Les Dieux du territoire: penser autrement la généalogie (review)

Abstract

Chapters 3 and 4 shift the focus to the south, establishing the ritual terrain of southern Ghana and following Tongnaab’s diffusion from the north. In the south, Tongnaab became ‘Nana Tongo’, a gendered transformation wherein the Talensi god developed into a source of protection against witchcraft. Chapter 3 establishes the importance of anti-witchcraft cults between the 1870s and 1920s, in Asante and the colony, against bayi (an Akan term for witchcraft). Chapter 5 charts the diffusion of Tongnaab, as southern elites searched for protection against bayi’s threats to health and financial welfare. As Nana Tongo, Tongnaab provided spiritual protection, a sort of ‘medicine’, for chiefs and elites as they struggled with the modernization of the southern economy through cocoa production. Nana Tongo thus was not a relic of the past, as colonial officials presumed, but rather a modern response to a modernizing world. Allman and Parker conclude their book by challenging the notion that Talensi tradition and agency have been destroyed by colonialism and modernization. The Tongnaab shrines have been developed into a tourist attraction (with the help of the authors), but they are not relics of a bygone era. Instead, Tongnaab’s survival illustrates the ongoing efforts of the Talensi to ‘modernize tradition’ and to make their own history within a modernizing world. It is a passionate conclusion to an excellent book, one which should be widely read.