Possessed and the Dispossessed: Spirits, Identity and Power in a Madagascar Migrant Town

This deeply contextualized ethnography of possession deals with women, migration, and power as frames for both spirit possession and the construction of identity in the booming migrant town of Ambanja, in the Sambirano valley of northern Madagascar. The Malagasy word for the possession experience is tromba, which refers as well to the royal ancestral spirits of the Sakalava (the ethnic group under study), the institution of possession, and the spirit mediums themselves. Sharp is particularly sensitive to issues of power and political agency, and examines possession as a mode of political consciousness that is embedded in religious experience. Possession among the Sakalava is highly formalized, and spirits who are the agents of oracular possession are often part of family inheritance. Thus, it is important to identify and name spirits, a phenomenon which is important elsewhere in Africa as well. This naming provides a link with the local culture, including political and religious traditions, as well as with the land itself. With the rise of "Malagasization" in the postcolonial period (following a revolt against the French in 1947), tromba possession has increased and the number and variety of tromba spirits has expanded. It is no accident, then, that the prestige and power of tromba spirits, suppressed by the French, has been enhanced. Perhaps because tromba rituals have been a primary instrument for preserving and interpreting the history of the island, Malagasization has brought the tromba spirits and institution closer to the centers of Malagasy political authority and economic production. Indeed, the surprising power and prestige of the female tromba spirit mediums has enabled them to dictate the direction of national economic development projects. One of Sharp's observations is that contrary to the dominant assumptions in anthropology, Sakalava possession is not necessarily a province of the marginalized and weak. Though Malagasy women are chiched as weak or soft, while men are regarded as strong or hard, it is the women who, through their spirit voices, determine the pace and organization of the culture. Tromba mediums are also widely consulted healers who appear to have an amicable and respectful relationship with other medical practitioners on the island. Tromba are not the only spirits on Madagascar. There is another category of volatile and unpredictable spirits (njarinintsy) responsible for negative, unwanted possession, as well as for mass possession, largely of adolescent migrant girls, in the public schools. In one instance documented by Sharp, a powerful healer (moasy) was consulted. He reported that the local ancestors were angry because the French paid no regard to the sacredness of the ancestral ground on which the school was built, moving and destroying tombs. The healer recommended the performance on the school grounds of a ceremony honoring the deceased ancestors, including the sacrif