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Africa

The continent south of the Mediterranean, source of ancient Egyptian religion and a wealth of indigenous and diaspora traditions. Ptolemy knew only its northern edge, which he calls Libya and assigns to the southwest quarter and the water triplicity.

Facts
Geography
Latitude
7.2 degrees north 1
Approximate reference point, rounded to one decimal place; a large or historical region has no formal center, so this coordinate is conventional, not a precise boundary claim.
Longitude
21.1 degrees east 1
Approximate reference point, rounded to one decimal place; a large or historical region has no formal center, so this coordinate is conventional, not a precise boundary claim.
Attributions
Tradition
Ptolemy's inhabited world stops well short of the equator, so everything south of the Sahara lies outside the chorography entirely. 2Tradition: Hellenistic astrology
Tradition
The decans, the thirty six ten degree divisions of the zodiac, are an Egyptian construction taken into the Greek system, so the technique owes Egypt far more than its own map of the world suggests. 3Tradition: Hellenistic astrology
Correspondences
Zodiac Rulership
The water triplicity, Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces, for the southwest quarter, which Ptolemy calls Libya 2Tradition: Hellenistic astrology
Identity
Element
Water 2Tradition: Hellenistic astrology
Origins
Region
The Mediterranean and Saharan north alone: Numidia, Carthage, Mauretania, Gaetulia and their neighbours 2Tradition: Hellenistic astrology
Learn More
Libya, the Southwest Quarter

Ptolemy's fourth quarter, the southwest of the inhabited world, is the one he calls Libya, and he puts it in familiarity with the water triplicity, Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces. The lands he lists are the Mediterranean and Saharan north: Numidia, Carthage, Mauretania, Gaetulia and their neighbours.

That list is the whole of Africa as the scheme knows it. Ptolemy's inhabited world stops well short of the equator, and everything south of the Sahara lies outside the frame the chorography divides. So the quarter a modern retelling labels Africa covers a strip along the top of the continent, and the great majority of the landmass, along with every tradition that grew up in it, has no place in the system at all.

Egypt is the exception, and it is a large one. Egypt sits in the scheme with sign assignments of its own, and Egyptian material is woven through Hellenistic astrology at a far deeper level than the chorography suggests. The decans, the thirty six ten degree divisions of the zodiac, are an Egyptian construction taken into the Greek system, and the pseudonymous attribution of astrological texts to Egyptian authorities was a standard feature of the literature.

The atlas records both facts side by side, because they pull in opposite directions and both are true. The technique owes Egypt a great deal, and the technique's own map of the world barely sees the continent Egypt sits on.

Sources TetrabiblosClaudius Ptolemy with A History of Western AstrologyNicholas Campion

What the Chorography Cannot Reach

The gap described above is not a small one, and it is worth stating what follows from it.

An astrological chorography that stops at the Sahara has nothing to say about the divinatory and cosmological systems of the rest of the continent, and those systems are neither absent nor derivative. Ifa divination among the Yoruba, geomantic practice across West and North Africa, and the many regional traditions this atlas covers under their own entries developed on their own terms. Some of them share material with the Mediterranean world through long standing trade and through Islam, and geomancy in particular has a documented history of movement between North Africa, the Islamic world and Latin Europe. None of them is a branch of Ptolemy's system.

So this entry is deliberately narrow. It records what classical astrological chorography said about the part of Africa it knew, which is a small and specific claim, and it does not extend that claim over a continent. The African traditions the atlas holds are described where they belong, under their own names and their own sources, rather than fitted to a Mediterranean quartering that was never built to hold them.

The alternative, filling the gap with a modern assignment, would produce a table that looks complete and is not. Naming the limit is the more useful record, and it is the one this entry keeps.

Sources Ifa Divination: Communication between Gods and Men in West AfricaWilliam Bascom with Recherches sur une technique divinatoire: la geomancie dans l'Occident medievalTherese Charmasson

Connections

Associated With

This source names Africa directly: "Steed's A History of the Church in Africa, published by Cambridge University Press in 2000, is a major work of scholarship, a one volume history running to 1,232 pages."

