New figures of esotericism in contemporary Africa and beyond (Europe, America, Asia, Oceania)
Nouvelles figures de l’ésotérisme en Afrique contemporaine et au-delà (Europe, Amérique, Asie, Océanie)
RELIER. Interdisciplinary journal of religious studies
RELIER. Revue interdisciplinaire d’études religieuses
Published on Tuesday, March 11, 2025
Abstract
Cet appel à contribution a pour objet l’exploration des nouvelles formes des mouvements liés à l’ésotérisme occidental et oriental dans le monde. Il s’agit de savoir comment (média, personnes) est-ce qu'ils se diffusent et s’organisent dans les pays du globe où ils s’implantent. Le projet est de documenter les aspects qu’ils prennent à travers leur cohabitation ou évitement des spiritualités, traditions et/ou religions locales, leurs matérialités et activités ou pratiques (rituelles), de même que leur importance dans la sphère religieuse et la société (au sens large) de leur payas d’adoption.
Announcement
Guest editors
Fernand Idriss MINTOOGUE (Doctor of Anthropology, EPHE-PSL/ IMAF)
Argument
Far from the administrative and military jousting and the health, educational and customary torments associated with an ever-tumultuous cohabitation with native communities, other forms of religious incursion into the continent were at play. Indeed, several spiritual movements had taken advantage of Africa's violent and forced opening to the world, to establish themselves in several African countries. For example, some authors (de Rosny 2004; Odo 2009; Chidester, 2005) point to the presence of Rosicrucianism and Freemasonry well before the wave of independence (1957-1975, and 1990 for Namibia) on the African continent. Evidence of the long history of such movements in Europe and America in particular (Faivre 1986a, 1986b; Bubello et al. 2018).
This special issue of the journal RELIER (Revue interdisciplinaire d'études religieuses) focuses on these so-called spiritual or esoteric movements that have come from the West or East to settle on African soil, as well as their transformations or the emergence of offshoots elsewhere in the world (Europe and beyond).By esoteric movement, we mean those currents of thought or doctrines built, for many, around principles and practices on the bangs of the most popular religions (monotheisms, Hinduism), favoring a secret evolution, articulated around initiatory castes - some even aiming at the establishment of a (new) social hierarchy - often practicing (through an abundant rituality) occultism (divinatory or mantic arts), magic, etc., and an asceticism whose substance is a spirituality, and an asceticism whose substance is often the product of a blend of arcana from various religions and traditions around the globe (Faivre 1999; Faivre and Hanegraaff 1998; Hanegraaff 2006).
Classical works dealing with these esoteric currents usually insist on the obedience of these movements. In this issue, however, we invite authors to submit texts, with no obligation to discuss their “pagan”, “neopagan” or even “New Age” leanings (Pike 2004; Hanegraaff 1996; Melton 1992; Luhrmann 1991; Sutcliffe 2003).Indeed, while these movements have already largely invested the African terrain, there are not enough studies documenting their organizations and activities, contrary to what is observed in European, American and Asian settings (Mossière 2023).Texts could also look at the state of the initiation societies at the heart of the lives of many cultural communities on the African continent, in order to assess their trajectories and fates, shaped as they have been by the multiple dynamics of dismantling during the colonial period, and the uncertainties of contemporaneity or the post-colonial era.
More specifically, contributions may fall into one (or more) of the following three categories:
1) Circulation of movements associated with Western/Eastern esotericism in Africa and beyond
The aim is to explore the global circulation of esoteric formations from outside Africa. The idea is to retrace the trajectory of the doctrines studied by examining the ways in which they spread from their epicenters outside Africa (Europe, America or Asia) to integrate the African religious landscape. Examples include the Sukyo Mahikari religion in Côte d'Ivoire and Senegal (Louveau 2011), the Baha'i faith in Tunisia (Kallel 2008) and “gnostic anthropology” or neognosis in Cameroon (Mintoogue 2023, 2024). However, many other religions and spiritual doctrines (Buddhism, Mormonism, Reiki, Hinduism, etc.) are well established in various parts of the continent, and need to be studied. The aim here is to answer the question: who are their audiences? What is their internal organization, their social disposition and their degree of influence in the societies they have integrated? What are the principles of the doctrines or religions concerned? This section of the call will also consider proposals examining (new) expressions of esoteric movements (derived from Western or Eastern esotericism) outside the African continent (Europe and elsewhere).
