3. Sacred authority: divine kingship, priests, and diviners

Ruptures, Junctures, and Difference

“…A more recent example, observed while writing this paper, masterfully reveals the closing moments of the official ritualistic formal opening of the funeral for the late subchief Togbe Kwasi Afele II at Ho, a town located about 77 km or 47 miles from Hohoe. Videos of this event began to appear on YouTube, and the footage 27 beginning at 4:38 onwards illustrates how the traditional libation (i.e., pouring of a special liquid in symbolic and patterned ways to the accompaniment of the formulaic recitation of prayer, petition, etc., and directed 25 For details on divine kinship in the African context, see Fagg (1978), Meyerowitz (1960), andOlupona (2014). 26 Both relative time reckoning (i.e., identifying a moment in history but relative to some other event or situation such as "around the time of the last solar eclipse" or "when a performing ensemble was being formed") and chronomic-solar, temporal orientations are employed in ritual, everyday social and formal transactions.…”

“…This paper argues further for a reconsideration of sacred and secular dichotomies in light of fieldwork data on Ewe royal traditions and recent scholarship on African religions, spirituality, and local cosmologies (Olupona 2014;Olupona and Chiorazzi 2015;Platvoet 2004;Platvoet and van Rinsum 2003;Shaw 1990;Wiredu 2011;Zielińska 2013). Specific aspects of musical performance, ritual and related enactments are examined to demonstrate not only their affective impact but also how they alter the qualities of ongoing interpersonal transactions and ritual flow.…”

Catachresis in Côte d’Ivoire: Female Genital Power in Religious Ritual and Political Resistance

“…In fact, 'without the Lobun no king can be enthroned.' 18 The principle that woman is the spiritual source of earthly authority has endured for centuries and undergirded women's self-governing institutions, sustaining their political influence even in the absence of a female ruler. Among the Igbo of Nigeria, for example, women defended their rights and dignity against those that violated them with a collective ritual of sanction known as 'sitting on a man':…”