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| Title: | Transformation and Power in Moba (Northern Togo) Initiation Rites |
| Author: | Kreamer, Christine M. |
| Year: | 1995 |
| Periodical: | Africa: Journal of the International African Institute |
| Volume: | 65 |
| Issue: | 1 |
| Pages: | 58-78 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic term: | Togo |
| Subjects: | Moba secret societies initiation Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) Women's Issues Cultural Roles |
| External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/1160907 |
| Abstract: | Among the Moba of northern Togo, initiation into the voluntary and secret association of Kondi offers men and women a way of achieving a measure of social and ritual power. For the Moba, accepted notions of ancestral authority, specialist knowledge, and the spatial realm of the wilderness inform their concepts of power. One of the ways in which the achievement of power is conceptualized is through the transformation of the individual during the process of initiation into Kondi. Following the tripartite structure of separation, transition and reintegration, Kondi initiation directs the individual through the movement of social space as the initiate's status is transformed from that of a newborn to that of an adult in the community. This transformative process is reinforced in the spatial domains of bush and village in which initiation takes place and in the kinds of dress worn during the various phases of initiation which signal the initiate's dissociation from and association with the community. The present article, which is based on field research carried out in 1980-1981, with a follow-up visit in 1982, examines the physical settings and spatial relationships inherent in the ritual structure of initiation into Kondi as it is practised in certain villages in the western part of Moba country. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. in English and French. |
