The Devil in the Gulf of Guinea

The Devil in the Gulf of Guinea: An Ethnography of Affects and Possessions in a New Christian Religion
Ran Muratsu 

186 mm x 130 mm
448pages
JPY4,800
ISBN  9784790715139
Pub date: January 2023

How do divine and demonic possessions become considered real? There is an emerging African religion that claims to heal suffering. At its core is a spiritual presence said to appear in objects, emotions, and the environment. This is a multimodal anthropology that explores the lives of people and their response to spirits through photographs, videos, and essays.

Reviews
“The film depicts the reality of witchcraft and sorcery, which use supernatural power to cause misfortune and misfortune to others. ...carefully depicts the magical beliefs and practices that still live with reality in contemporary Africa, where some intellectuals are educated in the West” —Kyodo News

“Using the techniques of emotionalism and multimodal anthropology. ...The film illuminates the lives of the people of Benin. Especially thrilling is the detailed examination of possession by evil spirits” —Sayaka Ogawa, anthropologist

Table of Contents
Become a bird
　　Introduction: Manifestations of the spirit and emotion
A conversation for rainy days
　　Chapter 1: Religion and the spiritual realm in Benin
Climb the hill
　　Chapter 2: Manifestations of God and the Devil in the Banamè Church
Boring and important
　　Chapter 3: Aspects of religious conversion
Spies and ethnography
　　Chapter 4: Transformation through possession
The voice catches
　　Chapter 5: The enskillment of possession
Sent illness
　　Chapter 6: The healing process of “ensorcelled sickness”
The cry of lizards　
　　Conclusion: Spirits, disease, and ethnography in accordance

Notes
Afterword
Works cited
Index


Keywords
multimodal ethnography, sorcerer, Pentecostal, Affectionization, Spiritual Existence, Demonization, ExorCism, Derivalence, Enskillment, Charismatic Intermovement

Media Coverage
Kyodo News, Weekly Dokusho-jin