THE ‘WORKING-DEAD’ IN NYONGO OCCULT ECONOMY IN CAMEROONIAN SOCIETY
Keywords:
Informants’ Rationalisation of Nyongo, Beatrice, Agbor, Angeline, Valerie, Types of Nyongo, State of Death, Appropriations of Nyongo, Death through Nyongo and Transformation of Self, State of the Working DeadAbstract
Since the late 1980s, following the economic crisis and the subsequent devaluation of the Communaute Financiere Africaine (CFA) franc, there has been a sharp increase in nyongo accusations in Cameroon. Nyongo falls within the anthropological discourse of occult. The term shrouds a multiplicity of references, including that which is concealed, obscure, mysterious, secret, sinister or forbidden. Nyongo has been identified in Pool’s work as “national witchcraft.” It is no secret that the power of the occult is subject to some human manipulation; which is often practiced in secret, especially in nyongo where occult powers are used to enslave others. The desire to become rich suddenly has driven some Cameroonians to turn to nyongo. They benefit from the afflicted by using the abilities of the latter to slave for them as ‘‘living dead,’’ an equivalent postmodern terminology – zombies, after their presumed death. It is believed that persons involve in nyongo are able to kill others, especially their own relatives, and to use their bodies to work for them in an invisible town on Mount Kupe in Bakossi country.
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