Source A History of the Church in AfricaBengt Sundkler and Christopher Steed

This source names Africa directly: "Isichei was a historian of West Africa, and this academic book, published by Macmillan, is a comprehensive history of the Igbo people of Nigeria from the precolonial period through the colonial era..."

Source A History of the Igbo PeopleElizabeth Isichei

This source names Africa directly: "It expanded across Asia, Africa, Europe and Australia within its first year and was reaching an estimated 160 countries by 2006."

Source Aastha TV (Wikipedia)

This source names Africa directly: "African Studies is the interdisciplinary study of the societies, languages, history and cultures of Africa on their own terms, given an academic home when Melville Herskovits founded the first..."

Source Frascati Manual 2015: Guidelines for Collecting and Reporting Data on Research and Experimental DevelopmentOECD

This source names Africa directly: "Africa's Ogun, Old World and New, edited by Sandra T."

Source Africa's Ogun: Old World and NewSandra T. Barnes (editor)

This source names Africa directly: "of the Congo, Uganda and South Africa and situating the building within the faith's wider history of local and national temples, including the continental Mother Temple of Africa in Uganda and a..."

Source After Pope Francis Visit, DRC Opens Baha'i House of Worship (Religion Unplugged)Amy Fallon

This source names Africa directly: "in around 30 countries across Asia and Africa, operating without regard to the faith, origin or gender of those it serves, and is the principal vehicle through which the Nizari Ismaili Imamat..."

Source Aga Khan Development Network (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors
Amazigh, Pantheons

This source names Africa directly: "Amazigh, or Berber, peoples of North Africa, among them Gurzil, a war god associated with Libyan and Garamantian communities, and Ammon in his Siwan and Libyan cult centred on the oasis of Siwa..."

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)

This source names Africa directly: "the Apostolic Faith Mission of South Africa, community-edited."

Source Apostolic Faith Mission Of South Africa (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

This source names Africa directly: "Azusa Street Mission, arrived in South Africa from Indianapolis in May 1908 with three companions and began ministry in Doornfontein, Johannesburg on 25 May that year."

Source Apostolic Faith Mission Of South Africa (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

This source names Africa directly: "on Kikaaya Hill, the Mother Temple of Africa and the continent's first Baha'i House of Worship; not the right source for a claim about the faith's wider spread across Africa beyond Uganda..."

Source Baha'i Faith In Uganda (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

This source names Africa directly: "a missionary and scholar who studied African independent churches directly through fieldwork in South Africa, and this academic book, published by Oxford University Press for the International..."

Source Bantu Prophets in South AfricaBengt G. M. Sundkler

This source names Africa directly: "on its transnational ties to West Africa and the role of women in its priesthood, rather than describing Candomble as a generic Afro-diasporic tradition."

Source Black Atlantic Religion: Tradition, Transnationalism, and Matriarchy in the Afro-Brazilian CandombleJ. Lorand Matory

This source names Africa directly: "caliphs moved their capital from North Africa to Cairo."

Source Two Folios from the Blue Qur'an, AKM477 (Aga Khan Museum)Aga Khan Museum, catalogue entry

This source names Africa directly: "The Culture and History of a South African People, published by University of Chicago Press in 1985, is a peer reviewed ethnographic and historical study of Zionist church practice among the Tshidi..."

Source Body of Power, Spirit of Resistance: The Culture and History of a South African PeopleJean Comaroff

This source names Africa directly: "operating as the Islamic State West Africa Province and a rump faction that remained under Shekau until his 2021 death."

Source Global Salafism: Islam's New Religious MovementRoel Meijer (ed.)

This source names Africa directly: "Boko Haram: The History of an African Jihadist Movement, Alexander Thurston's 2018 scholarly history from Princeton University Press, Princeton Studies in Muslim Politics, is the first full academic..."

