Editing Entheogen (section)

=== Africa ===

The best-known entheogen-using culture of Africa is the [[Bwiti]]sts, who used a preparation of the root bark of ''[[Tabernanthe iboga]]''.<ref>[http://ibogaine.desk.nl/fernandez.html Bwiti: An Ethnography of the Religious Imagination in Africa] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060628094315/http://www.ibogaine.desk.nl/fernandez.html |date=28 June 2006 }} by James W. Fernandez, Princeton University Press, 1982</ref> Although the ancient Egyptians may have been using the [[Nymphaea caerulea|sacred blue lily]] plant in some of their religious rituals or just symbolically, it has been suggested that Egyptian religion once revolved around the ritualistic ingestion of the far more psychoactive ''[[Psilocybe cubensis]]'' mushroom, and that the Egyptian [[White Crown]], Triple Crown, and [[Atef]] Crown were evidently designed to represent pin-stages of this mushroom.<ref>{{Cite journal |url=http://shroomer.cz/upload/Hubicky_v_Egypte.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091222064142/http://shroomer.cz/upload/Hubicky_v_Egypte.pdf |archive-date=22 December 2009 |title=The entheomycological origin of Egyptian crowns and the esoteric underpinnings of Egyptian religion |author=S.R. Berlant |journal=Journal of Ethnopharmacology |volume=102 |issue=2005 |pages=275–88 |year=2005 |doi=10.1016/j.jep.2005.07.028 |pmid=16199133|s2cid=19297225 }}</ref> There is also evidence for the use of [[psilocybin mushroom]]s in [[Ivory Coast]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Samorini|first=Giorgio|title=Traditional Use of Psychoactive Mushrooms in Ivory Coast?|journal=Eleusis|year=1995|volume=1|pages=22–27|url=http://www.museocivico.rovereto.tn.it/pubblicazioni.jsp?ID_LINK=111250&area=3|access-date=8 May 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140508061641/http://www.museocivico.rovereto.tn.it/pubblicazioni.jsp?ID_LINK=111250&area=3|archive-date=8 May 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref> Numerous other plants used in shamanic ritual in Africa, such as ''[[Silene capensis]]'' sacred to the [[Xhosa people|Xhosa]], are yet to be investigated by western science. A recent revitalization has occurred in the study of southern African psychoactives and entheogens (Mitchell and Hudson 2004; Sobiecki 2002, 2008, 2012).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ethnobotany.co.za/index.php/publications-and-writing/ethnobotanical-research |title=Ethnobotanical Research |publisher=ethnobotany.co.za |access-date=13 January 2013}}</ref>

Among the amaXhosa, the artificial drug 2C-B is used as entheogen by traditional healers or [[Xhosa people#Folklore and religion|amagqirha]] over their traditional plants; they refer to the chemical as ''Ubulawu Nomathotholo'', which roughly translates to "''Medicine of the Singing Ancestors''".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.tacethno.com/info/2cb/2cbhistory.html#South%20Africa |title=2CB chosen over traditional entheogen's by South African healers. |publisher=Tacethno.com |date=27 March 2008 |access-date=15 May 2012}}</ref><ref>[http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/2cb/2cb_article1.shtml The Nexus Factor - An Introduction to 2C-B] Erowid</ref><ref>[http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/show_image.php?i=2cb/ubulawu_pack.jpg Ubulawu Nomathotholo Pack] Photo by Erowid.  2002 Erowid.org</ref>

==== East Africa ====
[[File:Harar Chat qat.jpg|thumb|Khat leaves of [[Harar]]]]

For centuries, religious leaders have consumed the [[khat]] leaves to stay awake during long nights of prayer.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.ogina.org/issue5/issue5_culture_of_khat_ezekiel.html|title=New Features}}</ref>