| Abstract: | Arguing that the current theory of the subject needs to give as much attention to morality as it does to power and desire, this chapter illuminates the self-fashioning of Nuriaty (a pseudonym), a spirit medium living in Mayotte, which has undergone a striking transformation since 1976. When the author first knew her in 1975, Nuriaty was a local or domestic medium; she was tied to the spirits of her family, speaking their language in possession, and serving as a curer for a narrow set of clients. By 1995, on the author's return, Nuriaty had taken on an unexpected capacity, and at some risk to herself: she had become the medium of the Sultan. Speaking an archaic dialect not her own, she had not merely reinvented herself, in the way that mediums usually do, but had achieved the ability to reach beyond her past limits in culture, identity and marginalized experience by creatively intertwining the personal and the public, the moral and the political. But more than that, she had achieved the capacity to project, for a greater audience in a wider arena, a consciousness - and conscience - of history. Bibliogr., notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract] |
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