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Zulu Folktales Zulu people (amaZulu) are an Nguni ethnic group in Southern Africa. The Zulu people are the largest ethnic group and nation in South Africa with an estimated 10–12 million people living mainly in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. The Zulu oral traditions are based on those of the whole sub-continent, but also constitute significant innovations...
Tanzanian Folktales Tanzanian literature was primarily oral. Major oral literary forms include folktales, poems, riddles, proverbs, and songs. The majority of the oral literature in Tanzania that has been recorded is in Swahili, though each of the country’s languages has its own oral tradition. Tanzania has a very rich, diverse,...
Nigerian Folktales Nigerian folklore include proverbs, myths, “just so” stories, and riddles. “Just so” stories are designed to explain features of an animal, such as their appearance or their habits. Morals are either explicitly stated at the end of Nigerian folktales, or hidden within the text. Animals, especially the tortoise,...
Yoruba Folktales The Yoruba folktales are very numerous. The word now commonly used to mean one of these popular fables is alo, which more properly means a riddle, or something invented, literally something twisted, or inverted. A reciter of tales, called an akpalo (kpa-alo) “maker of alo,” is a personage highly esteemed, and...
Yoruba Proverbs The Yorubas have an extraordinary number of proverbial sayings, and regard a knowledge of them as a proof of great wisdom, whence the saying, “A counsellor who understands proverbs soon sets matters right.” They are in constant use, and another saying runs, “A proverb is the horse of...
African Folktales African Folktales aren’t just stories, they’re living pieces of history and culture to those who tell them. Many of the stories bear characteristics that belong to the region from which they came, and the authors often collected their stories by region. Africa brought forth many rich stories of folklore...
African-American Folktales African-American folktales are the storytelling and oral history of enslaved African Americans during the 1700-1900s. Many are unique to the African-American culture, while others are influenced by African, European, and Native American tales. Overview African-American folktales are a storytelling tradition based in Africa containing a rich oral tradition...
Native American Legends The indigenous peoples of the Americas comprise numerous different cultures. Each has its own mythologies. Some are quite distinct, but certain themes are shared across the cultural boundaries. Most Native American tribes have a long tradition of telling stories about their history and beliefs. These stories and legends weren’t written...
Phenomenon A phenomenon (‘thing appearing to view’; plural phenomena) is “an observable fact or event.” The term came into its modern philosophical usage through Immanuel Kant, who contrasted it with the noumenon, which cannot be directly observed. Kant was heavily influenced by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz in this part of his philosophy, in which phenomenon and noumenon serve as interrelated technical terms....
Forgiveness as a Virtue Forgiveness is the mental, emotional, and spiritual process of letting go of resentment, indignation, or anger against another person for a perceived offense, difference, or mistake. It can also mean ceasing to demand punishment or restitution for transgressions, real or imagined. Although forgiveness may be granted without any expectation of compensation, and...
Nine Noble Virtues The Nine Noble Virtues, NNV, or 9NV are two sets of moral and situational ethical guidelines within certain groupings of Odinism and Ásatrú. One set was codified by former member of Sir Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists and National Socialists, John Yeowell (a.k.a. Stubba) and John Gibbs-Bailey (a.k.a. Hoskuld) of the Odinic Rite in 1974, and the...
Chivalry Chivalry, or the chivalric code, is an informal and varying code of conduct developed between 1170 and 1220. It was associated with the medieval Christian institution of knighthood; knights’ and gentlemen’s behaviours were governed by chivalrous social codes. The ideals of chivalry were popularized in medieval literature, particularly the...
Meta-ethics Meta-ethics is the branch of ethics that seeks to understand the nature, scope, and meaning of moral judgment. It is one of the three branches of ethics generally studied by philosophers, the others being normative ethics and applied ethics. While normative ethics addresses such questions as “What should I do?”, evaluating specific practices and principles of...
Somali Proverbs Somali (Af-Soomaali; Osmanya: [æ̀f sɔ̀ːmɑ́ːlì]) is an Afroasiatic language belonging to the Cushitic branch. It is spoken as a mother tongue by Somalis in Greater Somalia and the Somali diaspora. Somali is an official language of Somalia and Somaliland, a national language in Djibouti, and a working language in the Somali Region of Ethiopia and also in North Eastern Kenya. It is used as an adoptive...
