Description
Book SynopsisRich ethnographic studies expanding the understanding of ngoma in Africa.The indigenous African healing system of music, dance, possession and trance is perhaps best known through John Janzen's book
Ngoma: Discourse of Healing in Central and Southern Africa. This collection engages with Janzen'sanalysis and examines ngoma in its culturally diverse manifestations. North America: Ohio U Press
Trade Review... rich ethnography and provocative intellectual engagement. - -- Michael Humphrey * ASAAP *
The book as a whole shows anthropology in transition, struggling with its own past and its future, as the authors discover new aspects to healing and reach for parallels elsewhere. In a concluding review, Janzen comments on the rich and varied ethnography these essays offer, traces his own scholarly quest from his studies of healing in Lower Congo to Ngoma, and notes that Ngoma is becoming a worldwide phenomenon. - -- Wyatt Macgaffey * BULLETIN of SOAS *
Table of ContentsIntroduction - beyond the confinement of affliction; a discursive field of experience, Rijk van Dijk, Ria Reis, Marja Spierenburg; kings, spirits and brides in Tanzania, Henny Blokland; gender and ngoma - the power of drums in Eastern Zambia, Annette Drews; the "wounded healer" as ideology - the work of ngoma in Swaziland, Ria Reis; social commentaries and the influence of the clientele - the case of the Mhondoro cult in Dande, Zimbabwe, Marja Spierenburg; the story of a scapegoat king in rural Malawi, Matthew Schoffeleers; the politics of therapeutic ngoma - the case of the Zionist churches in urban Zambia, Cor Jonker; ngoma, born-again fundamentalism and contesting representations of time in urban Malawi, Rijk van Dijk.
