The Ancestral Shrine of the Acholi

 By THE REV. FR. A. MALANDRA,
 Principal, Ngetta Normal School, Verona Fathers' Mission, LIRA.




 The Acholi people call the place where they exercise part of their acts of
worship, the Abila. When they wish to offer sacrifice either for joyful or for sor-
rowful events, in thanksgiving or in propitiation, they gather together about this
shrine.
 Now, as all their sacrifices, whether public or private, are offered up at this
Abila it may truly be called the centre of their religious worship.
 If one visits these various villages and casually observes the Abila, whether
in its complete or rudimentary state, one will not be greatly impressed; yet the in-
habitants of the village always consider it a very sacred place.
 And what is the object of their worship? Their ancestors. It is the belief of the
Acholi that the souls of their dead must appear in the vicinity of this shrine
some time after their death. The time of this is not definite. These souls have
no permanent dwelling. After a period of wandering about, they indicate some
particular signs, by which the people of the village may know their sacred duty;
namely, to build a small temple as shelter for the souls of their ancestors.
 Henceforth they are venerated, so that they may be of assistance to the bereft
ones, and they will exercise their power so that the hunting will be successful,
evil spirits will be deterred from entering their villages, sickness may be unknown
among the inhabitants, women may not be barren, their children will enjoy health
and happiness and their crops will be abundant.
 Briefly, they are worshipped so that they may exercise their beneficial in-
fluence, in return for which their surviving relatives will offer them meat, pudding,
semsem and beer at the proper time for sacrificing at the Abila.
 The Abila assume various forms. It cannot be precisely stated whether or not
there is a fixed rule for the construction of such miniature temples for all tribes,
or even for a small group of people; as they vary in shape and size in the various
Villages. In some localities, the Abila takes the shape of a small hut, having a
roof made of grass, with a rather pronounced slope, and supported by small
forks fixed to the ground. In the centre there is a longer fork which reaches to
the highest point of the roof. This last is not found in all Abila. In this
case, the poles which are to be used for the building and the quality of the trees
from which they must be cut, must always be designated in time by the minister