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Reflections on Witchcraft, Danger, and Modernity Among the Tuareg

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2011

Susan J. Rasmussen
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Abstract

This essay explores the varied ways so-called ‘witchcraft’ powers are implicated today in an African society, the Tuareg of the Republic of Niger. There is analysis of the interplay of these powers and dangers in case studies and vignettes, suggesting that recent assertions of ‘witch-like’ powers are grounded in moral discourse that addresses negotiated social relationships rather than linear temporal transformations from ‘tradition’ into ‘modernity’. A comparative analysis of these powers in diverse contexts reveals that witchcraft discourses are multiple and invite less a lineal temporal question of ‘tradition’ versus ‘modernity’, more a question of how moral discourses are reconfigured from cultural referents in intrinsically diverse repertoires.

Résumé

Cet essai étudie les divers modes d'implication des dits pouvoirs de «sorcellerie» dans une société africaine, les Touaregs de la République du Niger. Il analyse l'interaction de ces pouvoirs et des dangers dans des études de cas et des évocations, suggérant que les récentes assertions de pouvoirs «assimilés à de la sorcellerie» trouvent leurs racines dans le discours moral traitant des relations sociales négociées plutôt que des transformations temporelles linéaires de la «tradition» vers la «modernité».Une analyse comparée de ces pouvoirs dans des contextes divers révèle que les discours de sorcellerie sont multiples et suscitent moins une question temporelle linéaire de «tradition» contre «modernité» que la question de savoir comment les discours moraux sont reconfigurés à partir de référents culturels dans des répertoires intrinsèquement divers.

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 74 , Issue 3 , August 2004 , pp. 315 - 340
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 2004

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