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AEGIS European Conference on African Studies
11 - 14 July 2007
African Studies Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands
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Women in kubandwa. Female spirits and mediums in the Great Lakes' region
| Panel |
48. Women, Men, and Faith: Reconfigurations of Authority
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| Paper ID | 479 |
| Author(s) |
Pennacini, Cecilia
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| Paper |
No paper submitted
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| Abstract | Kubandwa is a spirit possession cult spread all over the Great Lakes region of Africa (Rwanda, Burundi, north-western Tanzania, Uganda, Eastern Congo). Violently opposed by colonial administrators, because the cult shaped different anti-colonial movements, this ancient religious expression which was typical of the interlacustrine region found a new life after independence, developing new forms extremely alive and active at present days. In the past women have played an important role in kubandwa, both as mediums and spirits: the recognition of specific feminine values through religion tried to balance male authority in the traditional political systems of the area as well as in the gender division of labour. But the position of women in interlacustrine societies has undergone big changes after independence and especially in the last years. Even if gender discrimination is still there, especially in rural areas, women are acquiring important roles in economic life as well as in the new politics of the state. New pattern of religious authorities are thus invented by female mediums, more and more engaged in the spiritual life of their cultures, while women believers take to kubandwa shrines specific problems tied to the new position women are occupying in the society (looking for wealth, better jobs, richness and love). Spirits themselves are changing their identities, following the usual processes of religious creativity which is commune in the area, showing new gender patterns.
The paper will try to delineate the new feminine patterns developed by kubandwa in the last few years, analysing some cases of female mediums active in different areas of the interlacustrine region.
Bibliography
Berger Iris, 1976, “Rebels or status seekers? Women and Spirit mediums in East Africa” in Hafkin N. and Bay E. (editors), Women in Africa. Studies in Social and Economic Change, Stanford.
Berger Iris, 1981, Religion and Resistance. East African Kingdoms in the Precolonial Period, Musée Royal de l’Afrique Central, Tervuren.
Berger Iris, 1995, “Fertility as Power. Spirit Mediums, Priestesses and the Precolonial State in Interlacustrine East Africa” in Anderson D. and Johnson D. (editors), Revealing Prophets, Eastern African Studies, Nairobi, pp. 65-82.
Freedman Jim, 1984, Nyabingi. The Social History of an African Divinity, Musée Royal de l’Afrique Central, Tervuren.
Pennacini Cecilia, 1998, Kubandwa. La possessione spiritica nell’Africa dei Grandi Laghi, Torino, Il Segnalibro.
Pennacini Cecilia, 2000, “Religion and Spirit Possessionin the Great Lakes’ Africa. The Kubandwa Tradition in a Regional Perspective” in Remotti F. (ed. by), Environments, Languages, Cultures. Contributions of the Italian Ethnological Mission in Equatorial Africa, Alessandria, Edizioni dell’Orso.
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