The first full-length study of one of the territorial rain cults; and an
endeavour to preserve knowledge about a rapidly changing complex system
of traditional beliefs, rituals, and practices, under the influence of
Christianity, Islam, and western education. Within this cult, a person
who is possessed by the spirit of the ancestors is commonly known as
'Bimbi': the seer, a charismatic and moral leader, to whom the community
ascribes a prophetic role. As a religious system, the Bimbi cult has an
intricate system of agricultural rituals such as rainmaking ceremonies,
a distinctive unwritten theology, elaborate liturgical observances and
an organised, inherited priesthood. Studying the Bimbi cult from a
multi- disciplinary perspective, the author illustrates how traditional
beliefs and practices still have a grip on people in the countryside who
live in an agricultural subsistence economy, at the mercy of ecological
forces. He contends that these forces will continue to shape their
understanding of God, themselves and the world around them for many
years to come, unless these people change from an agricultural to an
industrial society.