/honor-killings-continue-pakistan-despite-new-law
cbsnews.com/amp/news/pakistan-honor-killing-explained-interview-man-kills-sister/

The asantehene was chosen from a group of eligible matrilineal candidates by the Queen Mother and prominent chiefs, a system that limited the dangers of succession disputes. Prominent features of Asante rule included frequent executions and rituals of human sacrifice

citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.567.5900&rep=rep1&type=pdf

THE RITUAL OF BLOOD SACRIFICE
AS EVIDENCED IN COLOSSIANS 1:20 AND ITS
IMPLICATIONS IN AKAN TRADITIONAL CULTURE
by
Laud Abban Brown
Bachelor of Science, 2002
Southwestern Assemblies of God University
Waxahachie, TX

Thomas writes: “In some ancient African societies human beings were sacr
ificed to carry
a direct message to the ancestors to intervene on behalf of a suffering communit
y. In times of
national crisis such as war and drought, a human was sacrificed to provide the community
with
direct line to the other world.”
4
Due to the Colonial influence, rituals involving human sacrifices
are abhorred by the secular public and majority of the populace, however the religi
ous
obligations to the deities/ancestors and the benefits to be gained in terms of pr
otection, prosperity
and power make the performance of the rituals shrouded in mystery and secrecy; it i
s rarely
discussed in the Akan community. However, the idea of human sacrifices from ancient t
o
modern times is common knowledge to all through oral traditions and folklore.

qz.com/959802/india-is-the-fourth-worst-country-in-the-world-for-religious-violence/amp/
m.huffingtonpost.in/amp/2017/04/13/on-religious-hostilities-india-ranked-just-slightly-better-than_a_22037994/

The Changing Worlds of Atlantic Africa: Essays in Honor of Robin Law

Toyin Falola, Matt D. Childs - 2009
Even in the case of Akyem Abuakwa, it was because human sacrifice was associated with the colonial abolition of slavery and the fact that the Al:yem Abuakwa rulers were hostile to the Basel Mission's overt encroachments on indigenous way of life.“ Several reasons may be garnered to explain why the colonial authorities and the littoral African intelligentsia were so vocal against human sacrifice in Asante

So how is it any different from any other religious violence committed throughout the the world

telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/sudan/4517916/Africas-oldest-human-sacrifice-found-in-Sudan.html

French archaeologists in northern Sudan have unearthed a 5,500 year-old Stone Age tomb they believe to confirm the location of Africa's "oldest human sacrifice."

n a graveyard in Al-Kadada, north of Khartoum, the archaeologists have dug up the tomb of a man and a woman facing each other in a ditch, with bodies of two women, two goats and a dog buried nearby.

The discovery of the group "confirms" excavations last year which found traces of the oldest human sacrifice ever identified in Africa, Jacques Reinold, a researcher for the French section of the Sudanese antiquities department, said.

The ancient unearthed bones date from between 3,700 and 3,400 BC, a period considered as one the key stages in the transition from a hunting to a farming society.

>So how is it any different from any other religious violence committed throughout the the world
Human sacrifice is virtually unheard of in all the other continents.
It is a common and integral part of African traditions.

How is it different from any other religious violence committed throughout history

African Traditions in the Study of Religion

Ezra Chitando, Afe Adogame - 2016
The blood of the sacrificial victim stands to substitute for both the life of the offender and that of his or her entire community now under the wrath of the gods. The highest type of sacrifice in African traditional religion is human sacrifice. Although this practice has become illegal in modern times, one cannot altogether doubt the fact that it may still be practiced in some societies, albeit secretly, to meet special ritual demands

Literally the name of the killings contradicts ur statement

Still haven't answered my question

It's done for religious reasons

Human Sacrifice and the Supernatural in African History: - Page 2

Mbogoni, Lawrence E.Y. - 2013 -
They have tended to file human sacrifice, along with cannibalism, under the category of sensationalism and intercultural slander.7 However, given the evidence at hand such denial or the endeavor to downplay the significance of human sacrifice in African history is untenable.8

