- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226327143
- eISBN:
- 9780226327167
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226327167.003.0007
- Subject:
- Anthropology, African Cultural Anthropology
This chapter analyzes the film Les Maîtres fous, which established Jean Rouch's international renown. Les Maîtres fous concerns the hauka spirit possession cult in and around Accra, the capital of ...
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This chapter analyzes the film Les Maîtres fous, which established Jean Rouch's international renown. Les Maîtres fous concerns the hauka spirit possession cult in and around Accra, the capital of what is now the independent state of Ghana but which was then still the British colony of the Gold Coast. The mediums were mostly young Songhay men who had migrated from the middle reaches of the Niger River, some 650 miles to the north in the French colony of Niger. Referred to as “Zabrama” in the film, they represented merely the most recent wave of a pattern of seasonal migration from the drought-afflicted southern margin of the Sahelian Desert to the economically dynamic cities on the coastal plains of West Africa that had been going on since at least the middle of the nineteenth century.Less
This chapter analyzes the film Les Maîtres fous, which established Jean Rouch's international renown. Les Maîtres fous concerns the hauka spirit possession cult in and around Accra, the capital of what is now the independent state of Ghana but which was then still the British colony of the Gold Coast. The mediums were mostly young Songhay men who had migrated from the middle reaches of the Niger River, some 650 miles to the north in the French colony of Niger. Referred to as “Zabrama” in the film, they represented merely the most recent wave of a pattern of seasonal migration from the drought-afflicted southern margin of the Sahelian Desert to the economically dynamic cities on the coastal plains of West Africa that had been going on since at least the middle of the nineteenth century.
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226327143
- eISBN:
- 9780226327167
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226327167.003.0005
- Subject:
- Anthropology, African Cultural Anthropology
Migration from rural to urban areas intensified in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa in the period immediately after the Second World War. This was a social phenomenon of major importance and the ...
More
Migration from rural to urban areas intensified in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa in the period immediately after the Second World War. This was a social phenomenon of major importance and the colonial governments of the time were prepared to provide generous funding for research into its causes and effects. Jean Rouch was one of those engaged to do this research, and from 1954 to 1960 was supported by a combination of the CNRS, IFAN, and various multinational colonial research agencies set up to coordinate scientific programs in countries south of the Sahara. In October 1953, he set out from Paris to travel overland to West Africa, accompanied by his wife Jane. They entered the Gold Coast in February 1954 where they remained until Rouch's return to France in January 1955. During this period, Rouch made three major films that dealt directly with the experience of the migrants: Les Maîtres fous, Jaguar, and Moi, un Noir. This chapter focuses on the films Les Maîtres fous and Jaguar.Less
Migration from rural to urban areas intensified in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa in the period immediately after the Second World War. This was a social phenomenon of major importance and the colonial governments of the time were prepared to provide generous funding for research into its causes and effects. Jean Rouch was one of those engaged to do this research, and from 1954 to 1960 was supported by a combination of the CNRS, IFAN, and various multinational colonial research agencies set up to coordinate scientific programs in countries south of the Sahara. In October 1953, he set out from Paris to travel overland to West Africa, accompanied by his wife Jane. They entered the Gold Coast in February 1954 where they remained until Rouch's return to France in January 1955. During this period, Rouch made three major films that dealt directly with the experience of the migrants: Les Maîtres fous, Jaguar, and Moi, un Noir. This chapter focuses on the films Les Maîtres fous and Jaguar.
