African Language, Prayers and Hymns in

Prayers and hymns have been recorded in all African languages for which there is up-to-date documentation. This means that, in all African languages for which records are possessed (written or oral), people have sung or recited traditional prayers to the god(s) they worship, and hymns to praise the deity they revere.

Originally the word prayer meant “request, supplication,” as the worshipers of antiquity addressed their gods, mainly in the hope of obtaining food, health, peace, or another boon. Many psalms of the Bible are clearly sung prayers; the word psalm refers to a song performed with a plucked stringed instrument. In ancient Greece, hymns were sung prayers celebrating Hymen, the god of marriage who was invoked during weddings.

In ancient times and still in some regions of Africa, the distinction between prayers and hymns was vague, since all prayers were recited in a singsong manner, cantilated as said in church, for certain forms of recital. The Hebrew word mizmorseems...