The reception of South African sangoma shamanism in Europe and reviewing the borders of reality

What is it about?

This essay is about the growing interest and acceptance of South African mediumism and shamanism in mass media and among the public in Europe and to some degree also in North America. This reception is interesting because it relates to processes of revising the dominant materialistic and positivist world view in these countries. This process has deep roots in cultural history, going back to the secret societies of the 18th century, to Romanticism and late Idealism around 1800, being reinforced on an empirical basis in French Kardecism and Spiritism in the late 19th century and revived - after decades of world-wars and reconstruction and, after the heyday of positivism in the mid-twentieth century, from the late 20th century onwards. Yet in these movements references to Africa were uncommon. Sources for shamanism were sought in Siberia, northeast Asia and among the Amerindians. On this background the reception of South African shamanism and mediumism is remarkable. it is mediated however by centuries of coexistence of blacks and whites in South Africa and by the familiarity of many who have visited SA as tourists. This created the pathways for reception through "exposure", i. e. through direct or vicarious experience, which are reinforced by the accessibility of sangomas in SA. This process merits further exploration.

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Why is it important?

There is very little work on this process of reception, since it covers widely disparate fields, of European and of African cultural and religious history, with the integration of traditions classified as Esoteric / Esotericism and Spiritism, which are often not taken seriously, from either the persepctives of positivism (cognitivism) or of the established religions. Considering however that the definitions of what is accepted as "reality" are negotiated in European (and North American) cultures - the term "the West" is deliberately avoided here, since by far not not all of Europe belongs to the "West" - this process of reception of SA shamanism and mediumism by mass media annd thus by the public are highly interesting.

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