Source Boko Haram: The History of an African Jihadist MovementAlexander Thurston
Cancer, Zodiac Signs

Cancer, of the water triplicity, in familiarity with the southwest quarter Ptolemy calls Libya.

Source TetrabiblosClaudius Ptolemy

This source names Africa directly: "Study of Contemporary Practices in Africa, Aleksandra Cimpric's 2010 report for UNICEF's West and Central Africa Regional Office, is a field study documenting present day child witchcraft..."

Source Children Accused of Witchcraft: An Anthropological Study of Contemporary Practices in AfricaAleksandra Cimpric

This source names Africa directly: "where a boy died, and in South Africa; it states the Church's response was "wholly ineffective and amounted to a coverup," apologises for its handling of disclosures in 2013 and 2017, and commits to..."

Source Church of England: Independent Review Into Church's Handling of Smyth Case Published

This source names Africa directly: "of the Modern Middle East and North Africa, accessed via Encyclopedia.com and published by the Gale Group, is a general reference encyclopedia article on the Cairo museum's holdings and history."

Source Coptic Museum, in Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North AfricaEncyclopedia.com (Gale Group)

This source names Africa directly: "28.8 percent in 2020, as Sub-Saharan Africa overtook Europe as home to the largest share of the world's Christians."

Source Countries with the Most Christians & Global Christian Population Change, 2010-2020

This source names Africa directly: "South African History Online's reference article on the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC/NGK) in South Africa."

Source Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) (South African History Online)South African History Online

This source names Africa directly: "and the largest Lutheran body in Africa."

Source Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

This source names Africa directly: "in the world and the largest in East Africa."

Source Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

This source names Africa directly: "Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar on Fiducia Supplicans, issued by SECAM in 2024, is the primary document itself, the African bishops' own formal statement explaining their..."

Source Final communique of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar on Fiducia SupplicansSymposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM)the holders' own account

This source names Africa directly: "as a young lawyer in South Africa through his leadership of India's nonviolent independence movement to his assassination on January 30, 1948."

Source Gandhi (1982 film) (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

This source names Africa directly: "Jewish historical sites across North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia."

Source Great Synagogue at Aleppo, Syria

This source names Africa directly: "as a living tradition spanning West Africa and the Caribbean, developed with direct input from Vodou practitioners, community leaders, priests and priestesses, and cultural experts from both..."

Source Haiti and Benin Nominate Vodou as UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage (L'Union Suite)

This source names Africa directly: "and Christian religious life in East Africa traced through documented history rather than missionary categories imported from outside."

Source Frascati Manual 2015: Guidelines for Collecting and Reporting Data on Research and Experimental DevelopmentOECD

This source names Africa directly: "in more than eighty languages across Africa, Asia, Europe, South America and the Pacific by the 2020s, each producing programming contextualized to its own local language and culture around..."

Source Hope Channel (Inter-American Division, Seventh-day Adventist Church)

This source names Africa directly: "policy across newly independent East African states restricting non-citizen commerce, forced the Jain community that had built businesses and temples across Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania over the..."

Source Jainism In Africa (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

This source names Africa directly: "in more than 60 countries across Africa, eastern Europe, the Middle East and the United States and Caribbean."

Source International Orthodox Christian Charities: IRS Form 990, Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2024International Orthodox Christian Charities, Inc.

This source names Africa directly: "center of gravity shifted toward Africa, which grew from 7.718 million to 56.947 million."

Source Is Anglicanism Growing or Dying? New DataDavid Goodhew

This source names Africa directly: "Saharan trade carried Islam into West Africa gradually from the eleventh century, and it became the religion of the Malian court and merchant class by the empire's height under Mansa Musa."

Source Corpus of Early Arabic Sources for West African HistoryNehemia Levtzion and J. F. P. Hopkins (eds.)

This source names Africa directly: "Tariq ibn Ziyad crossed from North Africa into Iberia in April 711 and defeated the Visigothic king Roderic."

