African divination  African divination is divination practiced by cultures of Africa. Divination is an attempt to form, and possess, an understanding of reality in the present and additionally, to predict events and reality of a future time. Cultures of Africa to the year circa C.E. 1991 were still performing and using divination, both within the urban and the rural environments. Diviners might also fulfill the role of herbalist. Divination might be thought of as a social phenomenon, and is thought of as central to the lives of people in societies of Africa (circa 2004 at least). Of the five regions of Africa, of which there are 54 countries of Africa, the proceeding countries are shown in the contents of this article:   and,   Women of certain urban settlements of Algeria engage in divinatory practice involving the būqālah, which is both, a ceramic vessel, and a form of poetry. According to Sir E. A. Wallis Budge (c. 1930), and at least according to archaeological evidence, practice of divination among the people of Egypt did not begin until the Ptolemaic period, and according to the source, it is almost certain (at the time of writing), native populations of Egypt began practice of these things by way of Grecian individuals who themselves had learnt about divination from Babylonia. Necromancy exists in Demotic texts of Ancient Egypt (R. K. Ritner). Necromantic consultation of dead royalty was common during the beginning of the Twentieth Dynasty, which began year ca.1195 BC. Divination plays a part in the lives of the nomadic Afar people, who range over Ethiopia, and Eritrea, but whose members are greatest within Djibouti (c. 2013). Eritrean witch-doctors also participate in divination. The Amhara tribe holds a strong history of divination. Within the tribe, there are 4 main belief systems. The first system is primarily focused on the tenets of Christianity and all of its entities. The second system is composed of a belief of possessive spirits known as "zar". The third system centers around a special, cursed group of people known as the budu, who divine through use of their eyes and facial expressions. Lastly, the fourth system focuses on the belief of malicious spirits known as "satan" or "ciraq" that are unavoidable and enjoy wreaking havoc on innocents. An Ethiopian ethnic group associated with the Amhara tribe known as "buda" are thought to possess the "evil eye": a divination symbol capable of casting spells and misfortune with just a glance or facial expression.