Memories of the Slave Trade: Ritual and the Historical Imagination in Sierra Leone

How is the slave trade remembered in West Africa? In a work that challenges recurring claims that Africans felt (and still feel) no sense of moral responsibility concerning the sale of slaves, Rosalind Shaw traces memories of the slave trade in Temne-speaking communities in Sierra Leone. While the slave-trading past is rarely remembered in explicit verbal accounts, it is often made vividly present in such forms as rogue spirits, ritual specialists' visions, and the imagery of divination techniques.Drawing on extensive fieldwork and archival research, Shaw argues that memories of the slave trade have shaped (and been reshaped by) experiences of colonialism, postcolonialism, and the country's ten-year rebel war. Thus money and commodities, for instance, are often linked to an invisible city of witches whose affluence was built on the theft of human lives. These ritual and visionary memories make hitherto invisible realities manifest, forming a prism through which past and present mutually configure each other.

Shaw, Rosalind

Business & Money

University of Chicago Press

How is the slave trade remembered in West Africa? In a work that challenges recurring claims that Africans felt (and still feel) no sense of moral responsibility concerning the sale of slaves, Rosalind Shaw traces memories of the slave trade in Temne-speaking communities in Sierra Leone. While the slave-trading past is rarely remembered in explicit verbal accounts, it is often made vividly present in such forms as rogue spirits, ritual specialists' visions, and the imagery of divination techniques. Drawing on extensive fieldwork and archival research, Shaw argues that memories of the slave trade have shaped (and been reshaped by) experiences of colonialism, postcolonialism, and the country's ten-year rebel war. Thus money and commodities, for instance, are often linked to an invisible city of witches whose affluence was built on the theft of human lives. These ritual and visionary memories make hitherto invisible realities manifest, forming a prism through which past and present mutually configure each other.

The contributors explore the issues of agency and power which motivate the conflicting discourses surrounding syncretism, that is the mixing of different religious traditions within a culture.

Syncretism/Anti-Syncretism: The Politics of Religious Synthesis (European Association of Social Anthropologists)

Politics & Social Sciences

Stewart,Charles

Social Sciences

Routledge

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Shaw, Rosalind. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Shaw, Rosalind

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Shaw, Rosalind. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Memories of the Slave Trade: Ritual and the Historical Imagination in Sierra Leone

Memories of the Slave Trade: Ritual and the Historical Imagination in Sierra Leone

Syncretism/Anti-Syncretism: The Politics of Religious Synthesis (European Association of Social Anthropologists)