194 THROUGH ANGOLA 



from Byzantium through Nubia fourteen hundred 

 years ago, and left its mark in the Central Sudan 

 and the West Coast kingdoms of Mossi and Nupe. 



Mohammedan influence, which he considers 

 degraded these ancient civilizations a thousand 

 years ago, is still spreading in West Africa, but 

 has influenced Angola very little, though, if it can 

 destroy spirit-worship, it will redeem any misdeeds 

 of the past and work for the good of Africa. 



If the purer Etruscan and Coptic beliefs ever 

 reached Angola in the past, they have now become 

 so obscured by the cult of spirit-worship as to make 

 the task of their rediscovery beyond the ability 

 of a traveller, and the spirit-worship of modern 

 Angola has itself been affected so greatly by the 

 influence of Western civilization, that it has 

 changed and is changing fast with the waning 

 power of its priests or medicine-men, and the 

 growing knowledge of the negro. This spirit- 

 worship cannot be regarded now as other than a 

 degraded cult, but it is still something more than 

 the fear of evil spirits, worship of images called 

 fetishes, and obedience to the power of the African 

 priest or witch doctor, that many believe it to 

 be, for there is a vague belief in a beneficent 

 deity, who is called by the Angolan Bantus 

 N'zambi, Zambi, Onzambi, and N'sambi in various 

 parts of north and central Angola (the slight 

 variation in pronunciation being entirely a question 

 of dialect), and Suku in the south. This god, being 

 considered beneficent, is not feared, and in conse- 

 quence is not regarded or worshipped. 



/There is an omnipresent fear of evil spirits, 