So how is it any different from any other religious violence committed throughout the the world

The Aztecs practiced cannibalism

mobile.nytimes.com/2000/09/07/us/new-data-suggests-some-cannibalism-by-ancient-indians.html?referer=https://www.google.com/

Other religions and traditions don't have ritual murder as their integral part

Human Sacrifice and the Supernatural in African History

Lawrence E.Y. Mbogoni

Through careful study of these select cases, this book highlights general features of human sacrifice which recur with striking uniformity in all parts of sub Saharan Africa, and why they persist until today.
>striking uniformity in all parts of sub Saharan Africa, and why they persist until today.

Attached: Benin Photo 1.jpg (544x405, 34K)

>Aztec
one group among many. there is no cannibalism on any wide scale today there.
Meanwhile human sacrifice remains a problem in Africa.

Europeans, Asians and Americans all practiced human sacrifice.

India...

>Europeans, Asians and Americans all practiced human sacrifice.
They don't now and they never did on the scale Africa did and does.

>they never did on the scale Africa did and does.
I wouldn't agree.

Attached: f46f0be6945f7d1161714a931a134e6f--the-saturdays-green-man.jpg (736x995, 215K)

Spartans, Kelts and Germanics practiced human sacrifice as well. Human sacrifice went out with their religions, eventually.

Christianity and Islam both made big changes in African societies but they mostly hit urban centers (where the political and merchant classes would be) and radiated outward from there, never fully replacing pagan religions at the edges of civilization.

A picnic compared to daily life in Africa where every hut had skulls and rotten corpses of ritual victims.

>the only continent
Most human cultures practiced human sacrifice at one point or another

Oh, please.

dissertationreviews.org/archives/13936

Take your mind-expanding flesh pills.

>Most human cultures practiced human sacrifice at one point or another
but don't anymore

Read this.

Attached: blood.jpg (826x1169, 248K)

>Why is that, and why is Africa the only continent were human sacrifice became such strong element of religion and beliefs?

Why do you think this was peculiar to Africa?

So what? Shamanism is shamanism. There's no problem.

What does "integral" even mean?

>daily life in Africa
I don't have skulls and rotten corpses in my house personally, and none of my friends do.

I heard that in Gabon, people practicing Bwiti keep their dead ancestors bones and possessions as relics.

What book is that?

You should read your history books again, the Aztecs had entire nonlethal wars just to find captives for their religious human sacrifice

>Human sacrifice
>Shamanism is shamanism. There's no problem.
Afrocentrists everyone

>the Aztecs had
HAD
Do you know the difference between have and had?

No its done for honor.

It's done under religious Islamic law in the middle east

They got wiped out

Also isis and other terrorist beheadings

The aztecs arent around anymore, if the spanish hadnt colonized them they would probably be doing the same ish nowadays. Why are you playing semantics? Do you regularly act dumb to try and troll people? There is a huge difference in 500 years of colonial rule and 100, as well as the actual difference in how it went down.

Massive bait

Attached: download (2).png (224x225, 10K)

>The aztecs arent around anymore
They exist even today as do descendants of Mayans and Incas.

> if the spanish hadnt colonized them they would probably be doing the same ish nowadays.
So Africa wasn't colonized?

>Oh, please.

Attached: Benin Photo 4.jpg (850x534, 67K)

No no they don't most modern Hispanics came Spain

1. Benin at this time is not Africa today, even if there is human sacrifice in other places of Africa, it was never as common and intense as Benin in the time of the punitive expedition. Think about it, there is a lot of colonial expeditions in Africa during colonialism, out of all culture visited, how many are described like Benin? The only culture I can think about is the Asante kingdom, but human sacrifices was not as intense and common as in Benin.

2. Uganda or Nigeria of today is not Africa, even if there is human sacrifice in other places it's very different from each CULTURE. In some culture in Africa, human sacrifice are not common, in other culture they maybe common, in some cultures there is killing of kids who are born with disabilities, or witchcraft accusations(that can lead to untouchability). In short, it varies according to the cultures.