Herbal Medicine Herbal medicine (also herbalism) is the study of pharmacognosy and the use of medicinal plants, which are a basis of traditional medicine. There is limited scientific evidence for the safety and efficacy of plants used in 21st century herbalism, which generally does not provide standards for purity or...
What is Extraterrestrial Life? Extraterrestrial life is hypothetical life which may occur outside Earth and which did not originate on Earth. Such life might range from simple prokaryotes (or comparable life forms) to intelligent beings and even sapient beings, possibly bringing forth civilizations which might be far more advanced than humanity. The Drake equation speculates about the existence of sapient life elsewhere in the universe. The science...
Jiva In Hinduism, the jiva (जीव, jīva) is a living being or any entity imbued with a life force. The word itself originates from the Sanskrit verb-root jīv, which translates as ‘to breathe or to live’. The jiva, as a metaphysical entity, has been described in various scriptures such as the Bhagavad Gita, Upanishads and the Vachanamrut (the teachings of Swaminarayan). Each...
Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (often referred to as the Four Horsemen) are figures in Christian scriptures, appearing in the New Testament‘s final book, Revelation, an apocalypse written by John of Patmos, as well as in the Old Testament‘s prophetic Book of Zechariah, and in the Book of Ezekiel, where they are named as punishments from God....
Book of Daniel The Book of Daniel is a 2nd-century BCE biblical apocalypse with an ostensible 6th century BCE setting, combining a prophecy of history with an eschatology (a portrayal of end times) both cosmic in scope and political in focus. It gives “an account of the activities and visions of Daniel, a noble Jew exiled at Babylon”, and its message...
Millennialism Millennialism or chiliasm (from the Greek equivalent) is a belief advanced by some religious denominations that a Golden Age or Paradise will occur on Earth prior to the final judgment and future eternal state of the “World to Come“. Christianity and Judaism have both produced messianic movements which featured millennialist teachings—such as the notion that an earthly kingdom of God was at hand. These...
Ismah Ismah or ‘Isma (عِصْمَة; literally, “protection”) is the concept of incorruptible innocence, immunity from sin, or moral infallibility in Islamic theology, and which is especially prominent in Shia Islam. In Shia theology, ‘ismah is characteristic of prophets, imams, and angels. When attributed to human beings, ismah means “the ability of avoiding acts of disobedience, in spite of having...
Hadith of Warning The Hadith of Warning or Yawm al-Inzar (یوْمُ الْاِنذار), also known as the Invitation of the close families of Muhammad (دعوة ذو العشیرة – Da‘wat dhul-‘Ashīrah), was a hadith in which the Islamic prophet Muhammad attempted to warn his relatives to become Muslim. Narration The hadith is narrated in the context of the revelation of Ash-Shu’ara,...
Shia View of Ali Ali ibn Abi Talib was the cousin and son-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, and a member of the Ahl al-Bayt. Shias regard Ali as the first Imam and consider him, along with his descendants, to be one of the divinely appointed successors of Muhammad who are claimed by the Shia...
Geneva Bible The Geneva Bible is one of the most historically significant translations of the Bible into English, preceding the King James Version by 51 years. It was the primary Bible of 16th-century English Protestantism and was used by William Shakespeare, Oliver Cromwell, John Knox, John Donne, and John Bunyan, author of The Pilgrim’s Progress (1678). It was one of the Bibles taken to...
Children’s Faith in Islam Eliminating Any Questions in the Child’s Mind from the Very Beginning Your children may have some questions concerning prayers and other religious matters. Introverted children are usually too shy to ask their parents such questions. However, it is of great importance that children open up and...
Outline of Islam Islam is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion teaching that there is only one God (Allah), and that Muhammad is the messenger of God. It is the world’s second-largest religion with over 1.8 billion followers or 24% of the world’s population, most commonly known as Muslims. Muslims make up a majority of the population in 50 countries. Islam teaches...
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