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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Female cleansing of the community: the 'Momome' ritual of the Akan world
Author:Boni, StefanoISNI
Year:2008
Periodical:Cahiers d'études africaines
Volume:48
Issue:192
Pages:765-790
Language:English
Geographic term:Ghana
Subjects:rituals
women
Akan
Abstract:The paper provides a description of a female ritual among the Akan (Ghana, Ivory Coast) aimed at cleansing the community in moments of impending crisis. The ceremony, known as 'momome' in its Sefwi variant (Ghana), is discussed by positioning the meaning of the choreographic props used in the performance (dresses, spatial dispositions and movements, chromatic symbolism, metaphoric acts, use of therapeutic herbs, songs) within the wider cultural framework of the Akan world of West Africa. The historical transformations of the ceremonial occurrence in the course of the twentieth century are examined closely to show that even though the performance has not been altered significantly, the timing and motives have. The 'momome', held in response to wars and epidemics in the precolonial setting, in the course of the twentieth century was increasingly evoked in moments of crisis (illness, deposition, death) of prominent figures of the chiefly establishment. The paper evaluates the ideological autonomy of the ceremony - presented by some analysts as a 'ritual of inversion' - and comes to the conclusion that institutional politics has had a major influence in promoting and containing the various forms of supernatural protection sought in the course of the twentieth century. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. in English and French. [Journal abstract]
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