Africa's Dark Sects
Description
It is made of green cloth over paperboard about 6" by 8 1/4"; 328 pages, with the title: "Africa's Dark Sects" stamped on the spine. Despite the date of publication being listed as 1921, the book is in very poor condition with a broken spine, cracked back cover, multiple dog-eared pages, and notes in the margin. The author is given as Nigel Blackwell and there is no publisher listed. The bookplate on the inside cover indicates it belongs to Harvard University's Widener Library
Text
Beyond the reach of the great Abrahamic faiths, Africa retains the primal truths of human society and religion; society is as raw and unformed as the landscape. The Gods are known by their old names and not prettied up by hymns and incense. It is here in this great continent of the Id that Man may truly know himself. That Man, as a whole, is so brutal and untamed at his heart, only shocks the unlettered or those blinded by the false trapping of the prison we have built for ourselves in our so-called civilization.
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The cult, named in whispers by the natives ‘The Bloody Tongue,’ is supposedly based far in the interior, but has followers in Mombassa, Nairobi, and even Muslim Zanzibar. Their idols are human shaped though surmounted with a long red trunk instead of a head, and it is rumoured that more than one missionary has discovered that when the whites leave, the natives swap a head topped by a crown of thorns for one with a bloody ‘tongue’.
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The sorcerer would then rend flesh from his own body, usually the arm, and spit the bloody offering into the mouth of the body supposed to be raised. A great chanting would be then undertaken by both sorcerer and his audience. The words are not in the native Yoruban. I have attempted to capture them phonetically: “Hu ning lui mugluwal naf wugah nagal atzu tuti yok sog tok foo takun. Atzu tuti fu takun! Hu ning lui. (Compare viz. Waite and Zimmerman)”
Notes
One of the only known copies was at Harvard University's Library. It disappeared one afternoon leaving behind only the smell of rotting meat.
We discovered the tome in the Juju House after Silas's Death.
Describes Africa as a place where Man can be his brutal and untamed Id and see beyond the false trappings of civilization. There are notes on the "Cult of the Bloody Tongue" that is based far in the interior of Africa, but that has followers in many cities. The idols are described as human shaped but surmounted with a long red trunk instead of a head.
Experiences with Ancient Text
Mary Elise read the text, which has instructions for a ritual intended to raise the dead as a zombies which we saw the results of at the Juju House which Mary Elise learned as a spell.