Kusamira: singing rituals of wellness in southern Uganda

Abstract

Studies of spirit mediumship and ritual healing have drawn on ethnographic research across the humanities and social sciences (e.g. Tantala 1989; Roseman 1991; Janzen 1992; Friedson 1996; Schoenbrun 1998; Feierman 1999; Thram 1999, 2002; Kodesh 2010). Renee Tantala refers to these as studies of "classical religion" in East Africa, while Steven Feierman, Neil Kodesh, and David Schoenbrun write on "public healing," and John Janzen and Steven Friedson prefer the proto-Bantu cognate "ngoma These terms offer alternatives to negatively-tinged formations like "cults of affliction" or "drums of affliction," even though they recognize a common intellectual ancestor in the work of the late Victor Turner (1967, 1968). Drawing on this rich literature, this article examines a type of ritual in southern Uganda called kusamira.