“The Ancestors Are Beating Us”: Men, Migration and Spirit Possession in South Africa

• Main Author: Vendula Řezáčová
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: University of Hradec Králové, Philosophical Faculty 2016-05-01
• Series: Modern Africa
• Online Access: http://edu.uhk.cz/africa/index.php/ModAfr/article/view/86

Although studies of migration have grown exponentially in recent years, their focus has for the most part been on individuals and groups moving from (rural) peripheries to (urban) centres, akin to the prophesies of mainstream modernist theory. In South Africa, formidable scholarship has tackled the challenges and opportunities, which urban milieus have provided for rural migrants. Much less attention has been paid to urban-rural movements and the transformations of identities, relations and powers, which these have engendered. This paper considers the dynamics of ancestral spirit possession in the case of TshiVenda-speaking migrant men and argues that urban-rural migration has constituted a significant, although highly contested and multi-faceted process in contemporary South African society. In particular, it aims to show that movements mediated by the notions and practices of spirit possession invoke experiences of place and gender, which problematise both local and analytical conceptions of “city” and “country,” “centre” and “periphery,” “manhood” and “womanhood.”