Source The Great Arab Conquests: How the Spread of Islam Changed the World We Live InHugh Kennedy

This source names Africa directly: "mystical current across Central Asia, Africa and South Asia."

Source Divinity Atlas Directory Prose, First Edition Category Descriptions

This source names Africa directly: "Wikipedia's article on Jainism in Africa, community-edited."

Source Jainism In Africa (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

This source names Africa directly: "gateway between India and East Africa, built the Shri Zanzibar Katcchi Jain Temple in 1905 and consecrated murtis of Parsvanath, Shantinath and Mahaveerswami there, the first Jain images consecrated..."

Source Zanzibar Derasar (Jain Treasures)Jain Treasures

This source names Africa directly: "its communities across North Africa, the Ottoman Empire and the rest of Europe."

Source History Of The Jews In Spain (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

This source names Africa directly: "and refugee crises across Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas, operating without regard to the faith or nationality of those it serves."

Source Khalsa Aid International: Charity Commission Filed Accounts, Year Ended 31 March 2025Khalsa Aid International
Khoikhoi, Pantheons

This source names Africa directly: "of Khoikhoi religion in southern Africa."

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)

This source names Africa directly: "White Queen: Victorian Britain through African Eyes, Neil Parsons's 1998 scholarly history from the University of Chicago Press, is a full length academic history of Khama III, Bathoen and Sebele's..."

Source King Khama, Emperor Joe, and the Great White Queen: Victorian Britain through African EyesNeil Parsons

This source names Africa directly: "biblical prophecy of a returning African king."

Source Wikipedia: RastafariWikipedia contributors

This source names Africa directly: "across nearly thirty countries in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and the Americas, focused on smallholder agriculture, climate adaptation and emergency response, and is a member of the Corus..."

Source Lutheran World Relief (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

This source names Africa directly: "livelihoods across country programs in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Latin America and the Caribbean, coordinated from Geneva, Switzerland, with emergency hubs in Yaounde, Cameroon and..."

Source For Hope and a Future: LWF World Service 2024 Annual ReportThe Lutheran World Federation, World Service

This source names Africa directly: "where a boy died, and in South Africa; and that the Church's response, once senior officers learned of the abuse through a 1982 report, was "wholly ineffective and amounted to a coverup." Smyth was..."

Source Church of England: Independent Review Into Church's Handling of Smyth Case Published

This source names Africa directly: "and long-term development work across Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe and the Middle East and North Africa."

Source Malteser International (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors
Manichaean, Pantheons

This source names Africa directly: "Manichaean missions carried this cosmology from Roman North Africa to Central Asia and southern China, but the religion did not survive as a living tradition."

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)

This source names Africa directly: "a vast geographic range from North Africa to Central Asia and China."

Source Manichaeism: An Ancient Faith RediscoveredNicholas Baker-Brian

Showing 1 to 50 of 112 in Associated With, page 1 of 3.

Contrasts With

Americas, Continents

Africa holds the southwest quarter, at least in its northern strip. The Americas hold no quarter at all.

Source TetrabiblosClaudius Ptolemy
Global, Continents

Global is not a landmass. It marks material whose spread crosses the continents rather than belonging to one of them.

Source A History of Western AstrologyNicholas Campion

Spread Events Here

A diffuse shift across Africa, Latin America and Asia together, away from Europe and North America. The map places this in Africa as the single largest component of the wider shift, a simplification named here rather than hidden.

Source Global Christianity: A Report on the Size and Distribution of the World's Christian PopulationPew Research Center
Sources
1. Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)
Encyclopaedia Britannica editors, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., 2024View the Source
2. Tetrabiblos
Claudius Ptolemy, W. Foulsham, 1900Book II, on the familiarities of countries with the triplicities and starsView the Source
3. Hellenistic Astrology: The Study of Fate and Fortune
Chris Brennan, Amor Fati Publications, 2017View the Source
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