Editing Serpent symbolism (section)

===African mythology===
{{unreferenced section|date=July 2013}}
[[File:Mami Wata poster.png|thumb|upright|[[Mami Wata]], important in [[culture of Africa|African]] and [[African-American]] religions<ref>Jell-Bahlsen 1997, p. 105</ref><ref>Chesi 1997, p. 255</ref>]]
In Africa the chief centre of serpent worship was [[Dahomey]], but the cult of the python seems to have been of exotic origin, dating back to the first quarter of the 17th century. By the conquest of [[Kingdom of Whydah|Whydah]] the Dahomeyans were brought in contact with a people of serpent worshipers, and ended by adopting from them the beliefs which they at first despised. At [[Ouidah|Whydah]], the chief centre, there is a serpent temple, tenanted by some fifty snakes. Every python of the ''danh-gbi'' kind must be treated with respect, and death is the penalty for killing one, even by accident. ''Danh-gbi'' has numerous wives, who until 1857 took part in a public procession from which the profane crowd was excluded; a python was carried round the town in a hammock, perhaps as a ceremony for the expulsion of evils.

The rainbow-god of the [[Ashanti people|Ashanti]] was also conceived to have the form of a snake. His messenger was said to be a small variety of [[Boidae|boa]], but only certain individuals, not the whole species, were sacred.

In many parts of Africa the serpent is looked upon as the incarnation of deceased relatives. Among the [[Zulu people|amaZulu]], as among the [[Betsileo people|Betsileo]] of Madagascar, certain species are assigned as the abode of certain classes. The [[Maasai people|Maasai]], on the other hand, regard each species as the habitat of a particular family of the tribe.