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Spirits of Protest Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 March 2010
The Theory of Spirit-mediumship
It is believed that any male spirit (mwea) may come out (kubuda) through a living person who becomes its medium (svikiro). While the medium is possessed (kusvikirwa, lit. arrived on), his body acts as a ‘pocket’ (homwe) for the spirit and during this period of trance his own personality (mwea) is absent. All that occurs during trance is directed by the possessing spirit and when the medium returns to normality he is ignorant of all that has taken place during trance. I have therefore adopted the terminology suggested by Firth (1959 : 141), who defined spirit possession as ‘a form of trance in which the behaviour patterns of a person are interpreted as evidence of a control of his behaviour by a spirit external to him’ and spirit mediumship as ‘a form of possession in which the person is conceived as serving as an intermediary between spirits and men. The accent here is on communication; the actions and words of the mediums must be translatable, which differentiates them from mere spirit possession or madness.’ The italics are my own and emphasise that these definitions are based on what the actors believe and not on any ‘scientific’ criteria.
The making of a medium
When a spirit wishes to come out through a medium for the first time, it is believed to cause the person concerned a certain amount of hardship. Any sickness, therefore, could be interpreted as being due to this cause.
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