The Spirit’s Wish: Possession Trance and Female Power among the Punu of Congo-Brazzaville
The Journal of Religion in Africa January 1, 2011 Carine Plancke 17 citations
Among the rural Punu of Congo-Brazzaville, possession trance is central to women's celebrations for water spirits (bayisi). The spirits communicate wishes through possession, conditioning their willingness to ensure community well-being. Possession requires an 'opening of the mind' activated by collective song-dance mimicking water's flowing motions and expressing longing for a maternal universe. Critiquing the common use of 'agency' to mean autonomy and resistance, this paper adopts a context-based view grounded in how actors experience possession. It argues that receptivity, in its ambivalent link to suffering, is the main source of power these possessions grant to women.