2) Exploring the healing or well-being (ritual) practices of these esoteric movements
In this axis, we question the aesthetics of these doctrines in the African context and elsewhere in the world. What forms do they take once installed in a context other than the one from which they emanate? What is their (eventual) degree of acculturation? To what extent are they transformed to meet local demand? We also need to know what they offer in terms of (ritual) practices aimed at well-being or healing, not forgetting the initiation of followers. Logically, we'll be questioning the types of ritual practices offered within these training courses, assessing how they are carried out, the bodily techniques, linguistic, proxemic and material devices (varieties of objects) employed or deployed within the frameworks elaborated for this purpose, in order to mobilize and manipulate the participants' bodies. The aim is to examine the potential differences, and even transformations, between the original practices (as practiced in their places of origin) and those applied in their new bases.
3) African initiation societies: what changes and what future?
Long before the incursion of the monotheistic religions that play such an important role today, African societies were characterized by the existence of animistic religions - which continue to exist today, even regaining renewed importance - and customs at the heart of which were - and still are - initiatory societies or castes, which only a privileged few can join following initiation. Depending on the socio-cultural unit concerned, they had a wide range of skills at their disposal: hunting and therapies, as in the case of the donsoya (Mandingo hunters' society) in Mali (Kedzierska Manzon 2014, 2023); hunting, physical and mystical warrior skills (killing witches), as in the case of the ngii - gorilla men's society among the Fang - in Cameroon (Laburthe-Tolra 1985); the panther-men's brotherhood in Wé country (Gabon), and so on. The continent was and still is home to numerous female initiation societies (Mevungu in Cameroon; Sandé or Bundu in Liberia/Sierra Leone and Côte d'Ivoire; Worodugu in Côte d'Ivoire and Chaga in Tanzania, etc.), well documented in anthropology. Many of them were fought against and largely dismantled during the colonial period. So we'll be looking at their present, i.e. - if they have survived - their current form or organization. What transformations have they undergone? Have they assimilated Christianity and other imported religions, as demonstrated in South Africa and Botswana (Teppo 2009; Nthoi 2022)? Are there differences between their rituals several decades earlier and those observed today? How are they adapting to the needs of new generations?
Submission guidelines
Deadline for submission of abstracts in French and English (one page max. with indicative bibliography of 5 works) to: ferneyyagami90@gmail.com
before April 10, 2025.
Announcement of successful proposals: April 20, 2025
Deadline for submissions: September 15, 2025
Estimated publication date: March 2026
PS: Submissions in English are welcome. However, they will be translated into French, as the Journal issue will be published in French.
Subjects
- Religion (Main category)
- Zones and regions > Africa
- Society > Ethnology, anthropology
- Zones and regions > America
- Zones and regions > Asia
- Zones and regions > Europe
- Zones and regions > Oceania
Date(s)
- Thursday, April 10, 2025
Attached files
Keywords
- esotérisme, esthétique, circulation, transformation, religion, spiritualité, Afrique, Europe, Amérique
Contact(s)
- Idriss Fernand Mintoogue
courriel : ferneyyagami90 [at] gmail [dot] com
Information source
- Idriss Fernand Mintoogue
courriel : ferneyyagami90 [at] gmail [dot] com
License
This announcement is licensed under the terms of Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal.
To cite this announcement
« New figures of esotericism in contemporary Africa and beyond (Europe, America, Asia, Oceania) », Call for papers, Calenda, Published on Tuesday, March 11, 2025, https://doi.org/10.58079/13g44
