Go to AfricaBib home

Go to AfricaBib home Islam in Africa Go to database home

bibliographic database
Line
Previous page New search

The free AfricaBib App for Android is available here

Book Book Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Women's Medicine: The Zar-Bori Cult in Africa and beyond
Editors:Lewis, Ioan M.ISNI
Safi, Ahmed al-ISNI
Hurreiz, Sayyid HamidISNI
Chapter(s):Present
Year:1991
Pages:299
Language:English
Series:International African Seminars New Series #5
Notes:Based on an international African seminar held at the University of Khartoum, Sudan Republic, in January 1988
City of publisher:Edinburgh
Publisher:Edinburgh University Press for the International African Institute
Geographic terms:Africa
Ethiopia
Niger
Nigeria
Somalia
Sudan
Northern Africa
Subjects:spirit possession
Health, Nutrition, and Medicine
Cultural Roles
Religion and Witchcraft
Abstract:This book, based on papers presented at an International African Seminar held in Khartoum in January l988, explores the contemporary significance and social history of what is the largest and most widely distributed indigenous spirit healing cult in Africa, concerned primarily with women's problems: the 'zar-bori' cult as it is known in the Sudan Republic. This cult, or complex of cults, has its roots in Ethiopia, with its mixed Christian and Islamic heritage, source of 'zar', and in Islamic West Africa (principally Nigeria and Niger), source of the 'bori' component. In the Sudan, both these currents flow together forming, in the presence of the local 'tumbura' and other local cults, the hybrid 'zar-bori', which has in turn spread to North Africa and the Middle East. The papers are grouped according to this geographical framework, with contributions on the Ethiopian foundation of the cult (J. Tubiana), the West African contribution (Ismail H. Abdalla, M. Last, N. Echard), the synthesis in the Sudan (P. Constantinides, S.M. Kenyon, G.P. Makris and Ahmed Al-Safi, S.I. Rahim, Sayyid Hurreiz, B. Sellers) and the wider limits of the cult in North Africa and the Middle East, specifically Somalia (V. Luling), Egypt (R. Natvig, Soheir A. Morsy), Tunisia (S. Ferchiou), and Kuwait (Zubaydah Ashkanani). The final section contains a select annotated bibliography, compiled by G.P. Makris and R. Natvig.
Views