Alter(native) Magic

Race and the Other in Beninese Witchcraft

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2145108
AutoresDouglas J Falen (0000-0002-9279-0489, Agnes Scott College, autor de correspondencia)
Año2020
Volumen30
Número4
Páginas360-376
Fecha de publicación2020-10-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaAnthropological Forum (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0066-4677 • E-ISSN: 1469-2902
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00664677.2020.1847038
OpenAlexW3113483589
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas4
Referencias citadas52

In Benin, as in many postcolonial settings, views of foreign ‘Others’ figure prominently in local discourses about identity and morality. Most of these characterisations centre on whites or other foreigners, known as Yovó in the Fon language of Southern Benin. While Yovós are stereotypically and disapprovingly believed to hold a distaste for African food and culture, they are praised for their production of modern technology, such as airplanes, cell phones, and the internet. These technological innovations are described by Beninese people as fantastic, even magical, and are referred to as ‘White people’s witchcraft’ (Yovó àzě), in contrast to malevolent African occult powers. The racial discourse of good and evil draws on essentialised notions of whites’ and Africans’ knowledge and power, suggesting the maintenance of colonial-era, hegemonic identities. However, formerly colonised people’s interest in foreign customs can demonstrate ambivalence, and Beninese express both pride and criticism for indigenous supernatural powers, while voicing critiques of foreign knowledge systems. Furthermore, entanglements with a powerful Other can reflect local agency, as in Beninese people’s appropriation of European and Asian spiritual traditions in order to co-opt the Other’s power – a power that enterprising healers re-interpret as foreign witchcraft to add to their supernatural arsenals. In these examples, religious borrowings are not always externally imposed examples of cultural imperialism, but rather can be the will of local actors incorporating elements from abroad into conceptualisations of themselves

Aesthetics · Agency (philosophy · Appropriation · Colonialism · Epistemology · Hegemony · Indigenous · MAGIC (telescope · Morality · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Social science · Sociology · African Studies and Ethnography · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Caribbean and African Literature and Culture · Law · Philosophy