3. There is no such thing as "African culture", Africa is not as culturally united as Europe was after the fall of the Roman Empire and today. Africa is also waaaaayyy more diverse, that's why saying "African culture is" is a generalization that doesn't makes any sense. There is over 2,000 languages in Africa, how many different cultures do you think there is?

Attached: 10c.jpg (608x331, 163K)

>Uganda or Nigeria of today is not Africa
>Biggest African country is not Africa

Aztecs were crazy with the sacrifices. There's a story that when the Aztecs entered Meso America one city state offered their daughter to them, during the next meeting a priest was dancing wearing her skin. The Aztecs were then ran out of the area.

But the Maya also sacrificed. Many Meso American cultures believed the gods needed blood.

Mexico today

Attached: mexican-skulls.jpg (634x428, 76K)

>In some culture in Africa, human sacrifice are not common, in other culture they maybe common, in some cultures there is killing of kids who are born with disabilities, or witchcraft accusations(that can lead to untouchability). In short, it varies according to the cultures.
Based on the above it is clear that human sacrifice is quite common in Africa if several countries practice it.

not religious sacrifice

>In some culture in Africa, human sacrifice are not common, in other culture they maybe common, in some cultures there is killing of kids who are born with disabilities, or witchcraft accusations(that can lead to untouchability). In short, it varies according to the cultures.
And yet researchers use it, and yet common traits are found, and human sacrifice is widespread among African societies.

Still killing for god

Evidence?

Mass violence is more common in central America

m.huffpost.com/us/entry/168401

>Mass violence is more common in central America
We are talking about human sacrifice.Wars, gang conflicts are not human sacrifice.
Also crime is underreported in Africa.

The Benin Massacre - Page 187 -

B.A. Maxwell - History
When the expedition took- Benin City they found these altars covered with streams of dried human blood, the stench of which was too awful, the whole grass portion of the Compounds simply reeking with it. In the corners of these Compounds huge pits, 40 to 50 feet deep, were found filled with human bodies

The Women's War of 1929: Gender and Violence in Colonial Nigeria

Marc Matera, Misty L. Bastian, S. Kingsley Kent - 2011
The March 27, 1897, edition of the Illustrated London News carried a supplemental section covering the Benin expedition from information purportedly gathered from eyewitness accounts. Drawings of a field containing human skulls and skeletal remains accompanied text that recounted scenes of human sacrifice, mutilation, and altars soaked in human blood

Carthaginians made niggers look like little babies.
I wonder if their southern neighbors ever took inspiration from them?

Attached: Carthaginian-Fire-Pits.jpg (950x400, 184K)

Carthaginians were black

en.lisapoyakama.org/carthage-was-a-black-civilization/
Carthage is a Black civilization, of African culture and spirituality, even though the Phoenician language was a Semitic language, because of the contact with Whites from Asia. We do not understand why Berbers claim that civilization, whereas they don’t know very much – even without knowing their on race – about the Carthaginians being Phoenicians. Let’s be clear, this flourishing harbor, this army that almost defeated the Roman Empire, this republic which have been until Spain – partially explaining the mixed skin color of the Spanish – belongs to all humanity, but it is the property of Blacks.

PS : We have also demonstrated in this second article that Hannibal was black.

This is an argument? I'm not part of the Benin kingdom, I'm not even in Nigeria.

I didn't deny anything from the Benin expedition, an error you're making is thinking that Benin kingdom back then is Africa today. I've never seen any cruxifiction, except in a documentary about Jesus.

That's like showing stats of human sacrifices in India and say to a Chinese who said that he never saw or did a human sacrifice and say "Oh, please", you doesn't seem to understand how diverse and different each African and each African culture is. Do you think Dyula practice human sacrifice? Do you think Himba practice human sacrifice? Do you think Talaote practice human sacrifice? Do you think Mande practice human sacrifice?

