Slavery, Memory and Religion in Southeastern Ghana, c.1850–Present

Slavery, Memory and Religion in Southeastern Ghana, c.1850–Present

Author: Meera Venkatachalam

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2015-08-10

Total Pages: 271

ISBN-13: 1316368947

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Based on a decade of fieldwork in southeastern Ghana and analysis of secondary sources, this book aims to reconstruct the religious history of the Anlo-Ewe peoples from the 1850s. In particular, it focuses on a corpus of rituals collectively known as 'Fofie', which derived their legitimacy from engaging with the memory of the slave-holding past. The Anlo developed a sense of discomfort about their agency in slavery in the early twentieth century which they articulated through practices such as ancestor veneration, spirit possession, and by forging links with descendants of peoples they formerly enslaved. Conversion to Christianity, engagement with 'modernity', trans-Atlantic conversations with diasporan Africans, and citizenship of the postcolonial state coupled with structural changes within the religious system - which resulted in the decline in Fofie's popularity - gradually altered the moral emphases of legacies of slavery in the Anlo historical imagination as the twentieth century progressed.


Embodying Black Religions in Africa and Its Diasporas

Embodying Black Religions in Africa and Its Diasporas

Author: Yolanda Covington-Ward

Publisher: Duke University Press

Published: 2021-08-09

Total Pages: 216

ISBN-13: 1478013117

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The contributors to Embodying Black Religions in Africa and Its Diasporas investigate the complex intersections between the body, religious expression, and the construction and transformation of social relationships and political and economic power. Among other topics, the essays examine the dynamics of religious and racial identity among Brazilian Neo-Pentecostals; the significance of cloth coverings in Islamic practice in northern Nigeria; the ethics of socially engaged hip-hop lyrics by Black Muslim artists in Britain; ritual dance performances among Mama Tchamba devotees in Togo; and how Ifá practitioners from Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Trinidad, and the United States join together in a shared spiritual ethnicity. From possession and spirit-induced trembling to dance, the contributors outline how embodied religious practices are central to expressing and shaping interiority and spiritual lives, national and ethnic belonging, ways of knowing and techniques of healing, and sexual and gender politics. In this way, the body is a crucial site of religiously motivated social action for people of African descent. Contributors. Rachel Cantave, Youssef Carter, N. Fadeke Castor, Yolanda Covington-Ward, Casey Golomski, Elyan Jeanine Hill, Nathanael J. Homewood, Jeanette S. Jouili, Bertin M. Louis Jr., Camee Maddox-Wingfield, Aaron Montoya, Jacob K. Olupona, Elisha P. Renne


An Ethnography of a Vodu Shrine in Southern Togo

An Ethnography of a Vodu Shrine in Southern Togo

Author: Eric Montgomery

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2017-02-13

Total Pages: 316

ISBN-13: 9004341250

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In this book, Eric Montgomery and Christian Vannier provide an ethnographically informed text on the cultural meanings and practices surrounding the gods and metaphysics of Vodu, as they relate to daily life in an ethnic Ewe fishing community on the coast of southern Togo. The authors approach this spirit possession and medicinal order through "shrine ethnography," understanding shrines as parts of sacred landscapes that are ecological, economic, political, and social. Giving voice to practitioners and situating shrines and Vodu itself into the history and political economy of the region make this text pertinent to the social changes and global relevance of Millennial Africa.


Searching for Sharing

Searching for Sharing

Author: Daniela Merolla

Publisher: Open Book Publishers

Published: 2017-05-15

Total Pages: 151

ISBN-13: 1783743212

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In a world where new technologies are being developed at a dizzying pace, how can we best approach oral genres that represent heritage? Taking an innovative and interdisciplinary approach, this volume explores the idea of sharing as a model to construct and disseminate the knowledge of literary heritage with the people who are represented by and in it. Expert contributors interweave sociological analysis with an appraisal of the transformative impact of technology on literary and cultural production. Does technology restrict, constraining the experience of an oral performance, or does it afford new openings for different aesthetic experiences? Topics explored include the Mara Cultural Heritage Digital Library, the preservation of Ewe heritage material, new eresources for texts in Manding languages, and the possibilities of technauriture. This timely and necessary collection also examines to what extent digital documents can be and have been institutionalised in archives and museums, how digital heritage can remain free from co-option by hegemonic groups, and the roles that exist for community voices. A valuable contribution to a fast-developing field, this book is required reading for scholars and students in the fields of heritage, anthropology, linguistics, history and the emerging disciplines of multi-media documentation and analysis, as well as those working in the field of literature, folklore, and African studies. It is also important reading for museum and archive curators.


Crossing Religious Boundaries

Crossing Religious Boundaries

Author: Marloes Janson

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2021-06-10

Total Pages: 247

ISBN-13: 110883891X

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A rich ethnography of lived religious experiences in Lagos, offering a unique look at religious pluralism in Nigeria's biggest city.


Learning Morality, Inequalities, and Faith

Learning Morality, Inequalities, and Faith

Author: Hansjörg Dilger

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2021-12-16

Total Pages: 283

ISBN-13: 1316514226

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Examines how learning and teaching morality in Tanzania's faith-oriented schools is inextricably interwoven with the complex power relations of an interconnected world.


Shackled Sentiments

Shackled Sentiments

Author: Eric J. Montgomery

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2019-01-21

Total Pages: 253

ISBN-13: 149858599X

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The ramifications of the trans-Saharan, trans-Atlantic, Indian Ocean, and domestic African slave trades are immeasurable, and they continue to disaffect black people from Africa to Haiti and Los Angeles to Lagos. Shackled Sentiments focuses on the memories and embodiments of slavery through case studies from western, eastern, and central Africa, the Caribbean, and Latin America. The contributors to this collection examine the ways that memories of slavery have been internalized. Slavery and memory are assessed from multiple perspectives: as sets of ritual practices, community-based systems of spirit veneration, mechanisms of resistance and national pride, sacred languages informing personhood, and instruments for healing and well-being. This book is recommended for scholars of anthropology, history, religion, art, and linguistics.


Islam in a Zongo

Islam in a Zongo

Author: Benedikt Pontzen

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2021-01-07

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 1108901506

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Drawing on empirical and archival research, this ethnography is an exploration of the diversity and complexity of 'everyday' lived religion among Muslims in Ghana's Asante region, demonstrating the interconnectedness of Islam with people's lives in a zongo community.


The Middle Class in Mozambique

The Middle Class in Mozambique

Author: Jason Sumich

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2018-10-18

Total Pages: 193

ISBN-13: 1108472885

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Introduction -- Origins -- Asendance -- Collapse -- Democracy -- Decay -- 2016, concluding thoughts