Afr Archaeol Rev (2010) 27:83–85

DOI 10.1007/s10437-010-9071-3
BOOK REVIEW

A. C. Dawson, Shrines in Africa: History,

Politics and Society
University of Calgary Press, Calgary, 2009, 210 pp,
ISBN 978-1-55238-246-2

C. A. Folorunso

Published online: 14 April 2010

# Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010

The book has six chapters plus an introduction, and as the editor indicates, it has a
West African bias. Not only are four of the six chapters about Ghana, but the four
chapters on Ghana are based in Northern Ghana. Therefore, the book is quite limited
in area coverage for its title Shrines in Africa. My review of the book focuses on the
importance of the chapters for African archaeology.
An interesting issue in the book is how “shrine” is conceived. One may ask to
what extent the concept as it is being used is directly applicable to the local African
conception(s) of the term. On page ix of the Introduction, “objects of ritual
devotion” are described as shrines, and on page xii, it is elaborated that “…African
shrines can be material objects such as ceramics pots, shaped stones, constructed
buildings, houses, tombs, gravesites, or assemblages of rocks.” The concern here is
whether such objects should be described as shrines themselves, or whether they are
“shrine objects.” My sense is that the most useful conceptualization is that shrines
are first and foremost locations.
Judith Sterner and Nicholas David in Chapter 1 deal with varieties of shrines in
the Mandara Mountains of northern Cameroon and northeastern Nigeria. They
mainly treat pots, potsherds, and stones as shrines themselves, rather than as objects
marking shrines, although they have also beautifully described the different places
where these shrines are located. It is, however, obvious that the locales (sites) of the
shrines better differentiate the shrines than do the pots, potsherds, or stones
themselves. Thus, ancestor shrines, personal shrines, clan shrines, nature spirit
shrines, and community shrines are differently located, while it has not been
demonstrated that the materials associated with these various shrines differ
significantly. Overall the chapter is a very good ethnographic survey of shrines in
the Mandara region, providing information on their various structures, the
congregation, the priests, and their functions.

C. A. Folorunso (*)
Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria
e-mail: bayo_folorunso@yahoo.co.uk
84 Afr Archaeol Rev (2010) 27:83–85

In Chapter 2, Timothy Insoll, Benjamin Kankpeyeng, and Rachel MacLean

examine the archaeology of shrines among the Tallensi of Northern Ghana, and this
is an interesting discussion about the archaeology of religion in Africa. The authors'
conception of what a shrine is agrees very much with my perspective on the African
context—that is, a locale—in this case, groves and a rock shelter. Other objects are
seen as associated with the shrines, rather than constituting the shrines themselves
(p. 45). The shrines are associated with earth and ancestral cults, the former being
“…materially manifest through sacred places…,” while the latter “…can be manifest
in various ways, as a household shrine, or in an external shrine such as sacred grove
or cave…” (p. 45). The excavation of a sacred grove, which ordinarily would have
been taken for a natural grove, yielded archaeological relics indicating complex
ritual activities that have ethnographic parallels in the modern Tallensi religion. The
authors rightly observe that not much archaeology had been done on shrines in
Africa compared to work on sites associated with Christianity and Islam, but the
reasons adduced left out the most important factor: shrines are sacred sites to which
access is usually restricted, and excavation might not be permitted by the custodian.
Except in abandoned settlements where the shrines are no longer in use, permission
to excavate shrines, as was the case in Nyoo, is the exception, not the rule.
Allan Charles Dawson examines earth shrines and autochthony among the
Konkomba of Northern Ghana in Chapter 3. The earth shrine is described as “…
central to the understanding of clanship, territory, and chieftaincy among the
Konkomba…” and as “…the symbolic and ritual centre for each group of related
clans…” (p. 81–82). Natural landmarks, such as a baobab tree, a hill or clearing, or a
crocodile pond, are used as earth shrines. Earth shrines tell stories about the
migrations and territorial spread of a group. For example, the Konkomba claim
ownership of the earth shrine (a large baobab tree) at Yendi, but this locale is
presently controlled by the Dagomba, who cannot venerate the shrine. Importantly,
earth shrines are defined as locales associated with a collection of small circular
stones, pots, and/or calabashes. However, when it comes to defining ancestor
shrines, they are described as “…small red clay pots covered with calabashes…”
(p. 84), brought out to the center of a family compound where sacrifices are made
and libations are poured. In this case, I would define the locale of the ancestor shrine
as transitory between the locations where the objects are kept and the center of the
compound where sacrifices are made, rather than defining the symbol/object of the
worship as the shrine.
In Chapter 4, Charles Mather describes ethnoarchaeological observations of
shrines and compound abandonment in Northern Ghana. Mather presents a study
based on data collected about occupied compounds and abandoned compounds, in
order to examine the likelihood of shrines being introduced into the archaeological
record in the event of abandonment. It was established that the circumstances of
abandonment determined the constitution of the de facto refuse, which consists of
usable or reparable items at a site. Study of the spatial distribution of shrines within
and around occupied compounds provides information on the likely locations of
shrines in abandoned compounds, with over 50% of the shrines within the sample
being located in the courtyard and about 37% of the shrines located in the front yard.
The locations of the various types of shrines were also noted. It was established that
curation behavior eliminates shrines from material assemblages, and it is highly
Afr Archaeol Rev (2010) 27:83–85 85

