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On Spirits and Affliction. Further explorations in applied indigenous knowledge by Nicola Robins

On Spirits and Affliction. Further explorations in applied indigenous knowledge by Nicola Robins.

 

Southern Africans traditionally ‘seat’ their ancestral spirits to connect to the energy of creation (Umoya). In times of severe disruption, such as colonialism, unbounded extraction and war, the experience is that spirits ‘afflict’.

Described variously by anthropologists as a ‘psychomental complex’ or a ‘refraction of social reality’, spirits are not individuals but are seen to attach to individual identities.

This DD introduces an unlikely blend of characters – from 16th century Xhosa prophetess, Nongqawuse, to the horned ‘QAnon Shaman’ – to explore the phenomenon of spirits and affliction from a contemporary perspective.

How might the indigenous experience of spirits help us think differently about identity and cognition, war and risk, order and chaos?

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Nicola Robins is a founder of Cape Town-based advisory firm Incite (www.incite.co.za) and a practicing diviner of the Vondo Sangoma lineage since 2002.

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