Abstract
AT a meeting of the Royal Anthropological Institute held on December 13 Mr. Northcote W. Thomas read a paper on “The Week in West Africa.” He said there were in West Africa a number of sub-divisions of the lunar month, such as 16-day periods, lo-day periods, and the like, the origin of which was either in the market or in some religious belief. There were, in addition, a number of shorter units, comparable to our week, of more uncertain origin; they ranged in length from two to eight days. They were very rarely sub-divisions of the month, and there was reason, where the week is synchronised with the month, to suspect foreign influence. Generally speaking, the month in West Africa was of small importance and played no part in economic or religious life; it was reckoned from the day on which the new moon was first seen, but the native can only very rarely say of how many days it consists. There was no less uncertainty as to the length of the year; few, if any, tribes had any exact knowledge of its length. The calendar was sometimes adjusted by the recognition of two years of different length, as in Benin, where the female year seems to have been about 340 days in length.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
The Week in West Africa. Nature 109, 124 (1922). https://doi.org/10.1038/109124a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/109124a0