7 - Cultural Modes of Comprehending and Healing Insanity: The Yaka of DR Congo
Corresponding Author(s) : René Devisch
Africa Development,
Vol. 30 No. 3 (2005): Africa Development: Special Issue 'All knowledge is first of all local knowledge'
Abstract
This paper looks at a particular autochthonous medical knowledge and practice of Yaka healers in peri-urban Kinshasa and rural southwestern Congo. It first presents a sequential analysis of the well-known mbwoolu healing cult, directed at types of affliction most of which I would characterize as deep depression and related insanity. The mbwoolu patient is first led into a state of fusion with the group, with the aid of rhythmic movement and music culminating in a trance possession. Following this, the initiate undergoes a therapeutic seclusion lasting from one month to some nine months in an initiatory space in which a dozen or so statuettes or figurines are laid on a bed parallel to the patient's. In a play of mirrors between the figurines and the patient, the latter's sensory perceptions and body movements are redirected and rejuvenated. The figurines thus function as doubles that the patient incorporates or inscribes in his or her own bodily envelope, which now constitutes a new interface with others. In the course of a verbal liturgy that unfolds to the rhythm of the initiatory rite, the initiate is gradually enabled to decode and incorporate traces of the collective imaginary conveyed by these figurines and liturgy. The statuettes enact a cosmogony in which the patient is intimately involved throughout. In this, the patient is led into an ontogenetic passage from a fusional and primal state towards a particular and sexualised identity, one with precise contours and situated within a social hierarchy and a historicity of generations and of roles.
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- Ahmed, S. & J. Stacey, eds, 2001, Thinking through the Skin, London: Routledge.
- Anzieu, D., 1985, Le Moi-peau, Paris: Bordas.
- Bougeois, A., 1978-79, Mbwoolu Sculpture of the Yaka, African Arts 12(3): 58- 61; 96.
- Buakasa Tulu Kia Mpansu, 1973, L'.impensé du discours: Kindoki et nkisi en pays kongo du Zaïre,
- Kinshasa: Presses universitaires du Zaïre.
- Csordas, T., 1990, Embodiment as a Paradigmfor Anthropology, Ethos 18: 5-47. Devisch, R., 1993,
- Weaving the Threads of Life: The Khita Gyn-eco-logical Healing Cult among the Yaka ofZaire,
- Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
- Devisch, R. & Brodeur, C., 1999, The Law of the Lifegivers: The Domestication of Desire, Harwood
- Academic Publishers.
- Geurts, K., 2002, Culture and the Senses: Bodily Ways of Knowing in an African Community, Berkeley:
- University ofCalifornia Press.
- Janzen, J., 1982, Lemba 1650-1930: A Drum of Affliction inAfrica and the New World, New York:
- Garland.
- Janzen, J., 1992, Ngoma: Discourses of Healing in Central and Southern Africa,
- Berkeley: University ofCalifornia Press.
- Juillerat, B., 2001, Penser l'imaginaire: essais d'anthropologiepsychanalytique,Lausanne Payot.
- Lichtenberg Ettinger B., 1999, Regard et espace-de-bord matrixiels: essais psychanalytiques sur le
- féminin et le travail de l'art, Brussels: Les Editions de La Lettre volée.
- Lichtenberg Ettinger B., 2004, 'Weaving a Woman Artist with-in the Matrixial Encounter-Event,Theory, Culture & Society 21:61-94.
- Maldiney, H., 1973, Regard parole espace, Lausanne: Editions 1'Âge d'Homme. Nuckolls, C., 1996, The
- Cultural Dialectics of Knowledge and Desire, Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
- Turner, V., 1968, The Drums of Affliction: A Study of Religious Processes among the Ndembu
- ofZambia, Oxford: Clarendon.
- Weiss, G., 1999, Body Images: Embodiment as lntercorporeality, London: Routledge.
- Winnicot, D., 1975, Jeu et réalité, Paris: Gallimard.
References
Ahmed, S. & J. Stacey, eds, 2001, Thinking through the Skin, London: Routledge.
Anzieu, D., 1985, Le Moi-peau, Paris: Bordas.
Bougeois, A., 1978-79, Mbwoolu Sculpture of the Yaka, African Arts 12(3): 58- 61; 96.
Buakasa Tulu Kia Mpansu, 1973, L'.impensé du discours: Kindoki et nkisi en pays kongo du Zaïre,
Kinshasa: Presses universitaires du Zaïre.
Csordas, T., 1990, Embodiment as a Paradigmfor Anthropology, Ethos 18: 5-47. Devisch, R., 1993,
Weaving the Threads of Life: The Khita Gyn-eco-logical Healing Cult among the Yaka ofZaire,
Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Devisch, R. & Brodeur, C., 1999, The Law of the Lifegivers: The Domestication of Desire, Harwood
Academic Publishers.
Geurts, K., 2002, Culture and the Senses: Bodily Ways of Knowing in an African Community, Berkeley:
University ofCalifornia Press.
Janzen, J., 1982, Lemba 1650-1930: A Drum of Affliction inAfrica and the New World, New York:
Garland.
Janzen, J., 1992, Ngoma: Discourses of Healing in Central and Southern Africa,
Berkeley: University ofCalifornia Press.
Juillerat, B., 2001, Penser l'imaginaire: essais d'anthropologiepsychanalytique,Lausanne Payot.
Lichtenberg Ettinger B., 1999, Regard et espace-de-bord matrixiels: essais psychanalytiques sur le
féminin et le travail de l'art, Brussels: Les Editions de La Lettre volée.
Lichtenberg Ettinger B., 2004, 'Weaving a Woman Artist with-in the Matrixial Encounter-Event,Theory, Culture & Society 21:61-94.
Maldiney, H., 1973, Regard parole espace, Lausanne: Editions 1'Âge d'Homme. Nuckolls, C., 1996, The
Cultural Dialectics of Knowledge and Desire, Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
Turner, V., 1968, The Drums of Affliction: A Study of Religious Processes among the Ndembu
ofZambia, Oxford: Clarendon.
Weiss, G., 1999, Body Images: Embodiment as lntercorporeality, London: Routledge.
Winnicot, D., 1975, Jeu et réalité, Paris: Gallimard.