unlikely that shrines will form part of the refuse at an abandoned compound site.
However, observations at three abandoned compound sites support the hypothesis
that shrines will be introduced into archaeological contexts when abandonment
occurs because of an untimely death.
In Chapter 5, Carola Lentz discusses earth shrines among the Dagara and other
groups in the Black Volta region of northern Ghana and southern Burkina Faso.
Here, the ancestor shrines mark a proper house, while the earth shrine signifies a
proper village. The earth shrines are used to understand the settlement history in the
region, as the claims of first-comers are linked to earth shrines. Earth shrines were
created and acquired; control over an earth shrine implies control over the land.
Doyle Hatt's chapter on Moroccan saints' shrines, though quite interesting, is out
of tune with the other chapters as it deals with a different kind of shrine, whose
origins are not African. The study area is Morocco, located in the Muslim world.
Unlike the other shrines described in the book, the saints' shrines are objects of
pilgrimage. These shrines are graves of persons who have come to be venerated as
saints. They are usually found in cemeteries, and sometimes outside cemeteries,
while cemeteries may also grow around them. Hatt makes a distinction between
natural and materially constructed saints' shrines. In the case of “natural” shrines, a
variety of phenomena such as bogs, fens, locations where water seeps or oozes,
caves, caverns, strange geological formations, narrow gorges, hanging valleys, and
“very old trees, especially if they are very gnarled or twisted, or if they are found in
unexpected locations, as in mountain pass” (p. 163), are claimed to be endowed with
some sort of sacred significance. Such ancient trees may have human and saint-like
characteristics attributed to them, may bear the name of a person, or may have
periodic rites conducted in association with them. Such locations are said to be at the
spot where a saint was martyred or buried and where the tree sprang up as a sign.
The “constructed” shrines, on the other hand, are man-made structures ranging from
rock assemblages or piles to elaborate architectural designs.
The book, though limited in geographical coverage, is a good source of material
for the archaeology of religion in Africa. Generally, the book is rich in ethnogaphic
data on the forms, structures, and functions of shrines, and these would be useful in
archaeological research. Parallels could be drawn on similar dispositions of materials
found elsewhere, particularly in regions adjacent to the study areas. Archaeologists
might, for example, have to pay close attention to pottery materials when they are
found concentrated at a single spot. This is certainly relevant for archaeology in
Yorubaland in Nigeria, where shrines are usually located within houses and where
pottery is often interpreted as deriving from ordinary domestic use.