Women in the feminine: traditional power as a space for empowerment of African women

Abstract

One of the forms of African-female power manifests itself in a marked way in the field of spirituality, both in the visible world, that is, of the living, and in the invisible world, that of the dead. This article is part of an ongoing research on the power exercised by African women and that are rarely considered or made visible as forms of power, contrary to a vast literature in which women, for the most part, are considered submissive. The interest falls on practices of becoming djambakus, Balobêru, nganga, Mutombe or tchimbanda in two realities, the Guinean and the Angolan. The richness of the reports of the experiences of a Guinean woman, resident of Ziguinchor, Senegal, with a focus on ancestral traditions to transmit and explain the sacred through oral history, reinforce the analysis of the conception of the place of these women in the exercise of hidden power. The work is theoretical-qualitative: literature review, interviews and oral history. The resource of orality dialogues with the scarcity of written documents on healers, djambacus, Balobêru and nganga who are dedicated to healing. A djambakus who transits between Guinea-Bissau and Senegal was interviewed. The results point to the power of women in the sacred practice of healing through the encounter of popular knowledge, traditional African knowledge, ancestors and the well-being of their communities or tabancas.