Ferdinand de Jong
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748633197
- eISBN:
- 9780748670642
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748633197.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, African Studies
How do those on the margins of modernity face the challenges of globalization? This book demonstrates that secrecy is one of the means by which a society on the fringe of modernity produces itself as ...
More
How do those on the margins of modernity face the challenges of globalization? This book demonstrates that secrecy is one of the means by which a society on the fringe of modernity produces itself as locality. Focusing on initiation rituals, masked performances, and modern art, this study shows that rituals and performances long deemed obsolete serve the insertion of their performers in the world at their own terms. The Jola and Mandinko people of the Casamance region in Senegal have always used their rituals and performances to incorporate the impact of Islam, colonialism, capitalism and contemporary politics. Their performances of secrecy have accommodated these modern powers and continue to do so today. The performers incorporate the modern and redefine modernity through secretive practices. Their traditions are not modern inventions, but traditional ways of dealing with modernity. This book shows that secrecy, performed as a weapon of the weak, empowers their performers. Secrecy serves to mark boundaries and define the local in the global.Less
How do those on the margins of modernity face the challenges of globalization? This book demonstrates that secrecy is one of the means by which a society on the fringe of modernity produces itself as locality. Focusing on initiation rituals, masked performances, and modern art, this study shows that rituals and performances long deemed obsolete serve the insertion of their performers in the world at their own terms. The Jola and Mandinko people of the Casamance region in Senegal have always used their rituals and performances to incorporate the impact of Islam, colonialism, capitalism and contemporary politics. Their performances of secrecy have accommodated these modern powers and continue to do so today. The performers incorporate the modern and redefine modernity through secretive practices. Their traditions are not modern inventions, but traditional ways of dealing with modernity. This book shows that secrecy, performed as a weapon of the weak, empowers their performers. Secrecy serves to mark boundaries and define the local in the global.
Ferdinand de Jong
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748633197
- eISBN:
- 9780748670642
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748633197.003.0005
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, African Studies
This chapter describes the trajectory of the urban rite of passage for boys, usually referred to as the ‘Mandinko circumcision’. It analyzes its introduction in Ziguinchor and the various historical ...
More
This chapter describes the trajectory of the urban rite of passage for boys, usually referred to as the ‘Mandinko circumcision’. It analyzes its introduction in Ziguinchor and the various historical transformations it has been subject to in order to demonstrate how the performance, at different moments in the twentieth century, produced different senses of locality.Less
This chapter describes the trajectory of the urban rite of passage for boys, usually referred to as the ‘Mandinko circumcision’. It analyzes its introduction in Ziguinchor and the various historical transformations it has been subject to in order to demonstrate how the performance, at different moments in the twentieth century, produced different senses of locality.
Ferdinand de Jong
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748633197
- eISBN:
- 9780748670642
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748633197.003.0006
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, African Studies
This chapter examines the historical trajectory of the Kankurang, a masquerade that is held to protect the initiates of the ‘Mandinko circumcision’ against witchcraft. It demonstrates that legal ...
More
This chapter examines the historical trajectory of the Kankurang, a masquerade that is held to protect the initiates of the ‘Mandinko circumcision’ against witchcraft. It demonstrates that legal dualism, if this ever existed in colonial Senegal, becomes increasingly blurred in the postcolonial performances of the Kankurang masquerade. Certainly, as the public face of a secret society, the masquerade continues to challenge the state's quest for hegemony. But the secret society penetrates the domain of public politics and is itself also increasingly penetrated by this domain. The masquerade is still used to contest state authority, but cultural brokers have also tried to make masked performances compatible with state hegemony. The masked performance should be understood as yet another domain subjected to state control, while simultaneously subverting the legitimacy of the state.Less
This chapter examines the historical trajectory of the Kankurang, a masquerade that is held to protect the initiates of the ‘Mandinko circumcision’ against witchcraft. It demonstrates that legal dualism, if this ever existed in colonial Senegal, becomes increasingly blurred in the postcolonial performances of the Kankurang masquerade. Certainly, as the public face of a secret society, the masquerade continues to challenge the state's quest for hegemony. But the secret society penetrates the domain of public politics and is itself also increasingly penetrated by this domain. The masquerade is still used to contest state authority, but cultural brokers have also tried to make masked performances compatible with state hegemony. The masked performance should be understood as yet another domain subjected to state control, while simultaneously subverting the legitimacy of the state.
