In Africa as well as in Europe, many spirits and their mediums are part of local as well as global cultures. Christian spirits named Hitler, Mussolini, or King Bruce (Bruce Lee) flourish in a pantheon of new holy spirits in Uganda waging war against the government. Spirits of airplanes, engines, guitars, and angels are found in Central Africa; and thunder, snakes, and rain as well as playboys and prostitutes inhabit the spirit world in West Africa. Spirit possession cults have continued to proliferate, even in the secular West, and continue to be a subject of intense interest. Despite the...

'The articles in this book make valuable contributions to the literature of African religious experience. The majority of the pieces are based on research conducted in the last 10 to 15 years, and are therefore positioned to document changes taking place across the continent as possession beliefs and practices respond to new circumstances and address the shifting local implications of an increasingly global socio-economy. Gender, ethnicity, and class are rightly presented as intersecting forces and features of spirit phenomena. The case studies presented are richly contextualized: history,...

A wide spectrum of events are covered ranging from floods, the tsunami of 2004, earthquakes and landslides to such long-term processes as the decline of pastures or coastlines. The diversity of the case studies opens up questions on method and the conceptualization of terms. Many authors, among them anthropologists, sociologists, geographers and cultural psychologists engage in definition of crisis, disaster and catastrophe in order to differentiate emic and etic perceptions. They discuss topics like the politics of disaster, developments of boom economies, memory, rituals of mourning and...