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Embodying Colonial Memories: Spirit Possession, Power, and the Hauka in West Africa book cover

1st Edition

Embodying Colonial Memories Spirit Possession, Power, and the Hauka in West Africa

By Paul Stoller Copyright 1996
    240 Pages
    by Routledge

    A study of the West African Hauka - spirits that grotesquely mimic and mock "Europeans" of the colonial epoch. The author considers spirit possession as a set of embodied practices with serious social and cultural consequences. Embodying Colonial Memories is the first in-depth study of the West African Hauka, spirits in the body of (human) mediums which mimic and mock Europeans of the colonial epoch. Paul Stoller, who was initiated into a spirit possession troupe, recounts an insider's tale of the Hauka with respect and "brotherly" deference. He combines narrative description, historical analysis, and reflections on the importance of embodiment and mimesis to social theory, with particular reference to the Songhay peoples of the Republic of Niger.

    Chapter 1 Prologue Diplomacy On A Dune; Part one Sensing Spirit Possession; Chapter 2 Introduction Sensing Ethnography; Chapter One Spirit Possession; Chapter Two Cultural Memory; Chapter Three Embodied Memories; Part two Confronting Colonialism in West Africa; Chapter 6 Introduction Forms of Confrontation; Chapter Four From First Contacts to Military Part Ition; Chapter Five Colonizing West Africa; Chapter Six Embodied Oppositions; Part three Migrating with the Hauka; Chapter 10 Introduction Thunderous Gods; Chapter Seven Colonizing Niger; Chapter Eight The Birth of the Hauka Movement; Chapter Nine Transgressing to the Gold Coast; Part four Transforming State Power The Hauka Movement in the Postcolony of Niger; Chapter 14 Introduction Crossing Ceremonial Boundaries; Chapter Ten Independence and the Postcolony of Niger; Chapter Eleven Peasant and Hauka in Niger's Postcolony; Chapter Twelve The Hauka and the Government of General Seyni Kountche; Chapter 18 Epilogue Memory, Power, and Spirit Possession;

    Biography

    Paul Stoller is Professor of Anthropology at West Chester University. He is the author of In Sorcery's Shadow (1987), Fusion of the Worlds (1989), The Taste of Ethnographic Things (1989) and The Cinematic Griot. He is currently conducting research among West African street vendors in New York City.

    "...the book should be read for what the Haukas's fascinating history teaches us about the politics of possession and the aesthetics of power." -- Religious Studies Review
    "This is learning in it's most fundamental form and it would be useful for us to consider the lessons that books such as Embodying Colonial Memories have for the creation of a more encompassing anthropology of education." -- Anthopology & Education Quarterly
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