And again think about it, there is a lot of colonial expeditions in Africa, how many of them recorded human sacrifices as intense and common as in Benin? There is a book called Ewe-Stämme, in it, the author only recorded animals sacrifices.

How many anthropological studies/colonial expeditions in Africa show us human sacrifices as intense and widespread and common as in Benin kingdom?

I read a lot of research in Africa, the only I can thinks about is Mary Kingsley expedition, Asante and Dahomey, BUT, they all aren't as intense and common as in Benin.

Please keep afrocentrism out of Veeky Forums

That's the last time I see lisapoyakama blog here.

Sorry but no other continent has human sacrifice as a widespread problem, Africa does.
And there must be a reason for it.

How is it different from any other religious violence

No different than isis beheadings

Religious studies major here (if that means anything lol)

Basically every religion I've studied contains traces of sacrificial practices, especially with animals but also with humans.

Animal sacrifice is such a universal / ubiquitous practice it's almost shocking. It's astonishing to me that all sorts of different people in different times and places developed the same set of ideas, nearly always centered around the burning of the animals flesh.

It should not be surprising that various groups have expanded this idea to humans. It is considered a taboo in most major cultures, and often the practice exists in a semi-concealed form, hidden in ancient texts or practiced in secret by small cults.

You are free to point to a continent other than Africa where human sacrifice is so widespread in tradition that it remains a problem even today.

So why did other continents abandon this practice while in Africa it is such strong part of their culture even today?

Religious violence is religious violence

Negroes are genetically more violent than other races.
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24326626

Again, there is a lot of colonial/anthropological expeditions in Africa where no human sacrifices has been recorded, and in no way as common and widespread as it was in Benin Kingdom at this time. Ewe-Stamme is an example.

What do you think of ?

>Human sacrifice is far more common in countries like India where a minority of tantric shamans still promote it to gullible communities of uneducated peasants.

>Best known in the West as techniques to prolong and intensify sexual pleasure, in remote areas tantric rituals loosely derived from the Hindu faith can also include animal, and, in extreme cases, human sacrifice to please the gods and guarantee good luck.

>It is so widespread that in 2006 there were 28 cases of human sacrifice in just four months in the northern province of Uttar Pradesh.

mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/human-sacrifices-still-taking-place-5999139

defence.pk/pdf/threads/human-sacrifice-ritual-in-india.466216/

>Religious violence is religious violence
>Two soldiers fighting each other is the same as eating a child alive

>
>It is so widespread that in 2006 there were 28 cases of human sacrifice in just four months in the northern province of Uttar Pradesh.
So less than one country in Africa

>Again, there is a lot of colonial/anthropological expeditions in Africa where no human sacrifices has been recorded
And there is a lot where it was recorded.
Analyze the problem, not deny it.
The fact is we know human sacrifice was and is widespread in Africa to an extent not seen on any other continent.

>And there is a lot where it was recorded.
Not at all, and not as terrible as it was in Benin.

Show me an expedition where it was as terrible and widespread and common as it was in Benin.

>Analyze the problem, not deny it.

I'm not denying that there is human sacrifice in Africa, I'm saying that you don't analyze correctly the problem, this is the most diverse continent, and you are making generalizations based on an expedition in Benin. There is no such thing as "African culture", there is 'African cultureS", and each African have different superstitions. That's why Uganda has more human sacrifice than Burkina Faso, because Uganda is completely different.

No it's just beheadings for smoking on the wrong day also Aztecs are children

>I'm not denying that there is human sacrifice in Africa
So why is it there in scale and intensity not seen on other continents?

>Generalizations based on an expedition in Benin.
And countless examples of widespread practice of human sacrifice in Africa

> There is no such thing as "African culture", there is 'African cultureS", and each African have different superstitions.

And yet they have common traits.Also even African activists and authors admit there is an African problem with human sacrifice and ritual killings.

Eating the wrong meat or not wearing a dress getting rapped etc

The last time, I asked you for 3 different that I choosed, you gave me 2 anecdotes and 1 issue that is only seen in a specific region(A SPECIFIC CULTURE)